Health

(NEW YORK) — Two sisters are celebrating a very special anniversary this year: the 50th anniversary of one donating her kidney to the other.

Usually organ transplants, such as kidney transplants, last 15 to 20 years if the organ came from a living donor, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

The fact that the kidney that Patti Rogers Harris, 68, of Hendersonville, Tennessee, received from her sister, Carolyn Rogers, 72, has lasted 50 years is nothing short of astonishing.

At the time, kidney transplant operations had only been around for 20 years, making it a relatively new procedure.

However, the sisters say they are feeling great and hope to encourage others to become organ donors and help save a life.

‘I didn’t know how sick I was’

When Harris was 4 years old, she had an undiagnosed strep infection that led to post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis, or PSGN, which is a rare kidney disease that can develop after certain strep infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PSGN is an inflammatory disease in which the body mounts an immune response and mistakenly attacks healthy body parts — in this case, the kidneys — and causes damage.

This can lead to kidney disease and, in rare cases, kidney failure.

Harris said throughout the course of her childhood, she always felt like she was sick.

“I was sick,” she told ABC News. “I didn’t know how sick I was, but I do remember having a whole lot less energy than my siblings. I’m kind of sitting on the sidelines watching them having fun.”

Harris’ health deteriorated until eventually, at age 16, she ended up in the hospital and doctors said she was suffering from kidney failure, and she needed to be on dialysis.

Dialysis is a procedure by which a machine helps filter the blood of waste products, toxins and excess fluids — which is supposed to be done by the kidneys.

Towards the end of Harris’ first year on dialysis, doctors approached her family with the idea of a transplant and if anyone in the family could be a match.

“So, it was the end of her first year of dialysis that I went in and started having the test to see who would be a good match,” Rogers told ABC News. “And I was. And then she was on dialysis for another year before we could do the [transplant].”

Rogers said she was unwavering in her determination to give her sister a kidney and Harris remembers that resoluteness.

“I do know people were being tested and Carolyn was adamant she was gonna give me a kidney,” Harris said. “I said, ‘Well, we’ll see what the doctor says.’ [She said], ‘I’m giving you a kidney.’ And I took it thank you very much.”
Transplants then and now

However, organ transplants were much more complicated 50 years ago than they are today.

Dr. Keith Johnson, one of the medical leads on the team that operated on Rogers and Harris, said matching a donor and a recipient has become a much more streamlined process today.

“Each kidney that became available was really a challenge,” Johnson told ABC News. “And the difference today is that there’s now a framework within which everybody works to decide and to very quickly allocate organs from donors, so that the recipients are known very quickly because of the computer system.”

Between 1954, when the first successful organ transplant was performed, through the early 1970s, there was no national system so doctors of individual transplant hospitals were calling transplant programs to see if they could find a suitable recipient.

“They would call transplant programs that they knew or had relationships with, in various parts of the country to find that if they had a recipient that was suitable for the kidneys that were just removed — and that was a very laborious process to try to figure out where the kidneys were going to go,” Johnson said.

The actual surgery itself has become much safer with easier recovery time for patients.

Surgical incisions to remove and transplant kidneys could be six to 10 inches back then. Rogers says her scar goes from the sternum to below the belly button — which she says is about nine inches. Now, incisions can be three inches or less.

“When you take the kidney out, you’re removing the artery and the blood vein from the kidney, you have to be concerned about bleeding,” Dr. Robert Richie, another lead on the medical team that operated on the sisters and the head of Vanderbilt’s kidney transplant program at the time, said. “And so, in order to be exceedingly careful, we had to have maximum exposure and so then we were making long mid-line incisions so that we could get a good look.”

“Over the years, we are now making smaller incisions,” he continued.

Additionally, since then, several drugs have been introduced that suppress the immune system to prevent organ rejection, which lowers the risk of mortality.

Convincing others to be donors

Harris said she doesn’t remember much about the surgery, which took place in September 1972, but Rogers remembers being prepped. She even recently spoke to Johnson about it.

“I remember the operating room and they said, ‘Carolyn, you’ve got to stop talking for [the anesthesia] to take effect’ and that’s the last thing I remember because I finally did stop talking,” she said.

