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New Blood Test Promises Pain-Free Diagnosis of Celiac Disease.

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New Blood Test Promises Pain-Free Diagnosis of Celiac Disease.

New BlooCeliac disease patients currently must make themselves sicker before they’re able to seek treatment.

The tests now used to diagnose celiac disease require patients to eat gluten, the protein that provokes an autoimmune reaction, then chart their response.

But a new blood test promises to change all that, researchers reported.

The test looks for a specific immune response to gluten within a person’s blood, and can detect celiac disease even if a person is on a gluten-free diet for their GI symptoms, researchers reported recently in the journal Gastroenterology.

“There are likely millions of people around the world living with undiagnosed celiac disease simply because the path to diagnosis is difficult, and at times, debilitating,” said senior researcher Jason Tye-Din, head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Celiac Research Laboratory in Parkville, Australia.

“This new test promises to simplify and speed up accurate diagnosis, while also avoiding the suffering that comes with eating gluten for extended periods to reactivate celiac disease,” he added in a news release.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder in which eating gluten causes the immune system to attack and damage the small intestine. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley.

Researchers developed the test based on an unexpected discovery in 2019, when a team found that the immune marker interleukin 2 spikes in the bloodstream of people with celiac disease after they eat gluten.

Based on this, the researchers created a test that provokes this immune response by exposing blood samples to gluten in a test tube.

For the new study, researchers tried out their blood test on samples from 181 volunteers recruited at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia.

The volunteers included 75 celiac patients on a gluten-free diet; 13 people with untreated celiac disease; 32 people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity; and 61 healthy folks to serve as a control group.

As expected, the IL-2 signal only increased in the blood of volunteers with celiac disease, demonstrating that the immune response can be detected in a test tube, researchers said.

The test proved 90% accurate in identify people with celiac disease, and 97% accurate in ruling out folks who don’t have the disorder, results show.

“We also found the strength of the IL-2 signal correlated with the severity of a patient’s symptoms, allowing us to predict how severely a person with celiac disease might react to gluten, without them actually having to eat it,” lead investigator Olivia Moscatelli, a doctoral student at the University of Melbourne, said in a news release.

Moscatelli herself was diagnosed with celiac disease at 18, and said she’s thrilled with the results.

“This breakthrough is deeply personal as it could spare others from the grueling diagnostic process I had to endure,” she said. “Knowing I’ve played a role in this achievement is a powerful, full-circle moment.”

However, the technology used by the researchers is highly sensitive and can detect the IL-2 signal at very low levels, meaning this test currently is out of reach for most pathology labs, the team noted.

“It’s like the equivalent of being able to detect a single grain of sand in a swimming pool,” Moscatelli said.

Researchers said future studies should see whether similar blood tests could be used to detect other conditions, including type 1 diabetes, cancer, transplant rejection and infectious diseases.

© HealthDayd Test Promises Pain-Free Diagnosis of Celiac Disease.

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Blood, Urine Reveal Ultra Processed Food Intake.

Food that does you in.

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Blood, Urine Reveal Ultra Processed Food Intake.

Molecules in blood and urine may reveal how much energy a person consumes from ultra processed foods, a key step to understanding the impact of the products that make up nearly 60% of the American diet, a new study finds.

It’s the first time that scientists have identified biological markers that can indicate higher or lower intake of the foods, which are linked to a host of health problems, said Erikka Loftfield, a National Cancer Institute researcher who led the study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine.

“It can potentially give us some clues as to what the underlying biology might be between an ultra-processed food association and a health outcome,” Loftfield said.

Ultra Processed foods – sugary cereals, sodas, chips, frozen pizzas and more – are products created through industrial processes with ingredients such as additives, colors and preservatives not found in home kitchens. They’re ubiquitous in the U.S. and elsewhere but studying their health impacts is hard because it’s difficult to accurately track what people eat.

Typical nutrition studies rely on recall: asking people what they ate during a certain period. But such reports are notoriously unreliable because people don’t remember everything they ate, or they record it inaccurately.

“There’s a need for both a more objective measure and potentially also a more accurate measure,” Loftfield explained.

To create the new scores, Loftfield and her colleagues examined data from an existing study of more than 1,000 older U.S. adults who were AARP members. More than 700 of them had provided blood and urine samples, as well as detailed dietary recall reports, collected over a year.

The scientists found that hundreds of metabolites – products of digestion and other processes – corresponded to the percentage of energy a person consumes from ultra processed foods. From those, they devised a score of 28 blood markers and up to 33 urine markers that reliably predicted ultra processed food intake in people consuming typical diets.

“We found this signature that was sort of predictive of this dietary pattern that’s high in ultra processed food and not just a specific food item here and there,” she said.

