Category: Health

Sept. 8, 2022 – Television news anchor Julie Chin is recovering after experiencing stroke-like symptoms live on air earlier this month. Chin, an anchor for NBC local news affiliate KRJH in Tulsa, OK, was reporting on the NASA Artemis I launch when she suddenly had trouble talking or reading words off the teleprompter.

Thanks to quick action from her colleagues who called 911, Chin was rushed to a nearby hospital where she underwent a series of tests.

“First I lost partial vision in one eye. A little bit later my hand and arm went numb. Then, I knew I was in big trouble when my mouth would not speak the words that were right in front of me on the teleprompter,” she wrote on Facebook the following day.

“My doctors believe I had the beginnings of a stroke on the air,” said Chin, who is now recovering at home.

When a News Anchor Becomes the News

The video of Chin struggling for words is bringing a lot of attention to this medical emergency. It shows how unexpectedly, and rapidly, stroke-like symptoms can start. It’s also a good reminder to anyone who thinks they or someone else might be having a stroke that they need to act fast.

“It was a scary event for her, but I think it’s a good opportunity for us at the American Heart Association to remind people what the signs of a stroke are,” Mitchell Elkind, MD, says.

Larry Goldstein, MD, chair of neurology at the University of Kentucky HealthCare in Lexington, agrees .

“Anything that raises awareness is a good thing,” he says . “This event was a good example of someone experiencing speech changes – although her articulation was good — she had a real word-finding problem.”

People who witness a stroke play an important role. Sometimes the person experiencing the stroke is unable to call for help or the stroke takes away their ability to recognize they’re having a problem, says Elkind, AHA chief clinical science officer.

“That’s why it’s important for friends, co-workers or even people on the street to recognize the signs of a stroke.”

Remember the Signs

If you suspect a stroke, remember B.E.F.A.S.T. It stands for Balance; Eyes (loss of vision); Face (drooping); Arms (one arm drifts downward); Speech (slurred or confused), and Time and Terrible headache.

The AHA recommends people consider at least F.A.S.T. because it’s easier to remember, even though balance and eye problems can occur, Elkind says.

Goldstein says the balance and eye issues can identify another 14% of people experiencing a stroke. But no matter how you remember the signs of a stroke, it’s important to act fast, he says.

In Chin’s case, an incomprehensible text she sent her husband after she got off the air was another clue: “I need help. Something is not Run today. My work won’t work is working my help my.” Alarmed, her husband rushed to meet her at the hospital.

A total of 795,000 Americans experience a stroke every year, the CDC reports. More than 600,000 of these are first strokes. More than 150,000 Americans died from stroke in 2019, according to the AHA 2022 Fact Sheet. That translates to one death from stroke every 3.5 minutes in the United States.

About 80% to 90% of strokes are preventable, so people should consider making lifestyle and other changes to reduce their risk, Goldstein recommends. . Because “once a stroke happens, it’s a catch up [situation].”

For people hesitant to seek medical attention right away, Elkind points out that specialists have effective treatments for stroke, but they must be administered shortly after signs begin. “Don’t ignore it would be my recommendation.”

“When it comes to anything medical, if you think you need help, if something is really not right, don’t be afraid to ask for help,” Chin said in an interview on the Today Show on Wednesday.

“I hope this story helps somebody else,” Chin said.

Sept. 8, 2022 -– Great Britain’s oldest and longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth the II, has died.

The exact cause of death has not been released but Buckingham Palace on Thursday announced she had been placed under medical supervision at home and doctors were “concerned” about her health. Members of the royal family were said to be assembling at her home, Balmoral, in Scotland.

In a statement later Thursday, the Royal Family said, “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”

Elizabeth was born April 21, 1926, and ascended the throne at age 25 after the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952.

Recent Health Problems

Despite enjoying good health into her 90s, the queen had been experiencing health woes as of late.

She contracted COVID-19 in late February, which she said left “one very tired and exhausted,” in a video call with health workers.

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, paid the queen a visit in mid-April – the pair’s first visit to Windsor Castle since their controversial exit — which had many wondering if the late monarch’s health was failing.

She also missed several annual royal events this year, including Easter Sunday service at St George’s Chapel, citing difficulty moving and traveling. 

Elizabeth, did, however, greet newly elected Prime Minister Liz Truss on Tuesday at Balmoral.

The queen had been in good health for many years, with only three brief hospital visits in the last two decades. That began to change after the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, on April 9, 2021, less than 2 weeks before her 95th birthday.

