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I was wondering if you or anyone else may know, the email began. Of course the questions that followed were about the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Are dogs and cats susceptible? Could the pet food she usually buys, which is manufactured in Italy, transport the disease? It occurred to me, she wrote, that if someone at the dry food plant went to work, and didnt know that they were infected with the virus, and they sneezed or coughed, perhaps the food could infect the pets who eat it? An interesting question. Later that evening, when I arrived at a social gathering, COVID-19 continued to be the topic of conversation. Rumors flying. Wasnt there a case in Chilmark? (No, just healthy people self-quarantining after travel to Italy.) Wasnt there an infected dog in Hong Kong? Well, sort of but dont freak out, at least not any more than you already have.

Lets talk about COVID-19 and pets. First well define our terms. The organism in question is a brand-new variant of coronavirus, technically called SARS-CoV-2. For simplicity we will just call it coronavirus today, remembering that there are many other variants of coronavirus in the world unrelated to the current situation. The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is COVID-19 (short for coronavirus disease 2019).

The pet food question breaks down into two parts. The first part is whether coronavirus could be physically transported via bags of pet food from a factory in Italy to a home in West Tisbury. The bigger question is whether (and how long) coronavirus can survive on objects. Think of all the packages containing all the products made in China, or Italy, or the State of Washington, being shipped around the world every day. Preliminary studies suggest the virus may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days, depending on conditions such as type of surface, and environmental temperature or humidity. According to the World Health Organization, The likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low, and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, traveled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature, is also low.

The second part of the question is whether Pandy, the puppy, can be infected and/or transmit the virus to his owner. Here is the evidence to date at the time this column went to press. A single dog in China was placed in quarantine after its owner was confirmed sick with COVID-19. According to Hong Kongs Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, the dog was repeatedly tested over five days. Three of these tests showed a weak positive, indicating a low level of infection with the virus. The dog has shown no signs of illness.

Initially the specialists stated, The implications of a weak positive test result are unclear, and its unknown if the presence of the virus is due to infection, environmental contamination, cross-reactivity, or even potential issues with the test itself. Later statements from experts from the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences of the City University of Hong Kong, and the World Organization for Animal Health unanimously agreed that these results suggest that the dog has a low level of infection, and it is likely to be a case of human-to-animal transmission. In other words, the owner infected the dog, not the other way round. And the dog did not get sick.

So could that dog then pass the virus on to another person? The current thinking is that dogs are not likely to be important epidemiologically in the spread of COVID-19. There is no evidence at this time of pet-to-person transmission. If dogs had been an important source of transmission to humans, there would almost certainly already be significant evidence of this in mainland China. Sadly, in some parts of the world, people are actually abandoning or euthanizing their pets despite these facts.

Of course, Pandy the puppy could theoretically carry virus on his fur, just like any object can, be it a doorknob or a bannister. This could occur only from direct contact with an infected human, such as a sick person petting Pandy with a contaminated hand. Thus, current recommendations are that if you are sick, avoid contact with your pets. No petting and snuggling. No doggie kisses. No face licks. No sharing food. If you can, let someone else who isnt sick take care of the pets. If you have to interact with Pandy while ill, use the same precautions against passing on the virus as you would with humans, such as wearing masks and washing hands.

There is also misinformation being spread about veterinary vaccines. The canine coronavirus vaccine and the bovine coronavirus vaccine are for completely different variants than SARS-CoV-19, and are species-specific. Neither vaccine will protect any animal dog, cow, or human against COVID-19, no matter what you read on Facebook. Neither are these vaccines safe to use in people.

I was wondering if you or anyone else may know, my client wrote. We are all wondering that these days. This is still an emerging disease, with rapidly evolving information. As far as veterinary advice, I advise that you simply follow the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations. If you are sick, minimize contact with your pets as well as with people. In the unlikely case your pet develops an unexplained illness after contact with a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19, keep your pet and yourself at home. Contact your local public health official and your veterinarian. Talk to them before actually bringing your pet into a veterinary clinic, so they can advise you as to how to handle the situation based on the most current knowledge. Include your pets in any emergency preparedness planning, including having a two-week supply of their food and essential medications on hand. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Take care of your pets. And wash your hands.

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Visiting Vet: COVID-19 and our pets - Martha's Vineyard Times

In a sobering indicator of how quickly the COVID-19 coronavirus is spreading in Wisconsin, the number of confirmed cases in the state jumped to 19 on Friday, up from just a single case less than a week ago.

The new cases extended the outbreak to Racine, Milwaukee and Sheboygan counties, state health officials said Friday.

Five people have been diagnosed with the disease in Dane County, including one who has since recovered and tested negative, according to the state Department of Health Services. Six cases have been confirmed in Fond du Lac County, three in Sheboygan County, two in Milwaukee County and one each in Racine, Pierce and Waukesha counties.

Details about two of the Dane County cases were revealed Friday through other sources.

In one, UW-Madison said a School of Veterinary Medicine employee tested positive for the virus after having recently traveled internationally. The person was on campus at some point before going into isolation, UW-Madison Police spokesman Marc Lovicott said.

Citing patient privacy, Lovicott declined to say if the employee had contact with the public at UW Veterinary Hospital or with veterinary medicine students but said all people in close contact with the employee are being contacted by Public Health Madison and Dane County.

Non-essential employees in the veterinary medicine building were told to go home Friday and self-monitor for symptoms.

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Number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases in Wisconsin has reached 19 - Madison.com

The news is flooded with information about coronavirus and how to prevent further transmission. By now, weve all heard about the 20-second handwashing rule singing Happy Birthday twice while washing your hands does the trick and dont forget to wash between the fingers and the backs of the hands.

But the information about pets is unclear. The consensus is that dogs (and cats) cannot get COVID-19; the dog who tested positive in China was probably around a person who was shedding large quantities of the virus, according to the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois. (The dog later tested negative.)

Related: Can Dogs Get the Coronavirus?

Scientists and veterinarians have stated that pets cannot get sick with COVID-19 and infect humans; no animal of any kind in the United States has been reported as carrying the disease.

However, dogs may carry germs on their fur from humans, so its advised to wash your hands after petting your dog (or any dog), especially if other people have stopped to touch your pup.

Despite the need to socially isolate or even self-quarantine, we still need to take care of our dogs.

Here are some tips to best take care of everyone in your household.

While youre stocking up on TP and Ramen noodles, dont forget your dogs food and medicine. If you can, buy enough food for at least two weeks (or more). Get the highest quality food you can afford to keep your dogs immune system in tip-top shape. If you cook your dogs food, make a large batch and freeze in portions.

Fill or refill any prescription drugs your dog needs, as well as stocking up any supplements, vitamins, as well as any heartworm and/or flea and tick preventative. For small-dog people (or people with large bathtubs), replenish dog shampoo, as keeping the fur clean will help keep everyone healthy.

Related: When Disaster Strikes, Here Is What Should Be On Your Dog Emergency Checklist

Make sure your emergency plan is in place in case you get sick. If youre hospitalized or stranded during traveling, you need to be able to reliably contact a dog sitter. If you are sick and self-quarantining at home, your dog will still need to be walked. Find someone who you can trust with your dogs life, and ask them about their last-minute availability. Write up a list of essential information, and store it in an accessible place.

Nows a good time to get veterinarian records of your dogs vaccination history and make sure they have wearable identification, such as an ID tag or identification collars. You will need these records for services like boarding, daycare and dog walking services. Identification will be critical in the event that your dog slips her collar. If you havent already microchipped your dog, do so on the next vet visit.

People who are sick with COVID-19 can contaminate their dog by sneezing or coughing and if someone else touches that dog, the virus can be transmitted. So, if you come down with the virus, you must quarantine yourself and your dogs. However, the CDC recommends that you restrict contact with your dogs. This includes petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food. If this is impossible, wear a face mask and wash your hands thoroughly before and after contact.

Related: Here Are the Most Common Travel Injuries Your Dog May Encounter in the Car and How Much Theyll Cost You

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How to Protect Your Dog During the Coronavirus Pandemic - This Dog's Life

The meeting started with the yowling feedback echoes of open microphones dialed into a teleconference line.

