Archive for the ‘Hormone Physician’ Category

For the first time, we are starting to see research that targets aging as a health condition in and of itself. Finding ways to regulate those "longevity gene" pathways referenced by Lipman above (specifically the mTOR, AMPK, and sirtuins) is central to scientists' work in identifying lifestyle habits, nutritional compounds, and future drugs that could slow and even treat (yes, treat) aging.*

As Sinclair views it, aging is most definitely a disease, and the FDA classifying it as such will help the field move forward even faster, allowing for more research and development of drugs to target processes thatlead to age-related disease. "The definition of a disease is that over time you lose function, you become decrepit, disabled, and eventually, if it's a bad disease, you die from it," says Sinclair. "That sounds a lot like aging, right? If you go to the medical dictionary, the only difference between aging and a disease is that a disease affects less than half the populationand that 50% cutoff is completely arbitrary."

How likely is that to happen? In 2018, the World Health Organization classified aging as a disease and added it to the International Classifications of Diseases system. And right now, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine are examining the anti-aging effects of metformin in the Targeting Aging With Metformin (TAME) study. If researchers can show significant benefits of metformin in delaying problems such as cancer, dementia, stroke, and heart attacks, the FDA may consider classifying aging as a treatable condition.

But why study metformin? This widely prescribed diabetes drug, derived from compounds in the French lilac plant, has been noted for its benefits beyond diabetesand Sinclair predicts it will be the first drug prescribed specifically to treat aging. Turns out, "metformin had a protective effect against cancer, heart disease, and frailty in patients taking the drug for long-term diabetes treatment," says Sinclair. "Which sounds a lot like a molecule that can slow aging." Animal studies have also confirmed that metformin can improve life span, and, more importantly, health span in mice. And, in a first-of-its-kind study in humans published in September 2019, researchers were actually able to take 2.5 years off participants' biological clock using a combination of metformin, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and growth hormone.

Experts believe metformin may activate similar pathways as caloric restriction to stimulate autophagyor cellular cleaning. This cellular upkeep is believed to be a key factor in extending health span. "It's a relatively safe AMPK pathway activator, and that's thought to mimic the effects of fasting and exercising," says Sinclair, who takes metformin daily as part of his healthy aging regimen.

Read the original post:
Why We Aren't Anti-Aging, We Are Pro-Healthy Aging - mindbodygreen.com

GLEN MILLS, Pa., Dec. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --SmartSolutions RX, Inc. announces the launch of a new scientifically based, drug-free hair support system LOCKrx, which includes both ingestible and topical Healthy Hair Programs that create the ideal environment to maintain hair follicle cycle and growth.

Hair thinning and hair loss are a pervasive problem, affecting an estimated 80 million men and women in the U.S. Smoking, diet, stress, environment and genetics all contribute to hair loss, as well as the hormone DHT which shrinks the hair follicle and is the primary cause of loss in male and female pattern baldness. The current treatments often come with unwanted side effects and take months to generate results.

LOCKrx is a drug-free hair treatment system that addresses scalp health, both internally and externally, that directly impacts hair growth and quality.

"When formulating LOCKrx, we meticulously designed and tested both ingestible and topical ingredients that are scientifically proven to reduce the inflammation associated with damaged hair follicles and thereby improve quality of the hair," said Cynthia Rager, President and COO of Vision Medical, Inc. "Our topical LOCKrx solutions include specific growth factors clinically shown to play a key role in the hair follicle growth pathway as well as to enhance wound repair and skin regeneration, all of which improve scalp skin health, while also playing a vital role in the proliferation of skin and hair cells."

LOCKrx is available as both internal and external treatment plans, designed to work synergistically to promote healthy scalp skin and hair growth.

"Growthfactors possess the ability to stimulate hair growth through variousmechanistic pathways," said Richard Jin, M.D., Ph.D., Hair Regeneration Specialist, RJClinical Institute. "We have experienced very positive results when combiningthese with platelet rich plasma therapy to promote new and existing hairgrowthas well as using it as an alternative to PRP. This has helped us treat the mostcommon form of hair loss known as androgenetic alopecia, as well as increasethickness and density of hair in post-transplant patients."

LOCKrx Inside Healthy Hair Programis a 3-step, 6-week ingestible plan that uses unique marine and botanical ingredients, amino acids, and vitamins to address total body inflammation.

1. DEFENSE Gut Health - Prebiotic supplement that includes mineral-rich blue green algae and proven anti-inflammatory botanicals curcumin, aloe, licorice and beta-glucan to address gut health in powdered form.

2. BLOCK Hair Loss- Follicle-enrichment supplement formulated with the LOCKrx proprietary blend of botanicals, adaptogens, marine collagen, and saw palmetto to help support hair growth and block conversion of testosterone to DHT, one of the major causes of hair loss in male and female pattern baldness.

3. GUARD Healthy Hair Tabs- Premier blend of complexed Vitamin B plus biotin in the most bio-available form.

LOCKrx Outside Healthy Hair Programis a combination of clinical and at-home applications of growth factor solutions that support and balance the scalp microbiome, while enhancing the environment for healthy hair growth:

VisionMedical, Inc. has exclusive physician distribution rights for LOCKrx.

Smart Solutions RX, Inc.

Smart Solutions RX, Inc. formulates, develops, manufactures and distributes products for medical aesthetic applications to hair and skin. A blend of scientific research and innovative formulation and delivery systems are the hallmark, as evidenced in the LOCKrx brand for healthy hair support. Medical aesthetic protocols and workshops are integrated into the superior customer support program. http://www.smartsolutionsrx.com

Vision Medical, Inc.

Founded in 2013, VisionMedical, Inc. develops, manufactures, and marketsmedical and aesthetic technology for the medical and aesthetic marketsfor worldwide distribution.Vision Medical's first commercial product, theSmartGraft Hair Restoration System, incorporates an award-winning Automated Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) system for men and women.Featuring theindustry's first closed harvesting system, SmartGraft allows physicians to harvestgrafts more efficiently while keeping grafts moist prior to implantation. http://www.SmartGraft.com.

CONNECT WITH US

Instagram: @SmartSolutionsRXTwitter: @SSolutionsXFacebook: @SmartSolutionsRXinc

Original post:
SmartSolutions RX Launches LOCKrx, A Drug-Free Support System Fighting To Keep Hair Thick and Healthy - Daily American Online

The human immune system is highly complex and multi-faceted. Seemingly an infinite number of things can affect our internal landscape and alter how our immune system defenses respond to and fight foreign invaders to keep us healthy. The misconception a lot of people have is thinking that we want a super active immune system that is like Rambo, an ultimate killing machine! Really what we want is a balanced immune system, that neither swings into hyperactivity nor falls into decreased function. If our immune system functions too high, we end up with autoimmune disorders this is when the immune system attacks our bodys cells, not just foreign invaders, if it is not functioning as it should, when exposed to germs we get sick and have to fight off an illness.

Did you know that just the time of year can affect our immune system function? Just the fact that the daylight does not last as long can cause our immune system to be less responsive. Shorter days and colder weather cause people to stay inside more, reducing the amount of natural vitamin D they make, which is a key immune system booster. An alternative for the individual not wanting to go outside is supplementing Vitamin D into their diet.

See more here:
Seasonally Decreased Immune Function Around the Holidays - Matthews Beacon

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Global Cancer Diagnostics Market Analysis: Emerging Opportunities in the USA, Europe, Japan-Supplier Shares and Strategies, Latest Tumor Markers, Volume and Sales Segment Forecasts, Technology and Instrumentation" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The new report is a study of the major business opportunities emerging in the global cancer diagnostics market during the next five years. The report examines trends in the U.S., Europe and Japan; reviews current and emerging assays; analyzes potential applications of new diagnostic technologies; forecasts sales of major tumor markers by country and market segment; profiles leading players and potential market entrants; and identifies specific business opportunities for suppliers.

Rationale

The cancer diagnostics market is on the verge of explosion, as the researchers approach major technological breakthroughs in tumor diagnosis and therapy, discover new specific antigens, and unlock the mystery of the genetic basis of the disease. During the next five years, the worldwide cancer diagnostics market is promising to be an exciting, dynamic and rapidly expanding field.

Anticipated technological breakthroughs will create numerous opportunities for determining genetic predisposition, detecting specific tumors, and monitoring biological response to cancer therapy. The rise in geriatric population will further compound the growing demand for malignancy assays and the rapid market expansion worldwide.

Worldwide Market Overview

Business Opportunities and Strategic Recommendations

Over 200 Current and Emerging Cancer Diagnostic Test

Supplier Shares, Sales and Volume Forecasts

Five-year test volume and sales forecasts for major tumor markers by country and market segment, including:

Instrumentation Review

Technology Assessment

Competitive Strategies

The companies analyzed in the report include:

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vxuvz9

Read the original:
Global Cancer Diagnostics Market Report 2019: Emerging Opportunities, Supplier Shares, Strategies, Latest Tumor Markers, Volume and Sales Segment...

Disrupted sleep, irritability, sweats, rapid heart rate 67-year-old Nora Barler has battled extreme hot flashes for three decades, ever since having a total hysterectomy in her late 30s to remove her uterus and ovaries.

When her hot flashes began, she was working in human resources as a labor and employee relations manager and felt self-conscious when one would strike during meetings. I was in meetings with high-level executives, at times the only woman, and I would start sweating up a storm. Beads of sweat would be dripping into my contact lenses, burning my eyes and [running] down my face. My makeup would be smearing. I could feel my heart going boom, boom, boom, she recalls.

The hot flashes also regularly struck at night, despite Barler enlisting central air conditioning, a window unit in the bedroom and two fans. When they were really bad at night, I used cold packs I kept in the freezer. It sounds over the top, but thats how it often was. My husband was freezing, and I kept him awake. And because I didnt sleep, I was exhausted when I went to work. I was irritable and antsy.

Hot flashes during menopause are a fact of life for most women. They come on rapidly and then spontaneously resolve after a few minutes, explains Barbara Soltes, MD, a gynecologic endocrinologist at Rush University Medical Center.

[Women] feel a sensation of heat or a flush over the upper part of their bodies, which subsides in minutes and is followed by perspiration down their face, she says. It is associated with an increase in heart rate and skin temperature, which also subsides in minutes.

Hot flashes during the day can interrupt work or other activities. At night, they can disrupt sleep, which can kick off a cascade of complications: lower energy levels, lower cognition levels, fatigue and irritability. Hot flash symptoms can persist for seven to 11 years or more, according to the long-term Study of Womens Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Treatment options include:

Estrogen replacement is very effective at easing hot flashes, but women should discuss hormone replacement therapy with their physician because of the risks. Research has found that women who used hormone treatments had a higher risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke and blood clots.

Estrogen can be valuable as a short-term treatment for women experiencing hot flashes and night sweats, according to the National Institute on Aging. Estrogen replacement therapy, which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), comes as a pill, patch, gel, topical spray or vaginal ring. The pellet form is not FDA-approved.

Provided there are no significant risk factors, such as active heart disease, estrogen-dependent cancer or a history of blood clots, we will start at a low dose of bio-identical hormone replacement, Soltes says. After six to eight weeks, the dose may be adjusted.

Certain antidepressants in particular, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) prescribed in a low dose can help reduce hot flashes. They act by altering the brain neurotransmitters involved in temperature regulation. Low-dose paroxetine (Brisdelle) is the only FDA-approved SSRI for treatment of hot flashes.

Clonidine, a blood pressure medication, and gabapentin, prescribed for seizures and pain, are also used to relieve hot flashes, although they are used off-label.

If hot flashes are not severe, some women take the herb black cohosh or bee pollen, though research studies have been small and have had mixed results. There has been quite a bit of research on herbal therapies, most of which do not provide more symptomatic relief than a placebo, Soltes says. Black cohosh has been the only herb that seems to have estrogen-like qualities, which may be effective in providing relief for at least six months.

Weekly acupuncture treatments may also be effective, she says. Acupuncture has been shown to reduce the frequency of hot flashes, although it does not work for all women, according to a 2016 study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center published in the journal Menopause.

Lifestyle measures include avoiding caffeine, alcohol and spicy foods, adopting stress-reduction techniques and dressing in layers of cotton clothing, Soltes says.

David Walega, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology and pain management at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine, has been researching new treatment options.

His 2013 study of a numbing medicine, injected in the neck, showed promising results on a small sample of women. Half of the women received an injection of bupivacaine hydrochloride a local anesthetic that blocks nerves and can alleviate pain into the stellate ganglion, a nerve bundle in the neck. The other half received a placebo injection.

Women who received the real injection had a 52% decrease in their moderate to severe hot flashes at the six-month follow-up a statistically strong effect, Walega says. Secondarily, we saw trends of improved depression and anxiety scores and also observed improved verbal learning on cognition testing in the treatment group but no improvement in the placebo group, he says. The study showed that benefits of the injection lasted at least six months. In some cases, Walega has seen benefits last as long as 18 months.

Walega and his team are working on a similar study of the numbing injection with a larger group of women. He hopes that the results, expected in about three years, will give women a safe option to effectively treat their debilitating hot flashes.

Barler participated in Walegas study. She had tried hormone pills and hormone patches. The pills didnt work for her, and the patches were expensive, not covered by her insurance and had some cancer risks.

When nothing seemed to help, Walegas numbing injection did. It was a life-changer, Barler says. Although the pilot study has ended, she continues to get the injections and has gone as long as two years between injections.