Six months later, in October 2021, the queen abruptly canceled a trip to Northern Ireland due to fatigue, according to palace aides, and was hospitalized the next day. After an overnight stay she was released. In an unprecedented move, her participation in all public events and ceremonies was canceled for the following 2 weeks. No explanation or diagnosis was provided.

The Keys to Her Longevity

Although she was among the world’s wealthiest women, Queen Elizabeth led a relatively low-key life — and her famously modest lifestyle may have contributed to her longevity. While she never commented publicly on her diet, exercise, sleep habits, or other aspects of her day-to-day life, it appears she maintained a naturally health-boosting routine.

The queen’s diet was notably unfussy. According to reports, she started her mornings with Earl Grey tea, after which breakfast might include a bowl of cereal or yogurt, and often toast with marmalade. Unless she was eating at a formal function, lunch and dinner both featured simply cooked protein — grilled chicken or fish with salad for lunch, and game (like venison or pheasant) or more fish for dinner, without any starch. “That’s it. That’s all she has,” former royal chef Darren McGrady told CNN in 2017. “She’s very disciplined like that. She could have anything she wanted, but it is that discipline that keeps her so well and so healthy.”

But the queen did appreciate regular, small indulgences: Between lunch and dinner, she would enjoy afternoon tea with finger sandwiches and cake, and she was known to drink alcohol regularly, too.

Elizabeth didn’t follow a specific exercise routine. Instead, she included physical activity in her everyday life, mostly walking with her beloved corgis or riding horses on royal lands. Routinely getting enough sleep contributed to her good health, too. She tried to be in bed by 11 p.m. and woke at 7:30 a.m.

“Mental habits and unique ways of thinking — about food or exercise or work or rest — make her the down-to-earth woman she is today,” Bryan Kozlowski, author of Long Live the Queen! 23 Rules for Living From Britain’s Longest-Reigning Monarch, told Good Housekeeping in 2020. “Which, in turn, makes her lifestyle ‘secrets’ a surprisingly easy (and free!) joy to follow in everyday life.”

Kozlowski named several other factors that helped her stay physically and mentally healthy well into her nineties:
 

• Staying engaged. The queen made dozens of public appearances each year, and every day she spent hours reading through a large red box of paperwork related to affairs of state.
• Giving back. From the time she ascended the throne, Elizabeth was famous for her sense of purpose. She supported numerous charities and sought to live by example.
• Making time to recharge. As the head of the British monarchy, Elizabeth often had a lot on her shoulders, but she prioritized spending time in nature, with regular visits to her country estates. Even her afternoon tea provided a daily respite from stress.

One other possible factor: Having lost her father, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather, and eventually her sister to smoking-related illnesses, Elizabeth reportedly never smoked a cigarette in her life.

Elizabeth is survived by her son, Charles; her other children, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Sept. 8, 2022 – There’s an old joke about running:

Q: What’s the best way to make the Olympic team?

A: Choose your parents wisely!

It’s funny because it’s laced with scientific truth: No aspiring athlete was ever slowed down by good genetics.

Consider a recent study out of Spain that explored the relationship between the size of the trunk – the ribcage and waist – and the ability to run fast.

Researchers used a 3D surface scanner to measure the trunks of 27 male volunteers who ran at various speeds on a treadmill. At moderate speeds, there was no difference among men with different torso shapes.

But when they reached 85% effort (working hard) or perceived 100% effort (all-out race pace), the fastest body type became clear: “a relatively narrow, flat torso.”

So, your inherited torso shape can give you an edge. Or not.
You see lots of those narrow, flat torsos at the Olympics. That body shape can contribute to what coaches call running efficiency, a major part of fast running – but not the only one. There’s VO2 max – how your body uses oxygen. There’s the ratio of “fast twitch” muscle fiber (sprinting) and “slow twitch” fiber (distance running). And there are also abstract things like mental toughness and incentive.

You don’t need the perfect torso to have these traits or improve them. That’s good news for runners everywhere, because research shows running can improve your health and help you live longer.

How Running Helps Your Health

Even small amounts of running reduce the risk of death from heart attack or stroke, according to a 2014 study led by Duck-Chul Lee, PhD, of Iowa State University.

Researchers followed 55,000 adults for 15 years. Just 5 to 10 minutes of running, several times a week, even at modest speeds (6 mph, or a 10-minute-mile pace) nudged the needle toward better health. Runners on average lived 3 years longer than nonrunners.

Running reduces the risks of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, says Russell Pate, PhD, one of Lee’s fellow researchers.

“And we learned during the pandemic that fit people generally had better outcomes against COVID-19,” he says.

