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Archive for the ‘Integrative Medicine’ Category

Swarms of locust still active in 15 districts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh – Free Press Journal

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020

In the times when India is grappling due to the COVID-19 situation, swarms of locust attacking various parts of the country is another formidable challege the country has to tackle. According to the Agriculture Ministry, nearly 15 districts in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have experienced locust attacks which are still active.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Wednesday informed that locust control operations have been stepped up in affected states to combat the menace.

"Amidst a wave of locust swarms sweeping across western & northwestern India, Department of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare has stepped up locust control operations in affected states of Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat & Madhya Pradesh," said the Agriculture Ministry in a press release.

The ministry further added: "As of today, there are active swarms of immature locust in Barmer, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Bikaner, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Sikar, Jaipur Districts in Rajasthan and Satna, Gwalior, Seedhi, Rajgarh, Baitul, Devas, Agar Malwa district of Madhya Pradesh."

The ministry further informed that till 26 May, control operations against locusts done in 47,308-hectare area at 303 places in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh by Locust Circle Offices (LCO) in coordination with District Administration and State Agriculture Department.

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Southern Company Gas donates $1 million to Morehouse School of Medicine to support the advancement of health equity – Yahoo Finance

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

This contribution is a part of the $50 million commitment from Southern Company and its subsidiaries to historically black colleges and universities

ATLANTA, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Southern Company Gas and the Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundation are donating $1 million toward academic expansion and efforts to provide greater equity in healthcare led by Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM).

Southern Company Gas Logo (PRNewsfoto/Southern Company Gas)

This gift, part of MSM's Expansion into the Future Initiative, enables the medical school to strengthen its academic offerings and research enterprise, including its budding Natural Products Research Center and the development of an Emerging Pathogens Research Team focusing on topics such as coronaviruses.

"As our communities continue to be impacted by the coronavirus and work to recover from what has become a global health crisis, Southern Company Gas recognizes the immediate need to support institutions seeking solutions while addressing critical health equity issues," said Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company Gas. "We support MSM's cutting-edge research and education model, which fosters greater inclusion in not only healthcare, but ultimately our entire society."

According to a study led by amfAR and the Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access and data from the U.S. Census Bureau, black Americans represent 13.4% of the U.S. population, but counties with higher black populations account for more than half of all COVID-19 cases and almost 60% of deaths. MSM's efforts to improve diversity in the medical profession, research into health challenges facing minority communities and service to underserved communities play a critical role in addressing racial inequality.

The academic expansion initiative will provide the campus community with state-of-the-art facilities that effectively integrate technology and foster collaborative learning among students, faculty, and staff. It will also support MSM's research portfolio focused on infectious diseases such as COVID-19, as well as cancer, cardiovascular disease and neuroscience, among other topics critical to improving the health of underserved communities.

"Our existing virology research's success may help to establish an even larger U.S and global structure examining emerging pathogens of all types and how we can identify and address them," says Professor Vincent C. Bond, chair of the Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Immunology at MSM. "Our integrative approach to health care allows us to translate the discoveries made in labs, to the bedside of patients, and then to the communities we serve."

Recently celebrating its 45th anniversary, MSM has made monumental strides increasing the class size of each of its degree-granting programs, including the Medical program, Graduate Education in Biomedical Sciences, Graduate Education in Public Health and Physician Assistant Studies.

Higher education plays a critical role in driving economic wellbeing; however, studies have shown one approach to ending the cycle of poverty caused by our nation's long history of racial inequity considers quality education and healthcare. This is why earlier this year Southern Company Gas and its parent company, Southern Company, announced plans to donate $50 million to historically black universities and colleges to support career readiness and develop future leaders.

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For more information on Southern Company Gas' efforts to support COVID-19 relief, visit scgcares.org.

About Southern Company GasSouthern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America's premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.2 million natural gas utility customers through its regulated distribution companies in four states and approximately 700,000 retail customers through its companies that market natural gas. Other nonutility businesses include investments in interstate pipelines, asset management for natural gas wholesale customers and ownership and operation of natural gas storage facilities. For more information, visit southerncompanygas.com.

About the Southern Company Charitable Gas FoundationThe Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to supporting those who are transforming lives by tackling complex challenges with revolutionary vision. Every year, the Charitable Foundation donates millions of dollars in grants to organizations that align with Southern Company Gas' values and that passionately work to improve the lives of the communities the company serves. As an independent, nonprofit philanthropic foundation, the Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundation is funded solely by Southern Company Gas through shareholder dollars.

About Morehouse School of MedicineMorehouse School of Medicine (MSM), located in Atlanta, GA exist to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities, increase the diversity of the health professional and scientific workforce, and address primary health care through programs in education, research, and service, with emphasis on people of color and the underserved urban and rural populations in Georgia, the nation,and the world. MSM is among the nation's leading educators of primary care physicians and has twice been recognized as the top institution among U.S. medical schools for its dedication to the social mission of education. The faculty and alumni are noted in their fields for excellence in teaching, research, and public policy, and are known in the community for exceptional, culturally appropriate patient care. Morehouse School of Medicine is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award doctorate and master's degrees.

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COVID-19 here to stay till 2021, aggressive testing needed to curb its spread: Health experts – ETHealthworld.com

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

Global health experts on Wednesday said novel coronavirus is here to stay for more than a year and called for aggressive testing to prevent its spread. In an interaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, health experts Professor Ashish Jha and Professor Johan Giesecke talked about the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the series being aired on Congress social media channels.

While Jha exuded confidence that a vaccine will be available in a year's time, Prof Giesecke said India should practice a lockdown that is as 'soft' as possible, as a severe lockdown will ruin its economy very quickly.

"When the economy is opened up after lockdown, you have to create confidence among people," Harvard health expert Ashish Jha told Gandhi.

Jha is a professor of Global Health at TH Chan School of Public Health and Director, Harvard Global Health institute. He said coronavirus is a '12-18 months' problem and the world is not going to be free of this till 2021.

Professor Johan Giesecke, former chief scientist, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said India should have a 'soft lockdown'. "The situation that India is in, I think, you should have a soft lockdown, as soft as possible," he said. "I think for India, you will ruin your economy very quickly if you have a severe lockdown. It is better, skip the lockdown, take care of the old and the frail...," he noted.

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Clinical trials are showing that Remdesivir can be life-saving drug for COVID-19 infected patients – Firstpost

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

Press Trust of IndiaMay 26, 2020 08:04:50 IST

With a vaccine still a long distance away, efforts to repurpose old medications used for other ailments provide hope of an early counter to COVID-19, say, scientists, placing the antiviral remdesivir on top of the list of possible contenders.

As COVID-19 continues its spread crossing 5.2 million cases and 3,38,000 fatalities on Saturday several categories of drugs are under clinical trial. Of them, remdesivir, which initially went into trials for treating the deadly Ebola virus five years ago, has shown promise by modestly speeding recovery from COVID-19, experts said.

More than 130 drugs are under experimentation to treat COVID-19, some may have the potential to stop the virus while others may help calm overactive immune responses that damage organs, according to a tracker maintained by the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank in the US,

Remdesivir is helping people recover faster, and is lowering the death rate among critically ill patients.

"Right now, there is only one effective approach which is to repurpose already approved drugs for other diseases if they can be used for COVID-19. One example is remdesivir," Ram Vishwakarma, director of the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, CSIR, Jammu, told PTI.

Remdesivir is helping people recover faster, and is lowering the death rate among critically ill patients, Vishwakarma said, adding that it can be life-saving.

We do not have time to develop new drugs. New drug development takes five-10 years so we are using existing drugs and conducting clinical trials to find if any of them are effective, Vishwakarma said.

Some molecules available for treating diseases like HIV or other viral infections can be quickly checked against the novel coronavirus, he explained. If found effective, they can be used against COVID-19 with the appropriate approval from drug control bodies.

When drug company Gilead Sciences sought to begin clinical trials for remdesivir to treat the novel coronavirus, it immediately got approval from the US FDA.

According to Vishwakarma, the other drug showing promise is favipiravir, a broad-spectrum antiviral approved in Japan, which is also under clinical trials for its effectiveness against COVID-19.

The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, has developed the technology to make favipiravir, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director-General Shekar Mande announced this month.

CSIR is conducting clinical trials for favipiravir, remdesivir and an anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine, which is commonly used to treat gout, said Vishwakarma.

"A number of drug trials are happening in India, which we are doing with pharmaceutical companies," Vishwakarma said.

Of the drugs under trial, remdesivir has shown the most promising results, agreed Subhabrata Sen, professor at the Department of Chemistry in Shiv Nadar University in Uttar Pradesh.

Sen, whose lab is involved in the discovery of biologically active molecules, told PTI that some of the drugs being tested are antivirals, and some are antimalarials and antibiotics.

Of the antivirals in the tracker list, some are new molecules under trial, whereas others are old drugs being repurposed and tested for their effectiveness against COVID-19.

Remdesivir, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April, mimics the genetic material of the coronavirus. When the virus copies its RNA or genetic material, the drug replaces some of the pathogen's building blocks.

According to the authors of this study, the drug prevents new virus copies from being produced.

Preliminary results had shown that patients who received remdesivir had a 31 per cent faster time to recovery than those who received placebo.

