It's difficult to out-Oz Dr. Oz, America's Quack, who has raked in giant piles of money by promoting pseudoscience on his TV show. But at least one person comes perilously close: Dr. Mark Hyman.

Hyman is the "Dr. Oz" of nutrition. He embraces legitimate science if and only if it suits his bottom line. Otherwise, he's promoting junk science and magical thinking. To get an idea of the sort of nonsense that he spews, his website features an interview with the Food Babe, as well as his infuriatingly stupid quote, "Food isn't like medicine, it is medicine." The comma splice just makes me that much angrier.

The Many Lies of Dr. Mark Hyman

Hyman made a recent appearance on the Rubin Report, which is hosted by conservative commentator Dave Rubin. Hyman took the inadvisable step of taking a cheap shot at ACSH, so we thought we would reciprocate by fact-checking some of the interview. (Note: The interview is 55 minutes long, and my head would explode if I actually listened to all of it.) Buckle up.

"I became a doctor and kind of got indoctrinated, literally, and became very focused on traditional, good medicine, but I realized the limits of it. And then I got sick myself and ended up having to fix myself using functional medicine.

Wow, the bullsh** is strong with this one. He claims that doctors are being force-fed lies in medical school and that the real truth is what he calls "functional medicine" -- which is just a different term for alternative medicine, holistic medicine, integrative medicine, or whatever rainbow-and-unicorn term these quacks prefer. I generally frown upon Wikipedia, but the first sentence in its entry on Functional Medicine is too good to pass up: "Functional medicine is a form of alternative medicine that encompasses a number of unproven and disproven methods and treatments."

Six out of ten Americans have a chronic disease. It kills 11 million people a year from food.

Huh?! His first statistic is true, but the second is a gigantic, whopping lie. (See figure taken from the CDC.) Considering that chronic disease includes everything from heart disease to Alzheimer's, there's a lot of territory to cover. Poor nutrition is simply one risk factor among many. Other risk factors are genetic or environmental. So, to single out food as the primary cause of chronic illness is just plain wrong.

Also, I have no idea where he gets his statistic that 11 million people die from food every year. Each year, about 2.8 million Americans die from all causes. Globally, there are about 56 million deaths from all causes. Hyman just fabricated the 11 million number, which he then refers to as "like a Holocaust" (at the 6:00 mark). Twinkies, Nazis? Basically the same thing.

"If I really want to cure my patients, I have to step back and look at the big picture of what's wrong with our food system, the impact it's causing on disease, on our economy, on social justice issues, poverty, mental health, kids' academic performance, national security, environment, climate. It's all one problem that is predominantly driven by our food."

Food is not the root cause of national security problems, let alone every other problem on the planet. Hyman sounds like that guy from The History Channel who blames everything on aliens. Anytime somebody fingersa singleboogeyman for causing every disease and problem known to mankind, this is a giant red flag indicating quackery.

"Most states have obesity rates over 40%."

Obesity is a substantial problem in this country, but this is another made-up statistic. Only one state (Mississippi) has an obesity rate over 40%, according to the CDC.

"We have one in three federal dollars that are spent on Medicare."

Yet another made-up statistic. Here are the federal outlays for 2019:

Medicare cost $644 billion. With $4.4 trillion in spending, that means the federal government spent about 15% of its budget (roughly 1 in 7 dollars) on Medicare. If we're generous and include Medicaid, that is 24% of the budget (about 1 in 4 dollars). Again, Hyman just fabricates numbers out of thin air. To add yet more absurdity, Hyman claimed a moment later that 80% of the spending is unnecessary because it's caused by food. Right, if only everybody ate broccoli everyday, nobody would have cancer or dementia.

(I'm now merely 7 minutes and 25 seconds into the video, and I simply can't take anymore of this. So let's fast forward to the point where he takes a swipe at ACSH. It begins at 13:00.)

"They create front groups... to confuse consumers saying, for example, that pesticides and high fructose corn syrup and trans fats and smoking are not bad for you, like the American Council on Science and Health."

By "they," I think Hyman is referring to aliens food companies. Anyway, Hyman is lying again. ACSH has always been anti-smoking. Always. In regard to trans fats, we're sort of ambivalent on the issue. Dr. Chuck Dinerstein wrote in 2018 that the FDA has largely eliminated trans fats from the American diet, but there doesn't seem to be much of an impact on cardiovascular disease. Pesticides are safe if used at appropriate doses (which they are). (Besides, plants make 99.99% of the pesticides we consume.) And when analyzed chemically, high fructose corn syrup is basically honey.

Don't ever listen to Mark Hyman.

See the original post here:
Mark Hyman, the 'Dr. Oz' of Nutrition, Says Food Is Killing People Like the Holocaust - American Council on Science and Health

"Dancing with your kids or partner, yard work, house projects, sex and cleaning are all trackable activities. Doing these activities with intention and extra vigor all count towards a healthy lifestyle," said Cardwell, who is also a contributing dietitian for Lose It!

For sleep: Engage in a bedtime routine where you can quiet down and prepare for sleep. "Turn off electronics, including the TV, iPad, and cell phones an hour before bedtime," Scheinman advised. This helps to reduce exposure to blue light, which "the brain perceives as daylight, so your brain is not quite getting the signal that it's nighttime and melatonin is not produced."

Unplugging also prevents you from checking one more email or scrolling through social media while in bed, which can be stimulating and interfere with sleep, Scheinman explained.

Other tips for a successful wellness routine: a morning ritual and self-care

Most experts recommended engaging in a morning ritual that brings you pleasure. "Starting your day with the same routine each morning can bring steadiness and calm to the rest of the day. You are starting from a more grounded and positive place, versus waking up; grabbing the phone and checking the news and getting stressed out," Foroutan said.

"The morning is a nice time to start integrating things you didn't have time for previously like taking the dog for a longer walk in the morning, making a nice cup of coffee you can sit and enjoy or engaging in a meditation practice," Scheinman added.

Visit link:
Why a wellness routine is your top priority amid protests and the pandemic and how to start - Hanford Sentinel

Whole grains may be better for your health, but figuring out which products are healthier by relying on whole grain labels can actually make it difficult to make healthy choices.

A new study found that these labels on cereal, bread, and crackers can be confusing for people trying to make smarter food choices.

The report published in the journal Public Health Nutrition detailed a survey of 1,030 U.S. adults. The participants were shown photos of real and hypothetical products with food labels. They were asked to identify healthier options for the hypothetical products or assess the whole grain content of the real products.

A significant number of respondents had the wrong answer for which product was healthier.

Our study results show that many consumers cannot correctly identify the amount of whole grains or select a healthier whole grain product, Parke Wilde, PhD, study author and professor at the Tufts University, said in a statement.

The authors wanted to find out if there was a strong legal argument that whole grain labels are misleading. Evidence could back up a movement for increased labeling requirements.

I would say when it comes to deceptive labels, whole grain claims are among the worst, added co-author Jennifer L. Pomeranz, an assistant professor of public health policy and management at New York University in New York City.

The labeling of whole grains has been a source of confusion and deception for a long time, said Dr. Amy Burkhart, an integrative medicine physician and registered dietitian based in Napa, California. Many brands use the term whole grain and others to influence customers purchasing decisions by creating a healthy product facade.

The term whole grain means that all portions of the kernel are included in the product, Burkhart explained.

The blurring of lines begins here, she said. The product only has to contain 51 percent whole grain ingredients to use the term whole grains.

For example, a label can say whole grain but up to 49 percent of the product may include processed grains.

There are whole grains and refined grains, said Vicki Shanta Retelny, RDN, a consultant for Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Whole grains contain three parts: the bran, germ, and endosperm layers. Refined grains have been stripped of the bran and the germ layers and, in turn, are devoid of fiber, iron, B-vitamins, fatty acids, and antioxidants, which are inherent in the whole intact grain.

Refined grains are white flour products that may be enriched or fortified with vitamins and minerals to provide nutritional value.

Whole grains that are wheat-based contain gluten. Wheat-free grains are typically gluten-free unless there is cross-contamination during processing of the grain, Retelny said.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agricultures 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, half of all grains consumed should be whole grains. Getting enough whole grains has been linked with lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

The most common types of whole grains that contain gluten include wheat, barley, rye, and spelt. Gluten-free whole grains include corn, oats, brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice, sorghum, teff, millet, and amaranth, Burkhart said.

Ancient grains such as farro and spelt are those that have not been changed by modern breeding methods over the last several hundred years. Nonwheat ancient whole grains include sorghum, quinoa, and millet, she noted.

This doesnt mean they are necessarily more nutritious but they do require a lower amount of pesticides and water to be grown which is beneficial to the planet, Burkhart said.

As part of the survey, the packages on the hypothetical products either had no front-of-package whole grain label or were marked with multigrain, made with whole grains, or a whole grain stamp. The packages on the real products displayed the actual product markings, including multigrain, honey wheat, and 12 grain.

When looking at the hypothetical products, people had to answer if they thought the product was healthier. For the real products, they were asked to assess the whole grain content.

Of the hypothetical products, 29 percent to 47 percent incorrectly identified the healthier item. Specifically, they had the wrong answer 31 percent of the time for cereal, up to 37 percent for crackers, and 47 percent for bread items.

Of the real products that were not mostly composed of whole grains, 43 to 51 percent of respondents overstated the whole grain content depending on the products.

Researchers found 41 percent overstated the grain content for multigrain crackers, 43 percent for honey wheat bread, and 51 percent for 12-grain bread.

However, respondents more accurately identified the whole grain content of an oat cereal that mostly included whole grain.

While experts find the labeling standards by the Food and Drug Administration confusing, other groups have pushed for more transparency.

The Whole Grains Council, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, has created three stamps to guide consumers but they are not on all products.

Companies must apply to use the stamp. The 100 percent stamp includes products where all grains are whole grain and the product contains at least 16 grams of whole grain per serving. The 50 percent stamp means that 50 percent or more of the grains in the product are whole and the product contains at least 8g of whole grain per serving. The basic stamp means the item contains at least 8 grams of whole grain per serving, Burkhart explained.

Terms such as wheat, semolina, durum wheat, organic flour, stoneground, multigrain, fiber, and cracked wheat may or may not be whole grains.

When youre buying a whole grain product, such as bread or crackers, look for the first ingredient to be a whole grain ingredient such as whole grain flour or whole wheat flour, said Amy Gorin, MS, a registered dietitian nutritionist in New Jersey. Many whole grain products are made with whole grains but dont contain them as a primary ingredient.