A few of the markers, notably two amino acids and a carbohydrate, showed up at least 60 times out of 100 testing iterations. One marker showed a potential link between a diet high in ultra processed foods and Type 2 diabetes, the study found.

To confirm the findings, Loftfield measured the scoring tool with participants in a carefully controlled 2019 National Institutes of Health study of ultra processed foods.

In that study, 20 adults went to live for a month at an NIH center. They received diets of ultra processed and unprocessed foods matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber and macronutrients for two weeks each and were told to eat as much as they liked.

Loftfield’s team found that they could use the metabolite scores to tell when the individual participants were eating a lot of ultraprocessed foods and when they weren’t eating those foods.

The results suggested the markers were “valid at the individual level,” Loftfield said.

It’s still early research, but identifying blood and urine markers to predict ultra processed foods consumption is “a major scientific advance,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, who was not involved in the study.

“With more research, these metabolic signatures can begin to untangle the biologic pathways and harms of UPF and also differences in health effects of specific UPF food groups, processing methods and additives,” he said.

Loftfield said she hopes to apply the tool to existing studies where blood and urine samples are available to track, for instance, the effect of consuming ultra processed foods on cancer risk.

At a time when support for government research is being cut, funding remains uncertain.

“There’s a lot of interest across the board — scientifically, public interest, political interest — in the question of: Does ultra processed food impact health and, if so, how?” she said. “How can we fund the studies that need to be done to answer these questions in a timely way?”

 

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Drinking Coffee Linked to Healthier Aging.

Coffee slows down aging. Adobe stock Picture.

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Drinking Coffee Linked to Healthier Aging.

A morning cup of coffee might do more than momentarily boost your energy and spirits.

Full-test java also appears to help women age more gracefully, a new study says.

Middle-aged women who regularly drank caffeinated coffee were more likely to stay mentally sharp and physically functional as they aged, researchers reported Monday at a meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

Each extra cup was tied to a 2% to 5% increased chance of aging gracefully, results show.

“The findings suggest that caffeinated coffee — not tea or decaf — may uniquely support aging trajectories that preserve both mental and physical function,” researcher Sara Mahdavi, a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a news release.

For the study, researchers tracked more than 47,500 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study, a long-term research project that has collected data since 1984.

The team compared the women’s caffeine intake to their healthy aging, which was defined as living to 70, being free from 11 major chronic illnesses, maintaining physical function, having good mental health and exhibiting no memory or thinking difficulties.

By 2016, more than 3,700 of the women met all the requirements for being considered a person who has aged gracefully, researchers said.

In middle age, these women typically consumed about 315 milligrams of caffeine daily, roughly three small cups or one and a half large cups of coffee, researchers said. More than 80% of that caffeine came from coffee.

Each 80 milligrams of caffeine consumed daily increased a woman’s odds for healthy aging.

Caffeine intake also increased their odds of avoiding chronic illness, remaining physically strong and keeping their wits and memory, results show.

But not all sources of caffeine were the same.

Coffee alone was associated with healthy aging, with benefits accruing up to five small cups or two and a half large cups per day.

On the other hand, caffeinated colas tended to be linked to worse aging, researchers found.

Each additional small glass of soda was associated with a 20% to 26% lower likelihood of healthy aging, results show.

Decaf coffee and tea were not significantly associated one way or the other with aging, researchers noted.

“These results, while preliminary, suggest that small, consistent habits can shape long-term health,” Mahdavi said. “Moderate coffee intake may offer some protective benefits when combined with other healthy behaviors such as regular exercise, a healthy diet and avoiding smoking.”

However, researchers warned that coffee should not be considered a fountain of youth.

“While this study adds to prior evidence suggesting coffee intake may be linked with healthy aging, the benefits from coffee are relatively modest compared to the impact of overall healthy lifestyle habits and warrant further investigation,” Mahdavi added.

Researchers next plan to study how the compounds contained in coffee might act to influence a person’s aging.

Mahdavi presented the findings Monday at the American Nutrition Society’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fl.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

© HealthDay

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Life Music

Let it fly Friday.

Dance or sing to the music.

Views: 25

Let it fly Friday.

So with the weekend here, let’s play what moves you.

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Sitting Too Long Increases Neck Pain Risk.

What sitting to long can do.

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Sitting Too Long Increases Neck Pain Risk.

If you spend hours a day glued to your phone or seated at a desk, you’re setting yourself up for serious neck pain, a recent study warns.

Researchers looked at data from 25 studies involving more than 43,000 people across 13 countries.

The upshot: Longer periods of sedentary behavior — like sitting and using electronic devices — were tied to higher odds of developing neck pain, The Washington Post reported.