Harris said she does remember how much her physical and mental health improved following the transplant.

“Really now, at 68, I have a lot of energy,” she said. “I feel comfortable in my body. I can’t even find the right adjectives for this topic because there’s not one.”

The pair hopes that their story will convince others to consider registering to be organ donors. Right now, more than 60,000 people are actively waiting on a transplant list to be organ donors, according to UNOS.

Since 1954, more than one million organ transplants have been performed, UNOS data shows.

“It can be such an outstanding gift for someone else to give a bit of themselves,” Harris said.

Rogers added, “What other reason are we on Earth for than to care for each other? Is there any other reason?”

“You can make a huge difference” by being a donor, she said.

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(WASHINGTON) — A congressional investigation into the Food and Drug Administration’s review process for an Alzheimer’s treatment found that the agency “deviated” from its standard procedures to approve the Aduhelm drug with inconsistent data.

Aduhelm is notable for being the first drug in recent years approved to treat the underlying cause of Alzheimer’s, a disease with no known cure that is characterized by progressive dementia that affects more than six million Americans, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

The joint 18-month investigation between the House’s Oversight and Reform Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee, released on Thursday, criticizes the FDA for “atypical collaboration and interactions” with Biogen, the drug’s manufacturer.

In statements, Biogen and the FDA both said their interactions prior to Aduhelm’s green light were appropriate in the context of the approval process.

“One of my top priorities as Chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform is ensuring that the American people have access to effective and affordable medications,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said in a statement.

The FDA “remains committed to the integrity of our drug approval process, which includes ensuring that safe and effective new treatment options are available to the millions of people with Alzheimer’s disease living in the U.S.,” the agency said in a statement to ABC News.

“The FDA’s decision to approve Aduhelm was based on our scientific evaluation of the data contained in the application, which is described in the approval materials. … That said, the agency has already started implementing changes consistent with the Committee’s recommendations,” the statement said, in part.

The report also blasts Biogen for “an unjustifiably high price for Aduhelm” that it says was meant “to make history.” One year of the Aduhelm treatment originally cost $56,000 for a person of average weight, the report says.

“Biogen stands by the integrity of the actions we have taken,” the company said in a statement to ABC News. “As stated in the congressional report, an FDA review concluded that, ‘There is no evidence that these interactions with the sponsor in advance of filing were anything but appropriate in this situation.'”

“Alzheimer’s is a highly complex disease and we have learned from the development and launch of Aduhelm. That process is continuing to inform our work as Biogen introduces new innovative treatments to the market,” the statement read, in part.

Aduhelm was considered for FDA approval under the agency’s traditional pathway before the agency switched to consider the drug under its Accelerated Approval Program, according to the report.

The change in course — which the congressional investigation says occurred “abruptly” — came after the FDA internally found Aduhelm lacked “demonstrated clinical benefit necessary for traditional approval,” House investigators found.

Under the accelerated program, the FDA can approve some drugs that meet both “an unmet medical need” and “treat serious conditions,” according to the agency’s website. Aduhelm is not the only drug to be approved under this pathway, which the FDA carved out specifically to give more options to patients with diseases for which virtually no treatments exist. Accelerated approval is typically contingent upon the pharmaceutical company completing larger, longer-term studies.

During the monthslong approval process, the FDA and Biogen collaborated closely. FDA and Biogen officials met, spoke or otherwise had substantial email exchanges at least 115 times, according to the congressional investigation.

Although it is typical for drug companies to work closely with the FDA during the approval process, such collaboration between Biogen and its federal regulators “exceeded the norm in some respects,” according to the FDA’s own internal review, the report says.

The cooperation came after an independent review of Aduhelm’s effects on people with Alzheimer’s cast doubt on its ability “to effectively slow cognitive and functional impairment” in patients.

And when the FDA initially approved the drug for all Alzheimer’s patients, the congressional investigation found that the move concerned some Biogen advisers who were wary of such broad approval. The advisers did not communicate such reservations to regulators, the report says.

The FDA later walked back its broad approval of the drug, eventually recommending the drug’s use in only a narrower subset of patients with early-stage disease, which more closely mirrored the group included in Aduhelm’s clinical trials.