On bread labels, for example, the first ingredient should be whole grain flour, whole wheat flour, or another whole grain ingredient. It should not, for example, be enriched wheat flour.

The fiber content on the nutrition label is another giveaway whole grain products are likely to be good or excellent sources of fiber, Gorin said.

Retelny advises her clients to focus on the ingredients list of a product for the word whole before the grain. For example, look for whole wheat or whole oats instead of enriched wheat or oats, because those are refined versions of the grain, she said.

Just because its a brown bread doesnt mean its whole grain, Gorin said.

Follow this link:
Whole Grain Labels Confuse People Trying to Pick Healthy Options - Healthline

News

UPDATED: Even people who experienced mild infection may have long-term symptoms.

UPDATED

Once the most severe phase of COVID-19 infection has passed, many patients experience long-term issues.These patients often describe themselves as long-haulers or as having long-COVID.As the number of Australians diagnosed with COVID-19 has grown, so too has the number of patients with post-acute issues.This has led many GPs to seek information on how to best manage these ongoing concerns. Melbourne-based GP Associate Professor Vicki Kotsirilos, founding Chair of the RACGP Specific Interests Integrative Medicine network, is one of them.I actually thought about that last week when I read an article about long-term effects [of COVID-19], she told newsGP.I thought, Okay, what will I be advising my patients?Associate Professor Kotsirilos says it is totally understandable that robust clinical guidelines are not yet in place to help GPs manage patients with long-term sequelae of COVID-19.COVID-19 is a new disease and it takes a while for health authorities to prepare clinical, treatment and even practice guidelines, she said.I dont think weve been slow to provide that information. In fact, if anything, I think the RACGP and health authorities have been excellent.That said, Associate Professor Kotsirilos says it is imperative GPs are provided with more detailed information when it comes to specific clinical guidelines on helping manage potential long-term effects, such as the hypercoagulable state seen in some patients.We clearly do need better and quicker clinical guidelines for us to access, she said.It is important for GPs to know the best evidence-based treatments in those situations from a long-term perspective.A new article, published in The BMJ on 11 August, explores management of post-acute issues in COVID-19 patients; though the authors acknowledge there are not yet definitive, evidence-based recommendations for management.We therefore used a pragmatic approach based on published studies on SARS and MERS, early editorials and consensus based guidance on COVID-19, a living systematic review, early reports of telerehabilitation (support and exercise via video link), and our own clinical experience, they wrote.According to the article, which is directed at primary care practitioners, approximately 10% of people remain unwell beyond three weeks after diagnosis with COVID-19.Post-acute COVID-19 long COVID seems to be a multi-system disease, sometimes occurring after a relatively mild acute illness, the authors wrote.They say such patients can broadly be divided into those who may have serious sequelae, such as thromboembolic complications, and those with a non-specific clinical picture, mainly characterised by symptoms such as fatigue and breathlessness.The authors define long-COVID as extending beyond three weeks from the onset of first symptoms, while chronic-COVID is defined as extending beyond 12 weeks.The authors list the symptoms of post-acute COVID-19 as:

On the other hand, severe breathlessness may require urgent referral. The following management principles apply:

Associate Professor Vicki Kotsirilos says clinical guidelines are needed to help GPs manage patients with post-acute symptoms of this infection.

FatigueFatigue is a common complaint following infection with COVID-19.It has also been called the most common and debilitating symptom in [ICU] survivors.A letter to the editor published in Medical Hypotheses on 27 June highlights the potential for a post-viral syndrome to manifest following COVID-19.After the acute SARS episode some patients, many of whom were healthcare workers, went on to develop a chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)-like illness, which nearly 20months on prevented them returning to work, the authors of the letter wrote.We propose that once an acute COVID-19 infection has been overcome, a subgroup of remitted patients are likely to experience long-term adverse effects resembling CFS/ME symptomatology such as persistent fatigue, diffuse myalgia, depressive symptoms, and non-restorative sleep.The authors of the BMJ article say they found no published evidence on the efficacy of either pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions on fatigue after COVID-19.

They also say there is much debate and controversy about the role of graded exercise in chronic fatigue generally, and in COVID-19 in particular, referencing a recent statement from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).Pending direct evidence from research studies, we suggest that exercise in such patients should be undertaken cautiously and cut back if the patient develops fever, breathlessness, severe fatigue, or muscle aches, the authors wrote.Understanding, support, and reassurance from the primary care clinician are a crucial component of management.Associate Professor Kotsirilos says she would advise patients experiencing fatigue to address lifestyle and behavioural factors.Ensuring that they eat well, that they rest, theyre cared for by other people, go to bed early for a good nights sleep and a graded exercise program, she said. It would be just like [management strategies for] patients suffering post-viral fatigue.Chest painThis is another common symptom after acute COVID-19, and clinical assessment should follow similar principles to that for any chest pain.Where the diagnosis is uncertain, or the patient is acutely unwell, urgent cardiology referral may be needed for specialist assessment and investigations (including echocardiography, computed tomography of the chest, or cardiac magnetic resonance imaging), the BMJ authors wrote.Ventricular dysfunctionThe authors advise intense cardiovascular exercise must be avoided for three months in all patients after myocarditis or pericarditis.Meanwhile, athletes are advised to take 36 months of complete rest from cardiovascular training followed by specialist follow-up.ThromboembolismIt is now recognised that COVID-19 can cause a hypercoagulable state with increased risk of thromboembolic events.The authors say many hospitalised patients receive prophylactic anticoagulation.Recommendations for anticoagulation after discharge vary, but higher risk patients are typically discharged from hospital with 10 days of extended thromboprophylaxis, they wrote.If the patient has been diagnosed with a thrombotic episode, anticoagulation and further investigation and monitoring should follow standard guidelines.It is not known how long patients remain hypercoagulable following acute COVID-19.Associate Professor Kotsirilos would like further detailed information for GPs on this topic, including whether the best anticoagulant in this situation is warfarin or another blood thinner, such as low-dose aspirin.That is important for GPs to know, she said.Clinical guidelines are required to help us keep up-to-date with evidence-based appropriate treatments such as the role of blood thinners when to prescribe them and for how long.Neurological sequelaePatients with serious complications such as stroke, seizures or encephalitis should be referred to a neurologist.Meanwhile, non-specific symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and brain fog require supportive management and symptom monitoring.Brain fog is a particularly common symptom reported by patients who describe themselves as long-haulers.Associate Professor Kotsirilos says measures that can help a patient manage fatigue are also applicable for brain fog.Brain fog has been seen with other post-viral chronic fatigue syndromes, she said.With brain fog, its all about resting, avoiding the computer, letting the head or brain rest, not returning to work too quickly, exercise especially outdoors for fresh air but gradually.Other measures include ensuring adequate sleep, reducing stress and eating well.Mental healthWhile a minority of patients may benefit from referral to mental health services, it is important not to pathologise the majority, the authors wrote.Patient organisations emphasise wellbeing, mindfulness, social connection, self-care (including diet and hydration), peer support, and symptom control.Associate Professor Kotsirilos agrees these measures can assist with mental health issues. However, she says regular check-ins with a GP and a mental health care plan may also be important if patients are not coping.Holistic management of the patientAssociate Professor Kotsirilos believes GPs are ideally placed to help manage COVID-19 patients with post-acute issues.When patients have suffered from COVID-19 infection and are suffering long-term effects like chronic fatigue, GPs are in a great position to validate their symptoms, reassure them, explain to them that it is a new disease, were only just coming to understand it, but it is common to get post-viral fatigue, brain fog and other symptoms, she said.GPs play an important role in helping patients make a full recovery post COVID-19 infection.She says GPs can also use this opportunity to discuss lifestyle measures, exercise, reducing stress and avoiding harmful substances like excessive alcohol and smoking.The BMJ authors agree primary care practitioners are in an ideal position to ensure ongoing patient care for those with post-acute symptoms of COVID-19.From the limited current evidence, we anticipate that many patients whose COVID-19 illness is prolonged will recover without specialist input through a holistic and paced approach, they wrote.GPs can also offer their patients much-needed reassurance throughout this process.Patients, many of whom were young and fit before their illness, have described being dismissed or treated as hypochondriacs by health professionals, the authors wrote.In these uncertain times, one key role that the primary care practitioner can play is that of witness, honouring the story of the patient whose protracted recovery was unexpected, alarming, and does not make sense.Log in below to join the conversation.

The RACGP Awards recognise outstanding achievements and exceptional individuals for their contribution to general practice. Visit theRACGP websitefor more information, or to nominate a GP or GP in training.

coronavirus COVID-19 long-COVID

Read the original post:
newsGP - Managing post-acute issues in COVID patients: What GPs need to know - RACGP

The report titled, Health Coaching Market boons an in-depth synopsis of the competitive landscape of the market globally, thus helping establishments understand the primary threats and prospects that vendors in the market are dealt with. It also incorporates thorough business profiles of some of the prime vendors in the market. The report includes vast data relating to the recent discovery and technological expansions perceived in the market, wide-ranging with an examination of the impact of these intrusions on the markets future development.

Health Coaching Market research reports growth rates and the market value based on market dynamics, growth factors. The complete knowledge is based on the latest innovations in the industry, opportunities, and trends. In addition to SWOT analysis by key suppliers, the report contains a comprehensive market analysis and major players landscape.

Ask for Sample Copy of This Report: https://www.healthcareintelligencemarkets.com/request_sample.php?id=112286

Top Key Players Included in This Report:

Aetna, American Association for Health Education, American Council of Exercise (ACE), Cigna, Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Dears Wellness Institute, Duke Integrative Medicine, Health Coach Institute, Humana, International Coach Federation, Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic.

Major highlights of this research report:

Across the globe, several regions like North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Africa have been studied on the basis of sale and profit margin. Some significant key players have been profiled to get informative data to make informed decisions in the businesses. It makes use of info graphics, graphs, charts, tables, and pictures. For an effective and accurate business outlook, the report on the global Health Coaching Market examined details of the changing trends adopted by the top level companies.

Get Discount on This Report: https://www.healthcareintelligencemarkets.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=112286

The reports conclusion centrals around the complete scope of the global Health Coaching Market with respect to the availability of funds from investors and a descriptive passage outlines the feasibility of new projects that might succeed in the market in the upcoming years.