Mobile phone use was the riskiest screen-related habit. People who spent a lot of time on their phones had 82% higher risk of neck pain than those who did not, researchers found.

Using a computer raised the risk by 23%, but watching TV did not significantly increase the risk.

The longer people sat, the greater their risk.

Sitting for four hours a day increased the risk of neck pain by 45%, and sitting for more than six hours a day raised it by nearly 88%, compared to people who weren’t sedentary.

Researchers suspect that sedentary behavior dovetails with not only with a rise in electronic device use, but also lifestyle changes brought about by the pandemic,The Post said.

Many people tend to bend their necks and slouch their shoulders while using phones, tablets and computers, putting extra strain on the neck and upper back.

“This condition can precipitate various musculoskeletal issues, especially in the neck region,” a team led by Yunchen Meng of China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing wrote in the journal BMC Public Health.

 

© HealthDay

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Debunking Common Health Myths.

You make the call.

Views: 14

Debunking Common Health Myths.

By Lynn C. Allison    

Old wives’ tales about health have been around for generations. Health myths persist because misinformation spreads easily, especially with the popularity of social media. Here is the truth about some of the most common health myths:

• Drink 8 glasses of water daily. According to WebMD, there is no need to count cups. People who drink when they are thirsty stay well-hydrated. In addition, fruit, vegetables, soup, and beverages such as juice, coffee, and tea all contribute to our daily hydration needs.

• Eggs cause heart disease. By now, it’s been pretty well established that eating eggs is good for you, as long as you don’t overdo it. According to Real Simple, all eggs are rich in protein, phosphorus, selenium, chlorine, iron, vitamin A and B vitamins. The B vitamins and choline found in eggs are beneficial to brain health. While eggs do contain cholesterol, experts say that dietary cholesterol does not significantly raise blood cholesterol levels enough to trigger heart disease in healthy people.

• You can catch a cold by being out in cold weather. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, contrary to popular belief, cold weather or feeling chilled doesn’t cause a cold. However, more colds do occur during the cold weather seasons because schools are in session, increasing the risk for exposure to the virus. People also stay indoors more when it’s cold and are in closer proximity to each other, making it easier to pass along germs. The low humidity of winter causes dry nasal passages, which are more susceptible to cold viruses.

• You need a daily multivitamin. You should get most of your daily nutrients from a well-rounded diet that includes lots of fruit, vegetables, nuts, healthy oils and whole grains. But if your doctor feels you are suffering from a deficiency, a vitamin supplement may be needed.

• You need to eat breakfast to lose weight. Not so, say experts from Cornell University who found that people who skipped breakfast didn’t overeat at lunch and dinner and, in fact, ate 400 fewer calories a day.

• Green mucus means infection. One study looked at green mucus samples from people with a cough and no other lung conditions. It found that only about 1 in 10 of those green mucus samples were caused by a bacterial infection. This means that most people with green mucus don’t have a bacterial infection. In short, mucus color alone isn’t a reliable way to say whether you need antibiotics, says GoodRx.

• Sugar makes kids hyper. While sugar isn’t good for children, research shows that it won’t cause them to act out or be unable to focus on their schoolwork.

• Toilet seats can pass along germs. According to WebMD, toilet seats are usually clean. It’s the doorknobs, handles and floors that can be covered with bacteria like E. coli, norovirus and the flu. Use paper towels to cover your hands when opening doors or touching handles and a hand sanitizer afterwards.

• Cracking joints triggers arthritis. While the sound of someone cracking their joints can be annoying, it does not cause arthritis. Experts at the Cleveland Clinic say one reason that your joints may make a cracking noise could be gas escaping from a synovial membrane, or a ligament or tendon passing over another ligament or tendon. However, if you feel regular or severe pain in your joints, seek medical help.

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FDA Approves First Blood Test to Detect Alzheimer’s.

If true, will you try it?

Views: 16

FDA Approves First Blood Test to Detect Alzheimer’s.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it has cleared Fujirebio Diagnostics’ blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, making it the first of its kind to detect the condition.

Blood testing is initially likely to be used to rule out Alzheimer’s, with positive results signaling the need for more advanced diagnostics.

Alzheimer’s, which gradually destroys memory and thinking skills, is characterized by changes in the brain including buildup of amyloid beta plaques and tau tangles that result in loss of neurons responsible for transmitting information.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it has cleared Fujirebio Diagnostics’ blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, making it the first of its kind to detect the condition.

Blood testing is initially likely to be used to rule out Alzheimer’s, with positive results signaling the need for more advanced diagnostics.

Alzheimer’s, which gradually destroys memory and thinking skills, is characterized by changes in the brain including buildup of amyloid beta plaques and tau tangles that result in loss of neurons responsible for transmitting information.