Barler has changed from constantly being hot to being comfortable. I used to wear shorts and tank tops at home, even in winter, she says. Now I wear long-sleeve sweatshirts, yoga pants and warm socks around the house.

While hot flashes can still be debilitating to many women, the hope is that new research will take the heat off of menopause.

Nancy Maes, who studied and worked in France for 10 years, writes about health, cultural events, food and the healing power of the arts.

Excerpt from:
Hot Flashes Can Be Fast and Furious - Chicago Health

Sunday evening, Ryan T. Anderson and Robert P. George authored: Physical Interventions on the Bodies of Children to Affirm their Gender Identity Violate Sound Medical Ethics and Should be Prohibited. The outlet for this nonsense is Witherspoon Institute's pretentious blog.

I say nonsense because neither author is concerned for the welfare of gender incongruent children. Nor do they voice legitimate concern for medical ethics because ethics are predicated on medical science. Treatment of children should be in accordance with the best available evidence.

Doing so is ethical per se. Neither Anderson nor George care about the medical science. As you will see, it is what they propose that is unethical because it deviates from accepted medical practice.

This entire exercise is a pseudo-scientific effort to support the teachings of the Catholic Church. The term gender identity is within defense quotes because the Church teaches that gender identity doesn't exist. The Vatican has explicitly stated that Church teachings about gender are based on conforming with Genesis 1:27.

The next time that Anderson or George are ill I doubt that they will ask a physician to substitute information from ancient texts of dubious provenance for evidence-based science.

We begin with the verbose subtitle:

Gender identity is formed by the age of two or three. Parents and others treat toddlers with the assumption that their gender and natal sex are consistent. If children are subject to any influence it is cisgender affirmation. We teach children that they are what their genitalia depicts. Gender identity is independent of parental influence. They continue:

In other words, daddy turned his kid into an ATM.

The greater dishonesty is that this case has little to do with the child's medical care. At seven years of age, she will not be a possible candidate for medical interventions for several years. Puberty blockers might be appropriate at age 12 to 13. Whether or not she receives medications will be based upon the persistence of the condition. Persistence is a function of severity.

By the way, the judge who upended a jury verdict in favor of the kid's mother has been recused. Throughout this saga, mom was indifferent to the media knowing that less attention to this case favored the child. Dad, on the other hand, turned this case into a means of support. He was in continuous contact with conservative Christian media. Dad's behavior has been consistent with his history of dishonesty. But I digress.

Getting back to Andergeorge:

I agree with Andergeorge that ethics are an important consideration. Medical ethics are generally defined by the best available information derived from peer-reviewed research published to respected academic journals. That research is based on evidence.

Based upon the evidence-based science, the ethics of treating gender dysphoria in children are expressed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP's policy statement defines best practices as the gender-affirmative care model.

Deviating from that policy constitutes a breach of ethics. That is particularly true when the deviation is based upon faith over science. The only way that Anderson and George can support Church teachings is to turn a medical condition into an ideology. When either of them can cite peer-reviewed research to support their contention they might have a legitimate argument.

In other words, the following paragraph is, well baloney:

In children, gender dysphoria diagnosis involves at least six of the following and an associated significant distress or impairment in function, lasting at least six months.

Neither Ryan T. Anderson nor Robert P. George have the erudition to assess the science. They do cite some research dishonestly in order to quote:

With approximately one-third of TGD [transgender and gender diverse] adults and 40 percent of TGD youth identifying as nonbinary, care guidelines that reinforce binary systems of gender identity may limit access to clinical services and restrict the ability of nonbinary people to navigate medical systems. Framing gender as solely binary defines therapeutic options and outcomes only in reference to two gender experiences, which impacts access.

They mention the informed consent model. This was developed at the Fenway Institute in Boston, at least in part with the guidance of Dr. Sari Reisner at Harvard Medical School. Fenway Institute has published a brochure regarding the treatment of children. At its core is legal (parental or guardian) consent and this:

Demonstrated long-lasting, non-traditionalgender identity that results in significantdistress or gender dysphoria.

Persistent, documented gender dysphoria(this is part of what you will discuss with yourprovider)

Have another helping of baloney with green mold:

The philosophical problems highlight why this treatment protocol is misguidedindeed, why it violates sound norms of medical ethics. The purpose of medicine is to bring about human health and wholeness, human flourishing in the physical and psychological domains. Here health is understood not as the satisfaction of desires but as the well-functioning of the mind and body, where our various bodily systems achieve their endsthe circulatory system to circulate blood, the digestive system to digest nutrients, the respiratory system to absorb oxygen, etc.and where our thoughts and feelings achieve their ends of bringing us into contact with reality. Thus, any medical intervention intended to affirm someones false beliefs is inherently misguided. Affirming a falsehood via medical technology gets it wrong, right from the start.

Anderson was a music major turned philosopher. George is a lawyer. The care of children (which is at least what their title refers to) should be based on the best available science. Neither of these gentlemen have the training or experience to attack the science. They assert that gender-affirming care represents the satisfaction of desires as if it is gratuitous.

I have news for both of these people. A child in distress does not require a medical intervention to affirm their gender. They are inexorably drawn to do so without the assistance of anyone else.

Anderson's and George's polemic is full of preposterous hyperbole. The do just the opposite with gender dysphoria. They attempt to understate a child's understanding of their gender as some sort of false desire. Tell that to a kid in considerable distress or their parents.

The parents' response to this religious drivel will be one word: Bullshit. Shame on Ryan T. Anderson and Robert P. George for attempting to conform medical science to the teachings of the Catholic Church. They are not only manipulating the best science regarding treatment but they are falsely portraying what medical science knows about people (particularly children) with gender dysphoria.

Anderson and George go on to provide Five Points to Remember. I am going to give each a drivelectomy because Andergeorge are painfully verbose:

First, these procedures are entirely experimental. There is not a single long-term prospective study of the long-term consequences of blocking an otherwise physically healthy child from undergoing normal pubertal development. Indeed, the drugs being used to indefinitely delay normally timed puberty are not FDA-approved for this purpose and are being used off-label.

are these prepubescent children able to provide consent for the treatment? Giordano says that they can, so long as the clinician discusses all potential risks and benefits, as he or she must do with any experimental drug. Because this is the only therapy available for children with GID, it might be considered unethical to deny this treatment option.

It would be unethical to allow a patient to suffer through the distress of pubertal development when we have a way of preventing the distress it causes. Children and adolescents who suffer from gender identity disorder face significant physical, psychological, and social challenges, and receiving an inconsistent standard of medical care adds to those challenges.

[Dr.] Simona Giordano is Senior Lecturer in Bioethics at the School of Law, University of Manchester, UK. She is Programme Director of medical ethics teaching in undergraduate medical education in the School of Medicine, and also teaches for the Master and Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Ethics and Law. Simona is a member of the UK Register of Exercise Professionals, and qualified as an exercise instructor in 1999.

Second, parents are told that these procedures are fully reversible, but that is not true. Going off of puberty-blocking drugs, with the hope that development resumes, does nothing to reverse the delayed biologically appropriate development. You cant go back in time and reverse that delay.

Use of GnRH analogues doesn't cause permanent changes in an adolescent's body. Instead, it pauses puberty, providing time to determine if a child's gender identity is long lasting. It also gives children and their families time to think about or plan for the psychological, medical, developmental, social and legal issues ahead. If an adolescent child stops taking GnRH analogues, puberty will resume.

Third, many experts fear that these treatment protocols are self-fulfilling. Telling a little boy that he is a girl (or something else) or a girl that she is a boy (or something else), blocking his or her natural biological development into a man or a woman, and then flooding him or her with opposite-sex hormones will simply reinforce false beliefs.

Fourth, while the diagnosis that someone is of the opposite sex is medically and scientifically baseless, it is particularly outrageous when applied to children.

Fifth, and finally, not only is sex reassignment physically and metaphysically impossible, it doesnt even produce good psychosomatic results. So even if you disagreed with us about the philosophy of the body and the medical ethics of transitioning, you would still need to be concerned that an entirely experimental, self-fulfilling treatment protocol that is based on nonsensical diagnostic criteria doesnt even produce the desired outcomes of happiness and wholeness. Forty-one percent of all adults who identify as transgender attempt suicide at some point in their lives, and adults who have had sex reassignment surgery are nineteen times more likely than the general population to die by suicide.

I believe that the suicide statistics they quote is from a study assessing transgender surgery recipients going back 40 years. Surgery did not reduce minority stress. Anti-trans diatribes from religious lunatics increases minority stress. Nice job boys.

Included in point 5 is this bit of bullshit which I am paying attention to only to demonstrate how thoroughly dishonest these two are:

One more time, the title of this idiocy is: Physical Interventions on the Bodies of Children to Affirm their Gender Identity Violate Sound Medical Ethics and Should be Prohibited. What does any of that have to do with children? WPATH recommends that only adults are candidates for surgery.

I have not addressed two-thirds of this tirade. You can read it in full if you have some brain cells to spare. While they do not cite science to support their views Anderson and George provide numerous links to purchase Anderson's idiotic book on this subject which is nothing but an extension of the catechism.

I expect this kind of gibberish from Ryan T. Anderson. He is an over-educated religious zealot with the critical thinking skills of toilet tissue. I am disappointed in Robert P. George. In 2015 George had a meltdown over the ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. He went so far as to promote nullification. Since then he mellowed on LGBTQ issues. George even came to the defense of Father James Martin who has questioned Church teachings regarding gay people.

Dr. George has considerable skill. I cannot imagine why he would lend his name and gravitas to something that is so profoundly dishonest.

The audience for this trash are like minded religious conservatives. What happens when one of them has a gender incongruent child? Are they going to risk a child's life to conform to the expectations of George and Anderson who torture medical science to conform to the teachings of the Catholic Church? Hopefully, they will consult with a secular psychiatrist for a proper evaluation.

Related content:

Read the rest here:
Ryan T. Anderson and Robert P. George Have Reached Conclusions About Trans Youth - The Slowly Boiled Frog

By Lisa Rapaport

(Reuters Health) Babies who are born too early may be more likely to develop diabetes as children and young adults than full-term infants, a new study suggests.

In a study of children up to age 18, those born before 37 weeks gestation were 21% more likely that those born at full term to develop type 1 diabetes, the less common form of the disease that typically appears in childhood or young adulthood. Kids born prematurely were also 26% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes in childhood.

And preemies were 24% more likely to develop type 1 diabetes and 49% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes by the time they were 43 years old.

Preterm birth interrupts normal development of multiple organ systems, including the pancreas where insulin-producing cells are formed, which may potentially contribute to later development of diabetes, said lead study author Dr. Casey Crump of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Pregnancy normally lasts about 40 weeks, and babies born after 37 weeks of gestation are considered full-term. Babies born prematurely earlier than 37 weeks often have difficulty breathing and digesting food in the weeks after birth. Preemies can also encounter longer-term challenges such as impaired vision, hearing and cognitive skills, as well as social and behavioral problems.

Some previous research suggests that preemies have an increased risk of developing so-called insulin resistance, a failure to respond normally to the hormone insulin.

In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas cant produce insulin. In the type 2 form of the disease, which is often linked to obesity and aging, the body cant properly use or make enough insulin to convert blood sugar into energy.

For the current study, researchers examined data on almost 4.2 million babies born in Sweden from 1973 to 2014. Most were followed until they were at least 22 years old.

Overall, 0.7% of the babies in the study population went on to develop type 1 diabetes and just 0.1% developed type 2 diabetes, the researchers report in Diabetologia.

Parents should know that most children who were born preterm will have good health in childhood and adulthood, Crump said by email. However, they also have modestly increased risks of diabetes that persist into adulthood.

Overall, the risk tended to be higher for preemie girls. Boys who arrived early were about 20% more likely to develop type 1 diabetes during the study, while girls had about a 30% greater likelihood.

With type 2 diabetes, female preemies were 60% more likely to develop this disease during childhood than full-term babies, while preemie males didnt have an increased risk. For young adults in the study, women who were preemies had a 75% increased risk of type 2 diabetes and men who were preterm had a 28% increased risk.

Many people in the study had siblings included in the analysis. Shared genetics and family circumstances appeared to explain some, but not all, of the increased risk of diabetes for preemies.

The study wasnt designed to prove whether preterm birth influences susceptibility to diabetes.

Even so, the results underscore that preemies need to take steps to prevent diabetes later in life, said Ciaran Phibbs of the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

The home environment is an important factor, especially for type 2 diabetes, Phibbs, who wasnt involved in the study, said by email. This includes things like diet and exercise habits, which can impact the risk of obesity, which is higher for preemies than for full-term babies and is a risk factor for diabetes, he said.

Individuals who were born preterm can help prevent diabetes by following a healthy lifestyle across the life course, including a healthy diet, regular physical activity, and maintaining a normal weight, Crump advised.

SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2LCQrpq Diabetologia, online December 3, 2019.

Read more:
Preemies face higher risk of diabetes as children and young adults - Physician's Weekly

Separation of church and state has long shaped the relationships of public institutions.

And despite its recent collaborations, the University of California is not exempt.

Currently, the UC is contracted with Dignity Health, a Catholic health care nonprofit corporation, to provide university care for more patients and medical student training. Unsurprisingly, this has sparked concerns statewide from physicians and students over how religiously affiliated hospitals undermine health care for LGBTQ+ groups and women.