Table of Content:

Chapter 1 Industry Overview of Health Coaching Market

Chapter 2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis

Chapter 3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants

Chapter 4 Overall Market Overview

Chapter 5 Regional Market Analysis

Chapter 6 Major Manufacturers Analysis

Chapter 7 Development Trend of Analysis

Chapter 8 Marketing Type Analysis

Chapter 9 Conclusion of the Global Health Coaching Market Professional Survey Report 2020

Chapter 10 Continue.

For Any Customization, Ask Our Experts: https://www.healthcareintelligencemarkets.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=112286

*If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as per your requirements.

About Us:

HealthCare Intelligence Markets Reports provides market intelligence & consulting services to a global clientele spread over 145 countries. Being a B2B firm, we help businesses to meet the challenges of an ever evolving market with unbridled confidence. We craft customized and syndicated market research reports that help market players to build game changing strategies. Besides, we also provide upcoming trends & future market prospects in our reports pertaining to Drug development, Clinical & healthcare industries. Our intelligence enables our clients to take decisions with which in turn proves a game-changer for them. We constantly strive to serve our clients better by directly allowing them sessions with our research analysts so the report is at par with their expectations.

Contact Us:

Marvella Lit

Address: 90, State Office Center,

90, State Street Suite 700,

Albany, NY 12207

Email: [emailprotected]

Web: http://www.healthcareintelligencemarkets.com

Phone: +44-753-712-1342

See more here:
Impact of Covid-19: Health Coaching Market Climbs on Positive Outlook of Excellent Growth by 2027: Aetna, American Association for Health Education -...

Study investigates potential for the intestinal microbial community to alter drug safety and efficacy.

Researchers at Princeton University have developed a systematic approach for evaluating how the microbial community in our intestines can chemically transform, or metabolize, oral medications in ways that impact their safety and efficacy.

The new methodology provides a more complete picture of how gut bacteria metabolize drugs, and could aid the development of medications that are more effective, have fewer side effects, and are personalized to an individuals microbiome.

The study was published today (June 10, 2020) in the journal Cell.

Researchers at Princeton created a system for evaluating how the bodys gut bacteria alter the safety and efficacy of everyday drugs. The system can be used in pharmaceutical research to improve drug discovery and development. Credit: Janie Kim. Published in Cell

Previous studies have examined how single species of gut bacteria can metabolize oral medications. The new framework enables evaluation of a persons entire intestinal microbial community at once.

Basically, we do not run and hide from the complexity of the microbiome, but instead, we embrace it, said Mohamed S. Donia, assistant professor of molecular biology. This approach allows us to gain a holistic and more realistic view of the microbiomes contribution to drug metabolism.

The team used the approach to evaluate the gut microbiomes effect on hundreds of common medications already on the market. The intestines are the primary region where pills and liquid medications are absorbed into the body.

The researchers identified 57 cases in which gut bacteria can alter existing oral medications. Eighty percent of those had not been previously reported, emphasizing the potential of the method for revealing unknown drug-microbiome interactions.

These alterations range from converting the medicine into an inactive state which can reduce its efficacy to converting the drug into a form that is toxic, potentially causing side effects.

The framework could aid drug discovery by identifying potential drug-microbiome interactions early in development, informing formulation changes. The approach can also help during clinical trials to better analyze the toxicity and efficacy of drugs being tested.

The intestines are home to hundreds of species of bacteria. The makeup of these communities what kinds of bacteria and how many of each species can vary considerably from person to person.

This inter-person variability underscores why studying a single bacterial species makes it impossible to compare the microbiomes metabolism of drugs between individuals, Donia said. We need to study the entire intestinal microbial community.

The researchers found that some peoples microbiomes had little effect on a given drug, while other microbiomes had a significant effect, demonstrating how important the community of bacteria rather than just single species is on drug metabolism.

Everyones microbiome is unique, and we were able to see this in our study, said Bahar Javdan, an M.D.-Ph.D. student in molecular biology and a co-first author on the study. We observed three main categories drugs that were consistently metabolized by all the microbiomes in our study, drugs that were metabolized by some and not by others, and drugs that were not subject to any microbiome-derived metabolism.

The methodological approach could be valuable for personalizing treatment to the microbiome of each patient. For example, the framework could help predict how a certain drug will behave, and suggest changes to the therapeutic strategy if undesired effects are predicted.

This is a case where medicine and ecology collide, said Jaime Lopez, a graduate student in the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics and a co-first author on the study, who contributed the computational and quantitative analysis of the data. The bacteria in these microbial communities help each other survive, and they influence each others enzymatic profiles. This is something you would never capture if you didnt study it in a community.

The framework involves four steps for systematically evaluating the intestinal microbiomes effect on drugs.

First, the researchers collected 21 fecal samples collected from anonymous donors and cataloged the bacterial species living in each individual. They found that the donors each had a unique microbial community living in their guts, and that the majority of these personalized communities can be grown in a lab culturing system that they developed.

Next, they tested 575 FDA-approved drugs to see if they are chemically modified by one of the 21 cultured microbiomes, and then tested a subset of the drugs with all the cultured microbiomes. Here, they found microbiome-derived metabolites that had never been previously reported, as well as ones that have been reported in humans and associated with side effects but their origins were unknown. They found cases where all the donor microbiomes performed the same reactions on the drug, and others where only a subset did.

Then they examined the mechanisms by which some of the modified drugs are altered by the cultured microbiomes. To understand exactly how the transformations occurred, they traced the source of the chemical transformations to particular bacterial species and to particular genes within those bacteria. They also showed that the microbiome-derived metabolism reactions that are discovered in this manner can be recapitulated in a mouse model, the first step in adapting the approach for human drug development.

###

Reference: Personalized mapping of drug metabolism by the human gut microbiome by Bahar Javdan, Jaime G. Lopez, Pranatchareeya Chankhamjon, Ying-Chiang J.Lee, Raphaella Hull, Qihao Wu, Xiaojuan Wang, Seema Chatterjee and Mohamed S. Donia, 10 June 10, 2020, Cell.DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.05.001

Additional contributors to the study were postdoctoral research associates Pranatchareeya Chankhamjon, Qihao Wu and Xiaojuan Wang; graduate student in molecular biology Ying-Chiang J. Lee, graduate student at Cambridge University Raphaella Hull; and Seema Chatterjee, research lab manager.

Funding for this study was provided by the Princeton Department of Molecular Biology, the National Institutes of Health, the New Jersey Commission on Cancer and the National Science Foundation.

Continued here:
Princeton Researchers Catalog the Gut Microbiomes Impact on Medications - SciTechDaily

NASHUA, N.H., June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iCAD, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICAD), a global medical technology leader providing innovative cancer detection and therapy solutions, today announced it will host a free virtual roundtable event for clinicians, titled The Impact of COVID-19 on Breast Cancer Surgery and Targeted Radiation Therapy,” on June 4, 2020 at 7 pm ET/4 pm PT. Event registration is available via this link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5960832272590383888.

The roundtable will feature leading specialists in breast cancer treatment, including the following experts*:

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unprecedented challenges to our health care system and specifically impacted cancer screenings and treatment in our country and worldwide. During these extraordinary times, it is imperative for clinicians to share best practices and adapt approaches to patient care. iCAD is honored to host virtual events such as this, which provide an educational forum for clinicians to enhance patient care during this global healthcare crisis and beyond,” according to Stacey Stevens, President of iCAD. In the face of this pandemic, iCAD’s technology is now more relevant than ever. Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) with the Xoft® Axxent® Electronic Brachytherapy (eBx®) System® offers a viable solution that could potentially alleviate the burden to our health system, while enabling clinicians to administer high-quality care to patients who are candidates, while minimizing their potential exposure to the novel coronavirus.”

Xoft breast IORT is a single-fraction therapy option that allows select early-stage breast cancer patients to replace weeks of daily radiation with one treatment, delivered at the time of surgery. This targeted treatment option offers a full course of radiation in just one day, which could contribute to a reduction in the healthcare system resources needed for breast cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce those patients’ risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus by minimizing the number of visits required to a hospital or medical facility.

In the recent months during the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital resources have become limited in many areas, and guidelines issued by a number of medical societies advise clinicians to determine how best to triage the care of cancer patients safely.1 Some breast cancer patients are choosing to delay parts of their treatment for safety concerns,” according to Sadia Khan, DO, FACS, Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at Keck School of Medicine, USC, Director of Integrative Breast Oncology at Hoag Breast Program. In areas where there is still a high incidence of COVID-19, some patients with breast cancer may opt to choose IORT, which offers a one-dose radiation option for patients who meet the criteria. For those who are candidates, IORT gives patients an additional option to complete their radiation in a one-time dose, which decreases their exposure to the hospital.”

Positive results from a long-term study involving Xoft breast IORT conducted at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian were published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology in 2019.2 Led by Melvin J. Silverstein, MD, Medical Director of the Hoag Breast Center, the prospective study, titled Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT): A Series of 1000 Tumors, found breast cancer recurrence rates of patients who were treated with Xoft breast IORT were comparable to those seen in the cornerstone, randomized TARGIT-A and ELIOT trials, which evaluated IORT using different technology.

A number of breast cancer patients at our facility have had their treatment delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is concerning to physicians and patients alike, as some cases could potentially progress and it could result in a considerable backlog of patients who require urgent treatment with more advanced disease,” according to Michael Howard, PhD, DABMP, RSO, Director of Oncology Services, Chief of Medical Physics, Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute, Parkridge Medical Center, HCA Healthcare. The concern for a second wave of COVID is very real, but IORT offers a way to help reduce this potential backlog.”

The reality is, IORT may be able to play a bigger role right now in the treatment of patients. In some cases, it may be ultimately more beneficial to offer IORT to avoid the backlog in treatment as a means of not overrunning hospitals and radiation centers once we are back up and running,” added Barry Rosen, MD, FACS, Chief of Breast Surgery, Advocate Healthcare and Managing Partner, TME. IORT is one of those exceptional interventions that I believe satisfies the triple aim in treatment: it offers benefits to patients, providers and payers alike. For patients, it offers added convenience, with better cosmetic outcomes and fewer side effects; from a physician standpoint there is an inherent efficiency, as it enables them to condense one month of daily treatments to a single dose of targeted radiation. Lastly, for payers, the overall cost of treatment is reduced as the course of treatment may be reduced from weeks of daily fractions to one concentrated dose of radiation, administered at the time of surgery.”