 

 

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Life Music

Weekend jam time.

Views: 33

Weekend jam time.

Sunny days are back! Get in a relaxed summer mood & have a great start for Friday,Saturday & Sunday with this music.

No matter what your occupation, lifestyle, race, color or creed, there is one thing that brings humanity together on the last day of the working week: that Friday feeling.

 

 

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You make the call. You Could Live to 100 If You Can Pass This Test.

Strength exercise.

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You make the call. You Could Live to 100 If You Can Pass This Test.

Lynn C. Allison. Author.

A simple test can help gauge longevity. Research published in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging found that grip strength is “an indispensable biomarker for older adults.” Grip strength refers to the measure of force exerted by the hand and forearm muscles when gripping an object. It is a simple yet powerful indicator of overall muscle health, which can reflect the body’s physical condition.

Studies have shown that reduced grip strength is associated with frailty, decreased mobility, and a higher risk of falls among older adults. Furthermore, it can indicate underlying health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, or neurological disorders, which often become more prevalent with age.

In a Canadian study, researchers examined the connection between grip strength and mortality in 140,000 adults. They found that poor hand grip strength was linked to a higher risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and death.

Grip is also an indicator of cognitive and mental health. A 2022 study found that increased grip strength was associated with better cognitive function, less depression and anxiety, and higher life satisfaction.

Researchers have found that individuals with weaker grip strength are more likely to experience early mortality, slower recovery from illnesses, and a diminished quality of life. Conversely, those with stronger grip strength tend to enjoy longer, healthier lives.

The simplicity of the grip strength test using a dynameter makes it a convenient and cost-effective tool for assessing aging and longevity across diverse populations.

According to Eat This, Not That! you can test your grip strength at home, without the need for a dynameter, by simply squeezing a tennis ball. Researcher Joshua Davidson, of the University of Derby in England, developed this test.

Grab a tennis ball in one hand and squeeze for as long as you can before being fatigued. Try to squeeze the ball for 15 to 30 seconds. If you can perform this test successfully, it’s one measure that could predict you may live to 100, according to research.

But don’t lose heart if you didn’t pass the test. You can improve your grip strength, says GoodRx. Some of those moves might already be part of your fitness routine. For example, functional exercises –– such as deadlifts, woodchops, and pull-ups on a bar –– engage your hands and other muscle groups.

 

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Autoimmune Disease Raises Women’s Heart Risks.

Cedars-Sinai investigators are using AI to analyze images from a common heart test to identify signs of valve disease. Image by Getty.

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Autoimmune Disease Raises Women’s Heart Risks.

woman with autoimmune disease holding hand
(Adobe Stock)

Women with common autoimmune inflammatory diseases are more likely than men to die from heart disease, a new study says.

Women with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or systemic sclerosis have a 50% higher heart disease-related death rate than men, researchers reported May 5 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

“Our study highlights the significant burden of cardiovascular disease in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, which disproportionately affect women,” said senior researcher Dr. Heba Wassif, director of cardio-rheumatology at the Cleveland Clinic.

“It is critical to screen for and address cardiovascular risk factors early, at the time of diagnosis and periodically thereafter,” she said in a news release.

Women are two to three times more likely than men to develop rheumatoid arthritis, and about nine times more likely to develop lupus, researchers said in background notes.

Systemic sclerosis also is more common among women than men, researchers said. That autoimmune disease involves the tightening and hardening of skin, potentially affecting the digestive tract, blood vessels and internal organs.

For the study, researchers analyzed data for more than 127,000 heart disease-related deaths among more than 281,000 deaths associated with the three common autoimmune diseases between 1999 and 2020.

Overall, heart disease deaths declined for people with these autoimmune disorders, from 3.9 to 2.1 per 100,000 in women and from 1.7 to 1.2 per 100,000 in men between 1999 and 2020, results show.

However, the death rate remains higher among women compared to men, despite the overall reduction in deaths.

Stroke and clogged arteries were the main causes of heart-related death in autoimmune patients, and women died from both at higher rates than men.

Women also were more than twice as likely to die from irregular heart rhythms or cardiac arrest, researchers found.

People with rheumatoid arthritis had the highest heart-related death rate, results show.

“There is a common perception that people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases primarily die from infections or kidney disease,” lead study author Dr. Issam Motairek, an internal medicine resident at Cleveland Clinic, said in a news release.

“However, our study revealed that one-third of deaths in this population were due to cardiovascular disease, highlighting the significant burden of heart disease in these patients,” he added.

“This study reinforces the need to investigate drivers of these disparities between women and men and how to improve treatment for patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases,” Motairek concluded.