Dignity Health operates under the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which uses religious ideology as a basis to determine the conduct of on-site operations. These directives directly limit physicians ability to conduct procedures permitted outside of these limitations, such as lifesaving womens health services. And because of this partnership, those restrictions apply to on-site UC physicians.

Earlier this year, protests amongst physicians, students and activist groups broke out at UCSF and UCLA in response to the contracts potentially expanding UC-wide. The protests found success in San Francisco, and UCSF ended affiliation discussions with Dignity Health in May. At UCLA, the contracts still stand.

If state health care institutions are secular, treatment is mandated to be equal no matter patients beliefs, gender or orientation.

But currently, the UC subjects itself to the hospitals religious doctrine and enables religious influences in health care, even if it means restricting access for women and LGBTQ+ people. Whether or not these doctrines impact the performance of UC physicians one time or every time, an overarching religious presence potentially influencing medical decisions is unacceptable.

Because when religiosity facilitates discrimination in health care, it must be contested by the UC system.

Earlier this year, it was reported that 24 out of 39 Dignity hospitals reject the use of gender-affirming practices such as hormone therapy and surgeries. But access to LGBTQ+-supportive health care goes beyond what occurs under the knife.

Nina Sheridan, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student and UCLA Sexperts co-director, said refusing such procedures can invalidate the identity of transgender individuals.

Not offering any sort of gender-affirming type of health care leads to the erasure of these communities, because youre negating the importance of treating their bodies the way that they want their bodies to be treated, Sheridan said.

And with every UC contract that doesnt address these barriers, the UC is complacent in this erasure.

Evan Minton, a transgender patient, was denied his scheduled hysterectomy the day before the procedure. In a California appellate court case, Minton claimed he was denied care because of his gender identity, while Dignity Health claimed the procedure violated its ethical and religious directives, which include sterilization.

Although the directives do not explicitly discriminate against services that affirm gender identity, flexible interpretations of these standards allow Catholic hospitals to justify their refusal of treatment.

And the LGBTQ+ community isnt the only one hurt by Dignitys religious doctrines. Education and resources for womens sexual health range from limited to nonexistent for example, institutions are prohibited from condoning or promoting contraceptives.

If theyre not being completely transparent about birth control options and are not talking about it in the best interest of the patient, that completely eradicates an educational aspect of health care that should be available to every single woman, Sheridan said.

This includes education about how birth control can be used to regulate menstrual symptoms, treat polycystic ovary syndrome and prevent ovarian or uterine cancer. Outright denial of birth control isnt just affecting womens sexual health it restricts their access to health care education and their ability to treat outstanding medical conditions.

And while abortion might be a more divisive topic, these restrictions have unintended consequences especially when abortive measures serve to ensure the safety of a womans life.

This means a miscarrying patient with a fetal heartbeat can be denied a lifesaving procedure, such as uterine evacuation, by a closed-door ethics committee. Their physician can make a few choices: wait for the heartbeat to stop and risk bleeding out or septic infection, transport the patient to the closest hospital despite having the necessary lifesaving equipment or violate protocol altogether. And according to a UCSF study, these are choices many physicians had to make under the constraints of the ethical and religious directives.

Its a choice that can mean life or death for the patient.

Our relationships with other entities that facilitate health services and clinical training at non-UC facilities support our mission of meeting patients unmet needs and training the health care workforce California needs, said a spokesperson for the UC.

The necessary symbiotic relationship between public institutions and nonprofits is obvious, and while the UC insists its physicians will make the right medical calls despite the directives, there are dangerous implications of having religious limitations in the medical field.

Some of the language in the agreements may not sufficiently reflect our values and expectations, and we are working to address legitimate concerns that have been raised, said a spokesperson for UCLA Health and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Every hospital, no matter its religious beliefs, should have access to experts and professionals like those from the UCs. A statement from Dignity Health said dissolving these partnerships would be detrimental to certain communities and theyre not wrong. Dignity Health has every right to conduct its operations within the framework of its religious doctrine something that draws certain people to these hospitals.

But it shouldnt come at the cost of restricting potentially lifesaving operations or making patients afraid of disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The UC claims to support womens health and the LGBTQ+ community but has yet to negotiate a contract that can ensure health care without the inhibiting influence of religious doctrine.

Increasing contracts is integral to providing health care for all.

But when it comes at the cost of equal access for women and LGBTQ+ members, its time to go back to the drawing board.

Originally posted here:
UC's affiliation with Dignity Health unfairly places restrictions on health care - Daily Bruin

GLEN MILLS, Pa., Dec. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --SmartSolutions RX, Inc. announces the launch of a new scientifically based, drug-free hair support system LOCKrx, which includes both ingestible and topical Healthy Hair Programs that create the ideal environment to maintain hair follicle cycle and growth.

Hair thinning and hair loss are a pervasive problem, affecting an estimated 80 million men and women in the U.S. Smoking, diet, stress, environment and genetics all contribute to hair loss, as well as the hormone DHT which shrinks the hair follicle and is the primary cause of loss in male and female pattern baldness. The current treatments often come with unwanted side effects and take months to generate results.

LOCKrx is a drug-free hair treatment system that addresses scalp health, both internally and externally, that directly impacts hair growth and quality.

"When formulating LOCKrx, we meticulously designed and tested both ingestible and topical ingredients that are scientifically proven to reduce the inflammation associated with damaged hair follicles and thereby improve quality of the hair," said Cynthia Rager, President and COO of Vision Medical, Inc. "Our topical LOCKrx solutions include specific growth factors clinically shown to play a key role in the hair follicle growth pathway as well as to enhance wound repair and skin regeneration, all of which improve scalp skin health, while also playing a vital role in the proliferation of skin and hair cells."

LOCKrx is available as both internal and external treatment plans, designed to work synergistically to promote healthy scalp skin and hair growth.

"Growthfactors possess the ability to stimulate hair growth through variousmechanistic pathways," said Richard Jin, M.D., Ph.D., Hair Regeneration Specialist, RJClinical Institute. "We have experienced very positive results when combiningthese with platelet rich plasma therapy to promote new and existing hairgrowthas well as using it as an alternative to PRP. This has helped us treat the mostcommon form of hair loss known as androgenetic alopecia, as well as increasethickness and density of hair in post-transplant patients."

LOCKrx Inside Healthy Hair Programis a 3-step, 6-week ingestible plan that uses unique marine and botanical ingredients, amino acids, and vitamins to address total body inflammation.

1. DEFENSE Gut Health - Prebiotic supplement that includes mineral-rich blue green algae and proven anti-inflammatory botanicals curcumin, aloe, licorice and beta-glucan to address gut health in powdered form.

2. BLOCK Hair Loss- Follicle-enrichment supplement formulated with the LOCKrx proprietary blend of botanicals, adaptogens, marine collagen, and saw palmetto to help support hair growth and block conversion of testosterone to DHT, one of the major causes of hair loss in male and female pattern baldness.

3. GUARD Healthy Hair Tabs- Premier blend of complexed Vitamin B plus biotin in the most bio-available form.

LOCKrx Outside Healthy Hair Programis a combination of clinical and at-home applications of growth factor solutions that support and balance the scalp microbiome, while enhancing the environment for healthy hair growth:

VisionMedical, Inc. has exclusive physician distribution rights for LOCKrx.

Smart Solutions RX, Inc.

Smart Solutions RX, Inc. formulates, develops, manufactures and distributes products for medical aesthetic applications to hair and skin. A blend of scientific research and innovative formulation and delivery systems are the hallmark, as evidenced in the LOCKrx brand for healthy hair support. Medical aesthetic protocols and workshops are integrated into the superior customer support program. http://www.smartsolutionsrx.com

Vision Medical, Inc.

Founded in 2013, VisionMedical, Inc. develops, manufactures, and marketsmedical and aesthetic technology for the medical and aesthetic marketsfor worldwide distribution.Vision Medical's first commercial product, theSmartGraft Hair Restoration System, incorporates an award-winning Automated Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) system for men and women.Featuring theindustry's first closed harvesting system, SmartGraft allows physicians to harvestgrafts more efficiently while keeping grafts moist prior to implantation. http://www.SmartGraft.com.

CONNECT WITH US

Instagram: @SmartSolutionsRXTwitter: @SSolutionsX Facebook: @SmartSolutionsRXinc

SOURCE SmartSolutions RX, Inc.

http://www.smartsolutionsrx.com

Go here to read the rest:
SmartSolutions RX Launches LOCKrx, A Drug-Free Support System Fighting To Keep Hair Thick and Healthy - PRNewswire

To reverse a medical abortion, some doctors have prescribed progesterone. A new study raises fresh doubts about the approach. Photo Researchers, Inc./Science Source hide caption

To reverse a medical abortion, some doctors have prescribed progesterone. A new study raises fresh doubts about the approach.

A study designed to test the effectiveness of a controversial practice known as "abortion pill reversal" has been stopped early because of safety concerns.

Researchers from the University of California, Davis, were investigating claims that the hormone progesterone can stop a medication-based abortion after a patient has completed the first part of the two-step process.

For the study, the researchers aimed to enroll 40 women who were scheduled to have surgical abortions. Before their surgical procedures, the women received mifepristone, the first pill in the two-medication regimen that's used for medical abortions. The women were then randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or progesterone, which advocates claim can block the effects of mifepristone.

But researchers stopped the study in July, after only 12 women had enrolled. Three of the women required ambulance transport to a hospital for treatment of severe vaginal bleeding.

The researchers decided the risk to women of participation was too great to continue with the study. The study was unable to show what, if any, effectiveness progesterone has in reversing a medical abortion.

The results raise concerns about the safety of using mifepristone without taking misoprostol, the second step in the medication-based abortion regimen.

Advocates for abortion pill reversal have succeeded in having it written into law as an option to be discussed in mandatory pre-abortion counseling in several states, including Kentucky, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Opponents have said there wasn't sufficient evidence to support the approach. Now, there's evidence that it could cause harm.

"Encouraging women to not complete the regimen should be considered experimental," says Dr. Mitchell Creinin, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UC Davis and the lead researcher on the study. "We have some evidence that it could cause very significant bleeding."

The results of the trial were published online Thursday in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Medication-based abortions use a combination of two medicines mifepristone and misoprostol that patients usually take 24 hours apart. Mifepristone is a progesterone blocker. Misoprostol makes the uterus contract. Studies suggest that 95% to 98% of women who take both drugs in the prescribed regimen will end their pregnancy safely.

Proponents of the abortion-reversal treatment offer the hormone progesterone to patients after they have taken mifepristone but have then decided they don't want to complete the abortion. A group of researchers published a small case series about the protocol, claiming it prevents the abortion from taking place.

The research has been criticized for having serious methodological flaws. Most OB-GYNs including the professional group the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists oppose the practice, saying it's "not supported by science."

At least seven states, however, legally require abortion providers to tell patients about progesterone treatment for stopping a medication-based abortion midway through.

This advice, Creinin says, may put patients at risk for life-threatening bleeding.

"It's not that medical abortion is dangerous," he says. "It's not completing the regimen, and encouraging women, leading them to believe that not finishing the regimen is safe. That's really dangerous."

Although Creinin acknowledges that his study was limited by its premature termination and small sample size, he hypothesizes that taking mifepristone without misoprostol may be especially risky later in the first trimester of pregnancy. All three patients with severe bleeding were at least 56 days into their pregnancies.

The women who experienced hemorrhage included one who received progesterone and two who received a placebo. Of the remaining participants, two left the study because of side effects and completed their planned surgical abortions.

Women in both the progesterone and placebo groups had some evidence that their pregnancies continued. Four patients who took mifepristone and then received progesterone had pregnancies with cardiac activity on ultrasound. Two patients who got the placebo also had gestational cardiac activity.

Creinin says that because the study was cut short, it wasn't big enough to answer the question it set out to. There simply aren't enough data, he says, to know if the progesterone treatment is effective at preventing a medication-based abortion from taking place.

"Does progesterone work? We don't know," he says. "We have no evidence that it works."

Mara Gordon is a family physician in Camden, N.J., and a contributor to NPR. You can follow her on Twitter: @MaraGordonMD.

Go here to read the rest:
Study Of Progesterone To Reverse Medication Abortion : Shots - Health News - NPR

MEDIA CONTACT

Available for logged-in reporters only

San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, December 11, 2019

Newswise WASHINGTON (December 9, 2019) Women who receive palbociclib (Ibrance ) to treat their advanced breast cancer and have a gene alteration that can lead to a condition known as benign ethnic neutropenia (BEN), can safely receive the drug without major concerns of developing infections associated with neutropenia, or low white blood cell counts, say Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers. African American women have a higher incidence of BEN than other races and have been underrepresented in trials testing this medicine so palbociclibs safety in this population wasnt fully known.

This clinical trial result will be presented in a poster session at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on December 11, 2019, in San Antonio, Texas.

Many clinical trials require patients to have normal white blood cell counts at enrollment. Specifically, clinical trials of palbociclib have shown that women can develop neutropenia (low neutrophil counts) while taking the drug and therefore be at increased risk of infection. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell and they are usually one of the first types of white blood cells to reach a site of infection. The lack of infection-fighting white blood cells is often an emergency situation. A BEN diagnosis carries a very low risk of infection, yet women may be given reduced dosages of palbociclib due to lower neutrophil counts even though their infection risk is low.