As clinicians, we are going to have to adapt to the COVID-19 situation as it evolves. At a certain point, delaying treatment for even early-stage breast cancer is going to come with risk. In many cases, the decision really should be made to go forward with cancer treatment; IORT offers a treatment option that may allow more women to get the treatment they need during this time,” according to Charles Wesley Hodge, MD, Radiation Oncologist, Florida Hospital Celebration Health/AdventHealth. We are facing an unprecedented challenge in healthcare, and as clinicians we need to come together and adjust to these new realities. For those of us who practice in the oncology space, it is particularly challenging because we are dealing with a potentially life-threatening illness that requires appropriate management. Now is the time for clinicians to work together, to adjust to our new reality, and to come up with an approach that will do the greatest good for our patients.”

This virtual roundtable event is a part of larger series of webinars hosted by iCAD in recent weeks, featuring leading experts in breast cancer detection and treatment. This series has examined various aspects of breast cancer care in the era of COVID-19, including risk adaptive tools and pragmatic solutions for both screening and treatment. To view the schedule, register for an upcoming free event, or view a prior event on-demand, visit https://www.icadmed.com/educational-webinars.html.

*Panelists have been compensated with an honoraria/speaking fee, but are encouraged to provide their own expert opinions and viewpoints. Dr. Patel is a member of iCAD’s Board of Directors.

About iCAD, Inc.

Headquartered in Nashua, NH, iCAD is a global medical technology leader providing innovative cancer detection and therapy solutions.

ProFound AI is a high-performing workflow solution for 2D and 3D mammography, or digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), featuring the latest in deep-learning artificial intelligence. In 2018, ProFound AI for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) became the first artificial intelligence (AI) software for DBT to be FDA-cleared; it was also CE marked and Health Canada licensed that same year. It offers clinically proven time-savings benefits to radiologists, including a reduction of reading time by 52.7 percent, thereby halving the amount of time it takes radiologists to read 3D mammography datasets. Additionally, ProFound AI for DBT improved radiologist sensitivity by 8 percent and reduced unnecessary patient recall rates by 7.2 percent.1

The Xoft System is FDA-cleared, CE marked and licensed in a growing number of countries for the treatment of cancer anywhere in the body. It uses a proprietary miniaturized x-ray source to deliver a precise, concentrated dose of radiation directly to the tumor site, while minimizing risk of damage to healthy tissue in nearby areas of the body.

For more information, visit http://www.icadmed.com and http://www.xoftinc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the future prospects for the Company’s technology platforms and products. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited, to the Company’s ability to achieve business and strategic objectives, the ability of IORT to alleviate the burden to our health system and minimize a patient’s potential exposure to Covid-19, to be more beneficial for patients that traditional therapy or to be accepted by patients or clinicians, the impact of supply and manufacturing constraints or difficulties, uncertainty of future sales levels, to defend itself in litigation matters, protection of patents and other proprietary rights, the impact of supply and manufacturing constraints or difficulties, product market acceptance, possible technological obsolescence of products, increased competition, litigation and/or government regulation, changes in Medicare or other reimbursement policies, risks relating to our existing and future debt obligations, competitive factors, the effects of a decline in the economy or markets served by the Company; and other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The words believe,” demonstrate,” intend,” expect,” estimate,” will,” continue,” anticipate,” likely,” seek,” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on those forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statement was made. The Company is under no obligation to provide any updates to any information contained in this release. For additional disclosure regarding these and other risks faced by iCAD, please see the disclosure contained in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available on the Investors section of our website at http://www.icadmed.com and on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov.

Contacts: Media inquiries: Jessica Burns, iCAD +1-201-423-4492 jburns@icadmed.com

Investor Relations: Jeremy Feffer, LifeSci Advisors +1-212-915-2568 jeremy@lifesciadvisors.com

More:
iCAD Hosts Virtual Roundtable Event on Breast Cancer Surgery and Targeted Radiation During COVID-19 | 2020-06-01 | Press Releases - Stockhouse

Dr. Donald Moss

MONTREAL (PRWEB) May 26, 2020

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

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

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

Click here to register.

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

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

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

Share article on social media or email:

Original post:
Thought Technology's Webinar Series Focuses on Adjunctive Therapies That Combine Well with Biofeedback and Neurofeedback - PR Web

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

View original post here:
TCM guideline on Covid-19 ready - The Star Online

JoinLhasa OMS and the Pacific College of Health and Science (formerly PCOM) as we hostDr. John Chenfrom Lotus Institute of Integrative Medicine and Evergreen Herbsfor his FREE webinar, Coronavirus and TCM: Scientific Research and Clinical Evidence of Chinese Herbs.

Coronavirus and TCM by John Chen, PhD, PharmD, OMD, LAc Part 3

TCM has been used with great success to combat Covid-19 in China; however, its influence barely palpable in the Western countries. Even as the Covid-19 pandemic reaches its peak around the world, many TCM practitioners are forced to close their clinics because their services are non-essential. This pattern of disharmony occurs in part because we as a profession have not communicated effectively with the public and the WM healthcare practitioners. We must go beyond the philosophy of yin and yang and present the science of TCM. We must learn the pharmacology of herbal medicine and present the clinical evidence of herbal treatment. These are challenges we must overcome to earn the respect and credibility to become mainstream healthcare practitioners.

What Attendees Will Learn:

Note: This will be the third class by Dr. Chen on TCM treatment of viral infections and coronavirus (Covid-19). Please try and watch the first two classes before attending this third one.

Webinar 1: TCM Treatment of Influenza and Viral Infections.

WATCH WEBINAR 1

Webinar 2: How Coronavirus (Covid-19) is treated with TCM in China

About Our Speaker:

Dr. John Chen, Ph.D., Pharm.D., O.M.D., L.Ac.

Medical Consultant,Evergreen Herbs & Medical Supplies

Dr. John Chens participation in the family tradition has led him to become a recognized authority in both western pharmacology and Chinese Herbal Medicine.He has taught herbology and pharmacology at:

He has also given seminars on herb-drug interactions for regional and national associations and organizations, including:

Dr. Chen is currently a member of the Herbal Medicine Committee for the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine; he is an herbal consultant for the California State Oriental Medical Association and is on the review/editorial committee for American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, the University of Arizona Integrative Medicine Program, and the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture.

Dr. Chen has published numerous articles and several books. His most recently published works are Chinese Medical Herbology and Pharmacology (2003, AOM Press) and Chinese Herbal Formulas and Applications (2008, AOM Press) for which he was lead author.

The effectiveness of treatment is of utmost concern to me, for each and every patient. The safety, quality, and potency of the herbs are crucial factors in determining treatment outcome. My goal is to make both Western and Oriental medical communities aware of herbal alternatives to drugs, and of the importance of identifying herb-drug interactions. I hope to see us eventually bridging the gap between Eastern and Western medicine by integrating use of herbs and related TCM modalities with modern technological medicine.

This Event is Co-Sponsored by:

Originally posted here:
UPCOMING FREE Webinar: Coronavirus and TCM: Scientific Research and Clinical Evidence of Chinese Herbs featuring Dr. John Chen - Lhasa OMS

The ranking measured 79 anatomy/cell biology departments in U.S. medical schools.

The Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham continues its rise in the top tier of U.S. anatomy/cell biology departments.

The departments 2019 National Institutes of Health funding of $16,479,206 is ranked No. 4 in the nation out of 79 anatomy/cell biology basic science departments, according to a newly released report. Marcas Bamman, Ph.D., professor in the UAB CDIB department (pronounced see-dib), had the third highest NIH funding out of 821 principal investigators in the anatomy/cell biology departments, with funding of $6,600,693. Bamman is director of the UAB Center for Exercise Medicine.

While being ranked fourth is exciting and well deserved, said Brad Yoder, Ph.D., professor and chair of CDIB, I think the most important thing to recognize is that this is really a reflection of the exciting, innovative and impactful research that the faculty in CDIB are directing and that our trainees are performing. CDIB is one of the basic science departments in the UAB School of Medicine.

Two other CDIB researchers were in the top 100 in NIH funding in 2019, with more than $1 million Yoder and Qin Wang, M.D., Ph.D., a CDIB professor. Fourteen other CDIB researchers had NIH funding in 2019, that averaged $464,000.

In 2017, CDIB ranked 14th in NIH funding, and in 2018, the department ranked ninth, according to annual reports of NIH funding compiled by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.

The research excellence of the CDIB department is partly the fruit of a 2012 merger of two former basic medical science departments at UAB.

Brad Yoder, Ph.D., Qin Wang, M.D., Ph.D., and Marcas Bamman, Ph.D.That merger between the former Department of Cell Biology and the Department of Physiology and Biophysics is really one of the major strengths that has contributed to our growth and high performance, Yoder said. We have a highly collegial and collaborative faculty with highly diverse research programs that span from very basic studies of how proteins fold and move around a cell, or how cells communicate with each other, to clinical studies that have direct impact on human health. This diversity has brought groups together to work on common biological problems from very different perspectives.

This interdisciplinary collaboration supports one of the pillars of UABs strategic plan, Forging the Future the pillar of research, innovation and economic development.

At the time of the merger, UAB President Ray Watts, M.D., who was then the medical school dean, said, The basic sciences cell biology, physiology, microbiology, pharmacology, toxicology and neurobiology are where breakthroughs in cancer, heart disease and neurological disorders often begin. The new department will leverage existing strengths of two faculties to help us move even faster toward the development of new treatments.

At UAB, Bamman holds the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation School of Medicine Endowed Professorship in Regenerative and Translational Medicine, and Yoder holds the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation Endowed Chair in Biomedical Research.

Excerpt from:
UAB Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology ranks fourth in nation for NIH funding - The Mix

A new study reinforces the idea that mindfulness practices including meditation can improve symptoms and quality of life for patients living with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by helping them stay focused on the present moment.

To better understand the impact of mindfulness training on IBS symptoms, Bruce Naliboff, PhD, a clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLAs David Geffen School of Medicine led a team of researchers who followed 68 IBS patients through an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) class that included weekly group trainings and daily 30-minute meditation sessions at home.

More than 70 percent of participants in the study reported a reduction in the severity of their IBS symptoms following the training, and benefits continued three months after its conclusion. Additionally, participants reported significant improvements in both their quality of life and reductions in anxiety associated with their IBS symptoms.

The results were published in April 2020 in the journal Neurogastroenterology & Motility.