Can I have folks mute their phones or their computers or both? Greg Stasinos, the emergency preparedness official with the state Health Department who was moderating the meeting, asked the epidemic-response experts on the line.

This is one of the difficulties of coordinating the Governors Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee at a time when a disease so infectious is sweeping the state that it makes meeting in person a liability. The 20 members of the committee, which advises Gov. Jared Polis about how best to respond to an epidemic, on Monday held their first formal meeting since COVID-19 hit the state.

The latest from the coronavirus outbreak in Colorado:

>> FULL COVERAGE

They called in from wherever they happened to be hunkered down. Dogs sometimes barked in the background when members spoke. Cellphone ringtones occasionally interrupted.

But the logistics of the meeting were also the least of the challenges facing the committee, which is made up of experts in health care, public health, veterinary medicine, public safety, emergency management, communications and other fields. Though the committee normally meets every three months and has offered help on public health crises in the past, it has been more than a century since the United States has seen an epidemic this serious.

What were embarking on here, one member said during the meeting, is evidence-informed guesswork.

But in they plunged.

First came an update on the new coronavirus spread in Colorado 160 confirmed cases at the time of the meeting. We do expect the numbers to go up significantly from here as time goes on, state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy told the group. Then came discussion about how far the state should go to stop it.

The committee was formed in 2000, to advise the governor on the public health response to acts of bioterrorism, pandemic influenza, and epidemics caused by novel and highly fatal infectious agents, according to its authorizing statute. It offered guidance during the H1N1 flu epidemic in 2009, the Ebola scare and, most recently, the states Hepatitis A outbreak. It participates in trainings and helps make changes to the states pandemic response plan.

But its never faced a situation like COVID-19, where the state is exercising public health powers it hasnt used since the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.

The first option discussed at Mondays meeting was also the least controversial: closing bars and restaurants statewide to in-person dining, as well as closing casinos, gyms and theaters. About an hour after the committee meeting ended Monday afternoon with agreement to recommend the action, Polis announced an order to do just that.

But then the conversation wandered into more difficult areas.

There was discussion about the need to draw up a list of essential and non-essential businesses a prelude to a possible order requiring all businesses deemed non-essential in the state to close. Grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, banks and health care providers made the cut as essential. But how do you classify a hardware store? Or should you not even draw up a list but instead make rules to limit crowding in any business?

As we outline what is essential, it does begin to get really quite complicated, said Dr. John Douglas, the executive director of the Tri-County Health Department.

Polis, who listened in on most of the call, asked the committee to keep that discussion going. He did not rule out additional orders shutting down businesses to stop the spread of the virus.

I think you need to do more work on (it) and bring back in a few days when we figure out whats in and whats out, Polis said.

There was talk about the need for more medical supplies, especially the protective equipment that health care workers must wear when treating a COVID-19 patient.

There was an idea floated to require hospitals to cancel all elective surgeries which a representative from the Colorado Hospital Association said could be financially devastating to rural hospitals that are currently seeing little COVID-19 activity in their areas.

There was debate about how best to house the partners and roommates of medical workers who show symptoms of the disease and need to be isolated In hotels? Empty recreation centers? How do you keep the medical workforce from getting sidelined by the same thing thats affecting their patients?

The health care system is starting to get stressed right now, Dr. Daniel Pastula, a member of the state Board of Health, said. So I think we should take this absolutely very seriously, and anything we can do to slow this down thats reasonable I think we should consider.

By the end of the meeting, there was an understanding that they would need to meet again probably soon.

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the state Health Department, closed the meeting by thanking the committee members.

Hang in there, she said, and take care of yourselves.

This reporting is made possible by our members. You can directly support independent watchdog journalism in Colorado for as little as $5 a month. Start here: coloradosun.com/join

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A special committee advises the governor on how to respond to an epidemic. They've never faced a test like this. - The Colorado Sun

The Incredible Dr. Pol has been running on National Geographic Wilds network now for sixteen seasons. Its almost exhausting watching Dr. Jan Pol do his rounds on farms, calfing cows or castrating bulls or horses.

Hes tireless, with everyone on staff scrambling to keep up with him.

Born in the Netherlands, Dr. Pol attended Utrecht University Veterinary College in the 1970s and studied hard to become an animal practitioner.

I was the youngest of six children on a dairy farm in the Netherlands during World War II, told NatGeo Wild in 2016. When I was 12 years old, the local veterinarian had me come along to my brothers farm to help with some small sows that were farrowing.

That was the beginning of my interest in veterinary practice and I subsequently worked toward pursuing a veterinary medicine degree.

In 1954, my youngest sister moved to Ontario, Canada, and I became an exchange student in Michigan during 1961 to 1962, which allowed my parents to visit my sister in Canada. When I began studies . . . , we were told that it would be impossible to practice in that country. As it turned out, of a dozen classmates, I am one of two that actually went into veterinary practice.

The father of three looked back on his impressive career in his book, Never Turn Your Back on an Angus Cow and sounds pretty amazed at how well its gone for him. He has an optimistic mindset thats informed how he approaches his practice.

I have spent my whole life being with animals, as a vet and as an owner. Until they start inventing new animals, I think I can say there isnt a type of animal I havent looked in the eyes and wondered how it was feeling.

My wife, Diane, and I once estimated that Ive handled more than a half-million patients, without one of them ever complaining about me!

Dr. Jan Pol is 77 years old and began his work as a vet almost forty years ago, starting his own practice in 1981. Before that, he had been working with another established vet for ten years.

When I opened my practice outside the small town of Weidman, Michigan which is about twelve miles from the larger and better known Mount Pleasant in 1981, it was about 80 percent large animals, farm animals, and about 20 percent pets. It was mostly family dairy farms when we started, with several pig farmers. . .

The vets practice has changed over the years to reflect the greater number of pets and small animals in the area.

Now my practice is about 60 percent small animals, he said. . . . That difference doesnt matter at all to me; I treat all animals with the same concern.

I love animals; believe me, I dont remember a day of my life that I havent loved animals. My whole family has always been comfortable with all kinds of animals.

Read more: The Incredible Dr. Pol: The Scariest Thing Thats Happened In Taping the Show

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'The Incredible Dr. Pol': How Old is He and How Many Years Has He Been a Vet? - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Motoo Kobayashi,1,2,* Yuki Okada,1,2,* Hiromichi Ueno,1 Takayuki Mizorogi,1 Kenji Ohara,1 Koh Kawasumi,1 Kohei Suruga,3 Kazunari Kadokura,3 Yasuyuki Ohnishi,2 Toshiro Arai1,2

1Laboratory of Veterinary Biochemistry, School of Veterinary Medicine, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, Tokyo 180-8601, Japan; 2One Health Co. Ltd, Tokyo 157-0066, Japan; 3Food Function R&D Division, International Operation Department, Kibun Foods Inc., Tokyo 206-0812, Japan

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Toshiro AraiLaboratory of Veterinary Biochemistry, School of Veterinary Medicine, Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University, 1-7-1 Kyonancho, Musashino, Tokyo 180-8601, JapanTel +81 422 31 4151Fax +81 422 31 7841Email tarai@nvlu.ac.jp

Background: Obesity has become a serious public health problem all over the world, and prevalence of obesity has increased in cats. Obesity is characterized by continuous low-grade inflammation based on oxidative stress by excessively produced reactive oxygen species (ROS). Supplementation with anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds is very effective to relieve the obesity condition. A plant extract mixture containing Rhus verniciflua and some other herbs, Rv-PEM01-99, shows anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of supplementation with Rv-PEM01-99 as an anti-inflammatory compound in healthy and obese cats.Materials and Methods: Ten healthy mix breed cats and four obesity disease cats were used. The healthy cats were randomly divided into control and test groups. Anti-inflammatory compound, Rv-PEM01-99, in which quercetin derivative is the main component, was supplemented to the healthy test group and the obesity disease cats at the dose of 100 120 mg/kg/day (2.5 3.0 mg/kg/day as quercetin) for 4 weeks. Metabolites, hormones and enzymes were measured before and after the compound supplementation.Results: The anti-inflammatory compound supplementation decreased serum amyloid A (SAA) concentrations as inflammatory markers in both healthy and obesity disease cats. In obesity disease cats, plasma total cholesterol concentrations and AST and ALT activities decreased significantly after the compound supplementation.Conclusion: Quercetin derivative seems to have strong anti-inflammatory activities. In the healthy cats, anti-inflammatory compound supplementation decreased plasma NEFA and SAA concentrations. In the obesity disease cats, the compound supplementation may have alleviated obesity disease by relieving inflammation and improvement of lipid metabolism in livers.

