Daily Archives: February 19, 2022

The Good Clinic opened its doors this December on the cross street of Snelling and St. Clair avenues under the Grove Apartments. This family health clinic claims to redefine health care and create a unique boutique environment for its clients.

The clinic has five other locations throughout the greater Minneapolis area, but this is the first branch in St. Paul. In choosing this new location, Good Clinic CEO Michael Howe said that he thought the Macalester-Groveland Neighborhood lacks the amount of primary care that its population needs.

In this part of St. Paul with young professional families immediately around it there really arent many primary care practices that they can access, Howe said. We felt that this would be a service to the community

Howe has a history in the business of health care, most notably as CEO of Minute Clinic, a walk-in health care service which CVS in 2006. To serve Macalesters student population, Howe said that The Good Clinic offers a range of primary healthcare services such as treatment for the flu, infections, allergies, STIs and sprains. They also have typical preventative care such as physical exams, and immunizations for flu and COVID-19. However, what they say sets them apart from family practitioners is the way they created their business.

We built our concepts based on expertise, empathy and education, Howe said.

The Good Clinic claims to be a family practitioner 3.0 in the way they interact with patients and create a welcoming environment. They call their patients clients. They also named their waiting room the welcome area and filled it with natural light and modern furniture.

The Good Clinic mixes traditional family practitioners with alternative medicine such as their use of supplements to aid in healthcare. Howe said that the clinics aim is to create a positive environment for the patient that is less transactional and more focused on meaningful connections.

The Good Clinic also claims to promote long-term health, something that Howe believed was not typically on college students minds. They are particularly proud of their wellness planning where they emphasize the interconnectedness of all aspects of health and offer counseling visits to curate a plan to improve your health. The services include biometric screening, depression and anxiety management, behavioral health evaluations and exercise and weight management counseling.

The Good Clinic claims to look beyond primary care and into more holistic and modern applications of primary care. Does this level of care come with a higher price tag? Howe says no.

The investments were making to establish the relations with each of our clients is the time and effort to help educate them on how to get the most out of a health care system, Howe said.

The Good Clinic is in the network for typical insurances such as Medicare, BlueCross BlueShield Minnesota, Humana and Medica. They also accept Macalester health insurance under UnitedHealthcare. Howe says that all their extra features will not cost the patient any more than a typical family practitioner.

The Good Clinic has also partnered with the National Minority Health Association (NMHA) to address and solve health equality problems. NMHA is working on a grant to increase services and outreach to communities in need. According to Howe, the Good Clinic would put this grant into practice and provide this service and outreach. The grant is in the early stages, but its goals are vast in attempts to increase access to health care in Minnesota.

Howe said that The Good Clinic offers a comfortable, welcoming and calming environment and an alternative to typical healthcare. He emphasized their accessibility both online and in-person through same and next-day appointments.

Howe believes college students often dont prioritize their wellness and said that could be harmful and expressed that The Good Clinic could fill health needs that arent met on campus.

Part of our approach to care is that we value sick care but also wellness care, Howe said as college students, I think back to myself, you think of yourself as invincible and dont think how to manage your health care.

Prioritizing health for college students may not be on everyones mind, but the Good Clinic attempts to offer convenience and a unique experience. Howe expressed confidence in their business model. The clinic plans on having four more clinics in the area by the end of the year and even expanding to Denver.

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New clinic seeks to provide wellness and alternative health care - Macalester College The Mac Weekly

I wasnt so shocked as I was wary, because I knew what was ahead of me because the negative mind-body bias was so strong, he told Brainworld magazine in 2019. I remained a cardiologist and also being head of cardiovascular teaching at Harvard Medical School, but I sustained two professional lives. I kept respectability within cardiology while I also did work in the mind-body field.

Working with Robert Keith Wallace, a young physiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, he published his first findings in the early 1970s. Press reports called him a renegade and a maverick, and many in his profession shunned him.

But others were impressed by the strength of his research, and by his objectivity. Unlike some researchers at the time, including Dr. Wallace, Dr. Benson was not an advocate of Transcendental Meditation; in fact, he split with Dr. Wallace when he insisted that there was nothing special about the practice or the use of mantras any word or phrase, repeated over and over, will do, he said.

Dr. Benson called his approach the relaxation response the opposite of the fight-or-flight response. But whereas a stressful situation will cause the body to automatically raise its heart rate and release adrenaline, the relaxation response has to be asserted consciously.

He demonstrated just how to do that in his book The Relaxation Response, published in 1975. It hit at the right time: That same year the Transcendental Meditation movement claimed more than 400,000 adherents, studying at more than 300 centers in the United States alone.