Follow-up surveys found that participants also showed significant gains in three facets of mindfulness: observation, being nonjudgmental, and acting with awareness. The last of those three was of particular interest to the research team, who found that patients who developed their ability to act with awareness were the most likely to report a reduction in both the severity of their symptoms and the anxiety associated with IBS. They were also more likely to report a better quality of life at the three-month follow-up.

Kirsten Tillisch, MD, a gastroenterologist at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and an author of the study, says she and her colleagues were surprised that acting with awareness translated to a reduction in IBS symptoms.

In MBSR, acting with awareness means attending to activities in the present moment, rather than acting on autopilot or out of habit. This factor, which aims to let practitioners acknowledge thoughts and distractions as they arise without chasing them down, is one of the major outcomes of a successful mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness is a very popular term, but a lot of what practicing mindfulness does is generate awareness, says Susan Gaylord, PhD, the director of the center for integrative medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. That awareness, Dr. Gaylord says, lets people bring their attention to the present, and then stay in that moment, operating from a fresh perspective.

As a disorder of internal sensations, at the beginning I would not have guessed that this factor that focuses on outward action would have made such a strong impact, Dr. Tillisch says.

Tillisch pointed out that the study was unable to explain why that impact seemed so strong. She speculated that transferring a patients attention to the external world and their immediate surroundings could simply leave less bandwidth for the brain to focus on internal matters, including the ruminations and predictions that may drive persistent IBS symptoms.

Previous research has shown that this aspect of mindfulness may be helpful in preventing obsessive intrusive thoughts (OITs), such as shame around past situations or worries about what the future might hold fears and worries that are commonly associated with IBS. For some patients, OITs can worsen symptoms and make the condition more difficult to manage.

RELATED: IBS Treatment Options and Prevention Strategies

Meditation is a skill that requires practice just like any other, and different types of meditation can result in different experiences. The practice has been studied for many conditions other than IBS, including heart disease, depression, and PTSD.

Mindfulness meditation, which includes MBSR, focuses on creating and maintaining a sense of presence with the world around you and limiting emotional reactions and judgments, so you can assess situations thoughtfully, not just with gut feelings or instincts.

MBSR training can vary from class to class and teacher to teacher, but it often touches on interacting with and interrogating emotional responses and often includesyoga practice. Through group discussions and homework, students work to become more attentive to their senses and aware of their surroundings, as well as their reactions to those surroundings.

The new UCLA-led study suggests that MBSR training could improve the results of meditation and other mindfulness practices for individuals with IBS. Tillisch and her colleagues are eager to investigate that potential further, she said.

At this time, the traditional MBSR is the gold standard and is based on the broad research that shows its benefits across several mental health and physical symptom domains, [and] it should remain so, Tillisch says. But targeted interventions for specific disorders like IBS may be useful as stand-alone, shorter interventions.

Read more from the original source:
Mindfulness Meditation Reduces IBS Symptoms and Anxiety, Study Finds - Everyday Health

Welcome to Part 2 of this three part series: Protecting the Mind, Body and Spirit During Covid! In Part 1, we talked about strengthening the resilience of our mind. Today, were delving into our body and the concrete steps we can take to build our bodys resilience during the pandemic. Our lessons from Part 1 apply to this week and vice versa, because the mind and body are inextricably linked. Whats good for the body is good for the mind! Thats the mind-body connection in a nutshell.

The big question on everyones mind is whether we canincrease our immunity to Covid.

From the strictly biological perspective, this is a new, emerging infectious disease that our immune system has never seen before so theoretically-speaking, no one has immunity. But looking at it from the integrative medicine perspective, there is so much we can do to optimize our immune system, and thats precisely what well talk about this week.

1.BUILDING OUR IMMUNITY FROM THE INSIDE-OUT

Our immune system is dynamic and always in flux, responding to our internal and external cues. Studies show that at the molecular level, our immune system responds not just to our daily actions (what we eat, how we sleep, and how we move) but it also responds to our emotions, specifically happiness. When we cultivate a specific kind of happiness, called purposeful or eudaemonic happiness, we can alter how our immune cells respond.

So how can we increase this specific kind of happiness during unhappy,pandemic times? Through the integrative practices of yoga, meditation, tai-chi and others, which have been proven to build the happiness muscles in each of us, irrespective of whats happening on the outside. Well talk much more about these practicesin later posts, but if youve been interested in a mind-bodypracticebut never took the leap, now would be a great time toget yourself into the Om Zone!

2. SLEEP IS A THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION

Besides social distancing and hand hygiene, one of the best things you can do right now for your immune health is to protect your sleep.Sleep is a therapeutic intervention. It is restorative for every single cell, blood vessel, and organ system in the body. And in times of crisis like now, the restorative benefits of sleep cannot be overemphasized. Our immune system is more powerful at night while we sleep, so protecting our sleep like the vital resource it is has never been more critical.

The two components of sleep- quantity and quality- can be protected and strengthened in a two concrete ways:

To improve sleep quantity, its key to set an early bedtime. The ideal bedtime is 10pm, since the most restorative sleep usually happens between 10p and 12am. By going to bed after this window, youre shortchanging yourself out of the copious benefits that sleep provides. An easy way to adopt an earlier bedtime is to set a night time alarm at 9p to give yourself a nudge to start winding down. Try it, it works!

To improve sleep qualityand decrease sleep fragmentation, try to create a relaxing bedtime routine and minimize your bedtime screen time, specifically two hours before bedtime. Screens of any kind (TV, laptops, smartphones) emit a blue light which stimulates the awake center in our brain, so even if we are tired and physiologically ready to sleep, screens can artificially keep us up. Choose a non screen-based activity like reading an old-fashioned novel, listening to music, or doing a calming yoga sequence or meditation session before bed. These bedtime activities help soothe the sympathetic nervous system and decrease the fight or flight response. Personally, I love the legs up the wall yoga pose (below) before bedtime since it helps relax the sympathetic nervous system and gets the body into a rested state. Its a game changer for sleep quality.

3.TRAINING YOUR BRAIN TO EXERCISE

Exercise: the word alone is so cringeworthy isnt it? We all know its good for you and yet so few people do it. But if theres ever been a time to start exercising, the time is now! Exercise changes not just our external appearance, it can change our internal landscape too. It alters our genes and immune response, improves our sleep, increases our mood, decreases anxiety and has protective effects on our vital organs like the lungs and heart. As my exercise coach says, dont exercise so you can appreciate your fit body in the future, exercise because you appreciate your healthy body in the now. Thats some wisdom! To reap the rewards of exercise, you dont need to run a marathon or even run at all. A simple daily 20-minute walk is enough. And if you cant get outside, there are so many indoor, low-impact options to consider.

The one thing to remember is that when starting an exercise habit, its important to do a little biteverydaythan just once in a while. When we do something everyday we automate the task (like brushing our teeth or showering) and building a habit is all about making something automatic and habitual. When were learning something new, its easier to train our brains to do something daily than to do something once in a while.

4. YOUR GUT-BRAIN CONNECTION AT WORK

During periods of stress, our brains are evolutionarily programmed to crave high-fat, high-sugar, calorically-rich foods. When our self-preservation mechanism is on red alert, at the most basic level calories equals survival. Enter the donut. When you reach for the donut its your brain appropriately responding to its internal environmental cues. To curb stress eating, ask yourself,what am I hungry for?More connection, more safety, less stress, less uncertainty and work to address that underlying emotion. Over time, the downstream mechanism of stress eating will respond accordingly.

Once your stress eating is under control, aim to eat a version of the Mediterranean diet, which has been scientifically studied to be the best overall diet for boosting immunity, increasing lifespan, and warding off most chronic illnesses. Another great thing to consider adding to your diet is probiotics (yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi). Probiotics help strengthen your gut microbiome, which many scientists believe houses a large proportion of our immune system.

The gut microbiome also helps to regulatethe gut-brain connection and our mood.Did you knowthere are three to five times moreserotonin receptors in the gut than the brain?This may bewhythe gut microbiomeis intimately linked to our mood state.By keeping our gut microbiome healthy, we give our bodies the best chance atcreating a positive internal environment for our immunity and mood, two things that are top of mind for most of us right now.

COMING UP IN PART 3: Weve covered how we can build resilience in the mind and the body. Next, we delve into the spirit! How can we create meaning and purpose behind this shared pandemic experience? More to come in the next module

If youre gaining resilience, wisdom and strength from this series, Id love for you to check out our free weekly newsletter here! And if theres something specific youd like me to focus on, let me know via email at [emailprotected]

Youre one step closer to being the most resilient person you know!

Read the original:
4 Ways to Protect Your Body and Improve Your Immunity - Thrive Global

Today, Michael Weatherly is married to Bojana Jankovic an award-winning physician who is double board-certified in internal and integrative medicine. The former NCIS star and Jankovic have been married since 2009, and they have two children together: a 6-year-old son Liam Weatherly and an 8-year-old daughter Olivia Weatherly.

Jessica Alba the Hollywood actress and co-founder of the Honest Company is currently married to Cash Warren. Warren is a film producer known for his work on Taxi, Fantastic Four, and Crips and Bloods: Made in America. The couple has three children together who are all quite young. Their daughter Honor Marie Warren is the eldest at 11 years old. Their second daughter, Haven Garner Waren, is 8 years old. And finally, their youngest son Hayes Alba is just two.

Michael Weatherly and Jessica Alba have settled down with new partners, and have gone on to boast successful careers and happy families. One is the co-founder of a very profitable company, while the other is currently leading the hit primetime procedural, Bull. Yet, many years ago, when the two were both newer to the industry young talents in Tinseltown they struck up a romance. Their story ended with an engagement one that never quite took the duo to the altar.

A few years (from 2000 2002) before Michael Weatherly joined NCIS, which would go on to catalyze his career, he appeared alongside an up-and-coming Jessica Alba in the Fox series Dark Angel. Alba was also new to Hollywood, and she had not yet climbed the ladder to A-List status, becoming the household name she is today.

The show was a science fiction drama centering on a group of genetically-enhanced children who escaped from a lab project. Years down the line, the audience meets Max, who now works for some clandestine messenger service in the shows post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest.

As for Michael Weatherly and Jessica Alba, they played Logan and Max respectively: two characters who go on to boast a very close friendship one in which sexual tension and romantic inclinations exist beneath the surface. Thus, it should come as no surprise that this on-screen romance led to an off-screen coupling (remember Mr. and Mrs. Smith?).