However, another study published in the journal Lancet in April cautioned that interpretation of these findings is limited since the remdesivir study was stopped early after the scientists were unable to recruit enough patients due to the steep decline in cases in China.

The authors of The Lancet study concluded that more evidence from ongoing clinical trials is needed to better understand whether remdesivir can provide meaningful clinical benefit.

Some drugs developed to treat HIV, such as lopinavir and ritonavir, are also being tested to cure COVID-19, Vishwakarma said.

A study published in Lancet this month said a treatment involving a combination of the drugs interferon beta-1b, plus the antiviral combination lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin, is better at reducing the viral load or quantity of the virus than lopinavir-ritonavir alone.

But these, too, were early findings, observed only in patients with mild to moderate illness, so the scientists behind the study stressed the need for larger trials to examine the effectiveness of this triple combination in critically ill patients.

Another study published last month in the journal Science noted the effectiveness of two small molecule drug candidates named 11a and 11b which could block the SARS-CoV-2 M protease enzyme, which the virus uses to make copies of itself.

The molecules could stop the virus from replicating in monkey cells and have been found safe for administration in rats and beagles, with the study concluding that both the drugs warrant further studies.

Scientists have also tested the effectiveness of therapies involving the use of antibodies that can bind to some parts of the virus, and block their entry into host cells.

In a study, published last month in the journal Cell, scientists reported that antibodies derived from the immune system of the South American mammal called llamas can block the entry of the novel coronavirus into host cells.

This study found that llamas, which belong to the same category of mammals as camels, produce special kinds of antibody molecules that bind tightly to a key protein on the novel coronavirus.

However, scientists believe its efficacy is yet to be proved in human clinical trials.

Last week, scientists from the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics at Peking University in China, revealed a new method to identify multiple antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients.

Using a single-cell genomics method, the researchers could rapidly identify antibodies from convalescent plasma, a component of patients' blood.

When the researchers tested these antibodies in mice, they found that some of them could neutralise the virus.

Another team from the University of Washington in the US found recently that a combination of antibodies, including those from a patient who had recovered from the 2002-03 SARS pandemic virus infection, can effectively block the novel coronavirus.

One of these molecules, named S309, showed particularly strong neutralising activity against SARS-CoV-2, they said, adding that it can act in combination with another, a less potent antibody that targets a different site on the virus.

However, these results to are yet to be validated in human clinical trials.

Among other therapeutics currently under trial or in use, Sen said US President Donald Trump's "game-changer" drug hydroxychloroquine was promising "until it demonstrated serious side effects in the form of cardiovascular complications", rendering it ineffective.

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Thought Technology’s Webinar Series Focuses on Adjunctive Therapies That Combine Well with Biofeedback and Neurofeedback – PR Web

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

Dr. Donald Moss

MONTREAL (PRWEB) May 26, 2020

In an ongoing webinar series presented by Thought Technology Ltd., experts from various fields discuss how they are using biofeedback in their practices. Todays mental health practitioners have many tools at their disposal to best address the individual needs of their clients. In an upcoming webinar, Dr. Donald Moss will discuss adjunctive therapies that can be used in conjunction with biofeedback.

Adjunctive therapies are interventions that combine well with biofeedback and neurofeedback training and augment the therapeutic effect of the biofeedback and neurofeedback. The combined therapeutic effect of biofeedback and relaxation together is often greater than the effect of either intervention alone. Regular home practice of relaxation skills improves basal autonomic nervous system regulation and reduces the onset of problematic symptoms. This Webinar introduces six adjunctive therapies, including progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, paced diaphragmatic breathing, guided imagery, meditation, and mindfulness. Two of them will be demonstrated, and brief clinical vignettes will illustrate the use of the adjunctive techniques. Each of these skill sets can be administered on its own, with therapeutic effect, or provided in combination with biofeedback as a treatment package.

Adjunctive Therapies for Use with Biofeedback and NeurofeedbackPresenter: Dr. Donald MossDate: May 29, 2020Time: 1:00-2:00 pm EDT

Click here to register.

About Dr. Donald MossDonald Moss, Ph.D., BCB, is Dean, College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences, at Saybrook University, Oakland, CA. Dr. Moss is the Education Chair of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH). He is also the ethics chair and international certification chair for the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance. He has served as president of Division 30 (hypnosis) of the American Psychological Association, SCEH, and the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB). Dr. Moss has a book with co-author Angele McGrady on Integrative Pathways: Navigating Chronic Illness with a Mind-Body-Spirit Approach (Springer, 2018), and a book with co-editor Fredric Shaffer on Physiological Recording Technology and Applications in Biofeedback and Neurofeedback (AAPB, 2019). He has a book in press with co-editor Inna Khazan on Mindfulness, Compassion, and Biofeedback Practice (AAPB). Moss is co-editor of Foundations of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback (AAPB, 2016), co-author of Pathways to Illness, Pathways to Health (Springer, 2013), and chief editor of Handbook of Mind-Body Medicine for Primary Care (Sage, 2003) and Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology (Greenwood, 1998).

About Thought Technology Ltd.Founded in 1975, Thought Technology is the world's leading biofeedback and physiological instrument manufacturer. Its products are used as an essential part of many therapeutic treatments and clinical assessment protocols in over 85 countries and are used by tens of thousands of clinicians in thousands of medical institutions.

Always supportive of new research and development ideas, Thought Technology Ltd. has encouraged a number of special interest groups and clinicians to create cutting edge applications for its instrumentation. Thought Technology Ltd. equipment is now being used in telemedicine, web-based monitoring and biofeedback, sports training, research in human-machine interface, physiology-driven multimedia environments and virtual reality. Constantly striving to improve the quality of the products and services, TTL has obtained, and maintains, ISO 13485, and CE certification for the organization and products.

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Existence and the Virus: A Healing Solution – SFGate

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

By Deepak Chopra, MD

The COVID crisis is being fought on two fronts, medical and economic, but most people are suffering psychologically. The word existential rarely comes up in normal everyday life, but the crisis has created all the symptoms of existential dread: a sense of futility, anxiety about the human condition, and a deep fear of death. This comes as a shocking occurrence, and if there is such a thing as existential healing, now is the time for it.

Questions about existence baffle people, and there seems to be no reason to confront them until the last moment. One of the reasons that Elisabeth Kbler-Rosss 1969 book, On Death and Dying, was seized upon by millions is that she drew a map of grief that showed dying patients that the inevitability of death wasnt terrifying in the end. The five stages of grief outlined by Kbler-Rossdenial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptancecoincides with what is seen in hospice care. The prospect of death for most people leads to acceptance.

But there is a sixth stage of grieving that applies right now: meaning. The most fortunate patients go beyond acceptance to see that their lives had purpose, that existence is meaningful, and therefore that death lost its final power, which is fear and dread. This is the healing that I think should be embraced now. The actual deaths caused by COVID-19 are outnumbered by the cases of fear and dread being experienced on a mass scale. One way or another, we have all entered the grieving process.

There are two paths to arrive at the peace that comes when your life is meaningful. The first path is through action and achievement. You set out on a purpose, and you succeed in fulfilling it. Ideally everyone should be able to create meaning through the work they do, the service they offer, the love they share, and the good they achieve. But during lockdown, there is often no outlet for this path. We find ourselves passively victimized by a mindless virus that is achieving far more than its human victims; that is, its purpose in life, which is to find a host and multiply, has been astoundingly successful.

But the second path to a meaningful life hasnt been touched by the virus, and never can be. This path is one of realization. You go inside and discover that you are sustained by your own being. At your core you find value, no matter what you do in life, and no matter what external threats assail you. This path has been open forever, and its teaching occupies the worlds spiritual traditions both East and West. Nirvana, Moksha, liberation, the Kingdom of Heaven within, the peace that passes understanding: by whatever name, the path is essentially the same.

The problem is that we have erected mental barriers that block this path, which should be the easiest path imaginable. Its message is grasped naturally by children: You are here, and that is enough. There is no need to a pilgrimage to a holy place, years in a spiritual retreat, long immersions in silence, or the proverbial cave in the Himalayas. The only thing to do is to wake up as directly as you can, here and now. So why dont we? It isnt as if the teachings from spiritual guides, teachers, seers, sages, avatars, gurus, and saints is lacking. Whats the problem?

Once you ask this question, you are on your way to waking up. Existential dread is actually a mental creation. We listen to the voice of fear in our heads; we let fear become an emotion that we feel powerless to oppose; we are lulled into passivity by the everyday routine of life; we dont bother to see for ourselves; and we have a lot of desirable goals in mind that make it easy to avoid the inner journey.

If you set all of that baggage aside for one moment of clarity, you will see clearly that existence has never been the problem. In fact, it is the solution. Every moment of epiphany, revelation, divine presence, inner peace, etc. has only one source: existence. You have to be here first before anything, good or bad, can happen. So why not just be here? The thinking mind cannot just be here, because it is filled with a riotous display of thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Yet these must have a source, and the source isnt a thought, feeling, or sensation.

The source is existence. The spiritual promise, the goodie that every religion holds out, is that there is higher existence. But this too is a mental construct. Existence isnt like a luxury high rise that saves the best apartments for the top floors. Existence is the rock solid, indestructible, eternal, immutable zero point at which everything begins. Simply by existing, human beings are given infinite possibilities in life. That alone is the source of lifes vibrancy, as well as our own joy, live, creativity, discovery, and evolution.

