StemCell Therapy

Lynn Dominguez in Recreation, Parks and Leisure Services Administration is used to going along on the guided nature hikes her students lead as part of their RPL 552 Environmental Interpretation course.

But the pandemic upended nearly everything Central Michigan University students and faculty are used to, and so her students ventured out alone into parks and backyards all over Michigan to fulfill their assignment with cellphone videos.

"I started noticing all the pine needles and moss all over the trails at the Ludington State Park, and I honestly didn't know much about the different things that are all over the forest floor," said Amber Sadler, a senior majoring in recreation and event management. "That's how the idea originated."

She created themes, goals and objectives; messaged classmates to compare ideas; and took to the trails to record her video.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the state, a few College of Medicine team members suited up in personal protective equipment to run medical scenarios at the simulation lab in Saginaw as students and residents watched and learned from home.

Finding remote learning solutions and successes became a new way of life for students and faculty this semester. Here are a few more examples.

School of Music faculty member Alicia Marie Valoti set out to involve her entire viola studio class in a musical video. She ended up also involving alumni from around the world.

"Each of the violists you see was a CMU student of mine in some way," Valoti said, "and each, including myself, recorded three different parts to be mixed together.

"The students come from Brazil, China, Ecuador and many different parts of Michigan, and in fact, in some of the videos, students recorded themselves in their home country."Graduate assistant Shawn Bouck edited and produced the video.

In the Department of Theatre and Dance, Heather Trommer-Beardslee's DAN 232 Dance Composition students also needed to find a way to perform together. The resulting assignment became a video, "Still Dancing Together," to which each dancer contributed a solo performance.

"Students used the choreography skills they had been working on in class to continue learning and creating together despite the physical distance," Trommer-Beardslee said. Class member Alynne Welch edited the video.

'Live from Home'

Meanwhile, integrative public relations students received real-life lessons in crisis management by watching videos CMU Police Chief Larry Klaus created as he and the department managed the impact of the pandemic on campus. Elina Erzikova's JRN 551 Case Studies in Public Relations class discussed the handling from a PR perspective.

Preschoolers plug in

CMU's Child Development and Learning Laboratory connected with its preschool students and their families through an online learning service called Storypark. Daily video sessions with songs, stories and movement activities kept the children engaged and their teachers and student teachers focused on learning, said Human Development and Family Studies faculty member Holly Hoffman.

MOVE doesn't stop

Community members with Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis rely on the CMU physical therapy program's popular MOVE for Health exercise class. Unable to host it in person, student leaders in the program created a YouTube video to keep participants moving.

Honoring an Honors tradition

CMU Honors Program students wait years to ring the gong in Powers Hall to celebrate completing their senior capstone research projects. The stay-home order only spurred their creativity. Students took to Facebook to "virtually" ring the gong using everything from wind chimes to a dinner bell to a metal bowl to the power of Photoshop.

Pipeline goes online

The nine-week Health Careers Pipeline program recruits a diverse group of ninth and 10 graders from area high schools who are interested in health professions careers. It was scheduled to begin the first week of Michigan's stay-home order, so organizers took it virtual with interactive games and videos and drew nearly 100% participation, said April Osburn, executive director of the Mid-Central Area Health Education Center.

Threads can't be broken

The annual student-run Threads Fashion show, scheduled for April, took on a new look after the pandemic canceled campus events. Instead of sending models to walk the runway, organizers called on alumni to post supportive videos on Facebook and continued to create social media posts with the event's look and theme.

"Threads Fashion show is continuing to promote the brand," said faculty advisor Ian R. Mull. Organizers also created a Threads Fashion show 2020 program, offered for sale, to spotlight the designers who would have been in the show.

Lessons from nonprofits

Even from home, the Nonprofit Leadership Student Alliance stuck to its 5 p.m. Thursday meetings. The academic registered student organization's members aim for careers leading nonprofit organizations. Turning their attention to the ways nonprofits are meeting needs during the pandemic, they produced a video to showcase what they've learned.

"The learning comes from students staying connected and committed," said Political Science and Public Administration faculty member Emma Powell, who works with the alliance. "I am so proud of this group I could probably write a book."

Shifting sales strategy

Marketing and Hospitality Services Administration faculty member Rebecca Dingus' MKT 340 Personal Selling course normally builds up to sales role-plays between Dingus and each of her students. This year, recognizing that not all students could meet virtually from home, she and a colleague from Marquette University recorded four versions of a sales call. Pairs of students critiqued them using the knowledge they'd gained from the course.

"They got to watch me sell four different ways," Dingus said. "It created a much richer learning experience than what I ever could have predicted." She plans to use the new assignment even when classes transition back to campus.

Sharing science stories

Anyone wanting to find successes in the College of Science and Engineering can look to the college's Facebook page.

"We've been highlighting faculty and students since the quarantine started," said Rob Wang, the college's communications coordinator. Among them:

Faculty members Jason Keeler and Jordan Watts teach with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in mind at this time, understanding that students need food, shelter, friendship and a sense of self-esteem before they can expect to succeed academically.

Junior mechanical engineering major Katya Dominguez shifted from a canceled study abroad program in South Korea to being able to quickly register for online classes and two independent studies.

Actuarial sciences and statistics sophomore Julie Colling shares strategies for keeping up with studies and taking time to reduce stress.

Forward into summer

With all campus events, camps and gatherings canceled through June 25 and the first session of CMU summer classes online only, remote connections will grow past the end of the spring semester.

The Speech-Language Specialty Clinic for area children is just one example of a vital program taking new form. About 40 virtual campers in the annual nine-week speech and language therapy program will connect through telepractice one to three times a week beginning May 26. Telepractice links the CMU student clinicians and the clinical instructors supervising them for assessment, intervention and consultation with children and their parents.

Another example is the Center for Excellence in STEM Education's summer camps, which will be held virtually as they begin in June. The free classes open for registration May 18. This year's camps will be smaller to allow for meaningful connections and will offer curbside pick-up for needed materials.

Originally posted here:
In a changed reality, finding new paths to success - The Morning Sun

Dominion-Post

Promisia Integrative says the extract in Arthrem should not be classed as prescription only. (File photo)

The makers of Arthrem, which has been sold as joint mobility supplement, have failed to stop it being made a prescription-only medicine, pending a legal review of the change.

The Minister of Health intends publishing a formal legal notice that the plant extract artemisia annua is a prescription-only medicine.

The extract is an ingredient of Arthrem, which Promisia Integrative has been selling for about six years as a dietary supplement in pharmacies and online without a prescription, the Court of Appeal said in a decision issued on Friday.

Promisia Integrative, a listed company based in Wellington, asked the High Court to review the decision to make the extract prescription only, and in the meantime it wanted to stop the change in its status.

READ MORE:* Joint supplement Arthrem's makers being prosecuted by Health Ministry* Arthritis remedy maker Promisia's survival is hanging on a lifeline

But the High Court refused that request and on Friday the Court of Appeal declined to hear an appeal against the decision.

Promisia is challenging the process used to come to the prescription-only decision, and in particular the data used to reach the decision that the extract might cause liver damage.

It said there were no compelling public safety reasons for the decision to take effect now rather than waiting until the court case has been decided.

Arthrem remained on sale in the meantime, but Promisia has told shareholders that it is exiting the natural products market and the decision to reclassify the extract would have minimal impact on the company.

supplied

Herb artemisia annua grown in Tanzania for Promisia Integrative to use in Arthrem. (File photo)

The Court of appeal decision records the company said sales dropped 90 per cent when the Director-General of Health published an alert, it may lose $1.3 million if it can't process the extract and has to compensate pharmacies for the stock they hold, and it has suggested losses of up to $50m.

The Court of Appeal said the potential financial losses were not discounted, but did not outweigh a public health risk that could not be discounted either.

The extract has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries and is sold as an aid to joint health and mobility, the High Court judge said. Central to the case is whether the extract is a food or a medicine.

See more here:
Makers of Arthrem fail to stop it being made 'prescription only' in court - Stuff.co.nz

People experiencing migraines might want to work on their downward dogs. A study published in the journal, Neurology, found that people with migraine headaches who take medication and regularly practice yoga have fewer headaches than people who only take medication.