Following the FDA’s accelerated approval of Aduhelm, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services established that Medicare would only pay for the drug under limited circumstances in which patients are part of approved studies.

That move severely limits the availability and practical implications of Aduhelm, essentially making it available only to people who can pay out of pocket for treatment.

And as part of the stipulations associated with accelerated approval, Biogen has more than six years to complete the final trial, per the report. Aduhelm remains available in the meantime.

Thursday’s report comes as the FDA evaluates two additional Alzheimer’s-related drugs, with a green light from the agency possible in the coming months. Biogen helped develop one of those drugs.

“FDA must take swift action to ensure that its processes for reviewing future Alzheimer’s disease treatments do not lead to the same doubts about the integrity of FDA’s review,” the congressional report says.

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(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — When the historic Buffalo, New York, storm stranded nurses at home, they turned to a stranger in a snowmobile club to give them an unconventional ride to work.

Ally Mederer, an ICU nurse at Buffalo General Medical Center, spent days trapped in her house during the deadly storm.

“I’ve lived in Buffalo my whole life,” she told ABC News. “I have never seen anything to this extent.”

But while Mederer was at home, some of her coworkers were stuck at the hospital.

“They had worked anywhere from 50 to 60 hours straight with minimal relief in the hospital, so we just felt awful for them,” she said.

Mederer’s colleague turned to social media, asking if someone had a way to help three nurses get to work.

She said they found a man who was a friend of one of the nurse’s dads. He was in a snowmobile club and had a “snow groomer” machine, which can shape trails for snowmobiles.

The nurses agreed to the unusual ride.

“We were like, ‘Whatever it takes, let’s get there,'” Mederer said.

“We obviously were a little nervous,” she added. “Until we actually physically got there, I didn’t think that there was any way it was going to happen. Even by the time we got picked up in the snow groomer, we weren’t sure what we were going to see on the streets — none of us had been out.”

Once they arrived at the hospital, she said “our coworkers were just ecstatic” to have the chance to go home.

“They had been working so many hours painlessly with no break, and they needed people to come relieve them, and they needed to try and get home to their loved ones,” Mederer said.

Mederer said she’s grateful for her Buffalo neighbors who are coming to one another’s aid.

“There are so many people out there right now like Rich McNamara, the one who drove the snow groomer. They’re literally putting their lives at stake for random strangers like me,” she said.

Buffalo “really is the city of good neighbors,” Mederer said.

ABC News’ Caroline Rotante contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — One reporter decided to get personal on air in order to give hope to others who may need it.

Diane Pathieu said she was told her husband Nick Adamski only had a year to live. That was two years ago.

Pathieu, who is a reporter with Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-TV, shared her family’s journey from a terminal brain cancer diagnosis to remission for others who might be facing a “hopeless diagnosis.”

In December 2020, unbeknownst to Pathieu, who was anchoring the morning news, her husband suffered a seizure due to a sudden brain bleed while at home alone.

They later received “the devastating news” that Adamski was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma, a cancerous and aggressive brain tumor.

“When a doctor says to you that your spouse has brain cancer, when he’s never had a single sign of anything before, it really just was so unbelievable to me,” Pathieu told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Pathieu said her husband underwent emergency surgery to remove the glioblastoma, followed by over 40 days of chemotherapy and radiation. Despite the aggressive regimen, Pathieu said the cancer returned.

“That’s when he was given this expiration date and was told he only had 12 to 14 months to live,” said Pathieu, pointing to her husband beside her and adding, “I think that’s when for you, you said, ‘Oh heck no.'”

Pathieu and Adamski sought a second opinion at Northwestern Medicine, where they said doctors discovered Adamski’s tumor had specific gene mutations, one being FGFR-TAC3 fusion, which might respond to treatments that target those exact mutations.

The doctors performed methylation profiling as well as genetic testing, where they took the genetic fingerprint of Adamski’s tumor to better identify how to treat it precisely.

The tests revealed that Adamski may most likely respond best to a drug normally used to treat metastatic bladder cancer.