The real promise that we should all explore is this: Being is more meaningful than doing. The ultimate healing, the end of all fear, including the fear of death, is contained in that simple axiom. Being is more meaningful than doing. This is why Buddhism engendered the concept of non-doing. Settle down in yourself, meet yourself in silence, appreciate the silence, and accept the peace that is part of existence. You cant create peace; you can only discover it.

We test out how life works through our experiences. The good experiences encourage us to give a cheer for being alive; the bad experiences raise doubts, fear, uncertainty, and depression. So healing cannot come from amassing more good experiences until your bank account is bursting with them. Goodies dont make for a good life. Only life makes for a good life. Shed all your experiences temporarily, in other words sit in silence for a few minutes. You wont know who you really are or what your life means until you meet yourself inside. What awaits is the merging of self, silence, existence, and being. In this merging lies the answer to fear and dread. More importantly, this is where life finally begins to mean everything we want it to mean.

DEEPAK CHOPRA MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.

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Mapping the Neurons of the Rat Heart in 3D – Technology Networks

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has developed a virtual 3D heart, digitally showcasing the heart's unique network of neurons for the first time. Using the rat heart as a model, the investigators in this study appearing in the journal iScience created a comprehensive map of the intrinsic cardiac nervous system (ICN) at a cellular scale. This map allows for gene expression data to be superimposed within it, which can help determine the functional role that specific neuron clusters play. The researchers say this map will allow neurologists and cardiologists alike to more precisely study the neuroanatomy of the heart and lays the groundwork for developing virtual maps for other major organs.While people normally associate neurons with the brain, they play important roles in other organs as well. "Many cardiologists aren't even aware there are neurons in the heart, let alone that they are critical to heart health," says senior author James Schwaber, director of the Daniel Baugh Institute for Functional Genomics and Computational Biology at Thomas Jefferson University. With the newly developed virtual framework, scientists can study the organization and function of the heart's neurons at an unprecedented level of detail. "By using this 3D reference space, we can build a comprehensive picture of the heart's structure which is foundational to address various health concerns."

The 3D model is made possible by interweaving imaging, collection, anatomical mapping, and gene expression techniques. First, a diamond knife is used to create fine slices throughout the length of the heart, where microscopic images and tissues samples are taken at each cut using 3Scan software. These images are used to create the base of the 3D reconstruction. In parallel, laser capture microdissection is used to remove individual neurons from the collected samples, while recording their precise placement within the heart's anatomy. Researchers then used single-cell transcriptomics to determine the gene expression profiles of each of these collected neurons. Once all the data are collected, they are fit onto the 3D model to create a comprehensive picture of the heart's neural network.

"With the spatial mapping of the gene expression, we can begin to discuss the precise roles that these neurons play. Do separate clusters of the ICN neurons have different functions, or do they work into an integrated way to influence heart health? Now we can address these questions in way that wasn't possible before," says co-author Zixi Jack Cheng, a cardiovascular anatomist and physiologist from the University of Central Florida College of Medicine.

The map revealed a consistent spatial pattern of the intrinsic cardiac nervous system moving from the top to the bottom of the heart. And although the 3D map was constructed using the hearts of rats, the researchers say the protocols generated to create it will likely have long-term impacts on human medicine. For instance, some cases of severe heart disease have been reversed or remediated by stimulating the vagus nerve though it is unclear why this treatment is effective in some patients and not others. "Evaluating these cardiac neurons from an anatomical and molecular perspective may help us better understand their function and develop therapies that can produce these protective effects of the vagus nerve onto the hearts of more patients," says co-author Jonathan Gorky, a recent MD/PhD graduate from Thomas Jefferson University and medical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"Now that we have a comprehensive map of the heart, the way we pursue bioelectronic medicine will significantly change as we have information available at a level of resolution that just wasn't accessible before this," says co-author Rajanikanth Vadigepalli, a systems biologist with a chemical and control systems engineering pedigree at Thomas Jefferson University.

All the techniques and technologies used to create the atlas are made readily available through the Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions program (SPARC), so other researchers can recreate and build upon the 3D framework whether it be with other animal hearts or with other organs such as the liver or lungs. "The SPARC program has created an online portal that allows other research teams to access our and other's data, empowering them to understand, expand, explore, and contribute to how we think about the innervation aspects of each organ of the body. Thereby, we can start to create a community that extends beyond a single area of focus onto all the integrative aspects of the brain and body," says co-author Susan Tappan, a developmental neuroscientist and the scientific director at MBF Bioscience.

Already, the combined efforts of this research team and the SPARC program have generated new projects across several labs that are working to understand the autonomic nervous system for other organs of the body. Though much research is left to be done, these efforts work towards the larger goal of creating effective treatments utilizing neuromodulation.ReferenceAchanta et al. (2020). A Comprehensive Integrated Anatomical and Molecular Atlas of Rat Intrinsic Cardiac Nervous System. iScience. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101140

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Wear The Gown: Using essential oils to improve mask comfort – KENS5.com

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

University Health System physicians say each scent offers a unique effect.

SAN ANTONIO Over the past few months most of us have gotten used to wearing masks, whether it is in the grocery store, outside, or for some at all times, and in many cases it just isn't comfortable.

Dr. Jan Patterson, the Medical Director of the Integrative Medicine Program and an Infectious Disease Physician at University Health System, and Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at UT Health San Antonio, spoke to KENS 5 about the study among UHS where they found essential oils to improve mask comfort.

"When COVID happened we realized we had to shift some of our focus to the staff with universal masking which we are very grateful for because it helps us protect each other," she said. "We started in early April with our hospital staff and went to different departments. We are doing both clinical staff and non-clinical staff. More recently weve open it up to patients, some of our patients who are in the clinics who are here for quite a while for infusions and so forth. We would like to try it and see if it makes a difference for them as well."

Rebekah Kendrick, a nurse specializing in pain management told us, "People are feeling different effects from wearing these all day so we wanted to offer them something that might alleviate some of those complaints. Essential oils are really becoming a new thing, so theres new interest in it."

Some of the most common mask complaints include anxiety, fatigue, poor mental focus, headaches, and shortness of breath. Dr. Patterson said, "We know that essential oils, not only do they smell good, but they can affect us very positively in terms of our mood."

The oils go directly to the brain through the olfactory nerve or smell nerve, and they can also affect the respiratory system by opening up the lungs, making breathing easier. The doctors say each scent does something different.

The doctors told us, "Lavender would be great for that to help alleviate some of the anxiety with that and mental focus. The orange oil, we call it happy oil, which is a very happy and calming oil. The lemon oil is brightening and cleansing. People get their headaches relieved through peppermint oil and it can help with mental focus fatigue and breathing. Eucalyptus it's a strong oil we like to say it opens the mind as well as the lungs."

Dr. Patterson spoke about how you apply the oil and said, "Once we choose an oil we simply get a very small drop and put it on the outer edge of the inner mask."

But the ones you get online could be stronger and have a more pleasant effect than the ones you get at the grocery store

Dr. Patterson said, "The ones you get at the grocery store or drugstore or at a lower price point, so sometimes they are diluted and have synthetics in them but you may still get a positive affect. We wanted to use some very pure oils that are what we call therapeutic grade, because we think it has a better affect because they are purer and they last longer.

Dr. Kendrick added, "We have a lot of different options that can help make it a little more of a pleasant experience."

Dr. Patterson also told us how the study they are conducting works. She said, "The survey simply ask things like whats bothering you and how is the mask affecting your anxiety level your mood your fatigue your mental focus. We go through that survey and we help them choose an essential oil that we think is best for them."

Make sure to start with one drop and if you need more add one at a time.

For more information about family health call 210-358-3045. You can also find the rest of Wear The Gown stories, just go to WearTheGown.com.

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Exercising while social distancing: Rules of the road for walking, running and biking – Chicago Sun-Times

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

A quiz.

Q. You are walking on one side of a sidewalk. Someone strolling toward you veers within six feet of you. You dont have any room to move but the other person does. You call out through your mask, Six feet!

The correct action for that person is:

a. Pretend not to hear and stay the course.

b. Give you the finger and swerve a little.

c. Create some distance by moving away.

The right answer is c.

As some of our COVID-19 pandemic lockdown rules in Illinois are easing and the spring weather is bringing us outside more frequently to walk, run and bike, Ive been navigating the new normal while social distancing. There is no best practices manual for this.

Im a speed walker. I aim at five miles a day. As I roam around, Ive made it a point to observe social or physical distancing behavior who among us tries to observe the six feet; who doesnt; and whether lapses appear willful or the result of being oblivious. Ive become a student of the various tactics people are using and developing some of my own.

Without getting into the heavier political issues associated with wearing masks and social distancing as President Donald Trump ignores both I want to share my evolving rules of the road for folks finding themselves sharing the same sidewalks, paths and streets.

In writing this column, I consulted with two specialists at Northwestern University working on caution fatigue behavior during this pandemic: Dr. Melinda Ring, executive director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, and her colleague, Jacqueline Gollan, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Asher Center for the Study and Treatment of Depressive Disorders at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

Caution fatigue, Ring said, is a loss of interest in following the recommended guidelines due to mental or physical exhaustion.