The phase II PALINA trial, conducted at Georgetown Lombardi and four other centers, used advanced DNA testing at the start of the trial to determine if women had the gene alteration that leads to BEN. The women took palbociclib pills and an estrogen-lowering pill (letrozole) for a maximum of one year. They were then followed to determine if their BEN status affected their safety when taking palbociclib.

Problematically, African American women and women of African descent have higher rates of death due to breast cancer than white women and their representation in clinical trials has been historically lacking, said Filipa Lynce, MD, a physician researcher at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center who treats patients at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. It was important for us to demonstrate that African American and other women with BEN can, and should, receive the same treatment regimen, in this case palbociclib, for their breast cancer as other women.

The trial enrolled 35 women from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia. This current analysis showed that of the 33 women who were tested, 58% had the gene alteration that is associated with lower neutrophil counts. None of the patients in this trial progressed to neutropenia that led to a fever, nor did any of the women discontinue their treatment due to infections. Nearly half of the women did develop a high, but not life-threatening level of neutropenia, resulting in delays in taking their medications.

We are now more confident that palbociclib can be taken safely by African American and other women with BEN, as long as their white blood cell counts are regularly monitored, said Lynce. Our results also point out the need to design trials that enroll women with different ancestries and reflect our patient population so that study outcomes can be applicable to as many women as possible.

###

In addition to Lynce, authors from Georgetown University and its clinical partner MedStar Health, include R. Zhuo, M. Blackburn, C. Gallagher, T. Wu, P. Pohlmann, A. Dilawari, S. Tiwari, A. Chitalia, R. Warren, M. Tan, A. Shajahan-Haq, and C. Isaacs. Additional authors include O. Hahn, University of Chicago, M. Abu-Khalaf, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, and M. Mohebtash, MedStar Franklin Square Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD.

The authors report the following disclosures relevant to this study: F. Lynce: C; A; AstraZeneca, Jounce, Celgene, BMS, Inivata (unpaid). C; A; BMS, Pfizer, Genentech/Roche, Immunomedics, Calithera, Chugai, Regeneron, Tesaro (Research to the Institution). R. Zhuo: None. M. Blackburn: None. C. Gallagher: None. O. Hahn: None. M. Abu-Khalaf: C; A; Novartis. M. Mohebtash: None. T. Wu: None. P. Pohlmann: C; A; Personalized Cancer Therapy, Sirtex, CARIS Life Sciences. F; A; Dava Oncology, Genentech/Roche, ASCO. C; A; Genentech/Roche, Pfizer, Cascadian Therapeutics. O; A; Immunonet BioSciences. O; A; Intellectual property: Immunological compositions as cancer biomarkers and/or therapeutics. A. Dilawari: None. S. Tiwari: None. A. Chitalia: None. R. Warren: None. M. Tan: None. A. Shajahan-Haq: None. C. Isaacs: C; A; AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Novartis, Genentech and PUMA. F; A; Genentech.

This research was supported by grant from Pfizer, Inc.

Poster P1-19-20: Safety of palbociclib in African American Women with Hormone Receptor Positive HER2 Negative Advanced Breast Cancer and Benign Ethnic Neutropenia: PALINA study

About Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center is designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a comprehensive cancer center. A part of Georgetown University Medical Center, Georgetown Lombardi is the only comprehensive cancer center in the Washington D.C. area. It serves as the research engine for MedStar Health, Georgetown Universitys clinical partner. Georgetown Lombardi is also an NCI recognized consortium with John Theurer Cancer Center/Hackensack Meridian Health in Bergen County, New Jersey. The consortium reflects an integrated cancer research enterprise with scientists and physician-researchers from both locations. Georgetown Lombardi seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic, translational and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach to service communities throughout the Washington region, while its consortium member John Theurer Cancer Center/Hackensack Meridian Health serves communities in northern New Jersey. Georgetown Lombardi is a member of the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (UG1CA239758). Georgetown Lombardi is supported in part by a National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA051008). Connect with Georgetown Lombardi onFacebook(Facebook.com/GeorgetownLombardi) andTwitter(@LombardiCancer).

About Georgetown University Medical CenterGeorgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) is an internationally recognized academic health and science center with a four-part mission of research, teaching, service and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMCs mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or care of the whole person. The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization, which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.Connect with GUMC on Facebook (Facebook.com/GUMCUpdate), Twitter (@gumedcenter).

Go here to see the original:
Palbociclib is Safe for Women with Advanced Breast Cancer Who Have Unique Gene Alteration - Newswise

It is obvious that a mother taking medication for her illness is concerned about the possible side effect of these drugs upon her child through breast milk. She seeks information from doctors and health workers. The main issue is whether the medication she is taking could harm her baby with toxic components transmitted through breast milk. The national breastfeeding guideline of Bangladesh states to continue or encourage breastfeeding rather than withdrawing it in almost every condition.

There are certain medications which can be transmitted through breast milk. Again, some organisms responsible for disease causation could transmit disease through breast milk. Drugs which can be excreted via breast milk are mainly anti-cancer drugs, anti-thyroid drugs, some psychiatric drugs, some antibiotics and some hormone replacement therapies etc.

Breastfeeding is contraindicated if a mother is taking anti-cancer drugs, anti-thyroid drugs and any medications containing radioactive components. Even in these conditions, emphasis should be given in collecting another mothers milk rather than starting formula or cows milk. If a mother is taking anti-psychotic or even anti-convulsant drugs she must continue her breastfeeding. Some health workers and even doctors fail to deliver the information that very negligible amount of drug product is transmitted to breast milk, and withdrawing breastfeeding could also be more harmful.

The same is applicable for some antibiotics like sulphonamides, cotrimoxazole, fansidar (anti-malarial drug) and dapsone (used in leprosy and lupus). Possible side effect in a baby is jaundice which should be observed. The mother must consult with her physician for taking alternative drugs (as there might be the scope of another safer drug) if she is taking antibiotics like chloramphenicol, tetracycline, metronidazole, quinolones etc. Oestrogen containing contraceptive and thiazide diuretics (used in hypertension) decrease breast milk supply. Alternative drugs should be prescribed in these conditions.

Counselling and support might help in motivating a diseased mother to continue breastfeeding even while under medication. Nothing is a substitute or better than breast milk. Bangladeshs national agenda is to promote breastfeeding and improve exclusive breastfeeding rate so that we can decrease morbidity and mortality in infants and children stepping toward a healthier and better future.

The writer is a Registrar at the Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMH), Dhaka. Email: ahadnann@gmail.com

Read the rest here:
Mothers medication and breastfeeding - The Daily Star

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, the longtime researcher and executive who helped lead Genentech to develop the first gene-targeted cancer therapies, is stepping down after 5 years as CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Stepping down as CEO of@GatesFoundationis, without a doubt, the toughest decision of my career, she wrote in the first of a series of tweets announcing and reflecting on her departure. But one of my mantras is take your own pulse first. Over the last few months, Ive done just that and concluded that I need to slow down.

Mark Suzman, the foundations president of Global Policy & Advocacy and chief strategy officer, will now take over as the new CEO. Suzman joined the foundation 12 years ago and takes the new role officially on February 1, 2020.

Desmond-Hellmann was named CEO of the massive charity in 2013, after years at the top of Genentech and a stint as the first woman chancellor of the University of California San Francisco. She was the first physician to lead the foundation and during her tenure launched what was billed as the first nonprofit biotech, the Gates Medical Research Institute, a move she recalled as one of her top achievements.

Recently, the longtime researcher cut down on work outside the foundation and said today she was leaving to focus on herself and her family.

Desmond-Hellmann got her start in medicine as a kid, hanging around and sometimes bookkeeping at the drugstore her parents owned in Reno, Nevada. In later years, she talked about how watching her father interact kindly with the people who came in made her want to become a doctor. After she graduated from the University of Nevada, she took an intern job at UCSF in 1982, her formative years as a physician spent at the beginning and center of the AIDS/HIV crisis. After several years working on the virus and Kaposis sarcoma, she and her husband Nicholas Hellmann, also a young UCSF doctor moved to Uganda to do similar work.

We were approached by the Rockefeller Foundation to study heterosexual HIV transmission in Africa, so my husband Nick and I sold our Honda Civics, sublet our apartment, and hopped on a plane, she recalled toReuters in July. We were extremely isolated. When we came back from Uganda, we never complained about anything ever again.

She fell into drug development two years after they returned to Nicholas home state of Kentucky, when they both took positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Connecticut in 1993. She worked on Taxol, a chemotherapy drug originally derived from Pacific yew bark and first FDA-approved shortly before her arrival.

It was like I had been training my whole life for that job, Desmond-Hellmanntold the New York Timesin 2011.

At the time, Genentech hadnt developed any cancer drugs. The legacy biotech brought Desmond-Hellmann back to San Francisco in 1995 to help build that pipeline and promoted her to chief medical officer the following year.

Arthur Levinson, the CEO of Genentech during her tenure, described her to the New York Times as a shrewd executive, who was able to use her oncology and statistical background to choose the best drugs and was also able to tell researchers when their projects werent being chosen.

Shes a very nice person, so this did not come naturally to her, Levinson said. But she got it quickly. She became a tough leader, tough in a positive sense. She was willing to make tough calls without much difficulty.

Over 14 years at Genentech, she oversaw the development of Avastin and Herceptin, the first gene-targeted cancer therapies.

She left the company when it was bought out by Roche in 2009, leaving as head of product development, and soon went on to become chancellor of UCSF (where there was a brief controversy over her tobacco investments, which she immediately sold off.). She joined the Gates Foundation in 2014.

As CEO she oversaw a bevy of public health programs and, in 2018, the launch of the Gates Medical Research Institute in Cambridge, MA, luring executives from Novartis and Merck and other top biotech firms to fill out the leadership team.

The institute launched with a budget of $100 million and targets the Gates Foundation had long pursued: malaria, tuberculosis, and diarrheal diseases. The idea was to help directly develop drugs that the market wasnt incentivizing, including a malarial vaccine. Their first big project is testing if a booster shot of Bacillus Calmette-Gurin, the tuberculosis vaccine already given to infants, could help improve immunity for adolescents.

What keeps me awake is we have all this capital, we have all this opportunity and we better get something done, Desmond-Hellmann told Forbes last year. We better do some good in the world, or I will not feel good about leading in the Gates Foundation.

More here:
UPDATED: Sue Desmond-Hellmann says it's time for her to leave the Gates Foundation. Strategy chief Mark Suzman will now take the helm - Endpoints News

Bioidentical Hormone Doctors: How to Choose

There are many bioidentical hormone doctors to choose from, and after the initial questions about how long they have been practicing and their specialties, there still may be a lot of decisions to be made. So how to you choose among all of these bioidentical hormone replacement therapy doctors for the one that is the right fit for you? We want to provide that advice but also to start with the fact that often the best advice about potential bioidentical hormone doctors comes from word of mouth and reputation. Aside from that there are other steps you can take to choose, and we want to help. Please understand that we are a fully independent website and in order to stay completely unbiased we will not recommend any specific doctor or practice.

Lets start with where you want to end up as far as the bioidentical hormone replacement practitioner that is best for you. First, you want someone who has experience, and specifically experience with the type of treatment you need. You also want someone with experience with people your age and gender. So the first question you should ask when you are interviewing potential bioidentical hormone doctors is about their specific experience with people with your presentation. Know how many people theyve treated, and then it may take a few phone calls to be able to compare and contrast.

Once youve narrowed the field to bioidentical hormone doctors who seem to have experience with people like you, you then want to know their success rate. Now of course this is quite tricky since most bioidentical hormone replacement doctors will report a high success rate, so you may want to ask if theyve ever done a customer satisfaction survey. You might also want to see if their practice is covered by any independent review websites on-line. If you can ask a specific question you may be able to get a more concrete answer, such as whether they asked any specific symptom related questions before and after the treatment, and how often the answers were affirmative.

Of course choosing a practitioner can also be a gut level choice, and we do not want to underestimate that factor. The process of BHRT can be long, since even if the practitioner gets things right pretty quickly there is still a chance that you might need additional treatment at some point even if just a booster. Choosing a practitioner who is smart and experienced is important, but you also need to work with someone you feel is approachable, truly hears you, and takes time to understand your symptoms. These qualities may be a little harder to measure, but they are equally important.

With all the advances in social media and communication technology such as websites where you can providefeedback, there is still one method of gathering information and advice about potential medicalpractitioners, bioidenticalor otherwise, and that is word of mouth. It is impossible to know whether ratings sites have been edited or modified or even contributed to by the practitioners themselves, and relying on the comments of people you dont know is suspect anyway. Reputation remains king.

So what if you are the first among you friends and relatives to consider bioidenticalhormone replacement therapy. You can first turn to your PCP or other medical specialists youve seen, as well as friends of your family who are in the medical field to see if they have names of bioidenticalpractitioners. If you come up empty it may be time to interview a few practitioners, and here is what you want to do:

These are just a few steps you can take to check out your prospective bioidenticalhormone replacement doctor, but again, its best if you hear good things from unbiased and randomly chosen people who have seen him or her like your own friends, colleagues and family.

Here are some websites that might help:

Of course the first thing you should ask are questions about your potential doctors background with BHRT. Bioidentical hormone doctors range from having been in the field of BHRT for many years, and being relatively new to the field. The way you digest the answer to this question may not be as simple as it seems. Experience is of course good, but make sure that any bioidentical hormones therapy doctors you choose who have been doing this for a while have also kept up with the very latest techniques and improvements in the field.