Keywords: anti-inflammatory compound, cat, obesity, quercetin, SAA

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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Effects of Supplementation with Anti-Inflammatory Compound Extracted f | VMRR - Dove Medical Press

OBIHIRO, HOKKAIDO Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, NTT Docomo Inc. and others plan to develop a system to monitor dairy cows using fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless networks, aiming for commercialization in 2022.

The system will use vast amounts of photographic data to detect early signs of illness and estrus in dairy cows. The aim is to ease the heavy burdens on dairy farmers blamed in part for the difficulties they face finding successors.

Also on the development team is Tsuchiya Manufacturing Co., a dairy farming equipment maker based in Sapporo.

The system will feed photographic data from cameras in cattle sheds to artificial intelligence for learning and analysis, informing farmers promptly via smartphone if there are signs of illness or estrus in cows.

The developers aim to create a sophisticated low-cost system by using 5G services, which will be available this spring, to process vast amounts of photographic data that cant be handled by current 4G technology.

A demonstration test, underway at the university in Obihiro, will study whether the behavior of cows, such as how often they eat feed, can be captured in detail.

If cows are not milked every day they can suffer inflammation of the udder, which can lead to death. Farmers are kept busy keeping a constant eye on cattle sheds, paying attention to the condition of cows and trying not to miss opportunities for artificial insemination.

Current management systems with each cow wearing a sensor need large investments in software and other items, preventing them from being widely adopted.

Katsuya Kida, a professor at the university, said that if farmers can readily adopt the 5G-based system, their burdens can be eased.

It will also help lower the hurdles for starting dairy farming, he said.

Continue reading here:
Docomo and Hokkaido university plan 5G-based system to monitor cows - The Japan Times

University of Minnesota researchers are looking at cardiac conditions in racehorses to point toward a solution for both horses and humans.

Researchers are examining the effects of irregular heartbeats in racehorses, which are more frequently affected than average horses. Many racehorses die suddenly on the racetrack for unexpected reasons that may be due to irregular heartbeats, known broadly as arrhythmias. Researchers said they can examine which arrhythmias cause disease and which ones are specific to horses or humans.

The prevalence in horses is not common, but in racehorses with poor performances, its about 2%, said Sian Durward-Akhurst, lead author of the study and a University graduate student. Atrial fibrillation is the most common form of irregular heartbeat in horses.

The researchers examined the genes of 534 horses and found greater variations of disease in them, she said. Researchers are analyzing the disease-causing variants identified in both horses and humans.

Its something thats really interesting because why is it causing disease in humans, but not in horses? Durward-Akhurst said.

They will test these variants in more horses this summer and aim to produce a research paper by next year. Earlier this month, the researchers presented their recent findings at the Santa Anita racetrack in Los Angeles, California.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common abnormal heart rhythm in humans, in cattle, in dogs. Its actually an interesting disease because of its impact on multiple species, including us, said Molly McCue, the principal investigator of the research and the associate dean of research in the Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine.

The irregular heartbeats of atrial fibrillation are sometimes referred to as a quivering heart due to how they affect the heartbeats pace. According to a veterinarian from the Paulick Report, the irregular heartbeat sounds like shoes in a dryer.

Racehorses are bred to have higher functioning cardiovascular systems than other horses, McCue said. Because of this, racehorses are expected to have a higher capacity for exercise.

They have this really frequent occurrence of arrhythmia, she said. The issue now is to figure out why. Then researchers can determine if arrhythmias are contributing to why racehorses are dying on the race track and if they can prevent it.

James Mickelson, a University professor in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, has studied the genetics of diseases in various animals for more than 20 years.

The condition of atrial fibrillation and heart arrhythmias is very likely responsible for sudden death of horses on race tracks, just like similar conditions in people, in human athletes, are responsible for sudden fatal deaths as well, he said.

If researchers can find a new mutation in horse genetics, they can use that to see if the same gene is responsible for any of the human cases, Mickelson said.

Lynn Hovda, chief commission veterinarian for the Minnesota Racing Commission, said horses dont have heart attacks like humans do because of their different cardiovascular systems.

[Horses] have cardiac rhythm disturbances, most often atrial fibrillation, that may result in sudden death. I say may as we dont really know yet, she said.

Original post:
Researchers study irregular horse heartbeats, hoping to find a cure - Minnesota Daily

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 11-20% of veterans are diagnosed with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a given year. More and more veterans seek treatment for PTSD in order to learn how to address their symptoms, improve positive thinking, learn ways to cope when symptoms arise and treat problems related to trauma such as depression and anxiety or misuse of alcohol or drugs.

We are fortunate to be living in a time when America "supports the troops" and encourages the identification and treatment of invisible wounds. In addition to increased efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat PTSD, there are many veteran non-profit organizations who step in to help.

The treatments and opportunities are far-reaching and varied, including offering psychotherapy or meditation classes.

And then there are non-profit organizations that have learned that a little adrenaline can go a long way. Here are six of them:

Based in Colorado, Motorcycle Relief Project invites veterans on guided motorcycle adventure trips to decompress and learn some tools for managing stress. The organization creates a positive environment for veterans to connect with each other find some relief from everyday stresses by touring "some of the most scenic paved roads in the country as well as some amazing jeep trails and forest rides."

These five-day trips are structured and led by professional staff and other veterans in order to allow participants to begin to re-frame their trauma with new narrative recovery through serving others:

"We know that you might not always be able to accept it when someone thanks you for your service, or that you don't always feel worthy of someone's gratitude or admiration just because you wore the uniform. We get that. But we also recognize that serving in the military or as a first responder is hard work. In difficult circumstances. With high demands and intense pressure. And for many of you, serving came at a great personal cost. So no matter how you may feel about your motives for serving or what you did or didn't do while you were over there, the fact remains that you served. And that alone is enough for us to want to serve you back."

Go to the Motorcycle Relief Project website to check out their program and apply.

Force Blue unites the community of Special Operations veterans with the world of marine conservation for the betterment of both. By providing "mission therapy" for former combat divers, Force Blue retrains and retools veterans before "deploying" them on missions of conservation and restoration.

In the keenly unique organization founded by Marine Recon vet Rudy Reyes, Force Blue teams work alongside marine scientists to complete tasks such as surveying the health and disease of sea turtles and plant 100 yards of coral to help restore Florida's Coral Reef.

To be considered for Force Blue, or to help sponsor a veteran, check out their website.

Operation Jump 22 was founded in 2017 by a team of Marines and a licensed skydiver to create an exciting event for veterans and help combat veteran suicide. Operation Jump 22 helped raise funds for Merging Vets and Players, an organization that matches up combat veterans and former professional athletes to help both transition to civilian life by connecting with their community.

On Nov. 2, 2019, Operation Jump 22 invited participants to help raise funds and then jump 13,000 feet out of an airplane. The event Go Jump Oceanside brought together veterans, first responders and the community to bring awareness to the alarming veteran suicide rates and get a massive burst of adrenaline.

That positive surge of adrenaline, mixed with community support, can help reprogram the fight-or-flight response centers in the brain that are activated and imprinted during stressful situations like combat or sexual assault.

A recent study found that PTSD scores dropped 87 percent after just six weeks of therapeutic horsemanship sessions. Conducted by Rebecca Johnson, a professor in the University Of Missouri-Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine and the Millsap Professor of Gerontological Nursing in the Sinclair School of Nursing, the study introduced veterans suffering from PTSD to basic horsemanship skills.

The veterans, working under strict ethical guidelines for the welfare of the horses, learned to groom and interact with horses before riding and caring for them.

War Horses for Veterans brings combat veterans together for multi-day all-expenses-paid programs that introduce the basics of horsemanship, including grooming and riding. Veterans can return as often as they want as long as they bring another veteran with them.

You may recognize the name from America's Got Talent, where the contemporary movement company combined physics-defying acrobatics with mind-blowing sets, much like cirque-du-soleil.