Gollan told me in an email, Caution fatigue can influence our ability to comply (with) the new rules. This occurs when people show low motivation or energy to comply with safety guidelines. We may become impatient with the warnings, or we dont believe the warnings to be real or relevant (or) we interpret the risk incorrectly. We may stop safety behaviors, like washing our hands and social distancing.

Caution fatigue occurs because we become desensitized to warnings or risk. Initially, when we hear pandemic warnings, we become fearful and take action. But being intensely fearful is highly taxing on the brain. We adjust psychologically to reduce the fear and desensitize to the pandemic information.

And with that, here are the Sweet Outdoor Rules of the Road:

1. Its on me.

Social distancing is key to avoiding the spread of COVID-19. There are all sorts of persuasion messaging and advertising campaigns ongoing to convince people to stay six feet apart. Yet people dont. Maybe its a spatial dissonance thing? A political statement? Youthful rebellion? Entitlement? Free floating hostility? Ignorance? Doesnt matter why.

Since I care more than you may do about this six-feet thing, its on me to get out of your way.

In general, what we know is, Ring said, you cant change another persons behavior. You can only change your own.

2. Make peace with doing the easiest thing to create the six feet: cross the street, take a turn, whatever. Remember we are living in difficult times.

We are seeing a rise in depression, anxiety, PTSD, Ring said. Add to that people struggling with financial and relationship burdens.

3. Maintain situational awareness. Do not stop in the middle of a sidewalk or path to read your email or chat on the phone. Move off the sidewalk or path.

4. Its also on you.

When you are walking, running or biking behind someone who doesnt know you are there, it is your responsibility to create the six feet of space. Slow down, which, for heavens sake, is not the end of the world. Please call out something like on your left so I can scramble out of your way.

5. End the blockades. Dont be a sidewalk hog. No, you cant always walk or run three abreast with a dog if the path is crowded. Single file.

6. Distance shaming can backfire. Reserve calling out six feet when there is no alternative.

It sounds like a mother scolding a kid, Ring said.

7. Signal. This is for walkers. Sidewalk hogs get a warning when you stick out your arm to create some safe distance and flap it up and down a little. The nonverbal cue is effective in getting folks to fall into single file. Yes, I look a little crazy.

Many folks are great. I zig, they zag, and it works out. Dont get worked up. Said Ring, take some deep belly breaths beneath your mask and move on.

Continued here:
Exercising while social distancing: Rules of the road for walking, running and biking - Chicago Sun-Times

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Pulse Oximeters Market To Witness The Highest Growth Globally In Coming Years 2020-2026 – News Distinct

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

Global Pulse Oximeters Market Research Report offers complete knowledge, forecast and statistical analysis on past, present and forecast industry situations. The risks and growth opportunities associated with Pulse Oximeters market are highlighted in this study.

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MasimoKonica MinoltaSmiths MedicalMedtronicGE HealthcareNonin MedicalHeal ForcePhilipsNihon-KohdenMindrayContecJerry MedicalSolaris

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The company profile covers the end-user applications, sales channel analysis, competitive landscape view, and expansion plans. The industry plans & policies, value analysis, downstream consumers and Pulse Oximeters market dynamics are presented. The sales value, industry share, growth opportunities and threats to the development are explained. The contribution of worldwide players to the Global Pulse Oximeters Market and its impact on forecast development is analyzed in this study. The global position of Global Pulse Oximeters Industry players, their profit margin, volume analysis, and market dynamics are studied.

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Disposable SensorReusable Sensor

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HospitalAmbulatory Surgical CenterHome Care

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The Global Pulse Oximeters Market details are obtained via primary and secondary research techniques. The data is gathered from vendors, service providers, Global Pulse Oximeters industry experts and third-party data providers. Also, various distributors, service providers and suppliers are interviewed in this study. Besides, Pulse Oximeters Report also states the competitive scenario, SWOT analysis and market size.

The supply-demand side of Global Pulse Oximeters Industry is analyzed by the data gathered from paid primary interviews and through secondary sources. The secondary research techniques involve the Pulse Oximeters data gathered from company reports, consumer surveys, Government databases, economic and demographic data sources. Also, product sources like sales data, custom group data and case studies are analyzed.

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There Are 8 Sections In Pulse Oximeters Report As Follows:

Section 1: Objectives, Definition, Scope, Global Pulse Oximeters Market Overview, Market Size Estimation, Concentration Ratio and Growth Rate from 2014-2025;

Section 2: Global Pulse Oximeters Industry Segmentation by Type, Application and Research Region;

Section 3: Top Regions of Global Pulse Oximeters Industry (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, South America) with the Production Value and Growth Rate;

Section 4: The Changing Global Pulse Oximeters Market Dynamics, Growth Drivers, Limitations, Industry Plans & Policies, and Growth Opportunities are Explained.

Section 5: Industry Chain Analysis, Manufacturing Base, Cost Structures, Production Process, Marketing Channels, and Downstream Buyers.

Section 6: The Top Pulse Oximeters Players, Market Share, Competition, Market Size and Regional Presence is Specified.

Section 7: Forecast Market Trends, Consumption, Value, Production Forecast and Growth Estimates are Analyzed

Section 8: Lastly, Vital Conclusions, Research Techniques, and Data Sources are Listed.

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Turning the Tide A healthy gut comes from a healthy diet – South Coast Herald

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

Dr David Glass - MBChB, FCOG (SA)

Last week we gave a brief history lesson describing the origins of the fibre hypothesis as basic to human health. This was based on the research of three icons of medicine in Africa Drs Denis Burkitt, (Uganda), Hugh Trowell (Kenya) and ARP Walker (South Africa). All originated from the UK, but spent many years in Africa as clinicians but also perceptive researchers.

ALSO READ: Turning the Tide: The importance of fibre in your diet

Today we will cover a somewhat controversial subject, leaky gut syndrome, which has a connection to the fibre hypothesis. It has long been propounded by alternative and integrative medicine practitioners, and more recently by functional medicine practitioners. However there are some gastroenterologists who now also recognise the condition, although perhaps would not blame this condition as the cause of as many diseases as the former practitioners would.

In our first article in this series on the GIT, we noted that the intestines are lined with a single layer of cells, spread out across finger-like villi and microvilli to increase the surface area through which nutrients can be absorbed. Just under the surface is an extensive capillary network which provides transport of these absorbed nutrients into the portal system which directs all blood from the intestines into the liver. The liver detoxifies harmful substances, and processes all nutrients into basic chemicals available for bodily functions. It is important for many reasons that this single layer of cells remains intact.

Although the lining of the gut is inside the body, it nevertheless is a vast area exposed to the outside world.

What happens when the integrity of this delicate barrier is breached through holes or tears? It is claimed partially digested foods, bacteria and toxins are allowed to pass directly into the blood stream where they can cause inflammation and chronic illness, including auto-immune diseases. Much of the research on this condition has been done in laboratories as basic science, rather than clinical research. It is still very controversial. Read an overview of the condition from Harvard Health, written by Dr Marcelo Campos HERE

I do believe the most important intervention to ensure a healthy gut comes from providing a healthy diet, which in particular includes fibre-rich plant foods. Other interventions include adequate exercise, control of stress through meditation and spiritual activities, avoidance of alcohol and dietary or environmental toxins.

Unfortunately many of the strong proponents of the leaky gut theory are also pedlars of all manner of supplements and fad diets. Many have blamed gluten or wheat or antibiotics or fruit as the cause.

In a later article we will address the gluten/wheat theory and also discuss the importance of fibre in both gut and general health.

One of the bright lights in the world in gut health is Dr Will Bulsiewicz a doubly qualified specialist physician and gastroenterologist who has written a just released book Fiber Fueled which is getting rave reviews in the lifestyle medicine circles. We will use some of the information from his book in future blogs to give a balanced view on gastrointestinal health.

In the mean time HERE is a really exciting interview with Dr B discussing gut health and Covid-19. It is over an hour long but so full of scientifically sound and rational information, all so very pertinent to our present crisis.

Next week we will introduce the subject of fibre and the microbiome. I wish I could share information directly from Dr Bs book, but we will have to rely on interviews with him for pertinent facts given the fact that access to books from the USA is limited, and it is selling like hot cakes.

Continue your good preventive habits. Until next week. Dave Glass

Dr David Glass MBChB, FCOG (SA)

Dr David Glass graduated from UCT in 1975. He spent the next 12 years working at a mission hospital in Lesotho, where much of his work involved health education and interventions to improve health, aside from the normal busy clinical work of an under-resourced mission hospital.

He returned to UCT in 1990 to specialise in obstetrics/gynaecology and then moved to the South Coast where he had the privilege of, amongst other things, ushering 7000 babies into the world. He no longer delivers babies but is still very clinically active in gynaecology.

An old passion, preventive health care, has now replaced the obstetrics side of his work. He is eager to share insights he has gathered over the years on how to prevent and reverse so many of the modern scourges of lifestyle obesity, diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, common cancers, etc.