You should also ask how much of your practitioners practice is dedicated to BHRT. There are some who do BHRT full-time, while other make it only a fraction of their practice. While you may not necessarily need a practitioner who does it full-time, you do want someone who makes it a large part of their practice. Also, while it may be okay to have some of the procedures performed by a nurse or other trained practitioner, you should make sure that there is a doctor actively involved in following your case and that you will get to meet with her or him regularly. If the physician will not be regularly involved with administration, ask how easy it will be to contact him or her should you have a question or concern, and again how involved she or he will be in reviewing your progress.

Please feel free to use our comments section to relate your own experience in choosing among bioidentical hormone doctors.

Read more:
Finding the Best Bioidentical Hormone Doctors in 2020

If youre considering hormone replacement therapy (HRT), youll want a highly qualified doctor to help you make the decision. What types of doctors prescribe HRT and how do you find the best one for you? Here are important factors to keep in mind.

The following doctors prescribe hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause:

Any of these types of doctors can help you through menopause. Your job is to find the one who best meets your needs. Here are five steps to finding the best doctor to help you manage your menopause symptoms.

Find a doctor who:

Start by creating a list of potential doctors. Ask your family, friends, and other healthcare providers for recommendations. If youre starting without any referrals, or youre looking for more options, search for doctors on Healthgrades.com.

Healthgrades.com shows patient satisfaction ratings, which give you insight into how your own experience might be with the doctor. Patients rate the doctor and the doctors medical practice, and say if they would recommend the doctor to family and friends.

Take time to research the doctors credentials and experience. Look for a doctor who is board certified and cares for women in menopause on a regular basis. The more experience a doctor has treating your condition, the better prepared he or she is to advise you on the best type of hormone replacement based on your individual circumstances.

Also, confirm that the doctor is in good standing with state and federal agencies and that he or she has no history of malpractice claims or disciplinary actions.

Youll find all this information on Healthgrades.com.

As you narrow down your list of doctors, call each office and ask for a consult appointment to meet and interview the doctor.

Here are some questions to ask the doctor:

Your insurance coverage is a practical matter. To receive the most insurance benefits and pay the least out-of-pocket for your care, you need to choose a doctor that participates in your plan.

But keep in mind, just because a doctor participates in your insurance plan doesnt mean he or she is a high-quality doctor. You still need to consider the doctors experience and expertise.

Continue reading here:
Types of Doctors Who Prescribe Hormone Replacement Therapy ...

Ilyse Hogue, president of the abortion rights organization NARAL Pro-Choice America, said that independent clinics absolutely needed to be better funded, but that ultimately protecting the clinics depended on bigger changes.

I dont think they will be able to continue to operate at all if you dont shift the culture and politics, she said. The trajectory we are on will outlaw service.

Still, some worry that Planned Parenthood and other national groups have overly prioritized politics and power instead of patients and providers. Though Planned Parenthood is perhaps best known as the nations largest abortion provider, it provides a range of health services across more than 600 centers across the country, including contraception; testing for sexually transmitted infections; and hormone therapy for transgender patients.

The tension between Planned Parenthoods political goals and its mission as a health provider was one of the main reasons Dr. Wen, with a background as a physician, had such a stormy tenure as president.

Pamela Merritt, who co-founded a reproductive rights group called Reproaction in 2015, compared Planned Parenthoods legal priorities to a lobbyist for a commercial enterprise like McDonalds, focused on protecting its own business needs. Activists refer to the organization and its outsize influence, she said, as the big pink elephant in the room.

The movement needs independent providers that provide most abortions to be loud and out front, said Ms. Merritt, who described herself as an unapologetic lefty.

For many of those independent providers, the problem extends well beyond politics.

In Alabama, Ms. Grays biggest challenges are practical. Drug prices for medical abortions are high, she cant find a physician to replace her aging medical director, and an electrician recently refused services because he opposed abortion, she said.

Read more:
How a Divided Left Is Losing the Battle on Abortion - The New York Times

This press release was orginally distributed by ReleaseWire

Salt Lake City, UT -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/01/2019 -- While Intermittent fasting may sound like another dieting craze, the practice of routinely not eating and drinking for short periods of time has shown again to lead to potentially better health outcomes.

In a new study by researchers at the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, researchers have found that cardiac catheterization patients who practiced regular intermittent fasting lived longer than patients who don't. In addition, the study found that patients who practice intermittent fasting are less likely to be diagnosed with heart failure.

"It's another example of how we're finding that regularly fasting can lead to better health outcomes and longer lives," said Benjamin Horne, PhD, principal investigator of the study and director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute.

Findings from the study will be presented at the 2019 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 16, 2019.

In the study, researchers asked 2,001 Intermountain patients undergoing cardiac catheterization from 2013 to 2015 a series of lifestyle questions, including whether or not they practiced routine intermittent fasting. Researchers then followed up with those patients 4.5 years later and found that routine fasters had greater survival rate than those who did not.

Because people who fast routinely also are known to engage in other healthy behaviors, the study also evaluated other parameters including demographics, socioeconomic factors, cardiac risk factors, comorbid diagnoses, medications and treatments, and other lifestyle behaviors like smoking and alcohol consumption.

Correcting statistically for these factors, long-term routine fasting remained a strong predictor of better survival and lower risk of heart failure, according to researchers.

The Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute has the opportunity to closely study intermittent fasting because a large portion of its patients do it regularly: a significant segment of Utah's population belongs the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members typically fast the first Sunday of the month by going without food or drink for two consecutive meals, and thus not eating for the period of about a day.

While the study does not show that fasting is the causal effect for better survival, these real-world outcomes in a large population do suggest that fasting may be having an effect and urge continued study of the behavior.

"While many rapid weight loss fasting diets exist today, the different purposes of fasting in those diets and in this study should not be confused with the act of fasting," said Dr. Horne. "All proposed biological mechanisms of health benefits from fasting arise from effects that occur during the fasting period or are consequences of fasting."

Dr. Horne has previously conducted studies about risk of diabetes and coronary artery disease in patients and found that rates are lower in patients who practice routine intermittent fasting. Those studies were published in 2008 and 2012 and suggested that the decades-long development of those chronic diseases may be ameliorated by long-term routine fasting.

Why long-term intermittent fasting leads to better health outcomes is still largely unknown, though Dr. Horne said it could be a host of factors. Fasting affects a person's levels of hemoglobin, red blood cell count, human growth hormone, and lowers sodium and bicarbonate levels, while also activating ketosis and autophagy all factors that lead to better heart health and specifically reduce risk of heart failure and coronary heart disease.

"With the lower heart failure risk that we found, which is consistent with prior mechanistic studies, this study suggests that routine fasting at a low frequency over two thirds of the lifespan is activating the same biological mechanisms that fasting diets are proposed to rapidly activate," Dr. Horne noted.

Researchers speculate that fasting routinely over a period of years and even decades conditions the body to activate the beneficial mechanisms of fasting after a shorter length of time than usual.

Typically, it takes about 12 hours of fasting for the effects to be activated, but long-term routine fasting may cause that time to be shortened so that each routine faster's daily evening/overnight fasting period between dinner and breakfast produces a small amount of daily benefit, they noted.

Further studies are on-going that will answer this question and other questions related to possible mechanisms of effects on development of chronic disease and survival. Additional research will also examine potential psychological effects of fasting and potential effects on appetite and perception of hunger.

Fasting is not for everyone. Researchers caution that pregnant and lactating women should not fast, as well as young children and frail older adults. People who have received an organ transplant, who have a suppressed immune system, who are experiencing acute or severe chronic infections, and those with eating disorders should also not fast.

Also, people diagnosed with chronic diseases especially those who take medications for diabetes, blood pressure, or heart disease should not fast unless under the close care and supervision of a physician because of the severe adverse effects that medications in combination with fasting can cause, including as hypoglycemia.

Other members of the Intermountain research team include: Ciera Bartholomew (BYU), Jeffrey L. Anderson, Heidi T. May, Kirk U. Knowlton, Tami L. Bair, Viet T. Le, Bruce W. Bailey (BYU), and Joseph B. Muhlestein.

This research study was funded by the Intermountain Research and Medical Foundation.

About Intermountain HealthcareIntermountain Healthcare is a not-for-profit system of 24 hospitals, 215 clinics, a Medical Group with 2,500 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health insurance company called SelectHealth, and other health services in Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes and sustainable costs. For more information, please see intermountainhealthcare.org.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/intermountain-healthcare-study-shows-intermittent-fasting-increases-longevity-in-cardiac-catheterization-patients-1266497.htm

View post:
Intermountain Healthcare Study Shows Intermittent Fasting Increases Longevity in Cardiac Catheterization Patients - Press Release - Digital Journal

Pregnant women with eating disorders have an increased risk of complications, both for the mother and the baby, according to new research.

Eating disorders affect millions of people around the world, most often women in childbearing age. However, to date only a few smaller, limited studies have examined potential complications for children born to mothers with eating disorders.

That led researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden to take a comprehensive view by studying all the 1.2 million mothers who gave birth in Sweden between 2003 and 2014. Of those mothers, nearly 2,800 had anorexia, 1,400 had bulimia, and 3,400 had an unspecified eating disorder. They also compared whether the risk varied between these different types of eating disorders and whether the mother had an active or previous eating disorder.

The study showed that all types of eating disorders increased the risk of premature birth, microcephaly (small head circumference for gestational age), and hyperemesis during pregnancy, a severe form of nausea and vomiting affecting the mother.

The risk of anemia was twice as high for women with active anorexia or unspecified eating disorder as for mothers without eating disorders. Active anorexia was also associated with an increased risk of antepartum hemorrhage.

The increases in risk were more pronounced if the disease was active, but women who hadnt been treated for an eating disorder in more than a year before conception were also at higher risk of complications compared to mothers who had never been diagnosed with an eating disorder, according to the studys findings.

Women with an eating disorder should be recognized as a high-risk group among pregnant women. From a clinical point of view, this means that care providers need to develop better routines to identify women with active or previous eating disorders and consider extended pregnancy screenings to meet their needs, said ngla Mantel, a researcher at the Department of Medicine in Solna at the Karolinska Institutet and resident physician in obstetrics and gynecology at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset and corresponding author of the study.

According to the researchers, there are several possible explanations for the associations. An inadequate diet with subsequent nutritional deficiencies may limit fetal growth. The stress hormone cortisol tends to be high in women with anorexia and bulimia and has previously been associated with microcephaly. Both stress and some nutritional deficiencies in the mother have previously been connected to premature birth. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies have also been associated with placental abruption, which could explain the increased risk of bleeding during pregnancy.

When it comes to hyperemesis, the researchers noticed that part of the association to eating disorders disappeared when they adjusted for psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression. Other outcomes remained largely the same after adjusting for variables such as age, smoking, and birth year.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Source: Karolinska Institutet

Related Articles

Go here to see the original:
Pregnant Women With Eating Disorders Face Higher Risk of Complications for Both Baby and Mother - PsychCentral.com

Issued on: 29/11/2019 - 15:14Modified: 29/11/2019 - 15:14

French women are having children later in life, making conception more difficultas fertility diminishes with age. Egg freezing,a procedure to counter the problem,is illegal in France but a new bioethics law looks set to legalise it. In the meantime, women go to Spain, or find French doctors willing to bend the rules.

Michael Grynberg, head of reproductive medicine at the Antoine Bclre hospital in Clamart,receives a 31-year-old woman in his office.

She has endometriosis, a condition where the uterus swells painfully. Shes been taking hormone treatments for the pain, which interrupted her fertility.

Three months ago she stopped the treatment to see what would happen.

Your ovaries appear to be working normally again, Grynberg tells her, looking through her file. He wants to take advantage of the situation to extract her eggs nowbefore she goes back on the treatment.

They will then be frozen so she can use them in the future if she wants to have a baby. The woman sees this as a kind of insurance.

Im single, and I am not planning on having a child right now. For me its an ideal solution, she explains.

Grynberg reminds her that most women with endometriosis end up conceiving a child naturally.

Doctors in France are increasingly willing to freeze the eggs of patients suffering from endometriosis. But what about those who have no obvious medical problem, women who are worried they are getting too old to conceive naturally?

Grynberg calls this social freezing, which is not currently legal in France. So he tries to find a medical reason for these women, to stay within the law.We are always trying to help these patients, to try to find something, if it exists," he explains.

He never makes anything up. But if we find something, we can push it, to consider it a medical problem.

The average age for a first pregnancy in France is 28.5 years old, up from 24 years old in the 1970s. And many first pregnancies happen when a woman is in her 30s.

Women today postpone pregnancy, says Grynberg. This can be for career reasons, or because they have not found the right partner. Also, families are changing: More and more people divorce and want to have another kid with a new partner later in life.

He can offer these women IVF, in-vitro fertilisation, a medically-assisted way of conceiving available to women in France in heterosexual couples. They can do this until the age of 43, but using their own eggs at the time they come in for the procedure.

This is problematic because a womans egg quality decreases dramatically after the age of 35.

Limits of technology

We do not have any technique to improve the egg quality, says Grynberg. The only medical tool available is to freeze a womans eggs when she is younger, to fix time by freezing eggs, as he puts it.

A woman over 36 years old has a 5 to 10 percent of conceiving a child through IVF. If she uses eggs that she froze before she was 35, her chances of conceiving a child go up to 60 percent

Grynberg is frustrated that he cannot offer the option to his patients. If older women are allowed to go through IVF, why not give them access to something that increases the chances of success?