In 2016, the company created The Veterans Project to give vets the Diavolo experience, from choreography to training to performing. The mission of The Veterans Project is to utilize Diavolo's unique style of movement as a tool to help restore veterans' physical and mental strengths through workshops and public performances all around the country.

From Los Angeles to Florida to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Diavolo offers its experience free of charge to veterans, helping them challenge their boundaries and tap into their own creative healing.

"I was diagnosed with PTSD when I returned from Iraq, and there was a moment early on in rehearsal with DIAVOLO when I realized it was the first time I have truly felt at peace since returning from war, and I've been back a decade." Chris Loverro, United States Army

Warrior Surf enhances the physical and mental well-being of veterans and their families through surf therapy. By combining surfing and yoga with wellness and community, Warrior Surf channels the healing energy of the ocean to help break the cycle of trauma and help the body work through residual feelings of comfort and distress.

Surf therapy helps improve emotional regulation and frustration management while creating non-battlefield bonds and community connection. They hold several 12-week programs and 5-day travel camps throughout the year. In addition to surfing, vets who participate in the program work on wellness with individual coaching sessions as well as yoga to increase mobility and improve mindfulness.

Veterans interested in participating can register on the Warrior Surf Foundation website.

Outward Bound for Veterans offers wilderness expeditions that purposefully scaffold wartime experiences (carrying heavy packs, sore shoulders, rubbery legs, sleeping out, strange noises, sweat, dirt, frustration and anger) in order to help veterans return home after wartime service.

By offering challenges that are physically and emotionally demanding without the life-threatening experience of combat Outward Bound gives veterans the opportunity to re-experience those conditions in a different context, which helps them transition back to civilian life. As a result, veterans successfully draw on the benefit of connecting with each other within the healing environment of nature.

Interested veterans can search for expeditions, which include everything from backpacking to whitewater rafting to rock climbing right here.

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7 thrilling non-profits that help veterans treat PTSD - We Are The Mighty

Friday, March 13, 2020 5:48 p.m. EDT by Thomson Reuters

By Linda Carroll

(Reuters Health) - The proportion of U.S. adults at high risk for blindness has grown over a 15-year period and so has the share who say they cannot afford eyeglasses, according to a new study.

Between 2002 and 2017, the number of people at high risk for vision loss - seniors, people with diabetes and those with eye disorders - rose from 65 million to 93 million, but 40% of adults said they hadn't been getting yearly eye exams, researchers report in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Nearly 1 in 10 also said they couldn't afford eyeglasses.

"We have a large number of adults at high risk for vision loss and at high risk for not receiving recommended eye care," said study leader Sharon Saydah of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The solution is to really improve access, awareness and the affordability of eye care."

Saydah and colleagues looked at nationally-representative surveys of 31,000 adults in 2002 and nearly 33,000 adults in 2017.

The proportion at increased risk for vision loss grew between the two surveys: adults over age 65 rose from about 51% to 53% of the total, and those with a diabetes diagnosis rose from about 21% to 25%.

People reporting vision problems or eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or eye injury grew from 9% in 2002 to almost 11% in 2017, the study found.

Among all adults, the proportion who said they couldn't afford eyeglasses rose from 8.3% in 2002 to 8.7% in 2017.

While not having corrective lenses won't lead to vision damage, it can lead to injury, Saydah said. "Having poor vision and not being able to see properly can contribute to falls and can lead to other disabilities," she said.

A major factor leading to vision loss in seniors is high blood sugar, Saydah said. "But if diabetes is managed properly and blood sugar levels are controlled, that can help reduce vision loss," she added.

While U.S. seniors are covered by Medicare, the original version of the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older doesn't cover regular eye exams unless the patient has diabetes or is at high risk for glaucoma.

In 2017, among adults at high risk of blindness, 57% reported visiting an eye care professional annually and 60% had received a dilated eye examination.

"This study highlights critical gaps in eye care access and affordability in the United States, and indicates these gaps have persisted despite shifts in our health insurance landscape," Bonnielin Swenor, of the Wilmer Eye Institute and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said in an email.

"This study is not examining a question about improving eye conditions, but instead focuses on access and affordability of eyeglasses," said Swenor, who wasn't involved in the study. "Currently most medical insurance and Medicare do not cover the costs of eyeglasses, which this data support as an important gap for the American population."

Unless something changes, the problem is likely to get worse, said Dr. Syed Mahmood Ali Shah, an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

While there was a slight increase over the past 15 years in the percentage of patients getting examined, the number of elderly with diabetes is expected to double by 2040, said Shah, who was not involved in the new research.

Shah suspects cost is the big reason for patients skipping eye exams. Even among those with some coverage, there can be a significant copay, he said, which "not everyone can afford."

SOURCE: https://bit.ly/33o0OFm JAMA Ophthalmology, online March 12, 2020.

Visit link:
Number of U.S. adults at risk for blindness on the rise - WHTC News

Women in the Highlands region of Papua New Guinea have higher rates of blindness than in other parts of the country.

A hut in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades

This was revealed by the President of PNG's Prevention of Blindness Committee at a launch of the World Health Organisation's global report on vision.

EMTV reports Dr Jambi Garap saying over 11 percent of women in the Highlands are faced with the prospect of blindness.

"It's like if we equated to the rest of the Pacific, it's like the countries of Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and maybe Samoa, all put together, all blind. That's how many of our people that are blind."

Dr Garap said the problem was exacerbated by a lack of specialist care, with only one eye doctor for every 800,000 people in PNG.

PNG has the highest rate of blindness and vision impairment in the Pacific - one in 18 adults over 50-years-old are blind, with women more likely to be blind than men.

Meanwhile, the committee has identified four major barriers impeding PNG people from getting treatment for blindness and vision impairment:

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Women in PNG's Highlands more prone to blindness - RNZ

Donald Trumps position heading into Novembers presidential election is surprisingly strong. He remains personally unpopular, of course, but he heads toward reelection withfor nowa strong economy andfor nowno major foreign policy crisis.

Notice that I keep saying for now. Theres one glaring weakness that could bring Trump down hard, and were seeing it on full display in his reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak.

I am not just talking about the outbreak itself. Rather, I mean the authoritarian blindness that is driving Trumps erratic public statements on the outbreakbecause it indicates a more intractable problem with his way of thinking and making decisions.

Podcast March 16 2020

On today's 300th episode of the Bulwark Podcast, Tim Miller, Ben Parker, and Jim Swift join guest host Jonathan V. Last ...

What is authoritarian blindness? Its a term for the well-documented tendency of an authoritarian state to be unaware of what is happening in the world around it and unable to respond appropriately. The paradox of authoritarian regimes is that the more efficient and all-pervasive the surveillance state, the less it knows about what is going on. The regime becomes blinded because people are afraid to tell the truth.

A fascinating article by Zeynep Tufekci described how this phenomenon was a factor in the Chinese governments initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Because an authoritarian system is designed to suppress information, rather than absorb it, the doctors on the front lines who initially warned about the disease were ignored and sometimes punished: If people are too afraid to talk, and if punishing people for rumors becomes the norm, a doctor punished for spreading news of a disease in one province becomes just another day, rather than an indication of impending crisis.

Tufekci provides a great analogy:

An Orwellian surveillance-based system would be overwhelming and repressive, as it is now in China, but it would also be similar to losing sensation in parts of ones body due to nerve injuries. Without the pain to warn the brain, the hand stays on the hot stove, unaware of the damage to the flesh until its too late.

You can begin to see how this might apply to the Trump administration. No, we do not live under an authoritarian system, and there is no well-developed surveillance state or regime of censorship in America. But Donald Trump has developed and promoted two key concepts that produce much the same effect as authoritarian blindness: fake news and the deep state.

The point of the fake news concept is to describe information from any media not obsequiously friendly to the president as some kind of conspiracy intended to hurt him. Veteran reporter Lesley Stahl says Trump told her he uses the term to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.

The point of the deep state concept is to describe information coming to the president from within the federal bureaucracy as a partisan conspiracy to overthrow him by means of a coup. (Thats the presidents word, not mine.) Thus, some of Trumps prominent supporters dismissed a warning from a CDC official by spinning a conspiracy theory connecting her to the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The practical effect of these two concepts is that they create a voluntarily accepted, self-induced authoritarian blindness, in which the administration and its circle of sycophants will accept no information from outside their bubble.