While a 12 year age gap isnt too out of the ordinary in Hollywood, when one member is 18 and the other is 30, it definitely leads to some criticism and questioning from the public and family members alike.

Alba was 18 when she began dating Michael Weatherly, who at the time was 30. As the Econotimes reports, Jessica Albas parents were allegedly against the relationship likely one of the many facts that led to their breakup.

Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly even got engaged, and they remained that way until 2003. So, this relationship did last quite a while, despite the age difference, widespread criticism, and many other reported downfalls.Weatherly also happens to be about fifteen years older than his wife, Jankovic, but both are grownups.

More here:
How Old Was Jessica Alba When She Dated Michael Weatherly? - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

This marks the end of our three-part series on optimizing our mind, body and spirit during Covid. Today, weve delving into building resilience in the spirit. When we talk about spirit in this context, its totally secular and non-religious. What were talking about is at the heart of what resilience really is: fortitude, courage, and power. How can we spark these things within us in the midst of the pandemic? The answer lies in the wise Eastern saying: No mud, no lotus. Meaning, the challenge to cultivate these inner attributes is brought on by the challenge itself.

Humans are by definition meaning-seeking, purpose-driven creatures.

We thrive when we are leading purposeful, meaningful lives. And resiliency feeds off this energy. So to build a resilient spirit, we need to a find ways to create meaning and purpose during this pandemic. There have been so many examples of resiliency in spirit all around the world: on the balconies in Italy, the press briefings of NYs Governor Cuomo, and in the relief efforts to get PPE to healthcare workers worldwide. The human spirit is the most resilient force on the planet!

So today, I want to focus on three specific ways you can start building a resilient spirit by creating a sense of meaning and purpose in your own lives during this time:

1. STEP INTO A GROWTH MINDSET, NOT A SCARCITY MINDSET

The stress caused by a pandemic creates a scarcity mindset. Its our self-preservation mechanism in overdrive. Pandemics on the whole breed the scarcity mindset because its a survival tactic we as humans have evolutionarily developed. We are biologically primed to scan our environment for danger and act accordingly. It is inherently protective because it keeps us safe. But at the individual level, we have great power in outsmarting our biology to turn off our scarcity mindset and turn on our growth mindset.

At the core of the growth mindset is the belief that challenges can make us stronger, wiser and more able than we were before. The mere fact that you are reading this is proof that you are stepping into your growth mindset, because you believe you have the power to change and grow.

We can take concrete steps to cultivate a growth mindset by first managing our stress response using many of the tools we learned in prior weeks. When we build resilience in our mind and body through the ways weve talked about before, we can step out of the fear zone and into the growth zone even in the midst of a pandemic (see below).

2. WATCH THE MOVIE OF YOUR LIFE

Another way to build our spirit during this crisis is to become the observer. Mindfulness experts talk a lot about this concept, but let me break it down into very Hollywood terms: start watching the movie of your life. Were not talking about an action-packed blockbuster here, were talking about our quiet inner ability to watch ourselves and really pay attention to how were living in the day to day during this pandemic.

Think of your life right now as a movie and you as the hero or heroine of this tale. Are you the lead character you want to be? Are you stepping into your power and intentionally working on your potential for calmness, peace of mind and inner strength? Are you making intentional choices to read and watch uplifting things, to spend time (virtually of course) with people who make you laugh and bring you joy? Are you working on creating a calm, safe haven within yourself amidst the chaos of the outside world?

Weve talked a lot in the past two modules of how when we do better, we feel better. And with this doing, resilience has a chance to grow. Its time to channel your Hollywood starlet and cultivate that Oscar worthy, resilient performance.

3. LIVE A LIFETIME IN A DAY

As an integrative medicine doctor, living a lifetime in a day is a mantra I repeat often to patients. Its a way to incorporate all the elements that make up an arc of a long, purposeful and meaningful life- work, family, solitude, vacation, and retirement- and building each of those into one single day.

For example, engaging in work could mean any project that brings you a feeling of productivity or achievement. Spending time in family life (whether you have a family or not) could mean connecting virtually with your tribe to feel a sense of belonging. Taking a vacation could mean doing something that brings you joy and levity and gets you into a state of flow. And retirement could mean taking a pause in the day to reflect and take stock of your blessings.

By living a lifetime in a day, we learn to take the long view and zoom out. And when we zoom out, we can paradoxically learn to zoom in on what matters most: people, love, connection, health and ultimately happiness, the most universally resilient life force of all.

THE SPIRIT OF RESILIENCE IN A POEM

Heres one of my most favorite poems about the spirit of resilience. Charles Bukowski wrote this in 1993, long before the Covid pandemic. If theres one piece of literary genius that summarizes the resiliency of the human spirit, I think this might be it:

In this three-part series, weve covered how we can build resilience in the mind, body and spirit. As a refresher, heres a piece from mindbodygreen which features the media diet we talked about in the first part of this series!

I hope youve gained knowledge, strength and well-being through this three-part series. Id love to have you subscribe to our free weekly newsletter! And if theres something specific youd like me to focus on, let me know via email at [emailprotected]

Youre one step closer to being the most resilient person you know!

Originally posted here:
How to Tap Into Spirituality to Stay Optimistic During This Time - Thrive Global

Colling Media,a top-ranked national digital advertising and marketing agency, continues its recent, impressive growth by adding five new businesses to its prestigious roster of clients.

The agencys new clients include:

ScriptSave WellRxan innovative prescription medication discount program that closes the gaps in prescription benefit coverage.

Diamond Kitchen& Baththe leading retailer of kitchen and bathroom cabinetry and countertops in thePhoenixmetropolitan area.

Radix Lawa business law firm based inScottsdale.

Soul Surgerya renowned integrative medicine addiction and rehab center inScottsdale, featuring a holistic approach to drug and alcohol treatment.

Premier Criminal Defensebased inSan Diegoand serving all ofSouthern California, the firm offers skilled counsel to help clients accused of Misdemeanors, Felony and Federal Offenses.

Despite the economic challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we are in the midst of explosive growth, saysBrian Colling, CEO of Colling Media. Weve prospered during this difficult time because of our exceptional digital expertise, our ability to generate leads with ever-changing strategic tactics and cost-effective media placement, and because of our focused customer service. Now more than ever, its important to be nimble and creative. Rather than retreating, we know its important for brands to stay in front of their customers. We help them do this through a careful auditing of their media spend and by shifting dollars where and when necessary. Its heartening to see that our longtime clients, and many new ones, appreciate our creativity and dedication to getting results.

>See this original news report here:Colling Media Lands Five New Advertising Clients in March and April

Originally posted here:
Colling Media Lands Five New Advertising Clients in March and April - Martechcube

You went to medical school at the University of Washington. What has it been like for you living in the epicenter of the first COVID-19 outbreak in the US?Well, initially we had such little to go on, and so everyone was really just playing things by ear, and nobody really knew. We still don't have a great sense of the contagiousness. So it was very frightening, nerve-racking, really, to know what advice to give our patients but also protect ourselves.

And what have you noticed over the last few weeks, since those first deaths? I think over time we've really seen a lot of our community come together. We're marshaling the resources of infectious disease and virology departments at the University of Washington. And also one of the first vaccine trials is now happening at Kaiser Permanente Research Institute here in Seattle. And the guidelines the UW has been sending out every day and sharing with the larger community have really helped the community and the larger health care community feel like we've got a handle on this. And the governor and the state government have been proactive. I'm hopeful that these kinds of thing can happen for other major health crises that are always going on in this state, like homelessness and lack of access to basic health carethat's my hope.

When you say we still don't know about the contagiousness of COVID-19, what do you mean exactly?Well, you know, there were a lot of questions about droplet spread, whether you need droplet protections or aerosolized protections, how much contact protections, all these different aspects are a little unknown. There was that well-reported case of people coming down with COVID even though they were practicing six-feet separation when they had choir practice up in Skagit County, in Anacortes. Several people died because of contacting COVID likely during that choir practice. So forceful breathing is suspected as one of the mechanisms to get this more broadly airborne beyond droplets.

Your clinic integrates cannabis into patients wellness plans. Have you changed what you tell patients about cannabis in light of COVID-19?Already medicinal cannabis use is not a shared activity. This is really about minimizing contact with other peoples' germs. The question of whether cannabis itself will suppress or lower the immune threshold that makes you more susceptiblewe have no evidence of that. The International Association on Cannabinoid Medicines put out a statement at the end of last month that there's no evidence that cannabis could be used to treat COVID-19, but there's also no evidence that it could increase the risk of viral infection. They also acknowledge there are clinical studies that show that cannabinoids could have anti-viral, anti-bacterial effects. So it has not really come up at my clinic, in any major way. My naturopathic medicine colleagues are really experts at thinking about how to help support people's immune functions, to keep them at their best level of health. The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians has recommended intravenous vitamin C be given to patientsthat they should be given to patients in hospitals who are effectively sick with COVID...

Intravenous vitamin C?Yeah, yeah. It's based on good data that's come out of China. But there's other things happeningthere's so much. It's not my specialty, but I'd certainly pay attention to the folks who are working on patient support from a naturopathic or holistic perspective. I'm also hoping that patients in the hospital will get the plasma...

The plasma?The most exciting thing I'm hearing about is the plasma, where you get plasma from people who've survived COVID, so you can build up your immune response and help fight it.

Not the safest way to ingest right now. vladans/Getty Images

Wait, really?Yes. Yes, Dr. Tashkin at UCLA has shown that nicely. It's mentioned in a couple epidemiological studies. And then also there's been some nice data lung function in a study called the CARDIA study that was done published out of UCSF. It was a multi-center large study that studied peoples' lung function for years, and actually, people who used cannabis had a little bit improved pulmonary dynamics. Like, ability to blow air faster. Some of those dynamics were improved in cannabis users in a large study that was published a number of years ago. But that may not help you in fighting COVID-19. But it could be a question if your bronchial irritation might impair pulmonary toilet. In general, doing everything we can to improve your lung function with a virus that causes severe acute respiratory distress syndrome is important.

I'm still wrapping my head around the phrase "pulmonary toilet."[Laughs.] Yeah, I'm sure your readers will enjoy that.

So you do acknowledge that smoking cannabis might be a bad idea right now considering this is a respiratory illness?In general, smoke, anything that irritates your lungs, in general, if you can minimize that with non-smoke delivery, that's probably better for your lungs. What's the threshold where it causes excessive irritation or inflammation? It's going to vary from person to person. And it's also the dose and the degree. But I can say there's a relationship between regular cannabis use and bronchial irritation.