The bioethics law currently making its way through the French legislature would legalise egg freezing for women, regardless of their medical condition.

Since 2011, the option has been available for those who have serious medical problems affecting fertility, like radiation treatments for cancer.

So Grynberg bends diagnoses, like endometriosis. The law gives him a lot of discretion.

The law has been written in a way to enable the physician to consider what could be medical and non-medical. I consider this law as very permissive, he says.

Pressure on women

The provision allowing egg freezing made it into the bioethics legislation with 39 votes, out of only 44 MPs who turned up. The legislation is now waiting to be read by the Senate in the spring, before it will become law.

Lawmakers arguing against allowing egg freezing raised concerns that companies would pressure women to put off having children and focus on their careers instead. They pointed to US tech companies covering the cost of egg freezing for their female employees.

As a result, the French legislation will have a specific provision prohibiting anyone an individual or company - from paying for the procedure for anyone else.

For Grynberg, whose focus is on the medicine, the major issue with any fertility treatment is a lack of information in France.

Many of his patients come to him completely unaware of how much fertility is dependent on age.

It's crazy the number of patients coming to my office saying, I thought that IVF or other medical techniques could help me, even if I'm 38, 39 or 40, he says. We need to improve the knowledge of this for all young women. Because they need to build their careers and lives with this knowledge.

This story was produced for the Spotlight on France podcast.

Read more:
French fertility doctors bend the law to allow women to freeze eggs - RFI

November 26, 2019 Cover

More than 58 years ago, in 1961, Mike Love and his cousins Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson, along with family friend Al Jardine, formed a different kind of garage band. They took all things associated with summer the laid back lifestyle, the girls and fun, wrapped in their Southern California penchant for the beach, sun and surfing and came up with their own songs and sound unlike anything anyone had ever heard. Their upbeat, yet intricately arranged songs came about thanks to the weirdly wired Brian Wilson and creative juices of Mike Love.

Take the hassle out of Thanksgiving dinner and let the Laughlin resorts serve you a traditional spread this holiday.

In a sea thick with Rat Pack tributes, there is but one that asks the question, What if?What if Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. were still here? How would they react to todays world? How would they cope? Would they still resonate with crowds when audience members are pulled in so many different musical directions? What would they joke about in a world that has become either too P.C. or off the charts in the disgusting department? How would they make the world cool again?Those are the questions Rick Michel asked himself as he designed a show based around Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis,Jr.

Nothing is more exciting than hearing B5 called out and checking off the final square on your ticket so you can proudly yell out bingo! Tons of players choose this gambling game because of the excitement and anticipation, challenging patterns, fun promotions and value for their money.Tropicana Bingo Manager Marie Myers is responsible for making the game enticing and enjoyable at her property, which has been voted the best bingo hall in Laughlin four years running in the Mohave Valley Daily News Best Of readers poll.

See more here:
Cheapest viagra super active pills - Sildenafil viagra super active 100mg - What is the difference between viagra professional and viagra super active...

Diseases of the thyroid gland are very common, affecting millions of people in the globe, but the most common thyroid problems are: An overactive gland, called hyperthyroidism especially Graves disease, toxic adenoma or toxic nodular goiter.

Background

Thyroid enlargement due to over activity (as in Graves disease) or from under-activity (as in hypothyroidism).

An enlarged thyroid gland is often called a goiter.

Patients with a family history of thyroid cancer or who had radiation therapy to the head or neck as children for acne, adenoids, or other reasons are more prone to developing thyroid malignancy.

How is a Thyroid disorder Diagnosis Made?

The diagnosis of a thyroid function abnormality or a thyroid mass is made by taking a medical history and a physical examination.

In addition, blood tests and imaging studies or fine-needle aspiration may be required.

According to Dr Bruce W. Peters, ENT-Otolaryngologist in Toms River, New Jersey, as part of the exam, doctors will examine your neck and may ask you to lift up your chin to make your thyroid gland more prominent.

You may also be asked to swallow during the examination, which helps to feel the thyroid and any mass in it.

Some other tests doctors may order include: Evaluation of the larynx/vocal cords with an Eber optic telescope, An ultrasound examination of your neck and thyroid Blood tests of thyroid function, A nuclear thyroid scan, ultrasound guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy and a CT or MRI scan

What are Thyroid Nodules?

Thyroid nodules are common, occurring in 15-65 percent of people of all ages. They occur in both women and men, but are especially common in women (50 per cent of women or older have had a thyroid nodule).

Usually patients and their physicians first notice thyroid nodules during a routine physical exam of the neck area. Sometimes they are found incidentally during a radiographic evaluation of the neck (such as a CT scan, X-ray, MRI or Ultrasound).

Although the vast majority of thyroid nodules are benign, the physician should evaluate a significant thyroid nodule, as approximately 5-10 percent of thyroid nodules are cancerous.

In general, a thyroid nodule is considered significant if it is one centimeter or larger and/or presents concerning features on ultrasound.

What is Thyroid Surgery?

There is no medical treatment for thyroid nodules.

If a decision is made that the thyroid nodule needs to be removed, surgical treatment is recommended.

Nodules that are suspicious or cancerous on biopsy require surgical removal.

Large nodules are often removed for a number of reasons. Benign large thyroid nodules may cause pressure symptoms in the throat or cause difficulty swallowing.

Thyroid nodules that produce excess thyroid hormone may also need to be removed. Some thyroid nodules are large enough that standard diagnostic approaches prevent accurate assessment of the possibility of cancer and, therefore, need to be surgically removed.

Thyroid surgery is an operation to remove part or all of the thyroid gland. It is performed in the hospital and general anesthesia is usually required.

Typically, the operation removes the lobe of the thyroid gland containing the suspicious nodule or lump. A frozen section (immediate microscopic reading) may be used to determine if the rest of the thyroid gland should be removed during the same surgery.

Based on the result of the frozen section, the decision will be made in the operating room if removal of any remaining thyroid tissue is necessary. These options will be discussed with you preoperatively by the doctor.

According to Dr Peters, as an alternative, he may choose to remove only one lobe and wait for the final pathology report before deciding, if the remaining lobe needs to be removed.

If a malignancy is identified in this way, he may recommend that the remaining lobe of the thyroid be removed at a second procedure.

What happens after Thyroid Surgery?

The surgery usually takes two to three hours, and most patients were watched carefully in the hospital overnight. Its pain is often minimal, and will take four to seven days off.

Amadu Kamil Sanah, Toms River, New Jersey, USA

View post:
Thyroid disorder and surgery: What you need to know - Myjoyonline.com

Elite runner Mary Cain said in the New York Times this month that her experience with the coaching system at the now-shuttered Nike Oregon Project encouraged unhealthy levels of weight loss, leading to five broken bones, mental health problems.

The ordeal also derailed her career, according to Cain.

Her experience eating too few calories, having dangerously low bone density, and missing her periods is illustrative of what seems to be a disturbingly common condition among female athletes: Relative energy deficiency in sports, or RED-S. It's also been called female athlete triad, but most professionals now refer to it as RED-S, in part to include male athletes, and to recognize that undereating isn't always related to an eating disorder.

While the condition or symptoms of it can affect anyone from the weekend warrior to the Olympian, it seems to be an especially pervasive, though still under-the-radar, problem among higher-level athletes, including Division 1 female runners.

When Delaney White, now a Division 1 cross-country and track runner and senior at Portland State University, entered the collegiate running scene, she had already begun to have irregular menstrual periods, she told Insider. She thought it was normal for competitive athletes at her level.

That mentality seems to be pervasive.Cate Barrett, a former Division 1 track athlete, wrote on Instagram that "college programs today are still preaching thinner is fast, and telling women to lose weight, or that low weight and lost periods aren't a problem."

For so long, I thought I was the problem. To me, the silence of others meant that pushing my body past its healthy limits was the only way. But I know we were all scared, and fear keeps us silent. @runmarycain Mary Cain's expos of abuse she suffered while training as a young pro runner is shocking and upsetting. A decorated coach at Nike, Alberto Salazar, pressured her to lose weight to run faster. This is an inexcusable abuse of power. Salazar had nearly every resource available to boost Marys performance, yet chose to emphasize a strategy that risked her health. And it didn't even fucking work. It drove her to slow races, self-harm and quitting the sport. Marys story resonates with the amateur and collegiate running community all too well. We've experienced the same thing. Being shamed for our size. Told that our poor performances were because of weight. And that we were lucky to be here, so we shouldnt complain. That this is part of the sport. I competed for a D1 NCAA track team for all four years of college. While this was a great experience, it did leave me with a disordered view of my body and food. 11 years after I entered the NCCA, I still feel the strain that Im not small enough. I know this is not factual and rational, but my mindset is a work in progress. I do not know any teammates who emerged from the NCAA system unaffected by the pressure to be thinner. It may seem like the entire running community is already woke to this issue, but please listen: IT IS WILD how deep this goes. It is still happening. Girls still need help. College programs today are still preaching thinner is faster, and telling women to lose weight, or that low weight and lost periods arent a problem. College sports are not the only offenders here, but they have to do better. They, along with the whole running world, have the opportunity and obligation to make a positive impact in young peoples lives. I am thankful that Mary Cain and many others have faced their fear and brought their stories to light. This is how we change.

A post shared by Cate Barrett (@beingcate) on Nov 8, 2019 at 12:39pm PSTNov 8, 2019 at 12:39pm PST

And, Andrea Toppin, a former runner at Iowa State, wrote on Twitter that her teammate and boyfriend at the time told her she needed to lose 20 pounds in order to contribute to the team. "All I cared about was the number on the scale and pleasing my boyfriend until I got my first awful stress fracture after 2 muscular injuries and 2 years of not having a period," she wrote.

Research backs up these women's experiences.

While estimates of the ubiquity of RED-S vary widely, but some research has shown women at higher levels of sport may be at greater risk because of the high competitive pressure and specific demands of certain sports, such as running. Research also suggests as many as 54% of female collegiate athletes being unhappy with their weight.

What's more,studies suggest disordered eating is especially common in sports that emphasize aesthetics or leanness, like running and gymnastics, with as many as 69% of female athletes in those types of sports missing their periods.

Eating disorders "have continued to increase for girls ages 15 to 22, which directly overlaps with the peak of adolescence, commonly spent in high school and college sports," professional runner Lauren Fleshman wrote in the New York Times. "Over one-third of N.C.A.A. Division I female athletes exhibit risk factors for anorexia nervosa."

She was one of them, writing that her final year of her collegiate career she restricted her diet to look more like the professional, older runners she hoped to become. "I may have looked the part, but I lost my energy. I lost my period, and injuries set in, derailing the first half of my professional running career."

"Running is an interesting microcosm of our culture," Delaney White told Insider. Flickr/josiahmackenzie

No matter how common, a disrupted menstrual cycle can be a dangerous sign that low calorie intake is messing with the body's hormone levels, which can cause long-term health issues like permanent bone loss and potential fertility problems.

But awareness lags among athletes and professionals alike. A small study found 44% of high-school female athletes reported that they thought losing their period was a normal response to a high level of athletic training, Dr. Aubrey Armento, a sports medicine physician in Colorado, reported on Twitter.

And one 2018 study found that less than half of clinicians, physiotherapists, and coaches could correctly define RED-S.

Women also get cues from the environment that "thin is better," Mary Jane De Souza, a professor of kinesiology and physiology at Penn State who specializes in the syndrome, told Insider. "It's a huge problem," she said. "We need a lot more widespread knowledge to be disseminated that you get to be a great, high-performing female athlete but coaches and other people without dietary expertise don't get to tell you what to weigh."

White's first college team didn't talk about missing periods, body image, eating, and weight. But when she transferred to Portland, she found her new teammates were open about discussing their experiences and checking in with each other.

There, she was told that irregular periods were an important sign that something was going on with her body, and she was encouraged to talk to a female trainer about it. Her performance, and health, immediately improved as a result.

"I was running 74 miles a week, and I didn't realize I needed to be eating more. As soon as I did that, I started getting faster," White said. "It's turned around how I feel about running, my performance is better than ever, and I'm healthier than I've ever been."

As White's experience demonstrates,when caught early, many of the damaging effects of RED-S can be reversed. With enough calories, athletes can begin to recover from energy deficit within days or weeks, according to the most recent guidelines from theFemale and Male Athlete Triad Coalition.

White said having female trainers, and strong female athletes as role models in her life, have made a world of difference. As more women become high-profile coaches, including record-breaking marathon runner Shalane Flanagan, she hopes that more young athletes will have the support, encouragement, and resources they need to pursue elite levels of the sports without risking their mental and physical health.

Ultimately, real progress also means looking at the broader culture that links women's value to their weight, White said.

"Running is a really interesting microcosm of our culture, that you expect women to be strong but if they get above a certain weight, they're no good any more," she said. "Until we change the culture of comparison, our sport isn't going to change."

Read more:

I had the condition that 'broke down' Nike runner Mary Cain's body, and I wasn't even an elite athlete

3 marathoners who are breaking stereotypes about what runners look like

An athlete who spoke out against Nike's running program in 2015 says Mary Cain's allegations could 'change the future of the sport'

The rest is here:
Division 1 female athletes are among those plagued by eating disorders, missing periods, and broken bones - INSIDER

According to a leading physician, thousands of Americans die needlessly every year from a deadly myth that only drugs and surgery can heal. Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., a pioneer in the successful treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome and the author of "Real Cause, Real Cure," tells Newsmax that the financial power of the pharmaceutical companies has skewed our healthcare into a system that ties the hands of natural practitioners and patients who want to find root causes of illness and restore their health.