We had hypothesized that yoga would have a positive effect on patients with migraines but the degree of the benefit, that turned out to be a pleasant surprise, Dr. Gautam Sharma, a professor of cardiology at the Center for Integrative Medicine and Research at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, told TODAY via email. Migraine may be a condition precipitated by multiple triggers and mediated by multiple pathways. Treating the person may be more important than treating the disease.

The study included 114 people with migraine headaches and researchers randomly placed them in one of two groups: Medication only or medication and yoga. People in the yoga group practiced for three times a week for an hour each time for three months. The practice included asanas (postures), breathing exercises and relaxation.

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People improved in both the medication-only group as well as the yoga group, Sharma explained. But the benefit was higher in the yoga group in all areas, including headache frequency, pain intensity, use of medications as well as how much migraine interfered with daily life.

People who did yoga and took medication reported an average of 9.1 headaches a month prior to the study, but after three months they experienced only 4.7 headaches a month a 48% reduction. Those who took medication only also saw a decrease in headaches from 7.7 headaches a month to 6.8 per month, a 12% decrease.

The study did show a surprising decrease in headache frequency (with yoga practice), Dr. Laurie Knepper, associate professor of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh who did not participate in the study, told TODAY. It might be a great adjunct to the medications that we have.

Knepper noted that the sample size was small and the researchers only followed participants for a short period of time. She hopes more researchers look at larger groups across multiple centers to see if the findings can be replicated. But even with such limitations the results indicate that yoga might be something doctors could recommend to manage pain. Current treatment plans already include lifestyle changes, such as getting enough sleep, staying hydrated and exercising.

Lifestyle modification is often part of treatment, she explained. We might suggest, Yes you should try this if there is no physical reason that you cant do gentle yoga.

While the study didnt look at why yoga might reduce migraine headaches and pain, Sharma said what experts already understand about the practice provides some insight into why it works for headaches.

Yoga asanas and relaxation techniques result in muscle relaxation. The local muscle tension points especially in the head and neck can thus be relieved," he said.

Sharma noted that yoga has other benefits, too, like reducing blood pressure and stress-related hormones. With much of the country experiencing increased stress lately, spending some time in downward dog might be the best thing a person could do for their mental and physical health.

Excerpt from:
Help for migraines: Yoga could be a good addition to medication - Today.com

A pin, rather than a pill, could help those living with the most common form of recurring indigestion.

Researchers in China say a 4-week course of acupuncture appears to relieve symptoms of postprandial distress syndrome (PDS), a form of indigestion characterized by early fullness after eating and upper abdominal bloating.

In Western medicine, PDS is usually treated with antacid medications, such as Tagamet, Pepcid, and Axid.

But researchers from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine say acupuncture could be a safe and effective alternative.

In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, 278 study participants with PDS were given either 12 sessions of acupuncture over 4 weeks or received sham acupuncture.

The study found that participants who received actual acupuncture were significantly more likely to report improvement or extreme improvement in their symptoms.

Acupuncture participants were also more likely to experience complete resolution of their symptoms.

Researchers studied the effect of acupuncture on three main symptoms of PDS: post-meal fullness, upper abdominal bloating, and early satiation.

They reported that 83 percent of participants in the actual acupuncture group reported a positive response from treatment versus 52 percent in the sham acupuncture group.

All three symptoms were eliminated among 28 percent of the acupuncture group compared with 18 percent of the control group.

Improvements were sustained for at least 12 weeks after the final acupuncture treatment, according to researchers, and there were no serious side effects among the study participants.

Dr. Kirsten Tillisch, a gastroenterologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Healthline that the study is the latest research showing effects of acupuncture on the GI tract, including successful treatment of constipation.

Most studies looking at GI symptoms have been small, though, so it is helpful to start seeing large clinical trials with randomization and a control group, she said. It would be even better to see a comparison to usual medical care as well.

Jamie Bacharach, DiplAc, a medical acupuncturist at Acupuncture Jerusalem, told Healthline that gastrointestinal issues trail only pain among the reasons that her clients seek acupuncture.

A lot of people come in with similar symptoms of PDS, she said. Western medicine often doesnt do well with these conditions.

According to Bacharach, acupuncture manipulates the flow of energy along the meridians of the body and get it moving in the direction it is supposed to be going.

Just as gastrointestinal disorders may be seen as problems with the movement of food through the stomach and intestines, she says, acupuncture seeks to address the counterflow of energy through the body.

In Chinese medicine, stomach energy needs to move downward through the digestive tract, said Tsao-Lin Moy, LAc, an expert in alternative and Chinese medicine and founder of Integrative Healing Arts in New York. If there is something moving upward, then the qi (life energy) is rebelling. It needs to be balanced.

The mechanisms by which acupuncture works are not completely clear and are likely multifactorial. There is evidence that it acts on the autonomic nervous system, in this case the vagus nerve, and this may alter stomach motility and relaxation, Tillisch said.

Acupuncture also likely has effects on pain processing at both central and peripheral levels, she said. Finally, there is a high placebo response to acupuncture, and even in a controlled trial, the subtle differences in how the needles were placed and manipulated could have biased the response somewhat.

Acupuncturists may treat conditions like PDS by inserting needles far from the source of the problem.

There are a couple of acupuncture points on the outer calf below the knee that are really great for digestive issues, and on the inner wrist for abdominal fullness, Bacharach said.

Other practitioners, however, would prefer to go straight to the stomach, Bacharach said.

Past studies some from this same group of researchers have also found promising results using acupuncture to treat indigestion.

The American College of Physicians noted in a statement within this weeks study that the findings were particularly significant because of its size and structure.

Other recent research has found that treating the digestive disorder with turmeric yielded similar results to treatment with simethicone, the main active ingredient in drugs such as Alka-Seltzer Anti-Gas and Mylanta Gas Maximum Strength.

Tillisch says PDS can lead people to avoid meals, restrict their diets, and even lose weight unintentionally.

The cause is not clear, but it appears to be related to a disturbance in the brain-gut axis, possibly related to the way that the stomach moves in response to food, she said. Most commonly, people are placed on a medication to reduce acid, like a proton pump inhibitor, to see if this is effective.

Others may use herbal treatments like enteric-coated peppermint oil or other herb combinations. Others may respond to dietary interventions, antidepressants that alter pain-processing pathways, or use mind-body interventions, which like acupuncture target the autonomic nervous system and pain processing in the brain, Tillisch said.

More:
Acupuncture May Be Effective in Reducing Indigestion Symptoms - Healthline

New York University (NYU) Langone researchers find that elevated levels of toxic chemicals from pesticides, nonstick cookware, and fire retardants are associated with an increased risk of developing celiac disease.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestines, Dr. Patrick Fratellone, RH FIM, an integrative physician and adjunct professor at the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine, told Healthline.

For this study published May 11 in the journal Environmental Research, researchers examined levels of toxic chemicals in the blood of 30 children and young adults, from 3 to 21 years old, and recently diagnosed with celiac disease at NYU Langone Hassenfeld Childrens Hospital.

Chemical levels were compared to those of 60 other participants of similar age, gender, and race without celiac disease.

The NYU team discovered that children and young adults who have high levels of pesticides and other chemicals called dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylenes (DDEs) had double the chance of being diagnosed with celiac disease than those who didnt.

The study also found that gender plays a role in how chemicals influence celiac risk.

For females, higher-than-normal pesticide exposure meant they were at least eight times more likely to become gluten intolerant.

But elevated levels of nonstick chemicals (perfluoroalkyls, or PFAs), including products like Teflon, were up to nine times more likely to have celiac disease.

On the other hand, young males with elevated blood levels of fire-retardant chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were only twice as likely to be diagnosed with the condition.

The endocrine system, also called the hormone system, is made up of glands located throughout the body.

Theres emerging science that certain chemicals disrupt immune function, and not just hormonal function, said study co-investigator and health epidemiologist Dr. Leonardo Trasande, MPP, professor of pediatrics at NYU Langone.

He added theres already some suggestive evidence that endocrine-disrupting chemicals contribute to celiac disease and are associated with other diseases, like Crohns disease.

Trasande emphasized theres a lot of cross-talk between the endocrine system and the immune system, in the context of celiac disease and other autoimmune conditions.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), persistent organic pollutants (POPs) include thousands of synthetic chemicals widely used during the industrial production boom after the Second World War.