“In 17 hours, [the doctor] called me back and said, ‘We have a treatment for you,'” said Adamski. “It just felt like fate. It felt like a prank phone call. It was a good feeling, and it still is today.”

Adamski said that after just a few days of treatment, his tumor began to shrink.

Within a few months of treatment, Adamski was in remission.

Although some of the side effects of the treatment were rough, Pathieu and her husband said it was well worth it.

“To wake up every morning and say, ‘I’m still here,’ I’ll take all of it. That’s fine with me,” said Adamski. “I’ll take everything they throw at me as long as I’m still breathing.”

Pathieu said that the cutting-edge treatment and what she described as her husband’s “positive mental attitude” saved his life.

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(NEW YORK) — While most people can keep up with their New Year’s resolutions through the first days of January, it is those days and weeks throughout the rest of the year that can catch up with even the best of intentions.

So how do you make your New Year’s resolution stick?

Experts say it is important to remember it is a journey, not an overnight fix, especially when it comes to the most common of resolutions, weight loss and exercise.

“The reason why people make resolutions every year is because it’s really hard,” said Maya Feller, a New York-based registered dietitian nutritionist. “You first started eating when you were 6 months old, so that’s many years of learned food behavior.”

“Change is not going to happen overnight,” she said.

Feller and other experts shared their top tips for making sure your health and wellness resolutions become true lifestyle changes.

Solidify your intention

Even just a few days into January is the right time to remind yourself why you chose your resolution, according to Feller.

“Sometimes after just a few days of changing your diet you feel good and feel like you can let it go,” she said. “In the early part of January, reevaluate your motivation and say, ‘Why am I doing this again? I’m making this intentional choice again.'”

Rebecca Scritchfield, a Washington, D.C.-based dietitian and certified exercise physiologist, said it’s also important to remember your “why” multiple times daily.

“What’s going to help keep you motivated is continuing to think about the benefits you’re receiving, in both the short term and the long term,” she said. “The more you focus on the benefits every time you do it, you’ll see the good earlier. What you want to say is, ‘There’s too much good in this for me to stop.'”

‘Layer’ the changes

Feller advises her clients to pick the “low-hanging fruit” when they make a plan for their resolutions.

“If you’re eating two vegetables a day, make it four,” she said. “Once you’ve hit that, reevaluate again and ask yourself, ‘Why am I doing this and what do I have to add on?'”

Feller compares improving eating habits to building a house. You start by making sure you have a solid foundation and build up from there.

“You have to put the foundation down and solidify the behavior,” she said. “It is behavior change. That’s the thing about nutrition.”

Say no to the quick fix

Both Feller and Scritchfield stress that going for the quick solution, like a plan promising you’ll lose 15 pounds in January, will not be sustainable and may even leave you worse off.

“You might lose 15 [pounds] but you’re not going to continue it with that approach,” she said. “It’s better to have the small success so you can continue to step forward.”

Scritchfield said taking the more moderate, long-lasting approach to healthy eating and exercise demands that you let go of the shame or fear that comes from overindulging in the holiday season.

“You’re going to be so tempted in the new year to fall for an extreme plan because you’re feeling like you want to make a change and you’re also being told there is something wrong with where you are right now,” she said. “The more important value is feeling like you have a good life and feeling happy with your habits.”

“Go down the road of, ‘It’s OK to be where I am and what’s the next goal that I think is interesting to me and will also help me create a better life,'” she said. “Walk down that road of kindness as opposed to something that is short term.”

Live your values

Recognizing that the changes you are making are part of the person you want to be can help you sustain your resolutions over the long term, according to Scritchfield.

“A simple way of remembering your values is saying, for example, ‘I want to be the kind of person who enjoys healthy eating. I feel good when I eat at home and I’m saving money and that’s important to me so I’m going to keep doing this,'” she said.

Reflecting on your values in the moment, more specifically, will, according to Scritchfield, help you feel the benefits of your new habits faster and encourage you to stay on track.

“Growing your optimism really strengthens your mind’s commitment to continuing the steps,” Scritchfield said. “You want to look at three months down the road. If at the end of January if it feels sustainable, continue it for three more months and then, come springtime, you’ll see, ‘Oh, I don’t have to think about this so much anymore.'”