 

© HealthDay

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The Cancers on the Rise in Adults Under 50.

Cancer at 50.

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The Cancers on the Rise in Adults Under 50.

Cancer before age 50 is rare, but increasing, in the United States and researchers want to know why.

A new government study provides the most complete picture yet of early-onset cancers, finding that the largest increases are in breast, colorectal, kidney and uterine cancers. Scientists from the National Cancer Institute looked at data that included more than 2 million cancers diagnosed in people 15 to 49 years old between 2010 and 2019.

Of 33 cancer types, 14 cancers had increasing rates in at least one younger age group. About 63% of the early-onset cancers were among women.

“These kinds of patterns generally reflect something profound going on,” said Tim Rebbeck of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who studies cancer risk and was not involved in the research. “We need to fund research that will help us understand.”

The findings were published Thursday in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The researchers compared cancer rates in 2019 to what would be expected based on 2010 rates.

Breast cancer made up the largest share of the excess cancers, with about 4,800 additional cases. There were 2,000 more colorectal cancers compared with what would be expected based on the 2010 rates. There were 1,800 more kidney cancers and 1,200 additional uterine cancers.

Reassuringly, death rates were not rising for most cancers in the young adult age groups, although increasing death rates were seen for colorectal, uterine and testicular cancers.

Explanations will take more research. The big databases used for the study don’t include information on risk factors or access to care. Theories abound and a big meeting is planned later this year to bring together experts in the area.

“Several of these cancer types are known to be associated with excess body weight and so one of the leading hypotheses is increasing rates of obesity,” said lead author Meredith Shiels of the National Cancer Institute.

Advances in cancer detection and changes in screening guidelines could be behind some early diagnoses.

For breast cancer, the trend toward women having a first child at older ages is a possible explanation. Pregnancy and breastfeeding are known to reduce risk.

This isn’t happening across the board. Cancer rates in people under 50 are going down for more than a dozen types of cancer, with the largest declines in lung and prostate cancers.

Cigarette smoking has been declining for decades, which likely accounts for the drop in lung cancer among younger adults.

The drop in prostate cancer is likely tied to updated guidelines discouraging routine PSA testing in younger men because of concerns about overtreatment.

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Footloose and Fancy free Monday.

Play the music.

Views: 20

Footloose and Fancy free Monday.

It’s Monday so let it fly. Play what ever moves and groves you. Yeah I’m an old rocker, but I do venture into other types of music. Lets see what ya got.

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AI Identifies Heart Valve Disease from Common Imaging Test.

Cedars-Sinai investigators are using AI to analyze images from a common heart test to identify signs of valve disease. Image by Getty.

Views: 17

AI Identifies Heart Valve Disease from Common Imaging Test.

Stephanie Cajigal
Senior Communications Specialist

An artificial intelligence (AI) program trained to review images from a common medical test can detect early signs of tricuspid heart valve disease and may help doctors diagnose and treat patients sooner, according to research from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.

The work builds upon research published last year showing that an AI program can detect disease in the heart’s mitral valve by analyzing ultrasound images of the heart. For this new study, published in JAMA Cardiology, investigators applied AI to identify tricuspid regurgitation, a condition in which the heart’s tricuspid valve doesn’t close fully when the heart contracts, causing blood to flow backward, which can result in heart failure.

David Ouyang, MD

David Ouyang, MD

“This AI program can augment cardiologists’ evaluation of echocardiograms, images from a screening and diagnostic test that many patients with heart disease symptoms would already be getting,” said David Ouyang, MD, a research scientist in the Smidt Heart Institute, an investigator in the Division of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and senior author of the study. “By applying AI to echocardiograms, we can help clinicians more easily detect the signs of heart valve disease so that patients get the care they need as soon as possible.”

Investigators trained a deep-learning program to flag patterns of tricuspid regurgitation in 47,312 echocardiograms done at Cedars-Sinai between 2011 and 2021.

The program detected tricuspid regurgitation in patients and categorized cases as mild, moderate or severe. They then tested the program on echocardiograms that the AI program never saw before from additional patients who underwent echocardiography at Cedars-Sinai in 2022 and patients from Stanford Healthcare. The program predicted severity of tricuspid regurgitation with similar accuracy as cardiologists who evaluated echocardiograms and when compared with results from MRI images.

Sumeet Chugh, MD

Sumeet Chugh, MD

“Future studies will focus on obtaining even more specific information about valve disease, such as the volume of blood flowing backward through a valve, and predicting outcomes if patients undergo treatment for heart valve disease,” said first author Amey Vrudhula, MD, a research fellow at Cedars-Sinai.

Investigators in the Smidt Heart Institute are applying AI to a variety of cardiac imaging tests.