Although many POPs have been phased out of use, these chemicals remain in the environment, as they are resistant to degradation and tend to accumulate in animal and human tissue, the study authors wrote.

Some well-known POPs include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the pesticide DDT, and dioxins which come from chlorine bleaching of paper pulp, the manufacturing of some herbicides and pesticides, and other industrial processes.

DDE is a metabolite of the long-standing pesticide DDT, which of course has been banned, except for some use in malaria prevention in parts of Africa, said Trasande. But theres legacy contamination, such that we werent surprised to detect many of the metabolites [in study participants].

He emphasized that there are steps we can take to reduce our exposure to these chemicals.

People can do things like simply clearing the air by opening windows every day, and using a wet mop to sop up persistent pollutants that can accumulate in dust.

Trasande asserted that this study adds to others raising concerns about nonstick chemicals.

One simple way to cut down on exposure to these chemicals is to switch out Teflon pans for cast-iron pans, which if properly seasoned can result in a nonstick like surface without these chemicals.

This isnt the first study to find a link between commonly used chemicals and celiac disease.

A 2013 study published in the journal Interdisciplinary Toxicology concluded that glyphosate, the active ingredient in herbicides like Roundup, is the most important causal factor in celiac disease.

But Trasandes study is the first to measure an association between chemical exposure and the condition.

Our study establishes the first measurable tie-in between environmental exposure to toxic chemicals and celiac disease, said senior study investigator and pediatric gastroenterologist Dr. Jeremiah Levine in a statement. These results also raise the question of whether there are potential links between these chemicals and other autoimmune bowel diseases, which all warrant close monitoring and further study.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) list symptoms of celiac disease that include:

However, some people with the disease may not have symptoms at all. According to the NIH, celiac disease can also prevent children from absorbing nutrients, which may lead to issues like slowed growth, weight loss, damaged tooth enamel, and delayed puberty.

It affects 1 in 100 individuals, said Fratellone. These individuals are genetically predisposed, and it is estimated that there are over 2 million Americans who are undiagnosed and at risk for long-term complications,

Fratellone explained that gluten is an umbrella name for proteins known as prolamins, which are primarily made up of glutenin and gliadin. This substance is found in grains that include wheat, rye, and barley.

The best way to treat a celiac patient is to educate him or her on avoiding wheat gluten. There are also blood tests to determine if you have a gluten allergy or have celiac disease, he said.

The Mayo Clinic cautions that before starting a gluten-free diet, you should be tested for celiac disease first because eliminating gluten could make the tests appear normal.

There are two blood tests available to diagnose it: serology testing, which looks for certain antibodies in your blood, and genetic testing. Some gastroenterologists believe you must have a biopsy. I do recommend food allergy testing, said Fratellone.

If youre gluten intolerant, the Mayo Clinic advises you to avoid all foods and drinks containing wheat, rye, barley, triticale (a cross between wheat and rye), and in some cases, oats, if there is a chance they were contaminated during production with gluten-containing grains.

For the first time, a study has measured the association between exposure to toxic chemicals, like pesticides and industrial chemicals, and celiac disease risk.

Researchers say that the findings raise the question of whether there are potential links between these chemicals and other autoimmune bowel diseases.

Celiac disease can lead to serious health issues in children, but experts say its important to get tested before starting a gluten-free diet.

The rest is here:
Pesticides, Nonstick Pans and Celiac Disease: How They Are Linked - Healthline

Natures way vsinfection: 5 health basics to fight COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines With novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) still rearing its ugly head, more pieces of advice on how to fight it the natural way are in order.

According to Integrative Medicine practitioner Dr. Joel Lopez of the J. Lopez Medical Group Inc., while physical distancing, washing hands often, regularly sanitizing places and things, wearing face masks and using hand sanitizers are the norm in preventing COVID-19, these alone cannot beat the deadly coronavirus. We must go beyond the surface and check our lifestyle.

Nobody is talking about building our immune system, said the doctor who can be reached via his official site, Jlopezmd.com. Those who suffer or die from corona have a weaker immune system.

He reminded everyone to go back to five health basics that will boost the immune system.

The first is an anti-inflammatory, plant-based diet. But although a vegan diet makes you lose excess weight, Lopez advised those with Type O blood which is majority of people against totally foregoing meat.

They need this amino acid called L-carnitine, from the root word carne or meat. Just make sure the source of meat is grass-fed or organically-fed livestock free from hormones and antibiotics, Lopez said.

Hydration is another weapon to fight infection. Lopez took note that a lot of people dont drink enough water to detoxify themselves. They dont realize that dehydration manifests itself in such common problems as headaches, muscle stiffness and painful joints. And chances are, they dont feel these symptoms until their body is 50 percent dehydrated.Besides water, Lopez recommended green tea, ulong tea, matcha white tea and black tea.

How much water do you need? Lopez said its half your body weight in ounces. For instance, someone who weighs 150 pounds needs 75 ounces of water.

Exercise is another weapon. Lopez recommended aerobics and walking are enough. Tai Chi, yoga, and taking five to 10,000 steps are also good. Those who lift weights, however, must rest in-between sessions and limit their exercises to every other day.

Sleep, said Lopez, is just as crucial. According to the doctor, we need at least seven-and-a-half to eight hours of sleep at night, when our body repairs and regenerates itself. It is at this time that our body releases the hormone melatonin, which helps us rest better. He added that our body also secretes growth hormones when we sleep.

To help the body manufacture melatonin, Lopez said its essential that we keep the bedroom dark, and go to sleep by 11 p.m. at the latest.

As for call center agents or hospital workers in the graveyard shift, Lopez recommended getting seven-and-a-half to eight hours of sleep during the day help make up for the lack of sleep at night.

Finally, theres sunlight. Lopez pointed out that living in a tropical country like the Philippines doesnt exempt us from having Vitamin D deficiency.

He pointed out that hundreds of people living in tropical countries have been tested positive for chronic auto-immune diseases like chronic fatigue, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

So, he urged everyone to go outdoors and enjoy the sunlight before 9 a.m. or after 3 p.m. for their dose of vitamin D. Those who miss the sun in the morning can still get their dose of vitamin D in the afternoon. Otherwise, one must take vitamin D food supplements.

The battle against infectious disease never stops. And the beauty of it all is that our best weapons are free. We dont have to spend a fortune. All we need do is adopt a healthy lifestyle.

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How to stay healthy during quarantine: Makati Med doctor gives tips

Read more from the original source:
Natures way vs infection: 5 health basics to fight COVID-19 - Philippine Star

With the new coronavirus epidemic forcing many Americans to stay at home, it can be difficult to stay in shapebut while regaining your fitness may be difficult, it's not impossible, Amanda Loudin reports for the Washington Post.

Slide decks: Your guide to a healthier, happier workplace

As a result of the new coronavirus epidemic, not only are Americans staying home, they're also more anxious and isolated than ever before, Loudin reports.

Darrell Gough, a personal trainer certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, said isolation can cause many people to feel unmotivated to exercise.

For example, Jenny Solpietro, a 39-year-old software engineer who formerly ran and consistently practiced martial arts, said the epidemic has caused her a lot of anxiety. "I have anxiety and it brings out self-destructive behaviors, like self-medicating with food and making excuses not to exercise," she said. "Social media doesn't help, eitherI see pictures and videos of people doing at-home workouts or talking about how much they miss the gym, and I feel even more inadequate."

Ryan McGrath, a 38-year-old competitive runner and triathlete, said he's also been suffering from a lack of motivation.

"I stayed in shape for most of winter, but was starting to gear up for spring and summer races," he said. "When they all started canceling, I just lost my desire to train."

Research has shown that even for the most in-shape athletes, it doesn't take long for deconditioning to result in muscle loss, and those effects extend to both the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems, Loudin reports.

For instance, one study of male participants on bed rest found they experienced lean tissue loss and a lower VO2 maxmaximum amount of usable oxygen during intense exerciseafter just 10 days of muscle disuse.

Another study found reductions in heart muscle size just eight weeks after marathon runners scaled down their training. Those runners also saw a decline in treadmill performance.