Don’t set a ‘dead person’s goal’

Scritchfield describes this type of goal as, “Any goal a dead person can do better than you, like, ‘I’ll never eat chocolate cake.'”

“Saying you’re going to eliminate it, unless you truly believe you’ll never have it again and you’ll live a good life without it, is a waste of time,” she said. “Instead, work on a better structure so you know that it will come but a structure that is manageable to you and doesn’t feel like deprivation but feels like a positive change.”

Scritchfield used an example of a person trying to quit drinking soda. Instead of saying you will never again drink soda, develop ways to cut back on soda while increasing a better habit, like drinking water.

“Say, ‘I’m going to carry water with me and I’m going to fill it up twice before I drink a soda,” she said. “Or, ‘I want to limit my soda to one a day after lunchtime and I want to make sure I have two full waters before I do that.'”

For those who would like to increase their water intake, Scritchfield gave a tip she uses in her own life.

“I put rubber bands on my water bottle,” she said. “I add one each time I finish a bottle.”

Write it down and be flexible

Writing down your New Year’s resolutions, your motivation and your plan for action help solidify your commitment, experts say.

“Make sure it’s written down, not just in your head,” said Dr. Marcelo Campos, a practicing physician and lecturer at Harvard Medical School. “Post it on your fridge or your wall to remind yourself about the commitment you made.”

“With anything that we do in life, it’s a good idea to have things written down that we can track over time,” he said, adding that goals should be specific and measurable.

Writing down your resolutions and action plan can also help you share it with others, which experts say is another key for long-term success.

“Make sure you have that support system in place so there is someone in the beginning who can help you hold you accountable while giving you sound advice, and that may be the help of dietitian or doctor,” Feller said. “Choose who you’re going to listen to.”

After making a plan and implementing it, also be flexible if the plan is not working for you.

“If someone is doing it on their own and struggling they may need to say, ‘I need to look at a different modality,” Feller said. “If it’s not working, there’s no reason to beat a dead horse.”

Bonus tip: Know that you are worth it

“People need to remember that they’re not defined by their weight or their health status. That doesn’t determine their value or worth,” Feller said. “[New Year’s resolutions] are not improve to your self worth because you are worth it to begin with.”

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(NEW YORK) — Tamara Walcott, a 38-year-old mother of two from Columbia, Maryland, said that if anyone had told her five years ago she’d be a world champion powerlifter, she would have laughed.

This year, Walcott won the title for the heaviest raw deadlift in the world by a woman after deadlifting 639 pounds.

Her journey to a world title began in 2018 when Walcott took up weightlifting to gain strength.

“I think one of the biggest things that kind of made me change my life and decide that I wanted to do this is that I wanted to take control of my life ” Walcott said Wednesday on ABC News’ Good Morning America. “And that’s exactly what I did, by controlling the weight in my hand.”

Over the next several years, Walcott also lost 100 pounds.

She is featured in the new issue of People as one of the magazine’s “Beyond the Scale” success stories, highlighting five different wellness journeys that celebrate non-scale victories.

Walcott said her top tip for people who want to make a change, especially in the New Year, is to set one goal each day.

“Every single day I do one thing,” she said. “One thing when I wake up that gets me one step closer to my goal.”

She continued, “Whether that’s eating healthier that day because I know I won’t be training, so I focus on nutrition. Or the days that I’m training, I focus on, alright, what are fueling your body in order to attain this lift that you have to accomplish.”

Walcott said the hardest part of her health transformation was healing her unhealthy relationship with food and that her improved mental health is her biggest accomplishment — not the physical transformation.

To stay motivated during the tough days, Walcott said she would tell herself “what you put in, is what you put out.”

To fuel her body and her workouts, Walcott said she focuses on eating protein, vegetables and complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes.

“I just make better choices,” she said. “Motivated or not, I’m determined. I’m checking all the boxes.”

Walcott said she started her weightlifting journey by working out in her living room, even bench pressing her son, who now works out with her in the gym and whom she describes as her “hype man.”

She said she’s most proud of being a role model to her children and setting the example that anything you can dream, you can do.

“I think one of the biggest things too is my kids realize now that I can show them better than I can tell them that anything is possible,” she said.