Millions more Americans, if skeptical about alternative medicine and Eastern spirituality, were still meditation-curious, and Dr. Benson, with his Ivy League pedigree and clinical approach to research, gave them license to indulge. The book sold more than four million copies and was a New York Times best seller.

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Dr. Herbert Benson, Who Saw the Mind as Medicinal, Dies at 86 - The New York Times

Steve Scott said the Midland community doesnt realize a lot of soccer parents and corporate employees are using marijuana products.

Scott is the owner/founder of Craft Hemp Company in downtown Midland, which sells hemp and CBD products. He has been on a long journey in this industry.

Scott began the business at a time when he was using chemotherapy to treat his cancer. Now, he uses his long history with marijuana as a survivor to spread awareness of the health benefits to Midland area residents.

Midland doesn't realize, there's a lot of moms that like to eat an edible at night, smoke a joint or use a vape pen, Scott said.

These are soccer moms. These are corporate employees, he said of Midland area parents and caregivers who visit his shop.

By not yet having opted in to allowing marijuana businesses in the city, he said Midland is missing out on an economic opportunity.

I hear that a lot of people go to Bay City or will get delivery services here, so (Midland is) losing out on a lot of money, Scott said.

Throughout the pandemic, Scott said theres been an increase of anxiety-related symptoms, which has caused some people to turn to his shop for relief.

He said first-time customers are stopping by daily, which has brought new faces into the Midland shop.

Business is great, Scott said.

But in terms of his personal gain, Scott said hed rather have a customer walk out with an open mind even though they might still be empty-handed.

I want to help people with a plant-alternative medicine, he said.

And some Midland area residents want to learn more about the hemp options. Scott said the Craft Hemp Co. is truly an education center that sells hemp and CBD products.

Craft Hemp sells high-end CBD and hemp products such as lotions, topicals and tinctures that can help with various ailments, based on both federal and state regulations. Whereas the marijuana industry medical and recreational dispensaries sells a variety of THC products and other goods.

Craft Hemp offers an in-shop consultation with customers to open the door for care catered to an individual.

He said the workers sit down with people and ask them questions to hear their current experiences with symptoms and provide a recommendation of dosage and protocols that fit.

Scott said its often during the consultation portion of a customers in-shop experience when peoples minds are more open to a non-pharmaceutical and/or non-mind-altering option.

(Customers might realize), They're actually caring about our quality of life, and that's when they start to get it, he said.

In order to enhance any given customers quality of life, Scott said he sources from a local farmer who is the gold standard.

Craft Hemp Co. works exclusively with Ag Marvels in Shepherd, which is the largest hemp farm within Michigans industry. This is Craft Hemp's go-to farmer, processor, and manufacturer of products to bring customers the farm to table experience of cannabis.

According to the hemp farms website, it was the first mover and pioneer in the hemp industry in Michigan.

Scott said Craft Hemp has built a great relationship with Ag Marvels as he believes its important to source from a Michigan-based group.

We make sure that we have the best products in here, he said.

One of the best-selling products at Craft Hemp is customizable CBD Tinctures.

We craft them right in front of you, Scott said.

In the customizable tinctures, theres a series of cannabinoids, which are chemical compounds of the cannabis plant. A plant contains more than 100 cannabinoids.

One of the well-known cannabinoids is Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is the compound that gives marijuana a psychoactive high.

Another chemical in marijuana is cannabidiol, or CBD. CBD does not cause a high and is often sold as a dietary supplement or included in creams, oils and other personal care products.CBD is also extracted from hemp, a plant in the cannabis family, which is low in THC.

Scott said CBD, CBG (which helps with anti-inflammation, cell growth and anti-bacteria) and CBN (which helps with insomnia, pain relief and muscle spasms) are commonly used to formulate a custom order. In addition, theres more than 40 flavors of oils to choose from.

Were kind of like what Baskin Robbins used to be back in the day, he said.

Marijuana is the dried flower of the cannabis plant and is used for both recreational and medical purposes.The hemp plant is also used outside of the marijuana industry. Fibers of the hemp plant are used in making rope, clothing, paper and other products.

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Sharing the health: Craft Hemp aims to improve quality of life for Midland residents - Midland Daily News

Near Darke

By Hank Nuwer

All married couples make one beautiful promise at the outset. Until death do us part.

My friends Jimmy and Karen made that same vow.

Unfortunately, each made a bad choice. Each put another before them.