According to Tony Boutagy, an exercise physiologist and owner of the Boutagy Fitness Institute, research on steps reduction indicates there's a two-week time frame in which health deteriorates, coming with both a drop in VO2 max "and half a kilogram of muscle mass loss."

Robert Mazzeo, associate chair of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said cardiovascular health and muscle mitochondria, which turn nutrients into energy, are linked. "[M]itochondria turn over quickly, so you will lose this area of fitness before you lose muscular strength, which turns over more slowly," he said. "But much of the loss and return to fitness is relative, and tied to your level of fitness prior to detraining."

According to Boutagy, returning to fitness takes longer than losing fitness, especially among older people. "One week of bed rest in the elderly can take six months of training to return to their pre-rest levels," he said. "Previous exercisers, however, will have a faster return to fitness levels after inactivity."

A study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise in 2000 found that people ages 20 to 30 saw an 8% decline in strength during a six-month detraining period, while people ages 65 to 75 saw a 14% decline.

However, while getting back to fitness may be hard, Mazzeo said it's not impossible. "It may take an older person longer to return to fitness, but they can get back to their former level if they are as dedicated to training as before," he said.

But while gyms remain closed and races remain canceled, Gough recommends "getting out for a brisk walk a couple a time a week [now]" to "help offset some of the loss" of fitness. "Find an accountability buddy and check in with each other to help stay connected and motivated," he said.

Mazzeo agreed. "You don't have to be working out at an intense level to maintain basic health," he said. "Moderate activity is great right now" (Loudin, Washington Post, 5/2).

View original post here:
Why it's so hard to stay in shape while sheltering at home - The Daily Briefing

Anti-vaxxer Shiva Ayyadurai, who last week sued anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy for $95 million over allegedly libelous lies Kennedy posted about him - including one disparaging Ayyadurai's claims to have invented e-mail as a 14-year-old - is now suing anti-vaxxer Erin Elizabeth Finn for $115 million for allegedly re-posting Kennedy's alleged lies and then making up some more of her own.

Ayyadurai's complaint, filed this week in US District Court in Boston, says Finn, like Kennedy, should be legally slapped for, among other things, claiming Ayyadurai is in the pocket of Big Vaccine, when everybody knows that's where Kennedy is. Ayyadurai also targets Finn's own remarks, such as that she will be praying for Ayyadurai because anybody who "has this much hatred inside needs some prayers." She also called on her followers to stop following Ayyadurai.

Ayyadurai's complaint continues:

Since Finns statements were published on April 28, 2020, Dr. Ayyadurai has lost thousands of followers on social media, been subjected to virulent attacks by Ms. Finn and Mr. Kennedys supporters, and suffered loss of business, donations for his campaign, and political support.

Ayyadurai's complaint says that should he rightfully win judgment against Finn, he would use the money only for good - to set up "ten integrative health and wellness centers in economically-depressed neighborhoods" in Massachusetts, in which he would show residents why they should reject doctors and their vaccines and instead boost their immune systems through his own "natural medicine," which he said he has been developing since he was 5 and watched his grandmother use a combination of yoga, herbs, minerals, oils, massage, something akin to acupuncture and prayer to ward off illness.

In his complaint, Ayyadurai said he has made his anti-vaxxism the centerpiece of his campaign to win the Republican nomination for the US Senate seat now held by Sen. Edward Markey, although his complaint only mentioned Joseph Kennedy III - Robert Kennedy's nephew - who is also running against Markey, but as a Democrat.

See the rest here:
Massachusetts anti-vaxxer sues supporter of New York anti-vaxxer he sued last week - Universal Hub

From Netdoctor

Gender differences exist in many health conditions, and COVID-19 is no different. It appears that with regards to the novel coronavirus, mens health is less robust.

This global phenomenon is particularly visible in some countries. In Thailand, males account for a massive 81% of COVID-19 related deaths, in England and Wales, its 61%.

What are the reasons for the considerable difference between the sexes? We spoke to Dr Anthony Kaveh, MD, physician anesthesiologist, and integrative medicine specialist.

Men are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 than women. From preliminary data, possible reasons include behavioural, baseline health, and genetic differences between men and women, says Dr Kaveh.

Lets look at what we know about COVID-19 infections among men and women. But first, a little about how and why the sexes are different.

Men and women have vastly different biological characteristics, that develop thanks to our chromosomes. A chromosome is a bundle of coiled DNA, found in the nucleus of almost every cell in the body. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes.

The sex chromosomes determine whether you develop as a male or female.

In humans, women have two larger X chromosomes (XX), whereas men have a single X chromosome and a much smaller Y chromosome (XY) that has relatively fewer gene copies.

When an embryo is developing in the womb, these chromosomes dictate the future sex of the baby.

One of the genes found on the Y chromosomes, the SRY gene, starts testicular development in an XY embryo. The testicles begin to make testosterone which directs the embryo to develop as a male.

In an XX embryo, there is no SRY gene, so instead, an ovary develops which makes female hormones.

This basic, biological variation between the sexes can affect COVID-19 infection rates.

Although essential for male health, testosterone levels are also linked to a range of medical conditions.

Men are five times more likely to suffer an aortic aneurysm and three times more likely to develop kidney stones. Men also tend to die at a younger age than women.

Oestrogen is a predominantly female hormone that provides protective effects from conditions, including heart disease. Men cannot benefit from its positive health effects, as they only produce low levels.

However, Dr Kaveh says that The immunologic effects of oestrogen in protecting against COVID-19 are theoretical and dont yet provide a mechanism to explain our observations.

Testosterone could have a role to play in COVID-19 infection rates. High levels of testosterone can suppress an immune response. Researchers found that women and men with lower levels of testosterone had higher antibody responses to an influenza vaccine.

The X chromosome has about 900 genes, the Y chromosome, just 55. Women have a genetic advantage with two X chromosomes because if there is a mutation in one, the other gene provides a buffer.

Men have more sex-linked diseases such as the blood clotting disorder, haemophilia, and suffer from an increased rate of metabolic disorders. The protective XX effect explains why male death rates are frequently higher.

The female immune system is stronger. Concerning COVID-19 infections, Dr Kaveh says Genetic factors are often considered, including the more active female immune system. While a more active immune system would make sense to protect against COVID-19, it would be expected to worsen the cytokine storm we observe in severe COVID-19 infection.

However, there is no evidence to support that cytokine storms, which are potentially lethal, excessive immune responses, are more common in women.

If more men are testing positive for COVD-19, could the simple reason be that more men are tested than women? In fact, it seems the opposite is true.

Within the context of our early statistics, women are tested more frequently than men, but men have more positive tests. This may reflect a male stoicism that leads to delayed care, says Dr Kaveh.

Men are not as likely as women to seek medical attention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that women were 33% more likely than men to visit a doctor, even excluding pregnancy-related visits.

Story continues

It seems like the reason for higher infection and death statistics in men is not due to a bias in testing.

Obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and smoking are also predictors of COVID-19 hospitalisation, but the breakdown is difficult to correlate, said Dr Kaveh.

People of either sex are more likely to suffer from complications from coronavirus if they have certain pre-existing health conditions, or engage in behaviours such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.

These health conditions and behaviours tend to be more common in men, which could affect the imbalance that we see in COVID-19 infections.

The association between risk factors and infection rate are not yet fully understood. For example, hypertension is more common in men until menopause, at which point female rates quickly rise, explains Dr Kaveh. In this case, we should be seeing an increase in the COVID-19 infection rate for women who have reached menopausal age, yet this is not the case.

Obesity, a risk factor for diabetes, affects women more than men globally. However, diabetes is slightly more prevalent in men. These comorbid conditions dont fully explain the COVID-19 observations, and neither does smoking, says Dr Kaveh.

Smoking is a risk factor for all respiratory diseases and also of lung cancer which is another COVID-19 risk factor.

In China, about 50% of men smoke and only 2% of women. These figures could contribute to the high ratio of male deaths which are more than double the rate of female deaths.

These differences in smoking and death rates are not as extreme in other countries. Risky behaviour cannot fully explain sex bias in COVID-19 infections.

As yet, it seems like there is no definitive answer as to why more men are suffering severe COVID-19 infections. More research is needed.