“A major advantage of AI algorithms is that they never get fatigued and have the capacity to identify valve abnormalities from large populations of patients, taking personalized cardiology to a whole different level,” said Sumeet Chugh, MD, director of the Division of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology Research.

Other Cedars-Sinai authors involved in the study include Amey Vrudhula, MD; Milos Vukadinovic, BS; Alan C. Kwan, MD; Daniel Berman, MD; Robert Siegel, MD; Susan Cheng, MD, MMSc, MPH.

Other authors include Christiane Haeffele, MD, and David Liang, MD, PhD.

 

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You make the call. Recalls are Rising: The Top 10 Riskiest Foods.

Not healthy?

Views: 25

You make the call. Recalls are Rising: The Top 10 Riskiest Foods.

If you are concerned by the number of food recalls in the news, you’re not alone. There was a 41% increase in food recalls in 2024 due to contamination with salmonella, E. coli, and listeria, according to the U.S Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.

In addition, confirmed cases of foodborne illness rose by 20% and related hospitalizations and deaths more than doubled, says Consumer Reports. Tens of millions of Americans suffer illness from foodborne bacteria every year reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are CR’s top 10 riskiest foods:

  1. Deli meat. The largest instance of foodborne illness caused by listeria in liverwurst in a Boar’s Head plant led to a recall of 7 million pounds of all types of cold cuts by the company. Boar’s Head announced it would no longer make liverwurst as a result. CR says that people at high risk for listeria infection — older people, pregnant women, or children under the age of 5 — should skip deli meat altogether unless it’s served piping hot to kill harmful bacteria. Prepacked cold cuts may be a safer option.
  2. Cucumbers. Whole cucumbers and sliced cucumbers were recalled in separate incidents in 2024. These vegetables can be contaminated by bacteria from animal waste in the soil or irrigation water. When buying any fruit or vegetables, select those with skins intact and not bruised or broken. Washing and peeling can reduce the bacteria but not eliminate it altogether, says CR.
  3. Raw milk and cheese. In 2024, unpasteurized products from Raw Farms were linked to salmonella and E. coli as well as bird flu. Raw milk tends to be at a higher risk for contamination due to the absence of pasteurization, which kills harmful bacteria. Consumers are advised to seek pasteurized alternatives to mitigate the risk of illness.
  4. Soft cheeses. A routine test detected listeria in cotija and queso fresco cheeses at Rizo-Lopez Foods. The company recalled these and other dairy products that were linked to illnesses across 11 states. Stick to hard cheeses unless you’re cooking the soft cheese in a recipe. Always wash your hands after handling soft cheese.
  5. Eggs. Several large recalls last year involved eggs contaminated with salmonella. Eggs were also in short supply because of fears of the spread of bird flu. According to the Food and Drug Administration, you should buy eggs only if sold from a refrigerator or refrigerated case. Open the carton and make sure that the eggs are clean and the shells are not cracked. Store promptly in a clean refrigerator at a temperature of 40°F or below. Cook eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm. For recipes that call for eggs that are raw or undercooked when the dish is served — like Caesar salad dressing and homemade ice cream — use either shell eggs that have been treated to destroy salmonella, by pasteurization or another approved method, or pasteurized egg products.
  6. Onions. Contaminated onions caused one death last year after many people were sickened by eating McDonald’s Quarter Pounders containing fresh, slivered onions. Buy fresh, whole onions and slice them yourself, discarding the first few layers that are most likely to be contaminated.
  7. Leafy greens. Many forms of produce in the U.S. are grown next to cattle farms where irrigation water can cause bacterial outbreaks. Last year, fresh spinach and romaine-iceberg mixes caused two E. coli outbreaks. Lower your risk of illness by buying hydroponic lettuce. When using whole heads discard outer leaves.
  8. Organic carrots. Grimmway Farms recalled organic bagged whole and baby carrots after they were connected to E. coli illnesses in 19 states. Here again, cooking is the safest way to protect yourself as washing and peeling can reduce bacteria but doesn’t remove all of it.
  9. Organic basil. Fresh herbs can also fall victim to soil contamination and packaged organic basil was linked to a salmonella outbreak in 14 states last year. Rinse herbs and use them in cooking rather than adding them raw to dishes.
  10. Cooked poultry and meat. Prepared foods go through a lot of processing before they hit the shelves, and each step increases the risk of contamination. Federal health officials found listeria in cooked poultry from BrucePac that lead to a massive recall of nearly 12 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry. Thoroughly heat all frozen foods and when buying packaged salads and sandwiches that contain meat make sure they’ve been refrigerated properly and keep them cold until you are ready to eat.

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Life Music

It’s been a while. Love songs.