You can already see this blindness manifesting itself in the administrations muddled messages about COVID-19. As recently as Monday morning, Trump was still offering what one observer called the mayor from Jaws routine, exulting that COVID-19 is not that big a deal because so far its smaller than the regular fluas if this were the end of the outbreak and not the beginning.

Trump also dismissed concerns about the virus as a product of the Fake News Media trying to inflame the situation. This ties in to a view peddled by his supporters in the conservative media that COVID-19 is just the common cold and that the forces arrayed against Donald Trump are doing everything they can to weaponize this to harm the economy, to harm the stock market in hopes of harming President Trump. This last bit is from amateur epidemiologist Rush Limbaugh.

That is how Trump has been treating the outbreak, too: as more of a danger to the stock market and to his re-election than a danger to human lives. This is why his initial reaction was to send Larry Kudlow out to tell people to buy the dip in the stock market. (This also turned out not to be good investment advice.)

Then there is the way Trump spews misinformation about the virus and the governments response, while repeating in a self-satisfied tone his underlings real or imagined flattery. Every one of these doctors said, How do you know so much about this? Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.

His glib confidence that he understands complicated systems completely is the clearest sign that he hasnt got a clueand that everyone around him is too busy shoring up his fragile ego to tell him the truth.

Note particularly the closed information loop created by the presidents symbiosis with friendly news sources such as Fox News Channel, from which Trump regularly draws information on crucial issues. The president wont believe COVID-19 is a crisis until he sees it described that way on Fox & Friends or by Sean Hannityand they wont describe it that way if they think it will contradict the line coming from the White House.

COVID-19 is not quite a crisis yet. It is a situation that could grow into a full-blown crisis if the virus continues to spreadwhich it almost certainly will. Even more likely is the probability that local and federal officials will rally and undertake heroic measures to slow the spread of the virus regardless of what is going on in the White House.

But we dont really know yet, and Im not going to play armchair epidemiologist. While some of the reactions in the public sphere have bordered on panic, many people and institutions are making rational responses to uncertainty.

Regardless of the outcome of this outbreak, we have already seen the basic weakness of Trumps administration: its slowness and reluctance to respond to any information outside its bubble. If its not this crisis, it will be some other crisis: the economy, our disastrous capitulation to the Taliban, or just some ordinary back-and-forth during the campaign. Trump wont know hes losing independent voters until they are already lost, because the only people he listens to are those who tell him hes doing great and that all the voters think hes a very stable genius.

Theres a bitter irony here in the role the conservative press now plays. For years, conservatives warned that the leftward bias of the mainstream media actually hurt Democrats, because the press was telling them what they wanted to hear and this blinded them to unpleasant realities. This was even codified as the Taranto Principle: the presss failure to hold left-wingers accountable for bad behavior merely encourages the lefts bad behavior to the point that its candidates are repellent to ordinary Americans.

That was back when conservatives were still struggling to create their own alternative media in an attempt to break the left-wing information bubble. But as outlets like Fox gained large audiences and became the sole, automatically trusted news source for millions of voters, they created their own bubble. Trumps diatribes about fake news and the deep state have turned that bubble into an impenetrable bunker.

The result is that pro-Trump Republicans now suffer from their own Taranto effect, leaving them blissfully unaware how much the rest of the country doesnt like their man.

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Trumps Authoritarian Blindness Comes Home to Roost - The Bulwark

There are different responses to unexpected hardship, and when Marion Sheppard began to go blind, she cycled through many of them.

She pitied herself and cried long and hard, because this wasnt right this wasnt fair. Her hearing had been severely impaired since early childhood and shed endured schoolyard teasing about that, so hadnt she paid her dues? Done her time?

She raged. Why me? she asked, many times. Its a clich, but for a reason. She really did want to know why shed been singled out.

She trembled. This was the end, wasnt it? Not of life, but of independence. Of freedom.

She spent months wrestling with those emotions, until she realized that they had pinned her in place. Time was marching on and she wasnt moving at all. Her choice was clear: She could surrender to the darkness, or she could dance.

She danced.

Thats what she was doing on a Monday morning a month and a half ago when I stopped by a Manhattan community center for blind people thats run by Visions, a nonprofit social services agency. Marion, 73, was leading her weekly line-dancing class.

She was teaching about a dozen students the steps to the electric slide and similar favorites. But, really, she was teaching them defiance. She was teaching them delight. She was teaching them not to shut down when life gives you cause to, not to underestimate yourself, not to retreat. Shed briefly done all of that, and it was a waste.

Ladies and gentlemen, I need your attention, please! she shouted over the music. Most of her students are people over 60 whose eyesight deteriorated when they were already adults and who can remember different, easier times. She told them: Just because we cant see well, we can still do things, and one of those things is dance. Her chin was high, her shoulders pulled back and her chest pushed forward. Thats how she approaches the world now: ebulliently. Emphatically.

Weve got to keep moving, she continued. You know why? Because were alive! As long as were alive, we have to keep moving.

I met Marion because, as Ive described in previous columns, Ive had my own brush with blindness or at least with the specter of it. The vision in my right eye was severely and irreversibly diminished about two and a half years ago, by a condition that puts me in danger of losing the vision in my left eye as well. Since then Ive educated myself about blindness, seeking out visually impaired people and the professionals who work with them.

I asked the executive director of Visions, Nancy Miller, about programs that upend assumptions about people with disabilities and that illustrate their tenacity, optimism, resilience.

My dance instructor is deaf and blind and in her 70s, she said.

Your dance instructor? I responded. That didnt fit my ignorant vision of Visions.

I dropped in on Marions class. Her students are devoted regulars, and while Marion cant make out their faces, she knows them by their shapes and their voices, which her hearing aids render sufficiently audible.

She calls many of them baby or sweetheart. As best I can tell, she calls most everybody baby or sweetheart, a tic in tension with her big, brassy voice, which she uses in class to trumpet orders: To the right! To the left! Back it up! Tuuuuuuuurn! Cross a drill sergeant with a life coach, add a vocabulary heavy on the sorts of endearments stamped on heart-shaped candies and you get Marion.

She and her students have memorized the layout of the basement room in which the class is held, and she figures out which of her discs of music to load into the boom box by placing them under a machine, the Aladdin Ultra, that functions as a gigantic magnifying glass. It enlarges the letters on a discs case to a point where Marion can make them out. Blindness is a spectrum, and for many blind people, the world isnt all cloud; its just foggy enough to pose formidable challenges and force clever adaptations.

Marion uses her fingers to read the controls of the boom box. She uses her hands to determine if her students are moving as instructed. The students with more sight automatically help the ones with less, in accordance with an unspoken covenant.

Sometimes, though, someone just bluntly asks for assistance, as Marion did when fiddling with an attendance sheet. I need you for a second, she told a student standing nearby. I need your eyes. Can I borrow your eyes?

Marions own eyes were fine until she was in her 40s, she said, and began to experience episodes of scarily compromised vision. She got a diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive disease that usually shows up at an earlier age. For her, blindness was delayed, but it was coming all the same.

And it was hardly the first test of her strength. Marion didnt tally her misfortunes for me, but her daughter, Kokeda Sheppard, filled me in, to communicate how tough her mom is how indomitable. Marion, who has lived most of her life in the Bronx and still resides there, never really knew her father and was just 14 when her mother died, according to Kokeda. While relatives stepped in to help, Marion nonetheless functioned as a sort of parent to her younger siblings.

She got a college degree and, as it happens, worked for decades at The Times, though we didnt know each other. She was first a key punch operator and then a library clerk. She left about two decades ago. By then, her vision had degenerated badly.

Kokeda is her only child and remembers how hard Marion, who separated from Kokedas father, always worked to make sure that she didnt want for anything. Marion routinely drove nearly four hours from their apartment in the Bronx to the private boarding school in Pennsylvania that Kokeda attended and then made nine-hour road trips to visit Kokeda in college in Virginia.

My mom is one of the most reliable people Ive ever met in my life, said Kokeda, 47, who now lives in New Jersey. I think shes awesome, in case you havent gotten that. If I can be half the woman she is, Ill be OK.