We are still very early in our global epidemiological observations of COVID-19. More complete data in the coming months will hopefully provide more clues to explain our observations, concluded Dr Kaveh.

Last updated: 30-04-2020

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New Delhi: Scientists at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will launch two separate trials to test if a drug used to treat sepsis and liver cirrhosis can stop Covid-19 infection from progressing in asymptomatic patients and whether the same drug can prevent recurrence of the infection in patients who have recovered.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has research teams across the world scrambling to find a treatment or vaccine for the disease that has no known cure. Since developing a new treatment from scratch can take years, researchers are looking to repurpose existing drugs to help patients fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.

The drug to be used for the trials is known as Sepsivac, which was developed by the CSIR in partnership with pharmaceutical company Cadila in 2007.

Also read: Govt plans to test whether ashwagandha, mulethi, guduchi will help fight Covid-19

In an earlier interview, Ram A. Vishwakarma, director, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) in Jammu, told ThePrint that his team is set to test whether the drug can reduce the risk of death in critically-ill Covid-19 patients.

This trial has now started at the PGIMER, Chandigarh, while AIIMS, Delhi, and AIIMS, Bhopal, will launch the trial later.

There will be another trial of patients who have tested positive, but have no symptoms. These people will be given this drug as a vaccine, so that their disease does not progress, and they do not end up in hospitals, Vishwakarma told ANI Wednesday.

A third trial of the drug will be for people who have already been cured as it is now known that the virus can stay in patients for upto a month.

people who have been released from hospital will be given this as a vaccine, so that they dont redevelop this infection, he said.

Vishwakarma explained to ThePrint that to fight viruses there are usually two approaches developing a drug against the virus itself or creating an immunomodulator, which helps the immune system in fighting off the virus.

Sepsivac falls in the second category, Vishwakarma said.

The drug is synthesised by culturing a bacteria called Mycobacterium w in a large scale, which is inactivated by heat. A number of proteins on the surface of the bacteria triggers a desirable immune response, he said.

Sepsis is a condition that happens due to an overactive or inflammatory immune response that occurs when a pathogen enters the blood plasma, leading to organ dysfunction that can be fatal.

Caused by gram-negative bacteria, sepsis has a pathology similar to that of Covid-19, Vishwakarma said.

Initially our body tries to defend itself against viruses by using its innate immune system. After 4-5 days, when the body cannot fight off the pathogens, it employs a higher level of defence which is what causes the cytokines storm, he said.

Cytokines are small proteins secreted as a result of different types of interactions between cells. In the novel coronavirus infection, this heightened release of cytokines is common in critically ill patients.

This high level of immune response starts to damage the bodys organs. That is what is causing the multi-organ failure that we are seeing in Covid-19 patients, Vishwakarma said.

Also read: Modi govt advises homoeopathy, Unani to prevent coronavirus that has no known cure yet

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A shortage of COVID-19 test kits and the need for broader testing in Vermont has mobilized a task force of researchers from UVM College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Larner College of Medicine, Vermont Integrative Genomic Resource and the University of Vermont Medical Center. The scientific team is working to bridge the gap in available test supplies in Vermont and nationwide by developing new methods of testing patient samples and sharing their new workflows with other scientists and labs.

UVM alumna Diana Gerrard, a medical laboratory scientist in UVM Medical Centers genomic medicine department, is a critical task force team member. An expert on molecular pathology, Gerrard graduated from UVM in 2019 with a doctorate in Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Sciences.

We talked with Gerrard about her work and how laboratory scientists in Vermont contribute valuable knowledge in the race to stop the spread of the disease.

As the need for COVID-19 testing increased in our community, we knew that we needed to be ready at the frontlines of testing. We also knew that we needed to think critically and creatively about how we would test people as we faced shortages in testing kits.

In my role at UVM Medical Center, I evaluate and validates new assays (tests for measuring the components of a substance or sample). My usual work involves investigating assays surrounding cancer. These assays allow us to determine specific genetic mutations underlying a persons cancer, which can inform a more specific clinical care plan for their treatment. While I do not usually work with viruses, the tests used to screen COVID-19 are molecular-based assays and my leaders brought me on the local task force to utilize my expertise in molecular biology and familiarity with assay evaluations and validations for the medical center.

In general, the COVID-19 test can be broken up in two parts: the first step involves extraction of the viral material from the patient samples collected. The second step is to detect the COVID-19 viral genome, the specific genetic sequences that give the virus its identity.

Our team of researchers identified an alternative resource to use for the first step that would allow us to work around the shortage of extraction kits. My role has been validating this change in the clinic and piecing that together with different methods for step two. This involves implementing the workflow in our clinical laboratory getting the space, resources and instrumentation up and running in order to perform the testing and performing a validation process that allows us to determine our limit of detection (the lowest amount of virus detected in a given sample).

There has been a national shortage of testing kits using the Center for Disease Controls method, so our group published a preprint of the changes we made to the first step of the process. This change uses kits widely available in a majority of biomedical science research laboratories, and clinical groups have contacted us to inquire about our workflow and clinical evaluation of these kits.

Laboratory scientists working on COVID-19 nationally have formed a collaborative community. We are working hard and fast while maintaining high standards in our testing and so we have relied on each other to give feedback during both the trials and successes of testing.

I completed my PhD in the Cellular Molecular Biomedical Sciences program in the laboratory of Dr. Seth Frietze in the Biomedical and Health Sciences Department at the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. I developed my molecular biology expertise during my PhD, and this has trained me for the technical responsibilities during the COVID-19 response. Additionally, my doctoral training has allowed me to develop the rigor needed to work actively for long hours and think critically and collaboratively.

All of us working on the front lines of the response to COVID-19 are at risk for contracting the virus; however, serving our community is exactly what fuels us. We are sure to take appropriate and careful measures while working with the virus by wearing appropriate personal protective equipment. Additionally, we are sure to take the same precautions regarding hand hygiene as everyone else in our work and home life, not only to stay well for ourselves but also so that we can continue to serve and support our community.

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Working to Improve COVID-19 Testing - UVM News

Editors note, April 9: This article is an opinion piece. Just like all opinion pieces, the opinions expressed within should be taken as such. It bears repeating that all personal medical decisions should be made with your primary care physician and not based on an opinion article.

By Mara Williams, ANP-BC

Orcas Island

Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, Ph.D., an internationally renowned physician, spoke at a virtual integrative medicine conference that I attended. He shared the latest information on COVID-19. He discussed pharmaceutical and integrative ways to treat the virus.

Seventy-five percent of those affected are male. Other risk factors are obesity, Diabetes and underlying respiratory disease. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) occurs in 30 percent of those who contract the virus. Incubation is 4-7 days, with a few cases at 12 days. A new antibody test is recently available that is more accurate. The virus can last on smooth, shiny surfaces for up to 72 hours. Soap and water work better than alcohol based sanitizers.

Symptoms are fever, followed by a dry, hacking cough, and fatigue.

To prevent catching the virus, wash your hands with soap and water frequently. Avoid touching your face. Avoid close contact. Wear a mask in public.

If you have high blood pressure and are taking an ACE Inhibitors like Lisinopril, ask your provider to switch you to an ARB Inhibitor, like Losartan. The ACE Inhibitors allow the virus to move into the lungs. Do not take non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, (aspirin, ibuprofen, Advil, naproxen) as they will allow the virus to get into the lungs. Do not take extra selenium besides what is found in a multivitamin/mineral as it speeds entry into the lungs. Finally, colloidal silver is not as effective as it usually is with viral illnesses.

Fortunately, the FDA has approved Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) and Azithromycin for use with COVID-19. It has been shown to be 100 percent effective. Another medication used as an anti-parasite drug also works. It is called Alinia.

For those that prefer an integrative approach, Andrographis and Vitamin C, in combination, are as effective as the two medications above. Dr. Klinghardt recommends using a tincture and a dose of two dropperfuls of Andrographis four times daily with Vitamin C at 2000 mg each time.

Also, it is important to use Liposomal Vitamin C as it is equal to the Intravenous route. Thus, 1000 mg liposomal C is equal to 1000 mg IV C. The amount of Vitamin C to take is based upon your weight. So, take 100-200 mg C/kg/body weight (a KG = 2.2 lb.). Quercetin is a strong anti-inflammatory that is helpful as well. Nettle is full of Quercetin, so in the islands, it is young, fresh and potent now. Propolis tincture to swish and swallow is helpful multiple times a day.