Love themes

Views: 23

It’s been a while. Love songs.

Everyone loves a love song. Looking for the best love songs? Finding the perfect soundtrack for your love story can be a daunting (and fun) task, especially if you and your partner have different musical tastes.

The universal language of music has united generations of lovers since the beginning of time. Falling in and out of love, grasping at unrequited love, mourning love lost and succumbing to deep love are central to the human experience. Love peels back emotions, incorporating complex feelings that come across powerfully in the common language of music. With endless love songs to describe matters of the heart. So if you have a favorite or two, play it.

 

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What changed in three weeks?

Nothing to see.

Views: 29

What changed in three weeks?

In just three short weeks, the daffodils took off.

In early spring, the landscape transitions from winter dormancy to signs of renewal, with temperatures gradually rising and snow and ice melting. Late spring sees a more vibrant and lush landscape as flowers bloom in abundance.

This involves bud swelling, leaf emergence, and the start of photosynthesis. Some plants also initiate flowering and seed production, while others prepare for summer growth.

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Pets May Boost Happiness as Much as Family, Friends.

Pets making you happy?

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Pets May Boost Happiness as Much as Family, Friends.

Your cat might not do the dishes, and your dog probably can’t fix your Wi-Fi, but they could be making you just as happy as a spouse or best friend.

A new study found that having a furry friend may boost your overall life satisfaction as much as being married or regularly spending time with loved ones.

And it’s something researchers can actually put a price tag on. A team in the U.K. says the emotional value of owning a pet is worth as much £70,000, or about $90,000 a year in life satisfaction.

That’s a statistical measure they use to gauge the “implicit price” of otherwise intangible things — for example, the theoretical boost in income a person would get from having a spouse or regular meet-ups with friends.

The findings were published March 31 in the journal Social Indicators Research.

“First when I obtained the values I was surprised; I was thinking that is a lot of money even for me who loves (pets),” study co-author Adelina Gschwandtner, an economics professor at the University of Kent, told CNN.

“Most people claim that their pets are like friends or family members to them, so that is comparable,” she added.

“If pets are indeed like friends and family, why shouldn’t that measure be comparable to talking to friends and family once a week? You have your pet every day.”

Researchers compared their findings with other studies that used the same methods to calculate the value of being married or regularly meeting with loved ones.

The results? Pet ownership had a similar positive impact on overall well-being, CNN reported.

The team used data from a survey of 2,500 British households and a special tool called an “instrumental variables approach.”

This works by finding “a third variable which is correlated with … the pets but is not correlated with life satisfaction,” Gschwandtner said.

The findings suggest that pets may offer many of the same emotional benefits as human relationships. That’s why Gschwandtner believes policymakers should make it easier for people to have pets — for example by changing housing rules that limit them.

But not all experts agree that pets can fully replace human connections.

“We know that social support and emotional support are really key aspects of human-pet relationships that are also the same types of support we get from our human social connections. … While animals are connected to us in powerful ways, they are not the same as humans,” said Megan Mueller, a professor at Tufts University who studies human-animal relationships.

© HealthDay

 

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Life Links from other sources. Medicine Reprints from other.

You make the call. Medicare Advantage Squeezing Billions More From US Government.

Works for you or against you?

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You make the call. Medicare Advantage Squeezing Billions More From US Government.

Medicare Advantage plans are squeezing billions out of the federal government by billing more for patient care, a new study says.

Medicare Advantage plans received an extra $33 billion in revenue from the feds in 2021 due to coding differences in billing compared to traditional Medicare, researchers reported April 7 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

About 42% of that excess revenue, nearly $14 billion, went to UnitedHealth Group alone – even though the Minneapolis-based insurer has a 27% share of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, researchers said.

“Medicare Advantage plans are paid more for sicker members and less for healthier members,” wrote the research team led by Richard Kronick, a professor in the School of Public Health & Human Longevity Science at  the University of California-San Diego.

This provides “a strong incentive for Medicare Advantage plans to find and report as many diagnoses as they can legitimately support,” researchers wrote.

For the study, researchers studied billing data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from 2015 to 2021, including 697 Medicare Advantage contracts offered by 193 different insurers.

Medicare Advantage plans are operated by private health insurance companies, while traditional Medicare is run by CMS.

Advantage plans offer all-in-one coverage, while people on traditional Medicare must juggle several different plans that cover hospital care, doctor services and prescription drugs.

However, people on Medicare Advantage typically must receive care from a more limited network of providers and they might need pre-authorization to see specialists, according to Consumer Reports.

Results show Medicare Advantage plans billed more persistently for diagnoses, with about 78% of patients having year-after-year illnesses compared to 72% in traditional Medicare.