If I smoke a bong regularly, after six months or a year I notice tar builds up in it at every joint all throughout the deviceis that tar also going into my lungs?You know, you are getting exposed to soot. But the difference between your device and your body is your body is alive and has all sorts of internal cleaning systems, so it processes things. They don't just hang out there, these particles. They get processed. As long as your system is healthy, you're able to clear things.

And are tobacco smoke and cannabis smoke different in terms of how they affect you?There's some data that said that some of the toxins called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are made as combustion byproducts, or things like benzopyrene that are also found in tobacco smokethose chemicals get cleared from the lungs after smoke exposure gets into the bloodstream. But then it has to get through a conversion process in the liver where it gets turned into a more carcinogenic compound, but it turns out the enzymes that do that are inhibited by cannabinoids. So there could be some pharmacological protective actions of the cannabinoids in protecting against some of the impacts of the smoke on the body's health. There's a whole article called "Cannabis and Tobacco Smoke Are Not Equally Carcinogenic" that was published in the Harm Reduction Journal ten or fifteen years ago by Dr. Robert Milimede. These are not simple questions. It's very complicated. But in general, if your system gets overwhelmed, and your pulmonary toilet is not functioning, you can get some irritation.

You're blowing my mind with cannabis smoke not being linked to COPD or lung cancer. That's amazing.The National Institute on Drug Abuse will say that: "Oh, it's still an open question." But I don't think it is. There's a party line and there's the quality data that's out there. I've written that and published that in peer-reviewed journals, and many others have too.

How do you view vaping? We heard all these health scares about vaping in the fall.Oh yeah, all that vaping scare had to do with what we already knew for a long time: that certain solvents should not be used in those devices. Propylene glycol, vitamin E acetatethese things we shouldn't be adding to something that is low heat that's then being brought to our lung system. The original vaping was dry-flower vaping: low-heat, low-combustion on flower. And then of course concentrates took off, and that's really where this Wild West thing took off. But people who don't use solvents? We don't have any evidence that you're putting anything into your body except cannabis resin at low heat.

Although vaping can still make you cough.There still can be some irritation of the lungs with vaping, so patients and consumers have to know to try not to get themselves too thick of an exposure. The vapor cloud shouldn't be as thick. You can find ways to, like, inhale air and mix in with the vapor, so it's not as concentrated, because that can be irritating to the respiratory tree, and cause coughing and irritation.

"Cannabis helps people find meaning and joy and bliss, and that's so important to health," Dr. Aggarwal believes. rmbarricarte/Getty Images

But you are not recommending to anyone to completely stop using cannabis, even recreational users.Recreation to me is really an aspect of the spiritual use of cannabisspiritual health and well-being. Because cannabis helps people find meaning and joy and bliss, and that's so important to health, so I don't want to minimize that. And I think also this whole idea of sharing things, you know, finding some way to connectit's vital for our health too. So I think we should find ways to maintain that, but safely, so we don't put each other at risk.

If someone is going to consume cannabis right now, what's the safest way to do it?Tinctures, edibles, non-smoke delivery methods, topicalsthese are probably the safest in that regard. As long as you have good, clean products.

What are the medical conditions for which cannabis is most effective?Chronic pain, muscle spasms, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite. Those are probably the top ones.

You are also an expert in palliative care and end-of-life issues. What do you make of all these COVID deaths happening in isolation? Have you seen anything like this before?No. It's so difficult. Difficult for the patient, feeling like they're dying without their loved ones present, which is such a critical need. Universally, people ask for their loved ones present at the end of life. And then of course it's difficult for the families not to have presence with their loved ones for the grieving process. These situations are just so hard. I know our community is working so hard to try to use video and virtual and telephone, and that I think can help to substitute at this time. You know, people also aren't even able to have birthing attendants, either, at the other end [of the cycle of life]. I've heard of hospitals not allowing that for women in labor.

This is brutal, what we're living through.We're having to come into life and leave life under conditions of a pandemic. And we can just do the best we can. The health workers are sometimes able to be presentnurses are doing that. And they're also helping facilitate connection through virtual. At one of the hospitals I work in, they are allowing for people who are at the end of life, who aren't COVID-positive, they're allowing them to have some more visitors. They're lifting some of the visitor restrictions. Like, they can have two visitors rather than just one in the whole course of the day. So it's impacting people across the whole board, not just COVID deaths, but deaths in medical health care facilities or nursing homes, from everything.

I guess it makes sense to loosen restrictions on someone who's at the end of life anyway, because what's the worst that can happen?We still have to make sure that those people who come in are screened, they don't have fevers, and there should be universal masking in all the health facilities. But the need for the patient to have a good death, and for the family not to be traumatized by not being there, is a consideration. And that lets the hospital administration know, like: "Okay, for these folks, visitors can come a little bit more liberally, because they're never going to see their loved one alive again."

Are you personally wearing masks when you go grocery shopping? Should people be wearing masks to the pot store?Yes, at this point, I am wearing a mask when I leave the house now. The CDC has recommended masking when you go outdoors, mostly to protect other people from you. But yes, any time you're out in public, wearing something in the pot shop or anywhere is smart and might reduce your exposure and definitely will reduce your droplets on other people, so it's good.

You are the co-founder and co-director of the AIMS Institute, which stands for Advanced Integrative Medical Science. Are you still able to see patients in this time of stay-at-home?Yes. We are doing telemedicine. We've been set up to do telemedicine from our very beginning. Thankfully insurance companies including Medicare have lifted all their restrictions on that, and just recently the state has mandated that they have to pay us the same amountthe insurance companies have to pay us equal, have to reimburse us at the same rate for virtual visits. So some of those barriers are being lifted thanks to the actions of the government in this crisis. There are still some things we're still doing in person that just have to be done. We just practice lots of precautions. We're an essential business, but we're doing what we can from a distance.

Speaking of this phrase "essential business." What is your reaction to the rather abrupt about-face from some government entities who not long ago considered cannabis distribution as a crime and now consider it an essential part of society?[Laughs.] Yeah. Just, uh... [Laughs.] A smile and a laugh. That's my response right now. Things are changing. The other day I got to speak about cannabis to some of the leaders of the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)a bunch of these NIH institutes, especially NIDA, that have really avoided and ignored this entire beneficial framework. So the fact that I could talk to them for 40 minutes at a national public thing was a shift. That hadn't happened. Of course, these things are going to definitely impact how we perceive the role of cannabis in society after we get past this pandemic.

Do you perceive a world in which we see all sorts of things, including cannabis and medicine, differently, after we've moved through this crisis? I certainly do feel that that's a possibility. So many major disasters lead to big changes in society afterwards, for the better, because we kind of figure out what our priorities are. That's actually the nature of serious illness, too. When people get sick, sometimes there's an opportunity to be better than you were before you got sick. And so I hope that happens writ large for society.

Read the rest here:
Is It Okay to Smoke Weed Right Now? - TheStranger.com

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling everyone to wear a cloth face covering while out in public while maintaining proper social distancing from other people to help limit the spread of coronavirus. A lot of people have asked questions about what works best for covering their face.Dr. Eudene Harry of Emergency and Integrative Medicine says masks should not give you a false sense of security."We have to understand that surfaces are still contaminated," Dr. Harry said. "If we touch those surfaces and then touch our face and fiddle with the mask, we could rub our eyes. We could potentially still be introducing that virus."Harry says masks should be four layers thick and tightly woven. She also says you may need more than one, depending on what you are doing and where you are going, especially if you are going to more than one place."Assume when you've gone out and come in, assume it's contaminated," said Harry. "I would really suggest washing that mask. Here is what I would recommend: is having two so you can kind of wash one and then use the other."The CDC has instructions on how to make your own face covering and more tips on proper use. You can find them by clicking here.Several stores, like Ocean State Job Lot and JoAnn Fabrics, are offering free material and kits to make your own face covering.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling everyone to wear a cloth face covering while out in public while maintaining proper social distancing from other people to help limit the spread of coronavirus. A lot of people have asked questions about what works best for covering their face.

Dr. Eudene Harry of Emergency and Integrative Medicine says masks should not give you a false sense of security.

"We have to understand that surfaces are still contaminated," Dr. Harry said. "If we touch those surfaces and then touch our face and fiddle with the mask, we could rub our eyes. We could potentially still be introducing that virus."

Harry says masks should be four layers thick and tightly woven. She also says you may need more than one, depending on what you are doing and where you are going, especially if you are going to more than one place.

"Assume when you've gone out and come in, assume it's contaminated," said Harry. "I would really suggest washing that mask. Here is what I would recommend: is having two so you can kind of wash one and then use the other."

The CDC has instructions on how to make your own face covering and more tips on proper use. You can find them by clicking here.

Several stores, like Ocean State Job Lot and JoAnn Fabrics, are offering free material and kits to make your own face covering.

Read the rest here:
Covering your face: what you need to know - WMTW Portland

Exercise has some pretty amazing benefits for our bodies that go far beyond weight loss and appearances. It should come as no surprise, then, that regular physical activity can help with the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

When it comes to exercise and IBS, walking is a double-win because it can help with digestion as well as stress.

Image Credit: gpointstudio/iStock/GettyImages

But keep in mind that certain types of exercise may be better than others for IBS sufferers, and too much can sometimes backfire. Here's a closer look at that delicate balance.

"Exercise is anxiety-relieving, and anxiety often plays a big role in IBS symptoms," Emily Van Eck, RDN, a New Orleans-based registered dietitian-nutritionist who specializes in GI disorders, tells LIVESTRONG.com. "We see people who struggle with anxiety experience more intense and frequent IBS symptoms like constipation, bloating and gas."

Indeed, a January 2011 study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology found that IBS patients who upped their exercise levels experienced a significant decrease in IBS-related symptoms.

2. It Can Help Relieve Constipation

Exercise can be particularly important if you have irritable bowel syndrome and struggle with constipation. That's because exercise speeds up the time it takes food to move through your large intestine, explains Gina Sam, MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. As a result, your body absorbs less water from your stool, which makes it easier to pass.

Getting moving also speeds up your breathing and heart rate, which may also help stimulate the contraction of muscles in your GI tract. "If these muscles squeeze better, you'll be able to move bowel movements out more easily," Dr. Sam says.