He is a family man, with a supportive wife, and two grown children, and four beautiful grandchildren. His hobbies include walking, cycling, vegetable gardening, bird-watching, travelling and writing. He is active in community health outreach and deeply involved in church activities. He enjoys teaching and sharing information.

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Stressed, anxious or nervous during the lockdown? These foods can help – GQ India

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

First things first: You do not need expensive superfoods or packaged supplements to better your health or immunity during the quarantine. In fact, you never did! According to Luke Coutinho, Holistic Lifestyle Coach - Integrative Medicine, Getting in a wholesome balanced diet with the right quality and quantity of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains, common kitchen spices, herbs and good fats are all you need to boost your immunity at a cellular level. These food groups also have numerous fringe benefits on your health and mental well-being.

For example, if you are vulnerable to stress, foods such as bananas, nuts and seeds, chamomile tea and tulsi or holy basil tea will help relax your body and mind. However, the two things that'll not necessarily help are your daily cup of joe and sugar. We are exposed to negative news, today, more than ever and a constant exposure to it can induce fear in us. It can make us feel anxious, hyperactive, etc. On top of that if we add stimulants such as sugar and coffee in our diet we prevent our body from coming back to a state of homeostasis and balance. Though coffee in itself is not the problem, putting it in a system that's already stressed and is churning cortisol to keep up with the stress, causes problems, he says.

You can also include endorphin-boosting foods in your diet, or better yet endorphin-boosting activities in your work-from-home schedule to keep stress at bay. Endorphin is a happy hormone that brings about a feel-good factor. Foods such as chocolates and smells such as that of lavender stimulate the release of endorphins. However, the most reliable sources of an endorphin boost are exercise, laughter and good sex, he explains. If you have the liberty to run a couple of laps on your terrace, do that too. A cardio activity is known to give us an endorphin rush which is as good as a high from a stimulant.

1

Use this time to bring about positive changes in your overall lifestyle the way you eat, sleep, move, breathe and think.

2

Start eating an early dinner to maintain a gap between your dinner and bedtime. This will allow your body enough time to digest and detoxify at night.

3

Spend a part of your mornings doing Yoga, pranayama, gratitude journaling and meditation.

4

Learn healthy cooking from scratch. This skill is going to save you from calling for junk food from restaurants when we resume our normal living.

5

Have free time? Watch a funny movie or documentary with your family! Research shows that laughter has a connection with strong immunity as it boosts levels of natural killer cells.

We can use this time to either worry about what is going to happen next or cultivate a lifestyle and a strong immune system thatll help us sail through this. Choose the latter.

NOW READ

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4 simple mango recipes that are perfect for this summer during the lockdown

3 easy-to-make chocolate recipes you should try during lockdown

More on Food

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Stressed, anxious or nervous during the lockdown? These foods can help - GQ India

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Caffeine Withdrawal Is Very Real: Here Are The Symptoms & How To Deal – mindbodygreen.com

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

The best way to avoid caffeine withdrawal symptoms is to slowly reduce your intake instead of quitting cold turkey, recommends holistic psychiatrist Ellen Vora, M.D.

There are a couple of ways you can do this effectively. Selhub recommends taking away half a cup of caffeine every week for about six weeks. "You can replace regular coffee with decaf, but I recommend drinking more water," she says.

If you're comforted by sipping something warm, Vora recommends this method: "Turn a few cups a day into half-caf, then transition those to black tea...to green tea...to just a few sips." Eventually, your caffeine intake will be so low, you should be able to quit altogether.

One study shows exercise may help manage symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, as well. Selhub explains that exercise can increase dopamine and serotonin levels, which may have dropped with your caffeine decrease. Getting quality sleep and spending time in nature can have similar positive effects.

Selhub also recommends eating a balanced diet, full of antioxidants. "A little bit of dark chocolate might also help," she says. Now that's a recommendation we can get behind.

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Caffeine Withdrawal Is Very Real: Here Are The Symptoms & How To Deal - mindbodygreen.com

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Covid -19 pandemic: JK Govt brings in far reaching measures to lessen economic impact on Agriculture, allied sectors – Kashmir News Service

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

KNS

By : KNS | Srinagar,Publish Date: Friday, May 22, 2020 6:04:10 PM|Updated Date : Friday, May 22, 2020 6:04:10 PM

Srinagar, May 22 (KNS): The Jammu and Kashmir government is bringing in far reaching measures to minimize the economic fallout of Covid -19 pandemic on Agriculture and allied sectors.As part of these measures, the government has issued detailed guidelines for the elimination of intermediary brokers and ease down certain other problems faced by the farmers.The decongestion of major fruit and vegetable Mandies across Jammu & Kashmir and timely marketing of Agricultural and Horticultural produce are other crucial areas of governments focus.The Agriculture Production Department, in view of COVID-19 situation, has allowed Deputy Commissioners to notify the places in their respective jurisdictions, where farmers can bring their produce for marketing without any intermediary interference.The guidelines said that collection or aggregation centre in the proximity of production areas may be set up by a person after getting it registered by the concerned Market Administrative Committees. The person will have to comply with a set of guidelines, particularly refraining from any kind of hoarding, under Essential Commodities Act.All the Market Administrative Committees of the UT have been asked to allow and facilitate functioning of such Collection and Sale Centres without any hindrance.Similarly, the principal agriculture product of the UT, Jammu, Basmati rice has been certified as Safe for Pesticides Residual Limits by Quality Control & Quality Assurance Division of Indian Institute Of Integrative e-Medicine (CSIR). The CSIR collected 184 samples of Basmati Rice from Basmati growers of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts and confirmed the purity of prestigious Jammu Basmati Rice.A report issued by IIIM in this regard will be shared with Agriculture and Processed Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and other relevant forums for promoting and popularizing the Jammu Basmati and further removing the bottlenecks in trouble-free export of Basmati-370.In another major move to reduce Covid-19 pandemic distress among the farmers, JK Industries is going to procure 60,000 Kg of Grade A and B grade Cocoon from Jammu division and 50,000 kg from Kashmir division.Meanwhile, concerted efforts are underway to develop horticulture and related activities in Jammu region by way of several ongoing government interventions.The potential taping High Density and Ultra High Density plantation for Apple, Kiwi, Peach, Grapes and Walnut is main focus of the government. These fruits have huge potential in hilly areas like Kishtwar, Doda, Poonch, Rajouri and hilly areas of Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban and Kathua.The services of Centre for Excellence for Horticulture are being utilized to promote the fruit growing in all types of regions of Jammu division.Upgrading of the infrastructure of Fruit and Vegetable Market, for developing it on modern lines replete with all the necessary facilities has been prioritized.The State Level Project Screening Committee (SLPSC) on Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY-RAFTAR), has recently approved the Annual Action Plan envisaging mobilization of Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs) and promotion of local specialty crops, value addition, organic farming, farm mechanization and promoting agri-business entrepreneurship. Aadhar seeding and 100% assistance transfer through DBT for all beneficiary oriented schemes has also been stressed upon. (KNS)

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Covid -19 pandemic: JK Govt brings in far reaching measures to lessen economic impact on Agriculture, allied sectors - Kashmir News Service

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TCM guideline on Covid-19 ready – The Star Online

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

THE Chinese Medicine Task Force of Malaysia (Covid-19) and Beijing Tong Ren Tang Global Expert Group for Covid-19 Prevention and Treatment have come up with a guideline to fight the pandemic.

The Malaysia Covid-19 Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practice Guideline which integrates Chinese medicine practitioners practical experience in using TCM in the prevention and treatment of suspected and confirmed cases can be downloaded from http://sg.mikecrm.com/xCqqC4w.

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) Department of Chinese Medicine head Assoc Prof Dr Te Kian Keong who set up the task force on March 22 said the guideline which was released on May 2, was developed based on the TCM knowledge of the clinical manifestations and disease progression of Covid-19.

It aims to serve as a reference for the TCM researchers who are participating in the anti-epidemic research, Dr Te, who is also the Centre for Research in TCM chairperson said.

He added that the guideline is possibly the first TCM prevention and treatment plan for Covid-19 released outside of China.

The task force and expert group completed this guideline with assistance from Dr Li Jun who headed the Anti-Covid-19 Medical Consultant Expert Team from China to Malaysia, and Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital deputy dean Prof Shang Dong.

On April 19, the task force in collaboration with the Institute of Integrative Medicine of Dalian Medical University, organised the China-Malaysia International Conference on Covid-19: Prevention and Treatment of Integrative Medicine.

Despite the travel ban and social distancing, knowledge exchange continued for 50 TCM experts from China and Malaysia who were engaged in a fruitful three-hour video conference to share Covid-19 prevention experiences in different countries and regions.

During the virtual session, the academics also discussed the role of TCM in aiding the treatment of the disease.

Prof Shang gave a detailed explanation on the characteristics, clinical manifestations and pathogenesis of a Covid-19 infection while touching on the range of treatment for mild to severe cases, presented research findings, and discussed the integration of TCM and western medicine in treating patients.

Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Malaysia Alumni Association president Dr Teo Chiah Shean and Dr Te explained the current situation of the pandemic and western medicine treatment for Covid-19, as well as the role and progress made by the Chinese Medicine Task Force of Malaysia (Covid-19) in the fight against the virus.