To prevent getting this flu virus, take a minimum of 2000 mg of Vitamin C daily with food. Add 5000-10000 IU Vitamin D3 daily with food. Vitamin D3 is excellent for the immune system. Optimum levels are between 60-80.

Editors note: Hydroxychloroquine, a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration for malaria, has not been medically proven to cure or prevent COVID-19.

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An update on COVID-19 from an Orcas Island nurse practitioner | Guest... - Journal of the San Juan Islands

Dr. Erika Schwartz is an internationally known pioneer in the field of preventative health care that focuses on preventing disease by addressing lifestyles, whole body and mind treatments. She was one of the first doctors in the US to treat patients with bio-identical hormones, conduct biomarker testing, and to administer preventative IVs. She is a graduate of NYU and received her MD from SUNY-Downstate College of Medicine Cum Laude. She is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society and the author of six books. We discuss her journey from medical school to forming her own integrative approach to healthcare that seeks to prevent disease by taking a holistic and long-term understanding of each patient. (Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

What made you shift from a conventional medicine to a preventative, integrative approach?

The traditional route just wasnt working for me. I have always thought of myself as a healer. I come from a family full of doctors and was exposed to conventional medicine from very early on. From the age of five I wanted to be a doctor. In my mind, I thought becoming one was the ultimate access to becoming a healer. It would provide the credentials and scientific training to heal people. I was wrong. Conventional medicine does not have the tools necessary to heal. Conventional medicine waits for something to go bad, it is there to diagnose, label and treat disease. It is reactive rather than preventative.

Where did you start your journey?

My first job at the age of twenty eight was working as a trauma surgeon. When people are really sick and they are brought to a trauma centre, their lives are usually saved. But I also noticed that sometimes people survived when they shouldnt have and there were other times when people died when they shouldnt have. It occured to me that we didnt have the decision making powers that we thought we had to save lives. I moved from emergency trauma care to my own private practice because I wanted an ongoing relationship with my patients. I realised very quickly that I was wasting mine and my patients time by always looking for something wrong that I could diagnose and then kickstart the process of referring them to specialists. It dawned on me that there was this huge amount of time that was being wasted when you were waiting for something to go wrong. I never asked a patient for example, although everything is normal with your medical tests, I can see that you are clearly still fatigued and facing issues so let us talk about your family life, about the stressors in your life, your thoughts, sleep and eating habits. I started thinking about what I c

What was the perception from others when you started this alternative medicine route?

There wasnt much in the field and a lot of alternative medicine was quackery. Yoga and meditation were considered Eastern things, out there. Supplements were considered harmful because they treated everything and at medical school, we are taught that every drug treats something specific. This is not true. We just call it side effects in medicines. So it took me a while to unlearn these views and form my own opinion of how to effectively heal patients.

What led you to question the current healthcare system and adopt your own, unique approach to treating patients?

Conventional medicine is centred around public health, which has made a lot of incredible achievements such as eradicating smallpox. But its also done a lot of harm such as creating a world that is dependent on the outcomes of public health, when in fact we are all individuals with our own unique makeup and dont all necessarily fit into the same, unilateral approach. When you look at treating disease from a public health perspective, you are looking at numbers and the whole population at large. Youre not looking at the individual level, at patients. We become unimportant because we are only seen in the millions. I want to bring this down to the individual level, to empower people to take control of their health and remove the fear that is created by health officials. There is this prevailing notion that doctors know whats best for you. Its not doctors, its you. Its your body and only you can know what feels right for yourself. The role of a doctor should be to teach their patients to listen to their bodies.

Can you describe your current approach to treating patients?

After running a trauma centre and observing sick people, it dawned on me that doctors dont have to wait for people to suffer from disease. I thought we should figure out ways to help people prevent disease from occurring. I stumbled upon hormones because no one was looking at them. Hormones explain how we fit together and how the body is governed. I realised you need a complete approach, looking at diet, stress, mindfulness and all the psychological aspects of the patient. You need to understand the entire patient and their environment to know what is making them feel suboptimal. It takes decades from the point of feeling suboptimal to getting sick and it is possible to prevent something from going wrong by starting to detect the symptoms early on.

When someone comes in, the first thing I ask is how they are really feeling. It is a physiological response as when a patient knows that a doctor cares about you and is listening to you, you are more likely to heal. It gives me an instant, deep connection to the patient. They need to think about how they are feeling so they have to become mindful of themselves, separate from the doctor. Its in their hands to tell the doctor about their health and wellbeing and the doctors role to listen. The doctor serves the patient.

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Limiting in-person contact with others is currently the best way to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Social distancing, also known as physical distancing, should be practiced by everyoneeven those who are seemingly healthy. According to the CDC guidelines, social distancing means "keeping space between yourself and other people outside of your home."

Specifically, they recommend staying a minimum of 6 feet away from others, avoiding crowded places, and not gathering in large or small groups. "When COVID-19 is spreading in your area, everyone should limit close contact with individuals outside your household in indoor and outdoor spaces," the CDC writes. "Avoid large and small gatherings in private places and public spaces, such as a friend's house, parks, restaurants, shops, or any other place."

Only going back and forth between your apartment and one other person's apartment to spend one-on-one time together may or may not count as a group gathering. But it does involve coming into close proximity or contact with someone outside your home.

"If people want to see their partner regularly, it would probably be more beneficial not to commute back and forth," integrative medicine doctor Amy Shah, M.D., tells us. Instead, you can temporarily move in together, or choose to stay apart and connect virtually for the time being.

If the people in both households are practicing thorough hand hygiene, wearing masks in public, and are able to travel both ways without breaking social distancing guidelines, it might be OK to go back and forth. The risks of doing so are just higher than if you were to shelter in one place, especially if either of you has roommates.

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Is It OK To Visit Someone's House If You're Both Social Distancing? - mindbodygreen.com

As China appears to emerge from the worst of its coronavirus outbreak, government officials are encouraging the use of traditional medicine for treatment and prevention a practice experts warned could give the public a false sense of security amid the pandemic.

Chinas National Health Commission reported last month that of the more than 80,000 people infected with COVID-19 since the outbreak began in December, 90 percent took some form of traditional Chinese medicine to treat their symptoms.

According to Yu Yanhong, secretary of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, speaking at a March 23 press conference in Wuhan, traditional remedies have alleviated symptoms, reduced the severity of the virus, improved recovery rates and reduced mortality rate.

But herbal remedies which China is exporting as part of its efforts to combat the coronavirus around the world pose both direct and indirect risks to patients, Dr. Edzard Ernst, a professor emeritus of complementary medicine at the United Kingdoms University of Exeter, said in an email.

"TCM mixtures can be toxic, contaminated or adulterated with prescription drugs; they can also interact with prescription drugs," Ernst said. It can also give patients a false sense of security, leading them to neglect proven medications or therapies.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been around for more than 3,000 years and includes a variety of diagnostic approaches, such as the physical examination of a patients pulse and tongue, and a range of treatments, including ingesting herbs such as ginseng, and acupuncture.

It accounts for up to half of all medicines consumed in China, according to the World Health Organization. More than 7,000 herbal drugs available through pharmacies are regulated by the National Medical Products Administration.

"It is a legal health system in China which is parallel with Western medicine, and of course, there is also integration between traditional medicine and Western medicine," Dr. Jianping Liu, professor of clinical epidemiology at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, told NBC News.

"It's a holistic approach."

The main herbal formulas recommended for treatment of COVID-19 are jinhua qinggan capsules, lianhua qingwen capsules and shufeng jiedu capsules, according to Liu.

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These remedies consist of a combination of dozens of herbs and a clear breakdown isnt widely available, Liu said.

The lack of detail about the remedies contributes to doubts over their efficacy, Dan Larhammar, a molecular cell biologist and president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said in a phone interview.

We need to know which specific product is claimed to work and what is the evidence, he said, before going on to cite the importance of understanding different variations of penicillin.

Recent reports in the Japanese journal BioScience Trends and the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine support the various COVID-19 traditional treatments, but Larhammar said these studies and others like them lack scientific rigor not having adequate sample sizes, using vague terms and nonpharmacological concepts or testing too many combinations of herbs to parse out their specific effects.