Jimmy strayed first. Karen went to Jimmys friend-turned-enemy out of need or revenge.

Happily, their separation was brief.

The two were crazy about one another.

Jims greatest gift came after his bride was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Karens dream had been to own her own house. That never happened on Jimmys salary as a part-time sheriffs deputy and weekend roadhouse singer.

Now, Jimmy bought a squalid, ruined home built around 1890.

While Karen stayed in their rental home, he put on a roof, tore out the floorboards in the kitchen and replaced them with sheets of plywood. He adjusted loose doors so that they fit. He patched walls and ceilings.

The windows had gaps so wide that a loose receipt once floated off a table into the yard. He slapped on a ton of caulk.

After three months, Jimmy put in the touches that make a house a home.

He planted Karen a garden in front of a new picture window. He found an old birdbath in a thrift store so that she could watch birds from the couch.

He restored a fireplace that earlier couldnt have burned a log without setting the house on fire.

The day Jimmy moved Karen into her dream house, he raided the gardens of all his friends.

He put cut-glass vases of flowers on seemingly every shelf. Next to the toilet, where she now spent so much time, he put Karens favorite magazines in a wooden stand.

The gift of love energized Karen. Her fatigue lifted. She no longer stayed parked on the couch.

She used a rag much like the scarf that covered what fuzz she had left on her scalp.

She attacked dust alighting on the fireplace mantel, woodwork, and door tops.

Jimmy joked that she scrubbed the walls until the new paint grew thin.

One day in December, Karens doctor said he heard of an experimental drug. He cautioned them not to get their hopes too high.

Fat chance of that. It was their only hope.

Jimmy earmarked every cent for the medicine he prayed could cure his bride.

They scheduled a journey to a well-known cancer institute.

Jimmy helped Karen dress. He hurried her into the couples old Cadillac so the winter air didnt sear her brittle lungs.

The car was a clunker. Its corroded battery, chirping wheel bearings, and bad modulator valve made breakdowns inevitable, but Jimmy found parts in a junkyard to bring it back to life.

The couple parked the Caddy on the hospital lot. Karen took Jimmys left arm while his right held a briefcase stuffed with medical records.

A specialist examined Karen and all documents. He confronted Jimmy and the patient.

Karen is too far gone for experimental drugs, the specialist said. She had days, not months, left.

Jimmy pressed him with questions. What alternative treatments could he recommend maybe in Mexico?

None, none, the specialist said. Recommending an unproven drug would make him and the hospital open to a malpractice suit.

Jimmy wrote me at Christmas. He was shaking bushes worldwide to find some practitioner full of promises who would prescribe medications that might prolong her life the length of cut thread.

A thread of life is better than no life at all, he wrote.

In January, I wangled a magazine article that brought me two days to visit my friends. Karen wanted to show me her back.

My legs wobbled as I beheld her charred flesh.

I wondered if Jimmy would feel relief when his bride passed. I felt ashamed for wondering that.

Even as Karen lay like an inert pelt on the couch, her sighs and groans gave him hope for a miracle.

We cant accept a death sentence, Jimmy said. We wont.

I returned home as Karens energized days disappeared. Now Jimmy performed all the dusting.

Each day we search for a new normality and try to exceed it, he said. Shes going to have to be tougher than shes ever been just to stay even.

One day Jimmy bawled out Karens oldest son by a prior marriage. A long-haul driver, he hadnt been by the restored house even once to see his mother. Jimmy left only after extracting a promise from him.

Karen died one day after her sons visit. Perhaps she had stayed alive to see him once more.

Jimmy and Karen didnt have the unblemished happy ever after marriage.

But they sure were one anothers Valentine.

Hank Nuwer is an author, columnist and playwright. He and wife Gosia live on the Indiana side of the Union City state line. Viewpoints expressed in the article are the work of the author. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints or the independent activities of the author.

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He loved her to death - The Daily Advocate

A European Union (EU) funded project is seeking to reduce animal testing within experimental medical research by means of 3D bioprinting.

Coordinated by the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the BRIGHTER (Bioprinting by light-sheet lithography: engineering of complex tissues with high resolution and high speed) project is developing new 3D bioprinting processes for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in order to reduce the use of animal models within these fields.

In particular, the project is focusing on fabricating human skin using a novel bioprinting technology based on patterned laser light sheets.

Our innovative 3D bioprinting system not only achieves tissues that are closer to the real ones, but it is also much faster than current systems, a fundamental factor to ensure the viability of the new tissues, said Professor Elena Martinez, Coordinator of the BRIGHTER project.