Pate is now 76 years old and a research professor in the University of South Carolina’s Exercise Science Department. He’s a longtime distance runner with three top-10 finishes in the Boston Marathon, so you can guess what his torso looks like.

But as a researcher, his focus is on promoting lifelong fitness habits for all ages. Pate says that running is a smart choice because it is “very accessible, relatively inexpensive, and the U.S. often has ‘community support systems’ such as local running clubs or planned trail systems that recreational runners find inviting.”

The 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which Pate helped develop, recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. That’s about 20 minutes a day, which should be doable if you’re looking to get fit and stay healthy, he says.

For runners, that might be less than 20 miles per week, while someone training for a half-marathon or even a 5K may easily surpass that mileage.

But before you start a running program – or return to one after time off – get cleared by medical professionals.

Improve Your Running, Whatever Your Body Type

Running coaches know the importance of running efficiency. And that starts not in the legs, but in your “core.”

“A strong core helps a runner maintain their center of gravity late in the race, when running form begins to break down due to fatigue,” says George Buckheit, a former All-American runner at Bucknell University and founder of the Capital Area Runners club in the Washington, DC, area.

Doing basic planks at home is a simple way to strengthen your core.

Besides putting in the miles, Buckheit says certain drills will help you get faster:

Form drills like “high knees” and “butt kicks” reinforce proper mechanics and increase range of motion. High knees are a skipping-like motion, while butt kicks bring the foot up from directly below, close to the buttocks. He recommends Lauren Fleshman’s video to see how to do these and other drills.

Running hills also reinforces proper form. Even a moderate uphill requires an active, rhythmic arm swing and a crisp knee lift.

Interval training can increase your VO2 max, or the maximum amount of oxygen your body uses when you’re working out as hard as you can. Once every 7 to 10 days, try a faster workout on a track or a flat, measured trail. Jog for 10 to 15 minutes, do some light stretches or drills, then do four 800-meter runs at (or slightly faster than) your actual 5K pace. Take a 2- or 3-minute walk/jog “recovery” between each 800-meter run, and finish with 10 to 15 minutes jogging to cool down.

Push yourself to build mental toughness and confidence, which will come with harder or longer workouts. Add a couple of miles to your longest run, and include some rolling hills. If you’re eyeing a marathon, be sure to enter some 5K or 10K races to get used to the physical and mental demands of competition.

Speed work can help you overcome any shortcomings in fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles, which is just a roll of the genetic dice. Short, fast sprints (five or six bursts over 40 or 50 meters) can eventually make you faster and more explosive, while building up weekly mileage or increasing the length of your long, steady-paced runs will activate the “slow twitch” endurance muscles.
Running Away from Medication

One man in Buckheit’s running club wouldn’t have crushed the Spanish “trunk test.” He was in his late 20s, well over 200 pounds, and on heart meds.

“I was worried I might need my CPR training for this guy,” Buckheit says.

But a well-planned running program – and an athlete willing to do the running – took the story in another direction. Buckheit’s newbie ran 4 hours for his first marathon, and through diligent training a few years later, he ran one in under 3 hours. That’s under 7 minutes per mile.

“When he did that,” Buckheit said, “I thought, ‘Well, he can’t get much faster.’”

But the onetime rookie with heart issues most recently dropped his marathon personal record to 2 hours, 37 minutes (running at 6 minutes per mile for 26 miles).

“I think he really benefited from the accountability and camaraderie of being in a running club,” says Buckheit. “And one day he came to practice and said: ‘My cardiologist wants to know what the hell I’ve been doing. He took me off the heart meds.’”

But can running help you ditch your meds or, better yet, avoid them altogether? Yes, suggests the findings of a London-based study published in 2020.

The study put 138 first-time marathoners – men and women between 21 and 69 – on a 17-week program of less than 30 miles per week before the London Marathon. Blood pressure and arteries were checked before and after.

Their conclusion: Reductions in blood pressure and aortic stiffening in healthy participants. It was as if they’d reduced the age of their blood vessels by 4 years. The benefit was greater in older, slower male runners with higher baseline blood pressure.

Coach Buckheit’s “surprise star” and the results of the London Marathon study are refreshing reminders that not all our victories are celebrated on top of the medals stand.

Any Body Can Be a Runner’s Body

The first running boom of the 1970s was dominated by gnarly, wiry men. Now, 44% of marathon finishers are women. In recent decades, mid-pack (or back-of-pack) runners were encouraged by people like Oprah Winfrey and Runner’s World columnist John Bingham, also known as “The Penguin” because of his waddling gait.

