Tuesday, April 8

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Around The World Weight Stigma Is A Burden – And Has Negative Consequences Everywhere
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, SELF

Around The World Weight Stigma Is A Burden – And Has Negative Consequences Everywhere

Lazy. Unmotivated. No self-discipline. No willpower. These are just a few of the widespread stereotypes ingrained in American society about people who have a higher body weight or larger body size. Known as weight stigma, these attitudes result in many Americans being blamed, teased, bullied, mistreated and discriminated against. There is nowhere to hide from societal weight stigma. Decades of research confirm the presence of weight stigma in workplaces, schools, health care settings, public accommodations and the mass media, as well as in close interpersonal relationships with friends and families. It’s everywhere. I’m a psychologist and researcher at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut. For 20 years my team has studied weight stigma. We’ve ex...
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2.4 Million US Seniors Get Enough To Eat While Meals On Wheels Volunteers Help Staving Off Loneliness
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

2.4 Million US Seniors Get Enough To Eat While Meals On Wheels Volunteers Help Staving Off Loneliness

More than 2.4 million older adults are supported each year by Meals on Wheels, a program through which seniors and people with disabilities receive healthy and tasty meals for free from a network of volunteers. These efforts are usually organized through local senior centers and other community organizations across the U.S. that encourage the people who receive meals to make voluntary donations to cover at least part of the cost if that’s within their means.   CC BY-NC-ND Services like this nonprofit meal delivery program, for which eligibility begins at age 60, are becoming more important than ever before. About 5.3 million people 60 and up, 7.3% of all Americans in that age group, experienced food insecurity in 2018 – meaning that their households couldn’t acquire adequate food bec...
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Do You Need To Floss More Or Are Your Parents Responsible For Your Cavities?
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Do You Need To Floss More Or Are Your Parents Responsible For Your Cavities?

To “cry poor mouth” is an expression used to habitually complain about a lack of money. A literal poor mouth, however, represents one of the most widespread global diseases: tooth decay. Cavities resulting from poor oral health can drive everything from emotional issues to low self-esteem and health concerns. The health of your teeth has a major effect on your body. Rudy Fargo/Unsplash, CC BY Even more critical is the socioeconomic impact of tooth decay. Cavities are a “hidden cost” across a person’s lifespan. They can affect the ability of children to learn, result in absenteeism and a loss of productivity for employees and employers, and increase health costs for retirees. Untreated tooth decay can result in health complications including poor nutrition, if it is painful to chew; sever...
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7 Questions Answered By A Pediatric Infectious Disease Expert – Should My Child Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, LIFESTYLE

7 Questions Answered By A Pediatric Infectious Disease Expert – Should My Child Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?

The Food and Drug Administration expanded emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include adolescents 12 to 15 years of age on May 10, 2021. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed with recommendations endorsing use in this age group after their advisory group meeting on May 12. The American Academy of Pediatrics also supports this decision. Dr. Debbie-Ann Shirley is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia specializing in pediatric infectious diseases. Here she addresses some of the concerns parents may have about their teen or preteen getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 1. Does the vaccine work in adolescents? Yes, recently released data from Pfizer-BioNTech shows that the COVID-19 vaccine seems to work really well in ...
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CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Ditch Masks In Most Settings – Herd Immunity Appears Unlikely For COVID-19
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

CDC Says Vaccinated People Can Ditch Masks In Most Settings – Herd Immunity Appears Unlikely For COVID-19

When COVID-19 first began spreading, public health and medical experts began talking about the need for the U.S. to reach herd immunity to stop the coronavirus from spreading. Experts have estimated that between 60% and 90% of people in the U.S. would need to be vaccinated for that to happen. Only about 35% of the population has been fully vaccinated, and yet the CDC said on May 14, 2021 that fully vaccinated people can lose their masks in most indoor and outdoor settings. An important question now arises: What happens if we don’t reach herd immunity? Dr. William Petri is a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Virginia who helps lead the global program to achieve herd immunity for polio as the chair of the World Health Organization’s Polio Research Committee. He answers q...
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Lack Of Training – Doctors Treating Trans Youth Grapple With Uncertainty
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, LGBTQ