It was partly because Marion was so active and proud of her autonomy that her failing vision devastated her at first. She felt powerless. Vulnerable. I was really terrified, she told me, and that terror was distilled into a recurring thought: Unable to see a strangers approach, shed be mugged.

She also couldnt shake the worry that people were going to look at me differently, act differently toward me, she said. And people do.

For a while, as her vision faded, she rarely left her apartment. But on one occasion when she did, attending a social event where she encountered other blind people, she was struck by how physically withdrawn they were, how still. I said, Oh, no, she recalled. This is the way my life is going to be? Oh, no.

She resolved not to be self-conscious, not about anything related to her blindness. She didnt merely make peace with the cane that she sometimes uses to walk; she made friends with it. I always said if I ever had a boy, Id name him Tyreek, and I never had a boy, so Tyreek is my cane, she said. Tyreek is my best friend.

Line dancing had long been a hobby of hers, and after she started going to events run by Visions and met Miller, she proposed a line-dancing class. Miller was agreeable, provided that Marion could attract a following.

Marion did, and she has maintained it over the past decade. She attributes that less to her music (Hot Hot Hot, Cupid Shuffle, Blurred Lines) than to her mission: Shes creating a rare environment outside their own homes where blind people can be physically uninhibited, where they can move through space not with caution but with joy. Isnt that the very essence of dance?

When you go blind, you lose your confidence, Marion said. What I want them to do is to have confidence.

And they do. They find it in the warmth of how she greets them, in her yelps of encouragement Owwwww! Yeah! Hit it! as they dip and turn. At the second of the two classes I watched, an 87-year-old student of hers told me that she was all nerves and hesitation before she started line dancing with Marion about two years ago. She shuffled everywhere. Now she sashays.

A 55-year-old student told me, This has revived me.

There was a moment in both classes when Marion instructed all of the participants, who were arranged in parallel lines, to form a circle instead. Then, one by one, each of them took a turn in the center, busting moves for his or her clapping, hooting, stomping peers.

Marion took a turn, too. She corkscrewed from a standing position to a crouch. She twisted this way and that. She was fearless. Even better than that, she was limitless.

The rest is here:
She Went Blind. Then She Danced. - The New York Times

Dr. Louise Hamill tells us more about the progress she has witnessed in the fight to control, and eventually eliminate, river blindness, and how this is a clear example of the impact the intensified efforts are having on neglected tropical diseases.

Louise Hamill 17 Mar 2020

A woman who is blind due to river blindness is led by her grandchild. Democratic Republic of Congo CBM

As Bug Bitten reported recently, January saw the first ever World Neclected Tropical Diseases Day a sign of just how far those working to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases have come since the 2012 London Declaration on NTDs saw key players from across the world commit to tackling these ancient diseases.

Sightsavers in action. Source:Tommy Trenchard, Sightsavers

At Sightsavers I provide technical advice to Ministries of Health and local partners working to control and eventually eliminate river blindness (also known as onchocerciasis). The progress I have witnessed is a clear example of the impact the intensified efforts on NTDs are having.

River blindness is a parasitic infection spread by river-based flies. It causes severe skin irritation and can lead to irreversible blindness; yet its entirely preventable and treatable. If people who have the infection get timely access to the right medicine (called Mectizan) there will be no lasting impact on their skin or eyesight. If those who are at risk of infection take the drug one or two times a year over a prolonged period, they will also be protected.

Treatment using a measuring stick to work out dosage. Source: Moses Poiki

River blindness treatment now reaches record-breaking numbers, with 151.8 million people treated globally in 2018. One out of every four people who receive river blindness treatment do so through a Sightsavers-supported programme, and I have seen close-up the colossal, collaborative effort that is required to deliver treatment on such a huge scale. The right mechanisms now exist to ensure mass drug administration is successful, making the elimination of river blindness as a public health threat entirely feasible.

Progress is certainly impressive, but how did we get here?

The first steps to conquer river blindness were taken more than 20 years ago. In 1987, pharmaceutical company Merck & Co committed to donating river blindness treatment across the world for as long as it takes to eliminate the disease, through something that would eventually be known as the Mectizan Donation Programme.

Sightsavers, alongside national governments and other NGO partners, participated in multi-country research to develop the best method for providing treatment to communities on mass over a number of years. This resulted in something called the CDTi approach, which now forms the bedrock of river blindness control and elimination work.

Drugs used to cure and prevent river blindness. Source: Moses Opiki, Sightsavers

CDTi stands for community-directed treatment with ivermectin (another name for Mectizan) and it has been successful because it enables at-risk communities to distribute treatment at a time, using a method best suited to their circumstances. The CDTi approach works because it puts people in control of their own health, enabling those from at-risk communities to be instrumental in distributing and monitoring treatment. Because communities have ownership of the process, treatment distribution is more likely to continue and be effective, enabling progress to be sustained.

Community action. Source: Moses Opiki, Sightsavers

As the CDTi approach began to take off it became apparent there was a need to ensure mass drug administrations were well coordinated and best practice shared. Thats why, in 1991, the NGDO Coordination Group for the Control of Onchocerciasis was established to assist national programmes. Sightsavers was a founding member, and it was a proud day in 2013 when the groups name was changed the word control replaced with elimination , indicating just how far efforts have come in the 20 years since its inception.

In 2013, Colombia became the first country to be declared free of river blindness by the World Health Organization, followed by Ecuador in 2014, Mexico in 2015, and Guatemala in 2016.

Other countries are making important progress. Nigeria is home to around one quarter of all those at-risk of river blindness, and last year the government there announced the disease had been eliminated from Kaduna, Nassarawa and Plateau states, where 4.2 million people had previously been vulnerable.

Thanks to the high level of treatment coverage, it is has also become incredibly rare for new cases of vision loss caused by river blindness to occur.

Larvae of the Similiam blackfly, which transmits river blindness, are seen on reeds taken from the Agogo river in northern Uganda. Source: Moses Opiki, Sightsavers

A lot has been achieved in the last few decades, but more remains to be done. Currently, at least 217.5 million people are still at risk of contracting river blindness thats more than three times the population of the UK.

In 2019, WHO highlighted several priority areas that, if addressed, will help speed up elimination in countries where the disease remains endemic. One key area is to ensure all those in need of treatment are receiving it. To this end, we are supporting river blindness elimination mapping, working with partners in Ghana, Nigeria and Mozambique to determine whether areas that have not been offered treatment so far would benefit from it.

By responding to challenges such as these, and always working in partnership, the effort to reach more people with river blindness treatment will continue until all those affected have access to it.

Read the rest here:
How the global response to river blindness gained pace - BugBitten - BMC Blogs Network

A surprising relationship between air pollution and eye health has been uncovered by University College London researchers.

People living in cities with high pollution levels, like Philadelphia, have a 6% greater chance of developing glaucoma, a serious eye disease that can lead to blindness.

"Air pollution may cause inhaled particles to get into blood vessels," study co-author Paul Foster, a professor of glaucoma studies, told Men's Journal.

Those air particles travel into the nerves in the eyes, causing gradual damage to the retina. Higher particle concentration was associated with thinner macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer, which is a characteristic of glaucoma.

Blindness caused by glaucoma is irreversible. According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, most people don't realize they have it until it is well advanced. There is no cure for glaucoma and early treatment is important to slow down the progression of the disease. That's why people need to know their risk factors.

Philadelphia continues to rank among the nation's 25 worst cities for ozone and year-round particle pollution. Every year, outdoor air pollution cuts the lives of about 100,000 U.S. residents short by a decade or two.

Last summer,an explosion and fire at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery produced the highest concentration of benzene, a dangerous chemical linked to cancer, among 114 U.S. refineries, according to an Environmental Integrity Project report.

So how can you better protect yourself? Try to avoid being outside for long periods of time during peak pollution hours. Make sure you have a good air filtration system in your home and that you change the filter frequently. Also, get regular eye checkups to monitor your health.

The study's findings were published in the journalInvestigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.