Medicare Advantage plans also billed more often for new diagnoses, about 46% of the time compared to 33% for traditional Medicare.

This billing led to an estimated $33 billion in additional payments to Medicare Advantage plans in 2021.

For UnitedHealth Group, this billing resulted in an estimated $1,863 increase in revenue per member, substantially greater than the industry average of $1,220, researchers wrote.

The research team did raise the possibility that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans actually might be billing more accurately than traditional Medicare (TM), explaining this difference.

“However, the MA payment system is calibrated on diagnostic patterns in TM, and regardless of whether MA is overcoding or TM is undercoding, differential coding in MA results in greater payment overall and widely different levels of greater payment across MA insurers,” researchers wrote.

An accompanying editorial agreed that “it is well documented that the system’s reliance on diagnosis codes that insurers can influence for gain is responsible for tens of billions of dollars in payments to MA plans above what would be spent in traditional Medicare, adding to Medicare’s fiscal challenges.”

Unfortunately, any reform efforts likely will increase out-of-pocket costs for people on Medicare Advantage, according to the editorial written by Dr. J. Michael McWilliams, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School.

“To the extent it is socially desirable to provide seniors with better coverage than the traditional benefit, policymakers must grapple with this tradeoff,” McWilliams wrote.

© HealthDay

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Life Links from other sources. Medicine Reprints from other. Science

You make the call. Health Myths.

True or false.

Views: 21

You make the call. Health Myths.

doctor with surgical gloves holding sign that says "MYTHS"

By Lynn C. Allison

Old wives’ tales about health have been around for generations. Health myths persist because misinformation spreads easily, especially with the popularity of social media. Here is the truth about some of the most common health myths:

• Drink 8 glasses of water daily. According to WebMD, there is no need to count cups. People who drink when they are thirsty stay well-hydrated. In addition, fruit, vegetables, soup, and beverages such as juice, coffee, and tea all contribute to our daily hydration needs.

• Eggs cause heart disease. By now, it’s been pretty well established that eating eggs is good for you, as long as you don’t overdo it. According to Real Simple, all eggs are rich in protein, phosphorus, selenium, chlorine, iron, vitamin A and B vitamins. The B vitamins and choline found in eggs are beneficial to brain health. While eggs do contain cholesterol, experts say that dietary cholesterol does not significantly raise blood cholesterol levels enough to trigger heart disease in healthy people.

• You can catch a cold by being out in cold weather. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, contrary to popular belief, cold weather or feeling chilled doesn’t cause a cold. However, more colds do occur during the cold weather seasons because schools are in session, increasing the risk for exposure to the virus. People also stay indoors more when it’s cold and are in closer proximity to each other, making it easier to pass along germs. The low humidity of winter causes dry nasal passages, which are more susceptible to cold viruses.

• You need a daily multivitamin. You should get most of your daily nutrients from a well-rounded diet that includes lots of fruit, vegetables, nuts, healthy oils and whole grains. But if your doctor feels you are suffering from a deficiency, a vitamin supplement may be needed.

• You need to eat breakfast to lose weight. Not so, say experts from Cornell University who found that people who skipped breakfast didn’t overeat at lunch and dinner and, in fact, ate 400 fewer calories a day.

• Green mucus means infection. One study looked at green mucus samples from people with a cough and no other lung conditions. It found that only about 1 in 10 of those green mucus samples were caused by a bacterial infection. This means that most people with green mucus don’t have a bacterial infection. In short, mucus color alone isn’t a reliable way to say whether you need antibiotics, says GoodRx.

• Sugar makes kids hyper. While sugar isn’t good for children, research shows that it won’t cause them to act out or be unable to focus on their schoolwork.

• Toilet seats can pass along germs. According to WebMD, toilet seats are usually clean. It’s the doorknobs, handles and floors that can be covered with bacteria like E. coli, norovirus and the flu. Use paper towels to cover your hands when opening doors or touching handles and a hand sanitizer afterwards.

• Cracking joints triggers arthritis. While the sound of someone cracking their joints can be annoying, it does not cause arthritis. Experts at the Cleveland Clinic say one reason that your joints may make a cracking noise could be gas escaping from a synovial membrane, or a ligament or tendon passing over another ligament or tendon. However, if you feel regular or severe pain in your joints, seek medical help.

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Life Links from other sources. Music

Songs About Women.

Listen to the music.

Views: 24

Songs About Women.

Songs celebrating women have long been a staple in music, capturing the myriad experiences, qualities, and emotions that women inspire. Exploring the best songs about women offers a playlist that spans genres and generations, highlighting the power, beauty, and complexity of female figures in our lives. These tracks resonate deeply, not just for their melodies and lyrics, but for the emotions they evoke and the stories they tell.

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