They are like parodies. Nobody can take this seriously, he said in an email.

Yet, traditional Chinese medicine is being championed not only in China, but also overseas.

Since the rate of cases and deaths in Hubei province began to plateau, the Chinese government has offered aid to other countries overwhelmed by the spread help that according to the state media ranges from test kits to traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and products.

The country sent 100,000 boxes of a remedy called lianhuaqingwen to Italy this month, according to the Chinese broadcaster CGTN. A 12-member team of physicians also sent to support the outbreak in Milan included two traditional Chinese medicine specialists, the Global Times state newspaper reported.

In the United Kingdom, growing numbers of patients of traditional Chinese medicine have been asking for remedies to prevent and treat COVID-19 since the outbreak began in December, said Qikan Yin, general manager of the Institute of Chinese Medicine in London.

Although closed due to the ongoing U.K. lockdown, Yin said practitioners were still doing remote consultations and prescribing appropriate remedies to patients, including one London-based couple in their 50s who were confirmed to have the virus.

Addressing doubts surrounding the treatments, Yin said, The argument is always there, not only for this disease.

Clinical trials are very difficult to show the actual benefit of traditional herbs, not just Chinese but also traditional Western herbs, he said.

It would be fine if the method reduced the symptoms a little bit, and more the better, of course, but if that makes the person take more risks, then we are in deep trouble, Larhammar of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

People with the virus may prematurely resume interacting with others thinking theyre no longer infectious by taking traditional Chinese medicine, he explained. Others may take it thinking it prevents them from getting the disease, putting themselves and others at risk.

Until there is more evidence to suggest any effectiveness of such traditional Chinese medicine, it should be treated as a nonissue, Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the SOAS University of London, said.

Its causing distraction from questions that could be embarrassing for the Chinese government, he explained of the political posturing.

Chinas alleged mishandling of the first few cases of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus should be the focus of attention, he said, whether that involves asking whether China could have shared its data earlier, and the quantity and quality of supplies it's now exporting to other countries hit by the disease.

Instead, against the backdrop of President Donald Trumps comments referring to COVID-19 as a Chinese virus, the Chinese Communist Party can champion traditional medicine while dismissing its critics as being racist and play favorably to peoples emotions, Tsang said.

You love the party because the party is the one that defends your traditional medicine, your national honor, your heritage, he said.

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China is encouraging herbal remedies to treat COVID-19. But scientists warn against it. - NBC News

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The Centers for Disease Control has already started coronavirus antibody testing, which determines whether someone has had the virus in the past, to piece together a picture of how many Americans may have already been infected.

Scaling up antibody testing is critical to re-opening the economy, said Dr. Tania Dempsey of Armonk Integrative Medicine, who practices in hard-hit Westchester County, New York.

SHOULD YOU WASH GROCERIES DURING CORONAVIRUS

"It is becoming more evident that there is a significant portion of the population who were exposed to COVID-19 but remain asymptomatic. These patients remain in isolation concerned about their exposure to this dangerous virus when, in fact, these patients have antibodies indicating they have already had the infection and have immunity to it now," Dempsey told FOX Business."These are the people who could go back to the workforce without the fear of getting infected. This is would be a tremendous improvement over our current situation and would really help keep some or even most industries in business."

The testing involvesdrawing blood from undiagnosed people of all age groupsin a community, STAT News reported. But getting Americans access to such testing, also known as serological testing because it measures antibodies in the blood,could prove difficult. So far, the FDA has only authorized one serological test for clinical laboratories under an Emergency Use Authorization, but FDA officials said more than 70 test developers havetests available.

New York, the state that has reported the most deaths from coronavirus, is working with FDA for approval of a serological test, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

"How do you start the economy back up? "How do you start getting back to work as quickly as possible?" Cuomo asked."It's going to come down to testing. You're going to have to know who had the virus, who resolved the virus, who never had it and that's going to be testing. And that is an entirely new field that we're just developing now."

FDA officialssaidthe tests "may potentially be used to help determine, together with other clinical data, that such individuals are no longer susceptible to infection and can return to work."

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Scaling up serological testing throughout the United Stateswill take the cooperation of scientists, doctors and the business world, Dempsey said. Health insurance companies may need to cover some of the tests, too.

"In addition, doctors will need to interpret the tests and help patients understand whether it is safe for them to re-enter the workforce," she said.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling everyone to wear a cloth face covering while out in public while maintaining proper social distancing from other people to help limit the spread of coronavirus. A lot of people have asked questions about what works best for covering their face.Dr. Eudene Harry of Emergency and Integrative Medicine says masks should not give you a false sense of security."We have to understand that surfaces are still contaminated," Dr. Harry said. "If we touch those surfaces and then touch our face and fiddle with the mask, we could rub our eyes. We could potentially still be introducing that virus."Harry says masks should be four layers thick and tightly woven. She also says you may need more than one, depending on what you are doing and where you are going, especially if you are going to more than one place."Assume when you've gone out and come in, assume it's contaminated," said Harry. "I would really suggest washing that mask. Here is what I would recommend: is having two so you can kind of wash one and then use the other."The CDC has instructions on how to make your own face covering and more tips on proper use. You can find them by clicking here.Several stores, like Ocean State Job Lot and JoAnn Fabrics, are offering free material and kits to make your own face covering.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling everyone to wear a cloth face covering while out in public while maintaining proper social distancing from other people to help limit the spread of coronavirus. A lot of people have asked questions about what works best for covering their face.

Dr. Eudene Harry of Emergency and Integrative Medicine says masks should not give you a false sense of security.

"We have to understand that surfaces are still contaminated," Dr. Harry said. "If we touch those surfaces and then touch our face and fiddle with the mask, we could rub our eyes. We could potentially still be introducing that virus."

Harry says masks should be four layers thick and tightly woven. She also says you may need more than one, depending on what you are doing and where you are going, especially if you are going to more than one place.

"Assume when you've gone out and come in, assume it's contaminated," said Harry. "I would really suggest washing that mask. Here is what I would recommend: is having two so you can kind of wash one and then use the other."

The CDC has instructions on how to make your own face covering and more tips on proper use. You can find them by clicking here.

Several stores, like Ocean State Job Lot and JoAnn Fabrics, are offering free material and kits to make your own face covering.

Excerpt from:
Covering your face: what you need to know - WMTW Portland

In the fall of 2019, my hospital put out word that it was looking for physicians who might wish to undergo intensive training to become certified health and wellness coaches. Having worked with patients who have used health coaching, I jumped at the chance. Their experiences were almost universally positive: many of them had attained health goals that had been otherwise elusive, such as the weight loss they invoked annually and fruitlessly as a New Years resolution. The few physicians I knew who were also coaches seemed to be able to fuse the different skill sets in a way that expanded their ability to connect with their patients and address their health needs on a deeper level.

Just as a sports coach can help an athlete develop and excel at a sport, a health and wellness coach can help anyone excel at living their life, even or especially if they have chronic medical conditions. The coaching process is similar to talk therapy in that it involves two people discussing ideas and issues, but it is different in that the person who is being coached is in the drivers seat, creating their goals as well as the strategies on how to arrive at these goals.

People tend to hire health coaches to help them with a broad variety of health issues, such as weight loss, stress reduction, the management of chronic conditions, improving diet and exercise, tobacco cessation, addiction, and adjusting to a life-altering health event, like a heart attack. There is overlap between what a health coach does and what a life coach does, but a life coachs domain is much broader, and includes career issues, executive coaching, and professional effectiveness.

A key technique utilized by coaches is motivational interviewing, in which a coach asks open-ended questions intended to help their client elicit his or her own reasons for change. Instead of the doctor saying, You need to lose weight, a coach might ask, How might your life be different if you lost the weight that youve been trying to lose? The concept, which has been proven effective in many research studies, is that people who are changing for their own reasons, on their own terms, are far more likely to succeed when compared with someone telling them what to do which is less motivating and is more likely to instill resistance to change.