View original post here:
Air pollution increases the chance of going blind, study finds - PhillyVoice.com

Llura Ambler Gund died on Sunday, March 15th at her home in Princeton, NJ. Lulie was born in Tampa, FL on February 14th, 1941 to Richard and Dorothy Liggett. She grew up in Thonotosassa, FL, attending St. Timothys and Bartram School. During high school and at the University of South Florida she pursued her love of acting all the way to New York where she met her future husband, Gordon Gund. They were married in 1966, having two children, Grant and Zack, and six grandchildren. After leaving Brooklyn, NY, they settled in Princeton, NJ near her sister and brother-in-law, Abigail and Tom Barrows and their two daughters, Katie and Anna.

In 1970, Gordon went blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Lulie was instrumental in helping him continue on and flourish in life and business. Together, they formed a special bond that would endure for more than 53 years and serve as a catalyst for success in charitable and business pursuits.

In 1971, Lulie and Gordon co-founded the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB), dedicated to finding treatments and cures for retinal degenerative diseases. In 1972 Lulie started and was President of the local Princeton chapter of FFB, the first in the nation, running it for 48 years. In recent years, there have been several major breakthroughs in treatments for blindness where FFB played a major role in funding research.

She was passionate about land conservation serving on the Nantucket Conservation Foundation board for many years and also helping to conserve farmland near her home in Princeton. In addition, Lulie spent 21 years as a Trustee and Vice president of the George Gund Foundation, serving communities in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.

She had a magnetic personality and was a wonderful judge of people. Lulie had a terrific sense of humor and loved to use it to make people smile and bring them together. As one friend said so eloquently, she made caring look like fun, and that to me is grace. Whether she was planning a small dinner or a large charity benefit, she had a gift for making events exciting and interesting.

Apart from spending time with friends and family, Lulie loved riding horses, Broadway shows, funny movies and fishing.

She is survived by her husband, Gordon; Sister, Abigail, two sons, Grant and Zack; two daughter in-laws Lara and Lindsey and six grandchildren, Lucy, Owen, Kelsey, Georgia, Colby and Gordie. She also had a host of extended family and friends whom she loved and cherished.

Details on a memorial service will be delayed until after the Corona Virus is under control. Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be made to the Foundation Fighting Blindness.

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Our Thoughts and Prayers are with Gordon Gund on the Passing of his Beloved Wife Lulie Gund - Cavs.com

Trump Derangement Syndrome is a helluva disease that has ravaged the nation and in at least one case caused hysterical blindness. Old white guy and author Stephen King tweeted out, "Note that Trump's coronavirus team is all male, all old, and all white," without noticing there were at least two women speaking, one of whom is Seema Verma, the daughter of first-generation immigrants from India. Verma is the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Actually, there were two. During another White House press briefing America's Surgeon General Jerome Adams stood with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. In case you can't tell, neither of them is white.

There is something really wrong with these people who are so hung up on the racial and gender makeup of the people on Trump's team. I don't care if they're aliens from Mars, I just want them to be the most qualified people in the room to handle a crisis. The left is so focused on diversity for diversity's sake that they would rather have a less qualified person in a position of authority because it makes them feel good about themselves. (Remember Joycelyn "teach the kids to masturbate" Elders?)

People who do this deserve to be roundly mocked. It is especially stupid that King is the one saying this considering he just got himself in a heap of trouble when he said writers should be judged solely on talent rather than on diversity. This tweet did not age well in comparison to his latest idiocy.

He was right back in January before the woke patrol made him apologize for being white and male, which he did with alarming speed. If it's important that only quality artists are given awards, how much more important is it to only hire the best crisis managers at a time of life and death in a pandemic? Spare us the virtue signaling for the benefit of your new friends, Stephen. The adults are solving problems right now.

Megan Fox is the author of Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo, and host of The Fringe podcast. Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxW

Here is the original post:
Blindness: Stephen King Can't See Minorities on Trump Coronavirus Team - PJ Media

It would be nice, as America lurches into a coronavirus shutdown, to immerse in a simpler time say, maybe the late 1990s, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a place where keeping your lawn below six inches is seen as a pressing concern. In this idyllic suburb outside Cleveland, appearances are paramount, and talking politics taboo. Its not a far cry from the insular, subtext-laden Monterey of Big Little Lies, in which Reese Witherspoon navigated an all-star cast of highly competitive mothers for a greater, if troubled, cause of female solidarity amid domestic abuse.

Little Fires Everywhere, Hulus confident if ultimately limited adaptation of Celeste Ngs 2017 bestselling book (Ng also serves as producer and co-writer), will no doubt draw comparisons to Big Little Lies. Its also produced by and starring Witherspoon as sharp-eyed queen of a town with its own code of wealth and sanitized language determined to unravel a central, disturbing mystery though it doesnt have as much to say beyond a personal melodrama backlit by an impression of an archetypical wealthy American suburb.

The series, adapted for television by Liz Tigelaar, starts, like the book, with said mystery: Elena Richardson (Witherspoon) stands stricken on her lawn, watching her slate-roofed house go up in flames. Shes quintessential Shaker, a planner and image upholder, married to a defense attorney (Joshua Jackson) and the type to send her children (four kids in four years, all in high school) to school with letter-shaped pancakes and a directive for extracurriculars. Her three eldest, senior Lexie (Jade Pettyjohn), junior Trip (Jordan Elsass), and sophomore Moody (Gavin Lewis) suspect their youngest sister, black sheep Izzy (Megan Stott) of arson a hunch their mother refuses to accept. Shes likely to suspect the enigmatic tenant of her parents old duplex, nomadic artist Mia Warren (Kerry Washington) and her teenage daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood).

The show backtracks four months to August 1997, and unspools the drama over eight hour-long episodes (seven of which were available for critics). In the waning days of summer, Elena battles with Izzy, who, unbeknownst to the family, is bullied at school for an unknown transgression. Elena rents to a reasonably wary Mia, who makes ends meet with cobbled together server jobs and artwork, and naive Pearl. Their presence sets off a chemical reaction between the two families: Pearl entrances Moody with her quiet intelligence, but is attracted to Trip; Lexie magnetizes Pearl with her thoughtless popularity; Mia draws in Izzy with her nomadic artist life, a rejection of all things Shaker; Mia and Elena fascinate and repulse each other Mia wheedles into the Richardson fray to protect their daughter, while Elena, her journalism career thwarted by children, investigates Mias past.

The series sticks, for the most part, to the book, with one major difference: Mia and Pearl, whose race is not specified in the book, are black characters in the show, adding a fraught jolt to the polarity between the two families. The decision contrasts the mothers even more starkly, and illuminates the bold prejudice and self-righteous blindness of Shaker Heights and its ilk. Suddenly, Elenas offer for Mia to be her house manager has wider significance, as does Lexies use of Pearls story for a college application essay. Some of the Richardsons dinner table scenes read more as compendiums of various micro-aggressions than actual scene of people at dinner, but the point gets across.

But whereas the book traced the knotted threads connecting two families, especially its high school characters, the shows center of gravity is Mia and Elena their differences in worldview, race, and privilege, their fierce codes as mothers and eventual obsessive crusades against each other. Washington and Witherspoon anchor such a fixation; their lines are heavy with sometimes clunky monologues but its a thrill to watch, for example, their uneasy tolerance, even understanding, evaporate in real time in a standout second episode scene (with wine, naturally). Their fault lines rupture further over an explosive parental rights case. Mia takes the side of her coworker at a Chinese restaurant, Bebe Chow (Lu Huang), an illegal immigrant who left her infant by a fire station in poverty-strained postpartum fog. Elena supports her infertile best friend Linda (Rosemarie Dewitt), who is finalizing the adoption of Bebes daughter and is desperate not to lose another child.

Both Mia and Elena insert themselves into the case intimately and insensibly, and the second half of the series diverts from Shaker into their pasts to justify why each woman responds to the case so intensely. Little Fires Everywhere becomes, ultimately, a referendum on motherhood filtered through middlebrow drama the choices mothers make, the worlds they do or do not provide, the secrets they keep, the control they want and increasingly cant have.

Like The Morning Show, yet another show produced and starring Witherspoon, Little Fires Everywhere throws a lot of fraught themes at the wall the myth of color-blindness, sexuality, motherhood, abortion, transracial adoption. Not all of them land, and the combination of so many in one series can sometimes feel chaotic, especially when some of the younger characters remain opaque. But its compulsively watchable, a portrait of two combustible women anchored by magnetic performances which, in these times, works in its favor.