3. It May Improve Your Sleep

Finally, exercise tends to help people sleep better, Van Eck says, and sleep can play a major role in overall health, including digestive health.

Lack of sleep puts stress on the body, which triggers blood and nutrients to be diverted away from the gut to other parts of the body, Anil Rama, MD, doctor of sleep medicine at the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, tells LIVESTRONG.com.

"That means whatever food is in your stomach won't face the normal acid and bile secretions, the contractions by the gut to move the food along will be reduced and absorption of the food will be delayed," Dr. Rama says.

The result? Constipation, diarrhea, bloating and pain.

Yoga is a tried-and-true IBS exercise.

Image Credit: FatCamera/E+/GettyImages

A review of 14 studies published February 2019 in the journal Neurogastroenterology and Motility found that many different types of moderate-intensity, low-impact exercise appear to relieve IBS symptoms, including the following.

It may sound simple, but walking has been linked to all sorts of health benefits, many of which can positively affect IBS symptoms.

When combined with a bit of meditation, just 10 minutes of walking a day can help boost your mental health and ease anxiety, according to a July 2018 study in Health Promotion Perspectives.

Taking your walk into the great outdoors for 20 minutes can decreases your cortisol levels, helping you feel less stressed, according to an April 2019 study in Frontiers in Psychology.

"I recommend that all of my patient with IBS include at least one day a week where they are doing slow, mindful exercise like a slow walk in nature," Van Eck says. "This type of movement can calm the mind and body, which can calm the digestive system, too."

And speaking of digestion, a June 2013 study in Diabetes Care showed that walking post-meal can clear glucose from your bloodstream, which helps move food through your system more efficiently.

While aerobic exercise is important, there's good research to suggest more mindfulness-based activities such as yoga can help, too.

"It's a great option, not just because it keeps you moving, but also because it helps relieve stress, which we know can worsen IBS-related symptoms," Dr. Sam says.

People with IBS who practiced yoga for an hour for three days a week for 12 weeks reported improvements in both symptoms and quality of life compared to those who didn't do downward-facing dog, according to a December 2015 study published in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine.

While any type of yoga can help, some moves may be especially good for IBS. "There are some yoga poses that are known to be used for improved digestion, like twists and locust pose," says Van Eck.

She recommends hero pose, a gentle seated posture, to help calm your digestive system after meals.

If you feel like your anxiety is worsening your IBS, she suggests calming postures like legs up the wall, child's pose and happy baby.

You may not think breathing exercises "count" as, well, exercise, but it's a good idea to include them in your routine, too.

People with IBS who participated in a nine-week relaxation program that included meditation and deep breathing for 15 to 20 minutes a day reported improvements in their symptoms, according to an April 2015 study published in the journal PLOS One.

One good exercise to try, according to the IFFGD, is diaphragmatic breathing:

When it comes to a low-impact workout with big benefits, you can't do a whole lot better than tai chi, the Chinese martial art that incorporates intentional, fluid motions that aim to connect your mind and body.

As a form of meditation in motion, tai chi can decrease stress, anxiety and depression, according to the Mayo Clinic. Some research also indicates that it can improve sleep quality and improve overall wellbeing.

5. Moving Throughout the Day

You should also try to stay active during the day as much as possible. When you sit for long periods, it slows down the passage of food through your digestive tract, which can worsen IBS-related symptoms like bloating, Dr. Sam says.

If your job is mostly sedentary, the International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders (IFFGD) recommends taking regular breaks to keep things moving, both literally and figuratively.

High-intensity exercises may worsen IBS symptoms.

Image Credit: Ridofranz/iStock/GettyImages

While regular exercise is a good idea for just about anyone who has IBS, Dr. Sam says, some types of physical activity can make symptoms worse when you're experiencing a flare-up.

While each person is different, the following exercises are best avoided unless you're feeling 100 percent.

1. High-Level Endurance Exercise

If you're prone to diarrhea, or are going through a bout of it, then you'll want to hold off on your marathon or triathlon training.

That's because this type of endurance exercise can actually trigger diarrhea. "When you're performing that level of activity, blood flow is going from your gut to other muscles in your body, like your heart," Dr. Sam explains.

This in turn can cause stomach upset that leads to the runs.

2. High-Intensity Exercise Like HIIT

In addition, intense exercise like high-intensity interval training can encourage the release of stress hormones like cortisol, which can make diarrhea worse.

If you're exercising intensely for more than a half hour a day and notice IBS symptoms flaring, Van Eck recommends toning it down.

"When the body is burning too many calories, digestion can become impaired," she adds.

If this happens, she recommends switching to more moderate activity, like brisk walking, for 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

Read the rest here:
IBS and Exercise: The Best and Worst Workouts for Irritable Bowel Syndrome - LIVESTRONG.COM

TORONTO, May 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CB2 Insights (CSE:CBII; OTCQB: CBIIF) (CB2 or the Company), has announced that it has achieved its target of reaching profitability. On an unaudited basis, the Company has seen positive EBITDA for April 2020. Amidst the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the Company continues to work hard to prioritize achieving full profitability. This will allow the Company to strengthen its cash balance and remove all reliance on external capital for activities beyond strategic initiatives. The Company will use only cash derived from operations to support current and new projects.

Further, the Company has seen a growth of 25% in patient visits during the month of April compared to the same period in the prior year. Total patient visits in April 2020 were 6,756 for the month compared to 5,366 in April 2019. The Company continues to see accelerated growth in patient volume driven through national brand exposure (30+ corporate-owned clinic locations in 12 states across the US), competitive marketing and patient acquisition strategies as well as effective patient retention programs.

Additionally, the Company expects to see further growth as a result of recent laws in the US allowing for telemedicine to be utilized for medical cannabis certifications across all the states the Company operates in. This will provide the Company the ability to access remote parts of each state where services are either limited or unavailable to patients. With a team of over 70 healthcare providers, the Company has the scale and size to support patients across the state and is focusing on expanding its marketing efforts to support this expansion.

The Company also recently announced the launch of Skylight Health Group (SHG) as part of its clinical operations in the United States. SHG, which will provide a range of integrated health services such as primary medical care, consultative specialist care and alternative health, wellness & multi-disciplinary services will operate under an insurable integrated model in accordance with the rules, regulations and requirements by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Provision of insurable services to patients at a limited or no cost will allow greater access for patients who are currently unable to afford such care as a result of growing unemployment rates due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both initiatives in addition to other projects the Company is currently working on will be funded solely through profits generated from operations.

Achieving positive EBITDA by Q2 was a commitment made to our shareholders and other company stakeholders over the last 6 months. I am glad to announce that we continue to execute on our business plan, focused on what is relevant to our core, and ensuring successful execution by our entire team to reach this significant milestone, said Prad Sekar, CEO, CB2 Insights. Profitability at a time in todays market where leveraging external capital is highly dilutive and expensive, allows us as a Company to focus on building on and not just holding our current position; and doing so in the best interest of our shareholders and commitment to the long-term value we intend to achieve. Furthermore, it allows us a business to invest capital in growth areas such as data analytics and research to additionally boost future revenue and margins as we continue to establish ourselves in the traditional Healthcare and Technology industries.

The Company continues to see strong demand within the month of May and will provide further updates over the coming months. CB2 Insights continues to bolster its data insights business unit with two interactive dashboards available at http://www.cb2insights/insights. These dashboards are in real-time and give users immediate results. Visitors to the website can also request further, custom insights from the Company.

About CB2 Insights

CB2 Insights (CSE:CBII) is a global leader in clinical operations, technology & analytics solutions and research and development services with a mission to mainstream medical cannabis into traditional healthcare. Providing immediate market access through its wholly-owned clinical network across 12 jurisdictions, proprietary data-driven technology solutions and comprehensive contract research services designed for those in both the medical cannabis and traditional life sciences industries, CB2 Insights is able to support its partners across the entire data and research spectrum.

CB2s Clinical Operations business unit leverages extensive experience to develop clinical models with standard operating procedures, advanced workflows, training and ongoing management support. CB2 also owns and operates its own specialty clinics including the brands Canna Care Docs and Relaxed Clarity which assess nearly 100,000 patients seeking medical cannabis treatment to provide immediate market access to US-based product manufacturers for clinical trial and research programs.CB2 also owns and operates Skylight Health Group, an integrated health division providing patients access to primary care, family medicine, integrative and wellness services.

The Company has built both electronic data capture (EDC) and clinical data management software (CDMS) which work to support its partners of any size to execute their data and clinical strategies.

CB2 also offers comprehensive contract research organization (CRO) services including full scale clinical trial management, trial design, monitoring and other key research functions used by licensed producers, multi-state operators and traditional pharmaceutical companies entering the medical cannabis space.

For more information please visit http://www.cb2insights.com.

For additional information, please contact:

Investor Relations Department1.855.847.4999 ext. 212investors@cb2insights.com

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in CB2s filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will, could, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, potential, believe, should," and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements regarding the opportunity to provide services and software to the U.S. cannabis industry.

Although CB2 has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, including, but not limited to: dependence on obtaining regulatory approvals; investing in target companies or projects which have limited or no operating history and are subject to inconsistent legislation and regulation; change in laws; reliance on management; requirements for additional financing; competition; hindering market growth and state adoption due to inconsistent public opinion and perception of the medical-use and recreational-use marijuana industry and; regulatory or political change.

There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, the results or events predicted in these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. CB2 disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and CB2 does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company mentioned herein.

Financial Measures

This news release makes references to certain non-IFRS measures, including certain industry metrics. These metrics and measures are not recognized measures under IFRS do not have meanings prescribed under IFRS and are as a result unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. These measures are provided as information complimentary to those IFRS measures by providing a further understanding of our operating results from the perspective of management. As such, these measures should not be considered in isolation or in lieu of review of our financial information reported under IFRS. This news release uses non-IFRS measures including EBITDA. EBITDA are commonly used operating measures in the industry but may be calculated differently compared to other companies in the industry. These non-IFRS measures, including the industry measures, are used to provide investors with supplementary measures of our operating performance that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS metrics. These metrics are provided ahead of YE 2019 and Q1 2020 filings (expected to be filed in June 2020) and are provided for the purpose of a general corporate update at the time of this release.

No securities regulator or exchange has reviewed, approved, disapproved, or accepts responsibility for the content of this news release.

Continue reading here:
CB2 Insights Announces Unaudited Profitability in April and Continued Execution of its Business Plan - GlobeNewswire