"Standard medicine offers about 15 to 20 percent of what can help people recover from illness. Other branches of the healing arts offer the rest," Teitelbaum says.

Dr. John Reed, a Maryland-based physician who believes in integrative healthcare, adds that it isn't so much which diseases should be treated with alternative medicine, but what kind of people are receptive to taking control of their health. Some people are so used to popping pills that they won't explore the opportunities to self-heal while others want the information but can't get it from their regular healthcare practitioners.

"The current medical system is in danger of collapsing because it is treating problems, not people," he tells Newsmax. "The whole idea of integrative medicine is to restore vitality and function. Our healthcare doesn't encourage healthy lifestyles that could prevent many of our dreaded diseases, including the diabetes epidemic we are facing right now."

Teitelbaum, the author of "Diabetes is Optional," agrees. "People with adult onset or type 2 diabetes do not need to be treated with insulin because adults produce enough insulin. Their problem is that they are insulin resistant. This disease can be prevented and treated with a low-sugar, high-fiber diet, the herb Hintonia (Sucontral D), and checking for deficiencies in hormones and vitamin D. If necessary, I prefer to give the drug metformin over insulin because it doesn't encourage more weight gain."

Teitelbaum says that when it comes to heart disease, traditional or Western medicine shines in acute situations such as heart attack or stroke. But alternative medicine, including a change in lifestyle habits, can prevent and reverse cardiovascular disease.

"The key treatments I use for heart problems in my practice, including angina and abnormal heart rhythms, are ribose, coenzymeQ10, magnesium and B complex, and acetyl-l-carnitine," he says. "I often see dramatic improvements in heart health in six weeks."

Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are usually managed traditionally with potentially dangerous pain killers like Lyrica, which is known to increase thoughts of suicide. Instead of medication, Teitelbaum has had success with his famous S.H.I.N.E. protocol. "This provides a blueprint for the body to heal itself," he says. "Getting adequate sleep, testing for hormone deficiency, boosting the immune system, maintaining optimal nutrition, and exercising are five key elements to beating these autoimmune diseases. In our published research study, over 90% of patients improved with treatment."

Teitelbaum says that new research is showing that some old, safe, and very low-cost medications can starve cancer cells. "But this research is largely being ignored by standard medicine because there is no profit in it," he says. For more information, check out yufoundation.org.

Dr. Alan Christianson, a Phoenix, Arizona-based Naturopathic Medical Doctor (NMD), tells Newsmax that Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is another disorder for which modern medicine has no cure.

"Natural medicine, on the other hand, can identify and treat the causative factors such as food intolerances, intestinal permeability, and intestinal parasites, which may be causing IBS. In fact, conventional medicine has no real treatments except for suggesting a high-fiber diet which often exacerbates the condition," he says.

Reed says that the best medicine is what he calls an "integrative approach."

"For example, I was on duty at a trauma center when an accident victim arrived in very bad pain from his crushed limbs. We gave him a very high dose of opioid medication which lessened his pain to 8 out of 10, I then used acupuncture to shift his nervous system away from the pain centers and his pain subsided to 5 out of 10, making the medication more effective.

"When the medical situation is acute, it is beneficial to give drugs or surgery so that the patient doesn't slide downhill, but in the meantime, we must offer supportive care and suggest lifestyle changes to restore good health. We have found in our practice that approaching illness in this fashion also reduces the number of return visits to the hospital so in the long run, an integrative approach saves money.

"We need to spend more time and money on educating people starting with our children on how to stay healthy in the first place instead of focusing on fixing problems."

2019 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved.

Visit link:
Here's When Alternative Medicine Can Save Your Life - Newsmax

The Wall Street Journal lifts the curtain on the behind-the-scenes work to build a public health legal challenge against a big company. In other public health news: football and CTE, caregivers, bias in science, dementia fears, screen time for toddlers, foster care, and more.

The Wall Street Journal:Inside The Mass-Tort Machine That Powers Thousands Of Roundup LawsuitsIn late 2016, a group of plaintiffs lawyers took the stage at the years largest gathering of their colleagues to talk up a promising new target. For 30 minutes, they laid out arguments linking the popular weedkiller Roundup to cancer. An arm of the World Health Organization had pegged Roundups main chemical ingredient as a probable carcinogen the year before, and it was quickly becoming a focus of the plaintiffs bar. Some product-liability lawyers in the audience in Las Vegas were skeptical. Tying exposure from everyday products like Roundup to cancer often is less straightforward than linking illness to medications or medical devices, said Chase Givens, a lawyer with the Cochran Firm who attended the event. (Randazzo and Bunge, 11/25)

The New York Times:They Love Football. They Try Not To Think About C.T.E.The human brain is hard-wired to manage conflicting thoughts and emotions. We know drinking alcohol can cause liver damage and burning fossil fuels is bad for the environment, but many of us still drink alcohol and still buy gas-guzzling vehicles. Most people have generally accepted that playing football, in addition to teaching life lessons about teamwork and dedication, can lead to long-term brain damage, like any activity that involves a lot of collisions with other human beings or crashes with the ground. (Lawrence, Cardenas and Futterman, 11/26)

The Washington Post:In Helping Elderly Parents, Caregivers Get A Peek At Their Futures And Are Inspired To Plan For Old AgeEven after Myrtle Lewiss mother reached her late 90s and could no longer drive or care for herself, she insisted on remaining in her home in Northeast Washington. Lewis, who was helping care for her mother, arranged for her to have a live-in companion, another older woman, named Kizzie. But watching her mothers world shrink as she knocked around a too-big house clarified a few things for Lewis, now 76. After a while it just became she and Kizzie. Theyd go to bed at 6:30, she said. (Bahrampour, 11/25)

Los Angeles Times:Researchers Have A Plan To Prevent Bias In Computer AlgorithmsScientists say theyve developed a framework to make computer algorithms safer to use without creating bias based on race, gender or other factors. The trick, they say, is to make it possible for users to tell the algorithm what kinds of pitfalls to avoid without having to know a lot about statistics or artificial intelligence. With this safeguard in place, hospitals, companies and other potential users who may be wary of putting machine learning to use could find it a more palatable tool for helping them solve problems, according to a report in this weeks edition of the journal Science. (Khan, 11/23)

Reuters:Study Shows Half Of Middle-Aged Americans Fear Theyll Get Dementia, Use Unproven SupplementsAbout half of middle-aged Americans believe theyre somewhat or very likely to develop dementia, a survey suggests, and many try to beat the odds with supplements such as ginkgo biloba and vitamin E that arent proven to help. Researchers examined data from the University of Michigans 2018 National Poll on Healthy Aging, a nationally representative survey of adults 50 to 80. Overall, 44.3 percent of respondents said they were at least somewhat likely to develop dementia, and 4.2 percent said they were very likely to develop dementia. (11/26)

WBUR:Antibiotics For Animals May Work For You, But Experts Say It's A Terrible IdeaWhen phlegm invades Andy Shecktors face or chest, he says he knows if the culprit is a bacterial infection. ...But on these occasions, Shecktor, a 63-year-old man from Berwick, Pennsylvania, doesnt go see a doctor, and he doesnt get a prescription for antibiotics. Instead, he pulls out a stash of medicine from his fridge that is clearly marked not for human consumption. It's for fish. (Chen, 11/26)

CNN:Explosive Growth In Screen Use By Toddlers, Studies SayUse of screen time explodes between 12 months and three years in the United States, and most Canadian preschoolers between the ages of two and three are not meeting World Health Organization recommendations for appropriate use of television, computers and other screens, according to two new studies published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. (LaMotte, 11/25)

The New York Times:He Had A Temporary Blast Of Amnesia. What Was Going On?Where am I? the 68-year-old man asked. His daughter explained again: He was at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. He had been found on the ground in the parking lot of the grocery store near his apartment. The man nodded, as if taking it all in, but minutes later asked again: Where am I? He had never had any memory issues before, but now he couldnt remember that it was Saturday. Didnt remember that he spent the morning moving the last of the boxes he had stored at his daughters house to his new apartment. He didnt even remember that he had spent the past few months hashing out a pretty messy divorce. (Sanders, 11/26)

The Washington Post:One Judges Tough Approach To Foster Care: Its Only For The Really Extreme CasesThe courtroom looks more like a preschool than a command center for dismantling the citys foster care system. A stuffed penguin perches above the judges bench. A bookcase is filled with childrens favorites. And dozens of stuffed animals teddy bears, polar bears, pandas are scattered around the room. Juvenile Court Judge Ernestine S. Gray gives each child who appears before her a bear and a book. She believes it makes what can be the worst day of their lives just a little easier. (Webster, 11/25)

The Washington Post:This Top Pediatric Allergist Swears By Meditation And Thinks It Can Fight Medical BurnoutPhysician Hemant Sharma has worked at Childrens National Hospital for 11 years and serves as its chief of allergy and immunology. The 44-year-old Howard County, Md., resident commutes daily to Washington and rotates between four of the hospitals facilities, treating patients, teaching and mentoring younger physicians, overseeing administration, and conducting clinical research. Hes aware of how so many demands might affect his well-being and believes addressing burnout is a vital issue for the medical profession and others. I think a number of professions now are facing this challenge, where the chronicity of our daily stress is preventing us from giving 100 percent of what we want to the populations that were serving. (Carefoot, 11/25)

The New York Times:The Costly, Life-Disrupting Consequences Of Poor Diabetes CareDiabetes, whether Type 1 or Type 2, may be the most underappreciated, misunderstood and poorly treated of all common medical problems, and many of the more than 30 million Americans affected by it are paying dearly with their health and lives as a result. Contrary to what many people think, diabetes is not just a disease of abnormal blood sugar control caused by a lack of insulin or an inadequate response to this crucial hormone. (Brody, 11/25)

See the rest here:
Behind The Thousands Of Lawsuits Against Roundup Weed Killer Lurks A Sophisticated, Little-Known Legal Ecosystem - Kaiser Health News

Jules TurknettOrbit Arts AcademySenior Company Showcase

With the ever-increasing interest in musical theatre performance comes increased competition. Our triple (and quadruple!) threats are under significant pressure to stand out and aim to do so by doubling down on training.

Broadway hopefuls are spending many hours and dollars taking classes with the top instructors to build their singing, acting, and dancing chops. But there's another, often overlooked path to maximizing performance.

I recently interviewed a physician who works in the emerging field of health and performance optimization. He is a best-selling author, the head of cognitive enhancement for Nourish Balance Thrive, which works with elite athletes from around the world. He is also the chief medical officer for humanOS, the president-elect for the Physicians for Ancestral Health, and the medical editor for the Journal of Evolution and Health.

This physician happens to be my husband, Dr. Josh Turknett, and he details a holistic health approach for performers to help them develop healthy habits as they push the limits of their bodies and minds.

Here is an excerpt from that interview:

Can you tell us a little about your background in this emerging field of health and performance optimization?

One of my roles is as the head of cognitive enhancement for Nourish Balance Thrive, a company that helps elite athletes around the world optimize their performance and their health.

These are people who are pushing their bodies to the limits, so they need their bodies to be in top form. In recent years people have really begun to recognize that this goes far beyond just training for sports and that they can get greater results than what training alone would yield by attending to factors like nutrition and lifestyle. That translates to improved performance, reduced injuries, improved recovery, and ultimately allows them to perform at a much higher level for a longer period of time.

I also do cognitive performance consulting for people who are using their brains for a living. These are people who are knowledge workers, pushing their brains to the limit and looking for ways to improve focus, and concentration, memory, creativity, productivity, and learning.

The same is true here, too - people are realizing you can get a lot more from your brain by attending to relevant nutrition and lifestyle factors. Theatre performers fall into both of these categories! They are trying to get the most out of their bodies and brains. So a lot of the strategies that we recommend for folks who are elite athletes or knowledge workers, we would also recommend for theatre performers.

Right, because our performers have to combine both. Can you give some more specific examples of the ways in which people benefit from taking the holistic approach you suggest?

For those who are doing things that are physically demanding, they will see improvements in their performance and in the prevention of injuries. And then with regard to long-term health, they will see prevention of chronic disease, both that result from just normal everyday life but also anything that would come specifically from the activities that they're doing.

In particular, wear and tear on the musculoskeletal system and the joints is probably much more likely related to the accumulated effects of diet and lifestyle rather than the activities themselves.

We know that joint injuries are really common in sports. Yet, in cultures where people don't follow the standard Western diet and lifestyle but are just as hard on their bodies, we don't see the same level of joint problems. The relative increase in joint and tissue injuries we see in the West is likely due to the high demands on the musculoskeletal system PLUS a weakening of the connective tissue structures by systemic inflammation and nutrient deficiencies. So in most cases, you would need both of those things for the joints to break down, not just the wear and tear.

That also makes me think of migraines, which I know you work a lot with, and that can be treated with the diet and lifestyle piece. I've always thought about performers who can't go on stage and perform with a migraine. So if you can prevent those as well through diet and lifestyle change, that would be another bonus.

Can you give us an overview of the different aspects of diet and lifestyle that need to be addressed in order to maximize performance?