Neither had torso measurements that would have impressed the Spanish researchers. But Oprah finished a marathon in 4 hours, 29 minutes.

“Oprah made a lot of people believers,” says Amby Burfoot, 1968 Boston Marathon winner. “She was once a very unlikely candidate to make it, and when she did, a lot of people thought, ‘Hey, why can’t I?’”

And Bingham’s column made him the Pied Piper of the Plodder – luring slower runners along with encouragement and humor – en route to lives of better physical and mental well-being.

“We wouldn’t have dared enter a race like this, with all these fast runners, if it wasn’t for your column,” an admirer gushed to him at a marathon expo.

Bingham grinned and said, “Just remember this: There’s a lot more of us than there are of them.”

Mark Will-Weber is a former senior editor at Runner’s World magazine and the editor/writer of The Quotable Runner.

Sept. 8, 2022 — Parents who give their infants lactose-reduced infant formula may be setting their children up for an increased risk of obesity in toddlerhood, new research shows.

Researchers have long established that infants who drink infant formula instead of breast milk already carry an increased risk of obesity. But the new study found a difference in the type of formula and obesity outcomes of children.

Babies under age 1 who received lactose-reduced formula made partially of corn syrup solids were at a 10% increased risk of being obese by age 2 than infants who received regular cow’s milk formula.

“This is even another reason to not use a low-lactose formula,” says Mark R. Corkins, MD, division chief of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. “Parents think if babies are fussy, or they spit up, they have lactose intolerance, but if you look at the actual numbers, lactose intolerance in infants is rare.”

Corkins say many parents come to him with complaints that their infants are fussy or spitting up, and believe that their babies are lactose intolerant.

“The reason the low-lactose formulas are even on the market is because parents want them and they think their kid is lactose intolerant, but they are not,” Corkins says, adding that he usually tries to connect these parents with lactation support services like peer programs that can help ease the breastfeeding process.

Researchers from the WIC program in southern California and the University of Southern California analyzed data from over 15,000 infants in southern California. All were enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a federal nutrition assistance program that provides healthy foods and breastfeeding support to low-income pregnant women or new moms and their children up to age 5. 

Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Aug. 23, records from infants born between Sept. 2012 and March 2016 were separated into two groups: infants that had stopped breastfeeding by month 3 and had started reduced lactose formula, and infants who received all other forms of formula. Over 80% of infants in both groups were Hispanic.

Infants who received the reduced lactose formula with corn syrup solid formula were at an 8% increased risk of obesity by age 3 than children who received regular cow’s milk formula, and a 7% increased risk by age 4.

Tara Williams, pediatrician and breastfeeding medicine specialist with the Florida Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics, said the findings should make pediatricians, parents and others pause and consider what infant formulas contain.

She explained that babies who receive formula have higher obesity risk than babies who are breastfed overall. But research into the effects of different types of formula is relatively new. She said there may be a few reasons for the link between reduced lactose, corn syrup solid formula and a higher risk of obesity.

“The addition of the corn syrup really starts to potentially teach that child to like sweet things,” Williams said, which in turn can lead to less healthy eating habits in childhood and adulthood.

Or, it may be that parents who tend to give their children lactose-reduced formula are less likely to be tolerant of fussy babies, and end up feeding their babies more, Williams hypothesized.

In addition, emerging research shows corn syrup may act differently from other sugars in the gut microbiome and metabolize in the liver, leading to weight gain.

Though parents make individual choices for what kind of formula to feed their infants, states play a large role in these choices. In 2018, 45% of babies in the United States were eligible for WIC, which is funded through the federal government but administered by states. State WIC programs request bids from formula manufacturers, and products chosen are then redeemed at retailers by parents.

“Now that we’re starting to see a signal that perhaps some formulas will have a potentially added risk of obesity for participants, states may say that when we’re helping mothers select among the formulas, we need to be very explicit about this additional risk,” says Christopher Anderson, PhD, associate research scientist at the Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC in California and lead author of the study.

Williams says more research to do similar analysis in other populations is needed to draw cause and effect conclusions, while Corkins says he’d like to see more research into the amount of formula eaten and connections to types of formula.

“We know as soon as you sign up for baby registry at Target, you’re getting formula samples in the mail; you’re very aggressively marketed to, it’s a $55 billion industry,” Williams said. “And their goal is to sell their product not to promote the health of infants.

“This research certainly will cause us to pause and consider what we are feeding our infants in the United States and how we allow companies to market their products.”