Reducing animal testing through AM

3D bioprinting has come on leaps and bounds over the past decade, with significant advances being made in the development of viable patient-specific tissues. While these developments hold promise for trialing the efficacy of drugs in the future, the tissues remain largely experimental and could still be decades away from human drug testing.

There is work being done within both academia and industry to change this, however, with the likes of Swedish bioprinter manufacturer CELLINK pledging to advance its research into animal cruelty-free cellular testing models, and the use of microscale skin models at the University of Stuttgart to trial the efficacy of cancer drugs in a bid to make animal testing obsolete.

Elsewhere, Fluicells Biopixlar platform has produced highly-complex neural models which could present future clinical drug screening applications, and UpNanos NanoOne Bio system is focusing on the fabrication of cell-culturing microstructures which could help reduce the number of animal experiments behind clinical trials.

A BRIGHTER alternative to animal testing

Alongside IBEC, Goethe University Frankfurt, Israels Technion center, and biotechnology firms Mycronic and Cellendes are also taking part in the BRIGHTER project. The initiative hopes to overcome many of the technical obstacles currently limiting the fabrication of complex human tissues.

The partners are working together to develop a novel Light Sheet Bioprinting process capable of producing complex and accurate in vitro models that can be used for cosmetics and drug testing within the pharmaceutical industry and in research settings.

To fine-tune the technology, the BRIGHTER team is endeavoring to 3D print human skin, which is a highly complex tissue made up of multiple cell types and structures, such as sweat glands and hair follicles. Hydrogels will form a key component of the bioprinting process as they form the base from which cells will grow and form new tissue, and can also be personalized to individual patients using their own cells.

To print the skin with the desired structure, shape and consistency, the researchers are using advanced imaging techniques that combine illumination with light sheets and high-resolution digital photomasks. By applying a laser directly into the hydrogel, the cells within it can be patterned and molded to the right shape, enabling the team to control the 3D printed structures stiffness, shape, and dimensions.

The ability to mold the hydrogel with high levels of detail is particularly crucial to the successful printing of human skin, as the tissue is made up of numerous layers with different cell types. According to the BRIGHTER team, their bioprinting process is also capable of generating vascularization of the printed tissue and enabling the function of the sebaceous and sweat glands, and the hair follicles to grow hair.

We hope to be able to print a skin sample with an area of 1cm and a thickness of 1mm in approximately 10 minutes and with cell viability of more than 95 percent, greatly improving current bioprinting conditions, said Dr. Nuria Torras, postdoctoral researcher at IBEC.

The BRIGHTER project hopes the successful printing of the in vitro skin models will validate their potential for use in both pharmaceutical and research environments, and ultimately reduce animal experimentation for drug and cosmetics testing.

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Featured image shows a small square of a matrix containing skin cells. Photo via IBEC.

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3D bioprinting project to deliver BRIGHTER alternative to animal testing - 3D Printing Industry

From her controversial therapy career to the tragic death of her first husband, this is the fascinating story of Princess Mrtha Louise of Norway, fourth in line to the throne.

If theres one thing that can be said about Princess Mrthe Louise, its that she seems to be a never ending source of inspiration for the tabloid press.

Whether its her love life, her business ventures or her public statements, she can arouse adulation as well as scorn from the general public.

Read on to find out more about her life, her works and why she has been at times such a controversial figure.

Read more: The Royal Family of Norway

Princess Mrtha Louise was born on September 22nd, 1971, at Rikshospitalet University Hospital in Oslo. She was named after her fathers mother, Crown Princess Mrtha, and her great-great grandmother, Queen Louise, the mother of King Haakon VII.

Rules of succession in place at the time of her birth meant that she was not in line for the throne, because she was female.

Changes made to the constitution in 1990 now stipulate that the first-born shall be first in the line of succession regardless of gender. This is why Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Crown Prince Haakons daughter, is third in line for the throne ahead of Mrtha Louise.

Since Mrtha Louise was born long before that constitutional amendment was adopted, it was decided that males would continue to take precedence over females for children born prior to 1990.

Interestingly, although Mrtha Louise was not in the line of succession for the Norwegian throne at the time of her birth, she was 26th in line for the British throne. This is because her father (Crown Prince Harald at the time and King Harald V now) is a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth.

If you want to learn more about this complex situation, check out this article about the connections between the British and Scandinavian Royals.

Princess Mrtha Louise spent her childhood at the Skaugum Estate, near Oslo. Her parents wanted their children to get a normal upbringing, and both the princess and her brother attended a municipal daycare centre and a local primary school.