“Beyond the Scale” is featured in the latest issue of People, on newsstands now.

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(NEW YORK) — The Danish concept of “hygge,” or “coziness,” can help fend off the seasonal blues.

Spending time with loved ones and creating a cozy ambience with scents, lighting and sounds can improve mood and reduce stress during the wintertime.

“Hygge is a mindset — an attitude and approach to living that prioritizes togetherness, affection, slow living, gratitude and contentment,” said Natalie Dattilo, a clinical health psychologist at Harvard Medical School.

Hygge (pronounced “hoo-ga”) is relevant year-round.

It can, however, be especially helpful during this time of year, when shorter daylight hours and stressful holiday events may contribute to seasonal drops in mood.

Nordic countries, like Denmark, have some of the shortest daylight hours and harshest winters but often rank highest in the annual World Happiness report.

“It would be very easy to be isolated and depressed. Hygge is a coping mechanism that helps them get through the long, dark winters,” said Jaime Kurtz, a clinical psychologist at James Madison University.

One way to practice hygge is through social connection.

“Social connectedness and gratitude are probably the most important factors that have been proven to be correlated with happiness,” said clinical psychologist Pauline Wallin.

Sharing and enjoying meals together can increase social bonding, feelings of well-being and contentment.

That doesn’t mean you have to overextend yourself socially.

“Holiday parties can seem overwhelming. It’s OK to be selective and choose the social events that will truly bring you joy,” said Howard Liu, a child and adult psychiatrist at the University of Nebraska.

But if you can’t physically be with loved ones, the right environment can evoke similar feelings.

“Eating, drinking and taking in comforting aromas can evoke memories of family and friends at various times of one’s life,” said Wallin. “Smell is strongly connected with memory and emotion. So is music.”

Good smells and music also help create a cozy ambiance, another important component of hygge. Opt for nostalgic scents when possible.

“Fill your environment with smells that you love and bring comfort. Think sugar cookies, spices, or chicken noodle soup,” said Dattilo.

Or try a sound or smell known to boost mood.

“Research has shown that the smell of lavender and vanilla is particularly relaxing to the population at large,” said Sally Augustin, a fellow at the American Psychological Association.

The right lighting in a room can also improve the ambience. People tend to perceive warmer lights as more relaxing, research shows.

“Using candles or a fireplace has advantages in that the visual of the flames themselves are naturally relaxing,” said Augustin.

If that’s not an option, swapping bright fluorescents for warm lightbulbs in lamps can work too.

For one last element of comfort, consider texture.

“Soft textures make sense because they are relaxing for us to feel,” said Augustin.

Think cozy pajamas, soft blankets, or fuzzy socks.

So as the long nights drag on and the cold creeps in, try turning to hygge, Kurtz said.

“Embrace the weather! Light a fire, put on soft clothing, make a warm beverage and snuggle a pet or a loved one,” she said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The new year is less than a week away and, for some, that may come as a relief.

The holiday season can be stressful for many with all the planning, traveling and shopping. If you can relate, perhaps one of your resolutions for 2023 can be resetting your mental health.

Something as simple as taking a short, uninterrupted walk may do a world of good.

ABC News’ medical contributor Dr. Darien Sutton appeared on Good Morning America Monday to share some tips and recommendations on how you can take care of your mind in the new year:

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — As parents and caregivers try to cope with the spread of flu, RSV and COVID-19 in what health experts are calling a “tripledemic,” some may look online for treatment and prevention tips.

However, earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory warning people about fraudulent flu products sold online and in retail stores, saying the “unproven” products “claim to prevent, mitigate, treat, or cure the flu” – even though they have not been evaluated or approved by the FDA for safety and effectiveness.

On Instagram alone, the hashtags #rsv and #flu have been shared over 1.5 million times.

Some social media posts share information about symptoms of both viruses, while others contain information about home remedies, which doctors warn can be dangerous.

“What I worry about is that some parents may rely on these unproven treatments, and then this can actually lead to a delay in care when children need it,” said Dr. Alok Patel, a pediatrician at Stanford Children’s Health in Palo Alto, California, and an ABC News medical contributor. “For example, every cold symptom is not necessarily because of a virus that’s going to treat itself on its own.”