Methods to further strengthen cooperation were also discussed during the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by the Institute of Integrative Medicine Deputy Dean Prof Zhang Guixin and Education Association between Malaysia and China President Jiang Zhongqi.

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Medical Wellness Market to Witness Huge Growth by 2025 | WTS International, The Body Holiday, Mindbody – News Distinct

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

Advance Market Analyticsreleased the research report ofGlobal Medical WellnessMarket, offers a detailed overview of the factors influencing the global business scope.Global Medical Wellness Market research report shows the latest market insights with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services.The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of the Global Medical Wellness.This Report covers the emerging players data, including: competitive situation, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers are WTS International (United States), The Body Holiday (Saint Lucia), Mindbody (United States), Massage Envy (United States), ClearCost Health (United States), Enrich Hair & Skin (India), Golds Gym International (United States), World Gym (United States), VLCC Wellness Center (India) and Kaya Skin Clinic (India)..

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The changing healthcare environment requires an integrative approach to health and medical care. Growing medical cost threaten the economic vitality of the healthcare option. Medical wellness here plays a vital role as it is ideal for people with a risk factor or chronic diseases for those whose lifestyle may have significant factor influencing development and course of diseases. Medical wellness is an approach to delivering healthcare which states the optimal well-being.

Market Drivers

Market Trend

Restraints

Opportunities

Challenges

The Global Medical Wellnessis segmented by following Product Types: Type (Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Beauty Care and Anti-Aging, Preventative & Personalized Medicine and Public Health, Healthy Eating, Nutrition & Weight Loss, Rejuvenation, Other), Distribution Channel (Franchise, Company Owned Outlets)

Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, Middle East & Africa

Country Level Break-Up: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, Russia, France, Poland, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand etc.

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Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global Medical Wellness Market:

Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Global Medical Wellness market

Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary the basic information of the Global Medical Wellness Market.

Chapter 3: Displayingthe Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Global Medical Wellness

Chapter 4: Presenting the Global Medical Wellness Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region 2013-2018

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Global Medical Wellness market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions.

Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source

Finally, Global Medical Wellness Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies.

Data Sources & Methodology

The primary sources involves the industry experts from the Global Medical Wellness Market including the management organizations, processing organizations, analytics service providers of the industrys value chain. All primary sources were interviewed to gather and authenticate qualitative & quantitative information and determine the future prospects.

In the extensive primary research process undertaken for this study, the primary sources Postal Surveys, telephone, Online & Face-to-Face Survey were considered to obtain and verify both qualitative and quantitative aspects of this research study. When it comes to secondary sources Companys Annual reports, press Releases, Websites, Investor Presentation, Conference Call transcripts, Webinar, Journals, Regulators, National Customs and Industry Associations were given primary weight-age.

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Our Analyst is tracking high growth study with detailed statistical and in-depth analysis of market trends & dynamics that provide a complete overview of the industry. We follow an extensive research methodology coupled with critical insights related industry factors and market forces to generate the best value for our clients. We Provides reliable primary and secondary data sources, our analysts and consultants derive informative and usable data suited for our clients business needs. The research study enable clients to meet varied market objectives a from global footprint expansion to supply chain optimization and from competitor profiling to M&As.

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What Public Health Experts Are Saying About the Coronavirus in Texas Right Now – Texas Monthly

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

On Thursday, three leading public health experts hosted a Zoom call to discuss the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas. As the understanding of the virus within the scientific community has grown, the advice of expertsand the models theyre using to forecast the future of the diseases impacthas evolved too. The conversation was hosted by the nonprofit scientific institution The Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas (TAMEST), and featured Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine; Rebecca Fischer, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Texas A&M; and Lauren Ancel Meyers, professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin. The three scientists shared their views on the state of the pandemic, and discussed the risks of Texass reopening.

Here are the key takeaways from what they had to say.

Unlike other regions, Texas seems to have instituted social distancing and lockdown measures before the disease began wide-scale community spread. In New York, Hotez said, community transmission likely began in early February, and continued spreading until the city instituted social distancing measures on March 22. In Texas, though, our public safety measures went into effect before significant spread. Hotez says that relatively early action likely slowed the outbreak of the disease greatly.

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That few weeks of extra time made a huge difference, Hotez said. But it also raises a question: how do we ensure that we continue to reap the benefits we saw from the sacrifice of social distancing, even as the state begins reopening businesses and relaxing guidelines? Hotez, whose son works in the beleaguered oil and gas industry, argued that economic recovery and the slowing of the disease are strongly correlated, rather than at odds with each other. How do we build the public health infrastructure that we need to sustain that recovery? he said. My big worry is that things will move ahead for the next couple of weeks, but as we move into the summer and fall, our ICUs will fill up. Thatll have people very worried about returning to work, and well begin to lose ground.

Meyers, whose team at UT-Austin has created a forecasting model used by the New York Times and 538.com as part of their projections on the disease, cautioned that a second wave may be an inevitability, based on our current understanding of how the disease spreads. According to Meyers, the R0 figure, which indicates how many other people a COVID-positive individual is likely to infect, dropped to 0.8 in Austin during the height of social distancingbut as of mid-May, it had climbed to around R0 0.95. As long as that number is under 1, the disease will eventually stop spreading, and the lower the R0 value, the quicker the outbreak comes to an end. But absent a lockdown, that number will continue to grow.

Restaurants, retailers, and hair salons have reopened, while bars and other businesses may get the green light from Governor Greg Abbott on May 18. But according to Meyers, there are two likely scenarios for the future, based on what we understand right now of the spread of the disease. Both share one thing in common: a likely spike in hospitalizations in June. Where they diverge is in how authorities and the public in general respond.

In one scenario, there are no formal restrictions on which businesses are allowed to open, no enforcement of social distancing policies, and no additional action taken when a second wave begins. (The modelers assume that about half the population is still hesitant to resume normal activity regardless of formal rules.) In that situation, she said, hospitalizations would peak to unmanageable levels, even with a very optimistic estimate of their surge capacity, by mid-June. If that happens, the sort of death toll that places like New York and Italy experienced would come to Texas. That does not include excess deaths that werent from COVID, she said, estimating that the death toll would quickly reach into the thousands.

In the second scenario, restrictions are again fully lifted, but once hospitalizations begin to spike, officials take swift action. In that situation, We put our foot on the brake before that happens, said Meyers. She mentioned eighty new hospitalizations in a day in Austin as one possible trigger for a local lockdown, which could be lifted when new admissions fall below a certain level. Our projection under that policy is that in mid-June, wed see a new lockdown lasting three months, she said. Thats significantly longer than the one we experienced from mid-March to May 1. In this case, thered likely be a third wave later in the fallbut at that point, enough of the population would probably have been exposed, and presumably have at least short-term immunity, that an additional lockdown wouldnt be necessary.

We need to have really good situational awareness, she said. We are hard at work estimating how quickly the virus is spreading as policies change, so we can take steps to slow transmission before its too late. If you wait until things look threatening in your hospitals, its too late.

The University of Texas model, which focuses on Austin but which Meyers said largely applies to other cities around the state, isnt based on testing data that comes from the state. Rather, Meyers said, its based on unprecedented coordination with the city, local hospitals, and researchers to get an accurate count of hospital admissions every day.

Hotez asked the other scientists about the problems that stem from the states relatively modest amount of testing. How do you have a robust alert system without testing data to feed into it? he asked. Fischer said the paucity of testing means that researchers still dont have a clear idea of how widely the virus is spreading, or whats happening among groups who face barriers to seeking care or who are asymptomatic.

If there is a way to expand testing to make it accessible to everyone, thats our most valuable tool, Fischer said. Fever screening is not our most useful toolits too labor-intensive, without much benefit. So when we talk about, say, students coming back to live in dorms, how do we do that? I dont know the answer to that question.

One consequence of our current lack of testing capacity is that we dont know how many Texans have been infectedwhich means that we dont know how far along we are on the path toward herd immunity, where the disease stops spreading because most people are immune to it. Currently, the detected cases represent just .2 percent of the population in Texasand thats likely an undercount. Even if the actual number of infections is ten times the number of diagnosed cases, thats still not enough to bring us close to herd immunity, Fischer argued. Without a way to expand and liberally test people, including those without signs, its really hard to gauge this, she said. And scientists arent even certain that an infection confers some period of immunity.

We dont actually know if people are immunized after infection, Meyers said. But unfortunately, the models are consistent with influenza and other respiratory infectionsthat this spreads quickly and silently, so over 50 percent of the population will have to be infected before this thing starts to dissipate on its own. Its very likely that very few people have been infected so far, so theres no silver bullet until we get a vaccine.

One grim possibility Meyers noted is that in the event we do see our hospitals overwhelmed from an unchecked spread of the disease, those who survive could get to that point more quickly. If this gets out of hand and a single-wave pandemic runs its course, we might be on the other side of this in a very bad way in a short amount of time, she saidat the cost of many thousands of lives.

The impact of the disease in Texas has thus far fallen largely on the elderly, especially those who live in long-term care facilities. While the overall case fatality rate is around 3.8 percentthat is, 3.8 percent of people who receive a clinical diagnosis die in a hospital from COVID-19a staggering 43 percent of those deaths have occurred among nursing-home residents. Parts of the state that have seen clusters of COVID-19 in nursing homes have seen much higher fatality rates. In the seven-county Brazos Valley region, for instance, its at nearly 11 percent.