The princess sang in a choir and played the flute. She joined a folk dancing group at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, and was an avid equestrian in her formative years.

The princess got engaged to Ari Behn (born Ari Mikael Bjrshol) in 2001, and got married to him at Nidaros cathedral in Trondheim on May 24th, 2002.

Ari Behn had achieved literary success in 1999 with a collection of short stories titled Trist som faen (Sad as Hell). This first book would remain his greatest literary success, praised by critics, while subsequent novels got mixed reviews.

During the early 2000s, he was often portrayed in Norwegian media as a pretentious poseur, frequently and flamboyantly arguing with critics and other artists. In a famous example of those public spats, he challenged critic Kjetil Rolness to a duel by pistol or sword in 2001.

Mrtha Louise obtained a royal edict in 2002 freeing her of her constitutional role and allowing her to start her own business. This means that Ari Behn never had an official title within the Royal household

The edict stipulates that Mrtha Louise is no longer a Royal Highness and has to pay income tax. She retains her place in the line of succession, and sometimes carries out representation duties on behalf of the king.

When travelling abroad, the princess is conventionally accorded the title Highness.

The couple had three daughters: Maud Angelica, Leah Isadora, and Emma Tallulah. None of them have an official royal title. The family lived in Islington, London, and Lommedalen, Brum.

On August 5th, 2016, the Royal Court announced that Princess Mrtha Louise and Ari Behn had started divorce proceedings and intended to share custody of their three daughters. The divorce was formalised the following year.

On December 26th, 2019, Ari Behns family issued a statement announcing that he had taken his own life the day before, on Christmas Day. He was 47. The news quickly made headlines around the world.

He had been known to struggle with alcoholism and depression for a number of years. In the days following his death, media reports about his life were plentiful and lavishly positive.

This led the National Association for Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide to raise the alarm, in fear of a contagion effect. At the same time, the Association praised the familys openness about the event.

American media reporting on Ari Behns death widely presented him as a Kevin Spacey accuser. This is due to a comment made by Ari Behn following the accusations of sexual misconduct made by 20 men against the American actor in 2017.

Ari Behn had described an incident in which he said Kevin Spacey had groped his genitals in 2007 at a nightclub during the afterparty for the Nobel Peace Prize concert.

Talking about the incident during a television interview, he said that he had not experienced it as sexual harassement, but rather as a compliment.

In 2019, Mrtha Louise made headlines once again by announcing that she was in a romantic relationship with self-styled shaman Durek Verrett.

The American claims to demystify spirituality by making it attainable and understandable not only for the layman, but also for the more spiritually advanced.

Verrett has been denounced as a charlatan in Norwegian media. Controversy also surrounded the couples use of the Mrtha Louises royal title in a commercial context. The princess later apologised on her Instagram account and ceased to use her title in this manner.

Princess Mrtha Louise became a certified physiotherapist in 1997, after getting a degree in Oslo and an internship in the Netherlands. She has never practised that profession, however, choosing instead to dedicate herself to other interests.

In 2000, she became a Rosen therapist Rosen therapy being a type of alternative medicine. This would not be her only foray into alternative beliefs, as she later claimed she could communicate with animals and angels.

In 2007, she started her own alternative therapy centre named Astarte Education, after one of the oldest goddesses in the Middle East. The centre offered people help to find their guardian angel.

This led to widespread criticism both from the University of Oslo, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and even proponents of alternative medicine.

Read more: Famous Norwegian People

She replied to the criticism by stating in a TV interview that angels were creatures of light, which gave her a feeling of a strong presence and a strong and loving support. The school later changed its name to Soulspring and shut down a few years later following financial troubles.

In 2007, Mrtha Louise wrote history by becoming the first member of the Norwegian royal family to ever appear in a court of law. She succeeded through those legal proceedings to stop sales of a book entitled Martha's Angels, which used her photo on its cover without permission.

The book was the Norwegian translation of Seeing angels, by British author Emma Heathcote-James. The author herself said that she had no idea who the princess was, and that she did not understand why the book, originally published five years previously, was being launched in Norway at that time.

The Princess carries out official duties as a representative of the Royal household in areas concerning persons with disabilities. She is the chair of a fund that carries her name, and whose aim is to benefit children with disabilities.

She is also the patron of eight organisations, and a member of the board of Stiftelsen Vi(the Vi Foundation) which was established to help people with disabilities achieve equal rights to a meaningful life.

Link:

The Story of Princess Mrtha Louise of Norway - Life in Norway