Sure, so what are the things that we can do? How can we help our bodies to thrive and flourish right now today and what can we do to protect them over the long run?

If we look at the biggest levers that we have, the biggest broad categories that are going to help improve physical and mental performance and impact our long-term health, those will be:

Maybe we can talk a little bit about each of these areas and perhaps tailor them a little bit towards parents, or teenagers, trying to work within their constraints. I know that because we homeschool, we have a lot more flexibility to address some of these issues, but maybe we can think about some strategies that people can implement to work within the current framework.

Yes, and obviously each of these categories we could spend many, many hours on. I'm going to try to hit the highlights and also try to hit the kind of the low-hanging fruit -- the things that you can do that will give you the most return on your initial efforts.

Beginning with sleep, I think the best place to start is always to think about what our body expects, and that's why understanding our evolutionary history is so important. We were hunter-gatherers for about two-and-a-half million years and then we became modern humans living in this very foreign world only very, very, very recently. So our body, and our genes, still mostly expect that we're going to be living in the wild, in nature.

If you think about that, and about what the life of a typical hunter-gatherer was like, it means you go to sleep at sunset or not long thereafter, partly depending on your age, and then wake when the sun comes up.

So a typical good night of sleep for an adult will usually be about seven to eight hours, and for a child about nine to 12, and for teenagers more like 10 to 12 hours.

Sleep is the time for our bodies and brains to repair and recover. That's when you build muscles, that's when you repair connective tissue. So it's crucial for anybody putting any type of physical demands on their body -- like our dancers. If you don't get the repair and recovery during sleep, then you end up with this cycle of inflammation that's hard to stop.

There's also a lot of evidence that it's how we regulate our mood, and it's been recognized to be a factor in just about every chronic health problem. So insufficient sleep, quality or quantity, raises the risk of inflammation and autoimmune disorders, learning and memory problems, mood and anxiety disorders, as well as attentional disorders.

Also, the reason sleep is so important for kids is because that's when the brain is developing, and the time they're asleep is the time when their brains are changing, developing, and growing. So the more sleep they get, the bigger their brains are going to become. It's as simple as that.

It's hard to argue that there is anything more important than getting good sleep, especially given that for most people right now it's compromised, both quality and quantity. It's not just how many hours you get but also whether or not you're cycling through all stages of sleep each time.

Obviously, the demands of our lifestyle have made things challenging. We're waking people up before they should be woken. We also have indoor lighting that allows us to detach ourselves from the rhythms of nature, but there are certain things that we could do to help mitigate that.

For example, just keeping a consistent schedule is helpful in improving our sleep quality and quantity. People who sleep on a consistent schedule fall asleep faster, have better sleep architecture (stages of sleep) and also maintain their circadian alignment better.

For teens, the biggest issue is the amount of time they get to sleep. Most teens are going to be relatively good sleepers, but their biggest issue likely will be giving them enough time in bed to get all the sleep that they need.

Teenagers need more sleep than they ever will at any other point in their lives, and they also shift their sleep to where they will naturally go to bed later. They want to go to bed later and they want to wake up later, which is tricky for school, of course. So oftentimes in order for a teen to get the sleep that they need and still wake on school hours, they're going to have to go to sleep before they're really ready to.

For a teen, 10 hours of sleep really is the bare minimum and anything less that can cause problems. If waking up early, the sleep lost will be mostly REM sleep, and there's good evidence that REM sleep has a lot to do with regulating our mood. So we see anxiety disorders much worse in folks who are not getting REM sleep, and we're also seeing anxiety disorders are worsening amongst teens.

There's a great book that came out recently called "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker. I would encourage everyone to read that book, especially everyone with children. One of the greatest public health challenges we face right now is helping our kids sleep more, given how we've set up school. We're going to look back at this era with horror, I think, in terms of sleep, but hopefully, we can change things.

So thinking in terms of our teenagers, kind of naturally shifting to wanting to stay up later, but really within the confines of the school schedule really needing to go to bed earlier. Any quick tips or strategies for helping them to be able to go to bed a little bit earlier?

One of the best things that has been shown to help is maintaining a consistent schedule and having a set routine. You can take advantage of conditioning. We have our own natural rhythms, but we also have learned rhythms. You can teach yourself to adopt a different schedule with a consistent bedtime every night and having a consistent routine that you follow beforehand that tells your body and brain, "Hey, it's time to get sleepy."

Take a shower, have tea, read, have a ritual with your family, whatever works for your family as a bedtime routine. All these little things cue our body to say, "Hey, it's about time to sleep." Sleep is really a complex process that starts unfolding before you actually get to sleep.

Another important thing that's very relevant these days is blue light. So for any child that's having any difficulty sleeping whatsoever, that's going to be probably prime issue number one to address.

The sun contains the whole spectrum of light, with all the colors of the rainbow, but it turns out that only light in a blue spectrum can suppress our melatonin secretion. Melatonin is a hormone that the brain makes when it's time to get sleepy, and blue light tells the brain the sun is still up so it's not time to sleep. Where do you find blue light? In our devices, and iPhones, and screens, and all sorts of things.

That's why the iPhone developed night mode. There are also TVs now that can change the lighting so that it shifts to the red spectrum, or you can wear glasses that filter out the blue light. There's an app called F.lux that you can install on your computer to shift the light also.

Filtering out blue light after sunset can significantly impact when you feel sleepy. So people who do that will start to feel sleepy about an hour earlier than the people who don't.

I think it's also important to note that the science shows that there's no such thing as catching up on sleep. This idea that you can sort of cheat it during the week and then catch up on the weekend is not true. You don't get the benefits back from the brain's standpoint.

Let's move on to nutrition.

The easiest way to think about nutrition is first to consider what your body needs to operate and maintain our structure, and then second to avoid things that are harmful. The typical modern Western diet is insufficient on both of those counts, but probably worse when it comes to eating things that cause harm. We probably do a little bit better in providing the essential nutrients but and worse on eating things that cause harm.

Again, so if we think about what the diet of a human is supposed to be, it's pretty simple, and from one standpoint we are omnivores, so we eat animals and the edible plants that are in nature. So it should come as no surprise that most of the things that we eat that cause harm and that are linked to disease are not available in nature but require either farms or factories to produce. So that's what your low-hanging fruit is going to be.

The simplest approach of all is really just to eat whole foods -- to just eat meats of all kinds and then vegetables and fruits when they're in season. Shop at the perimeter of the grocery store, avoid the middle, avoid things in boxes and bags and you're pretty much good to go. But if you want to talk about the specific ingredients and things to avoid, I think you have to probably put refined sugar at the top of the list.

The average American's sugar consumption has risen about 3,000-4,000% over what it would've been for our ancestors. I think we'll probably view sugar much like tobacco in the next few decades. It's linked to virtually every chronic disease that we see. Almost every single processed food is going to list sugar as the first ingredient.

Avoiding foods with added sugar or at least minimizing them, and relegating them to being a treat would go a long way. The problem is that sugar has become the primary source of calories in many people's diets.

The next foods to avoid would be those that are cooked in vegetable and seed oils -- including soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, all of those require factory processing. Again, they would not be something our ancestors ever would've eaten, not something that was part of the human diet. These oils likely are a driver of chronic low-level inflammation that we find with almost virtually every chronic disease.

So what oils should people be cooking with?

Starting with the animal fats, you have beef fat, tallow, pork fat, lard, and duck fat. There's also butter and ghee (clarified butter). And then there are fruit oils like olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil. Those are the best sources of fats to cook in.

If I go to the grocery store and every package I look at is using one of the oils you listed not to use.

I'm glad you made that point because the easiest way to avoid that is just to avoid packaged food. Like I said in the beginning, the simplest thing is if you stick to whole foods, you don't have these issues.

What other foods cause harm and should be avoided?

Third would be the gluten grains (wheat, barley, and rye). Gluten is a topic of great confusion. It was long known that about one to 3% of the population was gluten intolerant (celiac disease). Any amount of gluten in the diet for them causes inflammation in their gut, inflammation in the body, and it has to be avoided.

But more recently it's emerged that a much greater proportion of the population is gluten sensitive. People were discovering that a range of health issues would go away after gluten was removed from their diet. In addition to that, evidence came out that gluten disrupts the gut barrier in every human. So in all of us, if you expose the gut to gluten, there are tight junctions in our gut that keep the bad stuff out and the good stuff in, and with gluten exposure, they open up and let the bad stuff in.

So that's true even if I have no reaction to gluten?

That's true even if you have no reaction. That's true with every human's gut according to the research. So most likely this is a spectrum or a continuum, not an either-or thing. There's a range of how sensitive someone is to gluten, how much gut disruption it causes, and what the consequences of that are.

What is the most common mistake people make when they are eliminating gluten from their diet?

Right, so what often happens when people eliminate gluten from their diets is that they look for foods to substitute for the ones that have gluten in them. They will try gluten-free bread, and pasta, and things like that.

And with those you're still introducing all the issues with processed foods and so forth that come with that. So you may be eliminating the gluten component, but you're still getting a lot of bad stuff with it. So again, sticking to the perimeter of the grocery store.

I do sympathize because it does take changing habits since we've created our food culture around bread.

When we were trying to begin removing gluten from our diet, we started with the gluten-free flours like almond flour and coconut flour would make substitute treats and baked goods. That may not be a bad idea for a teenager when you're trying to stepstone them on the way to being gluten-free.

Then we began to realize that we were still doing a disservice to our bodies with these foods, and so then we continued to refine and eliminate those things, and I think that slow progression has been helpful.

Yes, you can start by choosing lesser evils and that's perfectly fine. I personally noticed that I still felt kind of lousy after I ate those things.

We would associate improvements in nutrition to improvements in physical performance, but you can also improve your cognitive performance by improving your diet, as well?

Absolutely. A lot of the work I do is for that particular purpose. Improving cognitive performance translates to improvements in your ability to focus for long periods of time, thinking clearly, sustaining energy levels, and improving creativity, problem-solving, and mood.

So let's move on to physical activity.

Again we'll start with what our bodies expect from what we know of the lifestyles of our ancestors. That was lots of low-level walking with much of the day spent walking, lifting heavy things periodically, so engaging all of your muscles fairly often. And that was punctuated by brief all-out activities like sprinting. Of course, most of it was done outdoors with sunlight on the skin.

The nice thing is, aside from the sunlight piece, athletes and performers are generally doing quite well in this particular area. In fact, if there are any issues it's often related to overtraining, so doing too much, too much activity, particularly high intensity, rather than too little. So stressing the body too much, especially if you're not attending to recovery.

This is an area where a lot of progress has been made recently, so you're seeing a lot of athletes now who are in the professional ranks performing at very high levels at much older ages than we're used to, and a lot of that has come from paying close attention to recovery and repair, in addition to all of these nutritional pieces that we've talked about. You can really extend a career and stay healthy and at top performance levels for a lot longer period of time by doing so.

And what about the social connection piece?

The effects of connection or lack thereof on health might be surprising, but the research is pretty profound. It affects us all the way down to DNA and how our genes are transcribed.

So again, what does our body expect? Our ancestors were usually part of a tribe of up to about 150 people. That was an extended family of people that you could depend on and who depended on you. So you were producing, you were part of the tribe, you were a valuable contributor, and you had people you knew you could depend on when you needed it.

That sounds a little bit like a theatre community.

I was about to say that!

So many people don't have the social connections anywhere near what's really needed for a human to thrive, and social media doesn't count. It's seen as a substitute, but the research shows that it's not. It can help facilitate connection when it's used wisely, but by itself, it's not a substitute. But like you say, performers are actually doing very well.

A theatre troupe is a tribe of sorts, and to me, that's one of the greatest values of it. But the culture of any particular theatre community matters a lot. If it's a culture of acceptance, and support, and community, then yes it's a great form of social connection.

I'll just take this as another opportunity to give yet another plug for the value of theatre. I've already said that in two areas where a lot of people have trouble meeting their basic human needs (physical activity and social connection) theatre addresses.

I've spent my career in neurology, and neuroscience, and in the optimization of health and performance, and I would say there's no better activity than musical theatre training for the development of the brain and the body. It's both physically and cognitively demanding, and performers have to push the limits of their capacity, of both their body and their brain. In the book "Range" by David Epstein, he cites the statistic that Nobel Prize winners are 22 times more likely than their peers to have been performers of some kind.

And I believe you also mentioned mindset as a key component to consider.

Yes, so the mind can powerfully influence our health in either direction, either for us or against us. This really gets to the impact that stress can have. If we consider the mismatch areas in modern human life compared to our ancestors, the amount of time we spend suffering in our own minds probably greatly exceeds theirs, and that has a lot to do with mindset.

In my work with clients, that's a huge piece. Not only mindset in terms of the way we look at the world, but also then understanding how to shape the impact of your mind in a favorable direction. It's all about understanding the ways in which the mind connects to our health, how it can undermine it or help us to be healthier and achieve the things that we want to achieve. Mindset and meditation are big topics that we'll cover in a separate episode.

We would love to see everyone addressing these five areas and building these habits early on because we know that the habits you build as a kid oftentimes last many years.

They do impact performance and they can be a way for young performers to maximize their potential and stand out in the rising tide of Broadway hopefuls.

To hear the full episode with additional information on each of these topics, check out the full interview with Dr. Turknett on the "From Atlanta to Broadway" podcast.

Follow this link:
Bringing Up Broadway: Training the Body and Mind - Broadway World