People 65 and older may really need to be sheltering in place for the foreseeable future, even if the rest of the population relaxes, Meyers said.

The conversation wasnt particularly optimistic, in terms of short-term hope that transmission of the disease (and subsequent hospitalizations and deaths) will stop without additional lockdown measures. But one piece of hope that did come up centered on the ability and ingenuity of Texans to build a safer, smarter way of doing things, and an economy that adapts to the reality of the situation.

Hotez spoke of harnessing the robust scientific and engineering horsepower of Texans to create systems that can manage the spread of the pandemic. Given the amount of skill and talent in Texas, it might be possible to put in place syndromic surveillance and contact-tracing measures faster than hospitalizations and deaths spread. Because those are lagging indicators, which means that the disease spreads for several weeks before the impact of those things is felt around the state, there is still time to put them in placeif we start before those things happen.

The short answer is we need to bring the great minds and engineers together to tackle this challenge, Meyers said.

But even if youre not about to develop a contact-tracing app or a system for investigators to track and notify everyone an infected person comes in contact with, she thinks there are ways we can all help slow the spread of the diseaseone that would involve individuals taking on the responsibility of staying at home, and notifying the people theyve come in contact with, as soon as they start experiencing symptoms, so those people can also avoid potentially infecting others. It could actually go a long way, she said, Given how under-equipped we are for testing, contact tracing, and isolation.

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What Public Health Experts Are Saying About the Coronavirus in Texas Right Now - Texas Monthly

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‘Coronavirus can be treated with homegrown herbs’Saturday Magazine – Guardian

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

What is your position on the Federal Governments move to subject Madagascars COVID Organic herbal cure to clinical tests for probable use in Nigeria?My position is not an advisory rather it is a complementary statement to the steps the Federal Government has taken about a week now. We can see that the government is making efforts by fostering collaboration between the Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicine arm of the Ministry of Health and NAFDAC to call on traditional medicine professionals who have a cure for COVID-19 to submit it for testing. This is indeed a very good move that we must commend. But if this had come earlier, it would have been better as it would have helped in the nations fight against coronavirus.

However, I honestly think the government is yet to have sufficient believe in traditional medicine practitioners of this great nation who are learned and professionals in their practice. In point of fact, gone are the days where we can hardly find learned practitioners in this noble field of medicine. Unknown to many, natural medicine practices is changing very rapidly for good every single day; but the Federal Governments support will only make it better and safer.

It really embitters that we can embrace a solution from Madagascar even though we have everything it takes to develop and produce locally made herbs that will aid in the fight against COVID-19. Long before Covid Organics was produced, the call had gone far and wide, pleading with the Federal Government to recognise the traditional medicine in the fight against COVID-19. We are giants of Africa and we should be the ones leading in innovative and integrative ways of attending to problems like this.

You recently shared some content on your business social media pages asking the Federal Government to give you room to treat Coronavirus. Have you really developed a cure?To start with, it is important to recognise the fact that coronavirus is a global pandemic, which requires everyones support to overcome. Without doubt, the Nigerian authorities in charge of managing this virus have been doing well in identifying cases nationwide and working round the clock to combat the virus. But the fight against this pandemic may not be successful if we do not begin to look in the direction of integrative medicine. As a biochemist and natural medicine doctor leading a team of other natural medicine healthcare professionals, what good does it do if we do not add our meaningful and informed contribution to the fight against COVID-19? If given the opportunity, we have a lot to offer with integrative medicine approach as our indigenous herbs also have what it takes to combat this novel virus.

So what do you want government to do?We want to work with the Federal Government and we hope they allow us to work with them. Over the past years, we have been able to help well meaning Nigerians in the fight against some diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, cancer and asthma, among many others, through our different types of therapies. In fact, we as practitioners at Olaking International Holistic Medicine (OIHM) Company practice not less than 10 therapies, part of which includes herbal medicine, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, cupping and Islamic medicine therapies, to mention just a few.

Our call is that the Nigerian government should give room for integrative medicine where we combine both existing treatment methods with natural medicine approaches and remedies. We believe this will go a long way to help in treating Nigerians of this pandemic.

What are the treatment remedies you have developed for COVID-19 patients?Firstly, it should be said that the practitioner who does not combine and employ all that is good in each and every system of diagnosis and treatment is not worthy of the confidence of the public. On that score, I practice or employ much therapies other than my herbal medicines so far they are good, as there is no branch of medicine that is self-sufficient to cure especially chronic or viral diseases. This is very important because some patients already have underlying health issues prior to contracting COVID-19 and of course the symptoms are distinct amongst them; some do not even have symptoms yet. It should be noted that my call is and has been an integrative system of medicine whereby natural medicine will be employed alongside the orthodox medicine. This I know would surely bring remarkably, outstanding recovery rate in patients with life-threatening diseases.

Has your approach or treatment been scientifically proven?My approach is not scientific but my remedies have been scientifically proven to be safe and non-toxic at optimum doses and dosages. There is a clear difference between treatment approach and treatment remedies. My approach is based on the fact that says, the body is self-curative or there is healing power within. Most people realise, however, that the body is self-curative where a cut or broken bone is concerned; but they fail to understand that this is also the case with diseases as a whole.

It is not possible to cure a virus with scientific approach because orthodox medicine is guided by cellular pathology and considers that endogenous and exogenous causes operate in the production of disease, the constitution of a patient has no significance and causation are considered supreme, primary and worthwhile. In orthodox medicine, all patients suffering from the same disease are treated alike with special regard to the complications. Whereas in natural medicine, every sick individual is different with regard to his constitution, cause of his sickness and peculiar character of his disease.

Have you treated anybody suffering from the pandemic successfully?HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic and had since been said to be incurable. I have cured HIV and HBV patients successfully with my multifaceted and broad-spectrum regimen and this is why I so much believe that I can cure COVID-19 if given the opportunity. My knowledge and understanding of natural medicine principles and philosophy has really helped me to successfully treat, manage or cure many diseases.

In natural medicine, we do not focus on the germ or virus but on the soil, which they thrive or multiply. Our major interest is to remove the filth, which is the breeding ground of germs. Nature cure does not deny the existence of germs but it does not admit the idea that germs are the cause of diseases. Germs do not begin the trouble; they appear and flourish only where there is accumulation of morbid and toxic materials.

Coronavirus is not special and is not difficult to deal with if only we can focus on the above philosophy and make sure we view the patients as individual entities. In light of this, if a patient has a disease prior to contracting coronavirus, we will take into consideration both the disease and the newly contracted coronavirus, otherwise the inherent forces within him will lose the fight because his vitality may be too low; his injury or morbid encumbrance may be too great; harmful or inadequate treatments may have been given.

What is the proof of the efficacy of your cure?For the efficacy of my remedy for COVID-19, I sincerely have no iota of doubt about it. My belief is that SARS-Cov-2 (cause of COVID-19) will only replicate when the soil in which it occupy is accumulated with toxins which then will result to lowered vitality, abnormal composition of blood and tissue damage.

As such, the fundamental cure of COVID-19 will only be achieved by increasing the vital energy within, raising the vitality (immune system), purifying the blood stream, removing the morbid matters from the body through the organs of elimination, and modulating local inflammation in the respiratory tissues hence recruiting specific antibodies against the virus. I have severally used this principle for many so called incurable viral diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, herpes, etc., and it has actually been successful.

My remedy is a mixture of more than 10 Nigerian herbs having Euphorbia unispina as one of the major active ingredients. Whats more, the remedy is anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant, antipyretic, expectorant, analgesic, depurative, antibiotic and detoxicant.

NAFDAC is saying nobody has applied for the testing of his/her drug. Does it mean you have not applied to the agency for clinical trials and certification of your remedy?Efforts have been made to no avail. Im hopeful my product will get to NAFDAC at the appropriate time so that necessary testing and clinical trials could be carried out on it.

Personally, Im ever ready tosubmit my solution, which is a combination of over 10 Nigerian herbs to the necessary agency for testing and approval. And I also want to encourage my fellow practitioners not to relent in their support to the Federal Government in all ways possible in this fight. It is not the fight of the government alone. It is a fight of the whole nation and we must do everything possible in our knowledge and practice to ensure that we save the lives of Nigerians and the wellbeing of the nation during this global trying times. We have what it takes to treat coronavirus patients with our homegrown herbs. More than ever, we need all the support we can get from the government so as to provide healthy solutions in the fight against COVID-19.

How can coronavirus be prevented naturally?In natural medicine, the major ways of preventing diseases, not just COVID-19, are by eating healthy foods, maintaining proper hygiene, exercising and taking natural supplements. All these are purposefully to increase the systems vitality and keep the immune system at optimal level in order to be able to fight against germs and diseases. Coronavirus had really made the world think more of prevention than cure and more of environmental and personal hygiene than finding cure.

Nature cure does not deny the existence of germs but it does not admit the idea that germs are the cause of diseases. Germs do not begin the trouble; they appear and flourish only where there is accumulation of morbid and toxic materials. This means that COVID-19 wouldnt have existed if the laws of nature are duly abided by and practiced with maximum honesty.