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Little Fires Everywhere review Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington square off - The Guardian

Life during a global pandemic takes on a surreal quality. The ubiquitous presence of social media and a constant fire hose of coronavirus news can make it particularly hard if you're already feeling anxious.

So, we've put together a little round-up of recent science news that we find inspiring, encouraging, and worthy of note in these trying times.

In a world first, surgeons at Oregon Health & Science Institute have used the CRISPR gene-editing technique to attempt a cure for Leber congenital amaurosis, a rare genetic condition that causes blindness in early childhood.

While we await results on how this experiment worked out, this achievement joins a list of other medical uses of the technique, including the search for a Huntington's disease cure, herpes, HIV, and immunotherapy for some types of cancer.

Living at a time when medical researchers have this powerful tool at their disposal is certainly a good news item in our books.

In February, a huge stock of 60,000 seed samples was added to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault nestled inside a mountain in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, including the first-ever heirloom seed deposit by an indigenous US tribe.

Increasing deposits to this safehouse of crops reflect growing worldwide concern about potential loss of biodiversity and food security - but these actions also demonstrate a beautiful commitment to our future generations.

The virus strains that cause influenza are shapeshifters, constantly moving beyond our ability to immunise against them - hence, we need annual flu shots to stay ahead of the disease. A 'universal' flu vaccine would give us a huge advantage in this race, and there's now a truly promising candidate on the cards.

The vaccine, called FLU-v, has successfully passed phase I and phase II clinical trials, demonstrating its safety in human subjects; it's been found to induce immune responses that last at least six months. We can't wait to see the results of the next phase of trials.

A new type of contact lens could restore the colour spectrum limitations in people whose eyes struggle to tell apart green and red hues.

This brilliant technology already exists in some cleverly designed sunglasses; soon, people might also have access to it in the highly convenient form of contacts, thanks to a team of engineers at Tel Aviv University.

'Normal' image of a tree; colour blind version; corrected version. (Sharon Karepov/Tel Aviv University)

Researchers have announced that for the second time ever, a patient carrying the HIV virus has been declared cured, with no trace of infection in his blood 30 months after he stopped traditional treatment, undergoing a specialised type of stem cell therapy.

The achievement doesn't constitute a generalised cure, because the patient also had a type of lymphoma that enabled him to receive this experimental treatment; but it demonstrates a real breakthrough in medical science, showing scientists are able to push the boundaries like never before.

The tiny South Pacific nation of Niue recently accepted a unique honour, as it became the first country to be formally accredited as an International Dark Sky Place.

This accreditation is bestowed by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), a conservation non-profit charged with preserving the naturally dark night-time environment, defending it from the intrusive disturbances of artificial light pollution.

There's no end of scientific research charting the negative effects of light pollution, whether on animals, plants, or human health; this honour emphasises that seeking a truly dark night sky remains as important as ever.

Hydrogen fuel is one of the more promising zero-emissions options around - if only we could produce it cheaply and without needing insane amounts of energy input.

Now, a team of researchers in Tokyo have managed to do just that, refining a method that produces hydrogen fuel using just a few basic ingredients, including light and a particular type of rust. A new study shows this method yields 25 times more hydrogen than existing methods.

Speaking of sustainability, one of the biggest challenges to widespread adoption of renewables remains the problem of large-scale storage. However, there is one excellent solution to this problem - pumped thermal electricity storage. This approach stores electricity by turning it into heat, then turning it back into electricity when needed using an engine.

Unlike pumped hydro, which requires specific geographic requirements, this type of storage can be built in many places, and it uses thermodynamic principles to store electricity in the form of heat. And the best part? It's already being tested in pilot plants.

In June 2019, an odd paper made waves after it was published in Scientific Reports. The scientific community was quick to voice their concerns over this flawed study, which claimed that the Sun's movements were the real cause of anthropogenic global warming.

Now, the editors of the well-known journal have corrected the scientific record, issuing a retraction notice that explains the errors,showing that even if something incorrect initially slips through peer review, the scientific process is still rigorous enough to fix the mistake.You can read about this fascinating case in full here.

A new report by the non-profit Project Drawdown has outlined a whopping 76 solutions the world already has at hand if we want to slow down climate change. These strategies - from shifting our means of energy production, to reducing food waste and empowering women - span across all sectors.

Furthermore, these solutions are actually cheaper than maintaining the status quo (also known as 'doing nothing'). Project Drawdown estimates that if we implemented these 76 solutions, it would result in savings of up to around US$144 trillion of avoided climate damage and pollution-related healthcare costs. Tell everyone - we can do this.

Link:
Tired of The Coronavirus? Here Are 10 Good News Stories You Need Right Now - ScienceAlert

This is a long watch of a poem, a tormented vigil. You want to ask, Whos there? a question you might, like the guard in Hamlets opening scene, call out in the dark. If loss is the subject, who is the loser? And what or who has been lost? These questions are not easily answered.

This is the latest volume in an extraordinarily rich period for David Harsent. In 2011, in Night, he made darkness visible. Fire Songs (2014) and Salt (2017) flared into apocalyptic view soon after. The subtitle of Loss is white nights, but do not expect any atoning dawns. The form of the new volume is painstaking: stretches of italics describe a figure looking through a window, writing on misty glass. He is a man in waiting. Sonnets alternate with trochaics and lead back to the frightening consciousness from which this fragmented narrative poem comes.

It is the permeability of Harsents writing that astonishes: global catastrophe, violent incident, mechanical threat all absorbed into the text. Yet the paradox is that he seems to be on the wrong side of the membrane of what matters to him. Women of the house he lay in the dark and listened to their voices Their talk was a constant, soft, overlapping,/under and over music, soft questions, soft laughter, diminuendo. It is their music not his. Repeatedly, womens hands appear, but their soft caresses do not soothe. Lovers are seen through a glass, darkly. Femininity and domesticity continue like a play on an unreachable stage, as though taking place in another world.

There are several references to hidden theatre, as if the stage should be sought (loss can, after all, be about what you never found). The poem is full of sinister commedia dellarte figures, and we even have a brush with a dramaturge of mood-swings. The wakeful man describes himself as a pilgrim a sinner. But this is no pilgrims progress, more a pilgrims stasis written at a febrile standstill. And there is a violence about the way Harsent makes apocalypse telegraphic:

the worst already with us

dogfight politics barrel-bombs

children scorched faceless

deluge and wildfire.

At one point, the man says: you feel you might/have outlived yourself. Harsents poem pulls off a strange feat, exploring the posthumous while staying painfully alive. It becomes an experiment with absence an exploration of what happens when you go missing to yourself.

He asks how it would be to be without what makes life worth living. Cityscapes and dreamscapes might release him but the city proves feral clashing bin lids, bold foxes, toxic streetlights. And his dreams taunt him, too. Art offers perspective, but he tests its limits, and poetrys too (there is a tension about the unspoken and its relationship to the unspeakable). He notes, write it down, a reminder of the small, plucky scale of artistic enterprise. The painters he returns to are Francis Bacon and Pierre Bonnard, as if to consider the distance and, less obviously, closeness between them.

He says forgiveness is waste and it is impossible to imagine less forgiving writing. It makes this volume a challenge to read. It is a compliment to its power that I longed to break free. The man in these poems is a figure in a landscape I fear might be ours. And while we might hanker after what Robert Lowell described as the sanity of self-deception, pricked and kicked by reckless caution, Harsent detects a sudden rise/in willing blindness among the best of us.

It is this blindness that Loss, with steadfast virtuosity, addresses.

Loss by David Harsent is published by Faber (14.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p over 15

There are forms gathered in the sky that he takes to be angels.He believes in angels as he once believed in unassailable virtue.There are voices that cant be accounted for. There are facesthat come and go. There is a fool let loose in his housewhich explains the breakage and wreckage, the faecal smell.There are rooms in his house that he has never seen.His heart went like a songbirds fast and light, morning delayednonetheless. He got up and walked about, a man in waiting.He sat down somewhere, a chill on the place. It seemed clearthere are rules that cannot be broken except by deaththere are slums out of which comes greatness that goes to wastethere are things that fall to hand but can never be keptthere are chance meetings that discover a turbulence of lovethere are maps that will take you to the edge of things.

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Poetry book of the month: Loss by David Harsent review - The Guardian