Lack Of Training – Doctors Treating Trans Youth Grapple With Uncertainty

Last month, the Arkansas Senate passed legislation prohibiting medical providers from offering gender-affirming hormones or surgeries to trans youth. If you were to read the bill – titled the Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act – you might think the law was protecting children from physicians like Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who experimented on Jewish people. “It is of grave concern to the General Assembly,” the text reads, that trans youth are being allowed “to be subjects of irreversible and drastic” treatments “despite the lack of studies showing that the benefits of such extreme interventions outweigh the risks.” This language is at odds with the growing evidence that blocking people from accessing gender-affirming care creates increased risks for social isolation, suicide ...
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Sleep, How Much Do You Really Need?
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Sleep, How Much Do You Really Need?

  Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Why do I need to sleep for a long time at night? – Sly M., 6, Cambridge, Massachusetts Just like eating, drinking or breathing, sleep is an essential part of life. In fact, all animals do it – with some interesting variations. A dolphin, for example, sleeps with one eye open and only half of its brain snoozing at a time. This is likely because dolphins need to be partly conscious to breathe while in the water. Zebras sometimes sleep standing up in case they need to wake up and quickly escape a predator. Bats sleep upside down. When someone’s asleep, it can look like they are turned “off” and not doing anything at all. But, t...
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Beware Of Claims That Ecstasy Is A Magic Bullet – MDMA May Help Treat PTSD
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HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

Beware Of Claims That Ecstasy Is A Magic Bullet – MDMA May Help Treat PTSD

Recent clinical trials, including one soon to be published in Nature Medicine, have suggested that MDMA combined with psychotherapy may help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The news generated considerable optimism and excitement in the media, and some in the scientific community. As a psychiatrist and an expert in neurobiology and treatment of PTSD, I think these developments may be important – but not the major breakthrough that some people are suggesting. This approach is not a new magic bullet. A combat veteran discusses his experience with PTSD. PTSD, a disorder of emotional memories Post-traumatic stress disorder is a result of exposure to extreme traumatic experiences, such as natural disasters, motor vehicle accidents, assault, robbery, rape, combat and torture. Base...
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To Secure Oxygen For COVID-19 Patients Now And Into The Future, What Steps Must Be Taken
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

To Secure Oxygen For COVID-19 Patients Now And Into The Future, What Steps Must Be Taken

New waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in countries, such as Kenya and India, have exposed the poor management of oxygen supplies. Moina Spooner, from The Conversation Africa, asked Professor Trevor Duke, an expert on [oxygen provision] and editor of the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on oxygen therapy for children, to provide insights into what countries, with limited resources, can do to secure better supplies. Why is oxygen so important for treating COVID-19? The SARS CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19 pneumonia and hypoxaemia. Hypoxaemia is a lack of oxygen in the blood – the most important complication of COVID-19 pneumonia and a major cause of death. A few antiviral drugs have been effective in treating COVID-19 infection however, in severe pneumonia, oxygen relieves hypoxaemia. It...
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Online Communities Are Important Sources Of Support, But They Also Pose Risks For Young People
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Online Communities Are Important Sources Of Support, But They Also Pose Risks For Young People

Aristotle called humans “the social animal,” and people have recognized for centuries that young people need to be in communities to develop into healthy adults. The ongoing pandemic has caused concern about the effects of isolation on children and teenagers’ social and psychological growth. But while young people today may not be able to gather in person as often as they’d like, they aren’t necessarily isolated. They have long used online communities to explore their identities and conduct their social lives. They’re involved in anonymous hip-hop discussion forums, ADHD support groups on Facebook, biology class group chats on Instagram and comments sections under popular YouTube videos. There are many of these online communities, and collectively they cover a wide range of subjects. The...
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