The most effective and natural way to prevent diseases is by consuming lots of cleansing and hormone-balancing foods. Avoid cooking fruits; strive to eat fruits on empty stomach and dont peel the skin off when you can eat it. Eat fruits separately to help digestion. Take cabbage raw, take fenugreek, oats, millet, mustard and peas. Take non-starchy vegetables such as green pepper, collards, cucumber, broccoli, cabbage and spinach. Take fish,beans, brown rice, walnuts, almonds and garlic (dont take if you suffer from low blood pressure). Drink enough water daily. Each morning, drink a glass of pure water with one squeezed organic lemon followed by two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Incorporate alkaline forming foods into your diet such as vegetables, olive oil, lemons, limes, asparagus, onions, parsley, raw spinach, garlic, broccoli. Minimise acid forming foods in your diet such as milk, blackberries, cranberries, beef, pork, cheese, ice cream, cashews, white rice, corn, buckwheat, white sugar and artificial sweeteners.

Stress and negative thoughts can also cause an acid environment, avoid it. Consume at least 75 per cent raw foods. Cooking, frying or heating foods at high temperature destroys precious enzymes and this leads to accumulation of toxic waste the body cant get rid of and causes lots of health problems.

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'Coronavirus can be treated with homegrown herbs'Saturday Magazine - Guardian

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Self-Care, the Vagus Nerve, and COVID-19 – SFGate

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

Deepak Chopra, Special to SFGate

By Deepak Chopra, MD and Gustaf Kranck, M.Sc.

There is widespread awareness of the wellness movement in this country, and the term self-care is being more and more recognized. Since advice has existed for decades on proper diet, exercise, sleep, and the avoidance of alcohol and tobacco, in what way is self-care an advance? This seems like a critical question during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Self-care is an advance over the usual well-known preventive measures if it can do more, in other words, if there are choices that improve the whole mind-body system. Increasingly the key to self-care seems to be the vagus nerve. The general public awaits a silver-bullet treatment and a future vaccine, but the benefits associated with the vagus nerve are accessible by anyone right now.

A bit of anatomy first: twelve major nerves radiate out from the brain, and these so-called cranial nerves connect the brain to every area of the body. They function like information superhighways, constantly sending messages back and forth from brain to body. The most important cranial nerve is called the vagus nerve, named from the Latin word for wandering. The vast majority of sensory signals to and from the heart, lungs, stomach, and intestinal tract travel along the six miles of the vagus nerve.

In the past few years, a surprising discovery was made: deep, regular breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, sending a signal of relaxation that is very effective in settling down the stress response. News stories about vagal breathing, as it was named, drew widespread attention. But as research became more focused, it emerged that the vagus nerve might be something like a master key in the body. In its wanderings the vagus nerve affects the heart, lungs, digestive tract, and the immune system. These are the critical systems involved when someone becomes infected with the COVID-19.

The implication is that by stimulating the vagus nerve, a holistic benefit might come to these systems altogether. One of the co-authors of this article, Gustaf Kranck, has a personal story connected with vagal stimulation. Among the many ways that the vagus nerve can be stimulated are meditation and yoga. After getting burned-out by stress after the 2008 great recession, Gustaf began to practice meditation and felt that it saved his brain. Motivated to explore further, he hit upon the wealth of research that is being conducted on the vagus nerve. At present there are thousands of scientific papers on the subject and vagus stimulation devices are FDA approved for depression. In recent months there has been published more than 150 papers on vagus nerve and Coronavirus most of them showing clear indications that the vagus nerve is central to the disease progress.

Here it is necessary to step cautiously. Recently an eminent French researcher, Dr. Jean-Pierre Changeux, published findings that indicated a kind of medical benefit from nicotine - which neurologically acts as a vagus stimulant. The findings from France were that those who were active smokers, even while contracting Coronavirus, seemed to have a more favourable disease progress than those who had recently stopped smoking. Needless to say , a controversy erupted. Promptly after the publication of these studies in late April, the French government ordered limitations on the sale of nicotine patches from pharmacies in order to prevent hoarding.

Yet it is completely non-controversial to state that activating the vagus nerve with meditation and yoga, along with deep regular breathing and good sleep, are known conclusively to improve functioning in the systems most affected by the virus, particularly the respiratory system. Just as thoroughly documented is meditations benefit in reducing the stress response, with implications for reducing inflammation, one of the key dangers when the bodys immune system overreacts to the virus.

Gustaf made another striking observation. When meditating and doing controlled breathing practice, he could measure how this vagus nerve activation brings heartbeat and breathing rhythms to perfect sync if he was in good health. His discovery was that with a hand-to-hand wearable electrocardiogram (EKG) he could simultaneously measure with high precision both the heart rate and breathing and therefore instantly test how well they were synchronized.

This synchronization is very important. There is a sound physiological reason behind this. The vagus nerve regulates oxygen delivery in the body, so that it is used most efficiently and without waste. You need more oxygen to muscles during exercise and to the gut when relaxed. Vagal nerve stimulation seems to be crucial here, and a test of breathing and heartbeat rhythms, which is non-invasive and quite simple, may be useful in determining who is well and who is sick (we are not claiming, however, that the sickness would specifically be COVID-19). In healthy people the breath and heartbeat are in sync; in sick people the two functions go out of sync.

We hope this information is useful in promoting self-care through the methods for vagus nerve stimulation already mentioned. It costs nothing to do vagal breathing, get a good nights sleep, meditate, and practice yoga. We feel this is the direction that self-care and the virus should take.

DEEPAK CHOPRA MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.

Gustaf Kranck, founder of Vagus.co - a Cambridge (UK) producer of health monitoring wearables and vagus stimulation devices. He has a M.Sc. from Aalto University in Finland and in 2019 authored the study Vagal Tone Diagnostics with hand-to-hand ECG.

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Self-Care, the Vagus Nerve, and COVID-19 - SFGate

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Unethical, unreasonable to ignore Ayurveda for Covid treatment & prevention, say researchers – ThePrint

Sunday, May 17th, 2020

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New Delhi: A group of researchers associated with Ministry of AYUSH, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) have questioned the usage of only modern medicines and the neglect of Ayurveda for treatment and prevention of Covid-19.

The researchers, in an article published in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, have called the neglect of Ayurveda an ethical issue.

The decision not to include evidence from the Indian AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) systems in the search for solutions and management of Covid-19 seems unreasonable and unfair, the researchers wrote in the paper titled Ayush, modern medicine and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The authors of the paper are Sarika Chaturvedi from DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune; Nandini Kumar, former deputy director general (senior grade), ICMR, and vice-president, Forum for Ethics Review Committees in India; Girish Tillu from Ayush Centre of Excellence; Sharad Deshpande, former professor and head of the Department of Philosophy, University of Pune; and Bhushan Patwardhan, vice-chairman of the UGC, who is also part of the Ayush Centre of Excellence.

Patwardhan and his team are researching whether Ashwagandha can be an alternate to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)as a potential preventive medicine for Covid.

Also read: Can Dabur Chyawanprash or panchkosha meditation help with Covid? Unusual trials on in India

Currently, only modern medicine therapies are used on an empirical basis, however, the same principle is not considered for the use of AYUSH systems. Appropriate use of evidence is required, the paper states.

In the ethics context and in the interest of the larger public good, we suggest the inclusion of simple and safe measures from AYUSH systems in the integrative protocols for prophylaxis and treatment of Covid-19.

Pointing out that Ayurvedic therapies are known for their immunomodulation and rejuvenation properties, which are important in Covid-19 management, the paper says that a refusal to accept empirical evidence in support of the immunomodulatory potential of Ayurvedic rasayana and other AYUSH measures is neither in the peoples interest nor that of science, besides being unethical.

Several in vitro, animal and clinical studies have demonstrated the immunomodulatory effects of the rasayana drugs such as Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Guduchi (Tinospora cordifoloia), Amalaki (Emblica officinale) among many others, the paper adds.

Also read: Heard Charles took Ayurveda treatment: Minister seeks evidence-based AYUSH drugs for Covid-19

The paper also states that patients should be informed about all kinds of treatments available for the disease, including alternate Ayurvedic medicines, and that not giving a choice to patients is unethical.

The persons preference should be respected by providing all the relevant details about available evidence from the prevalent systems of medicine. Not informing patients of established and available alternatives is unethical, it says.

Currently in India, no hospital asks patients about their choice of therapy if they are Covid-positive. The protocol is to put patients on allopathic medicines.

The team of researchers says this is unfair, and has also questioned the exclusion of AYUSH in policy formulation.

The procedural conditions to guarantee fair decisions recommended in public health ethics include transparency, reasonable explanation and openness to revision, in addition to adherence to regulation. On this premise, the decision not to include evidence from the Indian AYUSH systems in the search for solutions and management of Covid-19 seems unreasonable and unfair, the paper argues.

While the paper raises questions, the Narendra Modi government has been trying to propagate the use of Ayurveda, with the PM himself, in one of his addresses to the nation, urging people to follow an AYUSH ministry advisory that suggested various measures to increase immunity.

Also read: After Modis appeal, AYUSH ministry gets over 2,000 proposals to tackle Covid-19 pandemic

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Unethical, unreasonable to ignore Ayurveda for Covid treatment & prevention, say researchers - ThePrint

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