Motivational interviewing has been creeping into the medical profession as well, with great success. With the intensive focus on it I received in my coaching training, I now put it in the forefront in my interactions with patients, trying to really hear what they are saying and to engage them as much as possible in coming up with solutions for the various health issues that arise. Patients seem to genuinely appreciate this, and while I havent conducted a study, this approach certainly seems successful in terms of both my relationships with patients and the results I am seeing.

Whereas traditional psychology has focused on what is wrong with people and what needs to be fixed, coaching philosophy focuses on what has, can, and will work better for you. This means that instead of rooting around for problems to dwell on, a coach will work with you to harness your strengths, in order to improve the health behaviors you want to address.

Coaching is effective for people managing a variety of health conditions. According to a recent study, coaching results in clinically relevant improvements in multiple biomarker risk factors (including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and cardiorespiratory fitness) in diverse populations. Coaching has also helped improve health-related quality of life and reduced hospital admissions in patients with COPD. No wonder some doctors offices are offering it, some insurance companies are paying for it, and private companies are even starting to offer coaching to their employees in order to lower their healthcare costs.

Coaching is a relatively new field, and it is an unregulated industry, so you do not need any certification to practice as a health coach. There is no strict definition of what a health coach even is, which adds to the confusion. In other words, anyone can hang out a shingle and call themselves a coach. However, there are many programs that do train and certify coaches, both in person and online. Among the most popular and well-respected are: The National Society of Health Coaches, The American Council on Exercise, Dr. Sears Wellness Institute, Duke Integrative Medicine, and Wellcoaches School of Coaching (which is where I was trained). It is strongly recommended that you choose a certified coach, to ensure that they have a certain level of training and experience.

The time commitment and cost of coaching are highly variable. Some people do very brief coaching even one session for a discrete problem, such as whether or not to accept a job offer, whereas others may participate in coaching for months or years, for something like managing weight, diabetes, depression, or hypertension. The cost varies with the skill and experience of the coach. As mentioned previously, some employers and medical plans may cover this, as there is abundant evidence that, for example, health coaching around issues such as weight loss can significantly lower healthcare costs. It is important to note that coaches take privacy very seriously, and they have a professional code of ethics, but there are not the same HIPAA-level privacy protections as there are when you visit a medical office.

Coaching appears to be as effective when administered remotely by phone or the Internet when compared with face-to-face coaching. This provides great flexibility, as coaching can be performed in person, over the phone, or via videoconferencing.

Coaches resumes will often be available for you to review, so see if their interests and experience overlap with the issues you wish to address. Coaches enter the field from a wide variety of different backgrounds, and it might be an advantage to pick a coach who has a background in a health or wellness-related field, though many extremely talented coaches come from careers in different realms. Word of mouth is always an excellent way to find a coach, or you could call your insurance company and, if this is an offered benefit, its likely that they have coaches they can recommend.

Unlike health fads that come and go, health coaching has strong evidence behind it backing its effectiveness for improving health and well-being. Becoming a health coach has been deeply rewarding to me, because it is rare in life that you get to promote happiness, build resiliency, save people money, and help people live longer and more fulfilling lives at the same time.

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Health coaching is effective. Should you try it? - Harvard Health Blog - Harvard Health

4 fossilized ape teeth uncovered deep in the Peruvian Amazon.com give brand-new proof that more than one team of old primates travelled across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa, according to brand-new USC research just published in the journal Scientific research.

The teeth are from a freshly discovered types belonging to an extinct family of African primates called parapithecids. Fossils uncovered at the same website in Peru had earlier offered the first proof that South American apes developed from African primates.

The monkeys are believed to have actually made the greater than 900-mile trip on floating boatings of plant life that broke off from coasts, possibly during a tornado.

This is an entirely distinct exploration, stated Erik Seiffert, the researchs lead author and Professor of Medical Integrative Anatomical Sciences at Keck Institution of Medicine of USC. It shows that in addition to the New Globe apes as well as a group of rodents called caviomorphs there is this third lineage of mammals that somehow made this extremely unlikely transatlantic trip to get from Africa to South America.

Researchers have actually named the extinct monkey Ucayalipithecus perdita. The name comes from Ucayali, the location of the Peruvian Amazon.com where the teeth were discovered, pithikos, the Greek word for monkey as well as perdita, the Latin word for shed.

Ucayalipithecus perdita would have been extremely little, comparable in dimension to a modern-day marmoset.

Scientists think the site in Ucayali where the teeth were found is from a geological epoch called the Oligocene, which prolonged from about 34 million to 23 million years back.

It would have been extremely difficult, though very small animals the size of Ucayalipithecus would be at an advantage over larger mammals in such a situation, because they would have needed less of the food and water that their raft of vegetation could have provided, said lead author Erik Seiffert, a professor of clinical integrative anatomical sciences at Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. The study published Thursday in the journal Science. This is presumably why most of these overwater dispersal events that we know of in the fossil record involve very small animals, Seiffert said.

Based on the age of the site and the distance of Ucayalipithecus to its fossil relatives from Egypt, scientists approximate the movement might have happened around 34 million years earlier.

Taking a trip from the Santa Rosa fossil site to Breu, Per, by canoe. Credit History: Erik Seiffert

Were suggesting that this team may have made it over to South America right around what we call the Eocene-Oligocene Border, a time period in between two geological dates, when the Antarctic ice sheet started to accumulate and also the sea level fell, stated Seiffert. That may have played a role in making it a bit easier for these primates to in fact make clear the Atlantic Ocean.

2 of the Ucayalipithecus perdita teeth were recognized by Argentinean co-authors of the study in 2015 showing that New Globe monkeys had African forebears. When Seiffert was asked to assist define these samplings in 2016, he noticed the similarity of both broken top molars to an extinct 32 million-year-old parapithecid monkey varieties from Egypt he had researched formerly.

An expedition to the Peruvian fossil site in 2016 brought about the discovery of two even more teeth coming from this new species. The resemblance of these added lower teeth to those of the Egyptian monkey teeth verified to Seiffert that Ucayalipithecus was descended from African forefathers

The important things that strikes me concerning this research more than any other I have actually been involved in is just exactly how unlikely all of it is, said Seiffert. The fact that its this remote website in the middle of nowhere, that the possibilities of discovering these pieces is exceptionally small, to the fact that were revealing this extremely improbable journey that was made by these early apes, its all fairly amazing.

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Ancient teeth from Peru suggest monkeys rafted across Atlantic from Africa - The TeCake

Webinar is part of Clarion Events Food and Beverage Groups free resources to help restaurant and foodservice community stay connected within this rapidly changing environment

(RestaurantNews.com) Members of the restaurant and foodservice community are among the groups that are most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In these anxious times, its more important than ever to take care of our physical and emotional health. Dr/Chef Rob Graham,Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officerof FRESH Medicine and Peggy Neu, President of The Monday Campaigns, will share advice for staying healthy and managing stress during these challenging times.

Dr/Chef Graham and Ms. Neu will hold a webinar about how to stay healthy and calm during these anxious times.

When: Monday, April 13, 1:00 PM 2:00 PM EDT

Register for free:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5701723560459738893

About the Experts:

Dr. Graham is a Harvard-trained physician, Board Certified in Internal and Integrative Medicine with a Masters in Public Health, and Chef. In 2018, he obtained his culinary degree from the Natural Gourmet Institute. As one of few doctor/chefs in the world, he brings a unique perspective on the role of food in disease treatment and prevention. He founded FRESH Medicine with his wife Julie Graham, which promotes the FRESH Five Food, Relaxation, Exercise, Sleep and Happiness as the key ingredients for a healthy body and mind.

Ms. Neu has a background in marketing and public health promotion and, in her role leading the Meatless Monday campaign, has worked extensively with restaurants and foodservice companies. She also promotes broader health and wellness programs through The Monday Campaigns, which encourages people to use Monday as the day for a fresh start and to take simple steps to move more, reduce stress and eat healthier. Ms. Neu is also a long-time meditation and yoga practitioner and serves on the board of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science.

Contacts:

Amy RiemerCommunications Director for Clarionamy@riemercommunications.com978-502-4895

Cherry DumaualPR & Partnerships DirectorThe Monday Campaignscdumaual@mondaycampaigns.org917-838-7269

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Hungry for a Fresh Start to Stay Healthy and Calm in Anxious Times? Experts Share Insights in Webinar Series - RestaurantNews.com