Patel, the father of a 2-year-old daughter, continued, “Your child may actually have something such as an ear infection, or a strep throat, and if those remain untreated, they can lead to some really bad consequences.”

Adding to parents’ confusion, according to Patel, is that as doctors’ offices and hospitals remain busy during the tripledemic, social media may seem like the fastest way to seek information. In addition, the medical advice for viral illnesses may be to let them take their course, which can lead parents to try to find home remedies.

“Parents are seeing these headlines about overfull hospitals and ERs, so parents are scared,” said Patel. “I feel the same thing,” he added.

Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a pediatrician at Columbia University in New York and the mother of a 14-month-old son, said she worries about how often people may take advice from people they follow on social media who are not medical professionals.

“Sometimes we follow accounts for their lifestyle advice and for decorations, or how to dress, how to dress our kids and fun activities,” said Bracho-Sanchez. “Those accounts are not the ones that we want to go to when we’re looking for health information.”

Here are tips from Bracho-Sanchez and Patel to help parents navigate the flood of health information online around flu, RSV and more:

1. Go to trusted medical sources online.

When parents and caregivers see health tips online, Bracho-Sanchez says there are three questions they should ask themselves: Does this person have the credentials to be recommending this? Could this potentially be dangerous to my child? Should I talk to my pediatrician first before doing some of these things that are being recommended?

The top step to take though, according to Bracho-Sanchez, is to only seek medical information from certified medical providers.

“When you want health information tips on keeping your kids safe, go to the pediatricians, go to verified and credited accounts of people who are actual health care professionals that are giving you advice from a place of knowledge about some of these subjects,” she said.

Patel recommends always searching for the source of a social media video or post before taking in the information.

“Any time you see a Facebook, TikTok or Instagram post that is claiming to have a treatment for a common cold or a cure, scroll to the bottom and look to see what the source of that information is,” he said. “And go backwards and be an internet sleuth, and make sure it’s legit.”

2. Know the home remedies that are pediatrician-approved.

Overall, the best way to boost your child’s immune system is simply with good hydration, nutrition and sleep, Patel noted.

There are also things parents can do to help make sure their child is as comfortable as can be when battling a viral illness like RSV or the flu, according to both Patel and Bracho-Sanchez.

Both doctors said items like humidifiers, saline nasal sprays and nasal suctioning tools are all great to have on hand at home.

For children over the age of 1, a small dose of honey, around one teaspoon, can help ease a child’s cough, according to Patel and Bracho-Sanchez.

Hydration is also very important when kids are sick.

“When my daughter is sick, we make sure that she’s still eating and drinking consistently, even if it’s small amounts at a time,” said Patel.

3. Be wary of suggested home remedies that aren’t proven.

“Some things that I personally have seen and heard of from social media platforms are home remedies such as onion water, or making immune-boosting smoothies, or even cutting up garlic cloves and placing them on children’s feet, inside their ear or on their chest to ‘draw out toxins,'” said Patel. “There is no evidence that any of this actually works.”

Patel said he warns parents to be wary of remedies that claim to be safe because they are “all natural.”

“Some treatments that may be homeopathic or natural are not necessarily safe,” he said. “They can actually interact with certain medications or have bad consequences for some children.”

Another red flag, according to Patel, is a claim that a product or treatment can cure RSV.

“There is no actual proven RSV cure,” he said. “We just have different forms of supportive care and treatment in some particular situations. There’s nothing you can buy or make that is going to magically cure your child of RSV in one day.”

4. Remember that your child is not every child.

Both Patel and Bracho-Sanchez stressed the importance of parents knowing that what may have helped one child, may not necessarily be the most effective or safest treatment for their own child.

“Your child may have asthma or a heart condition or allergies, and what works for somebody else’s child may not be enough for your child,” said Bracho-Sanchez. “You know your child best. Trust yourself and trust your doctor.”

Patel also said it’s important for parents to seek medical attention when necessary for a child so there is not a delay in the correct treatment.

“Coughing, sneezing, congestion, itchy eyes, all those symptoms may not be from the same cause as somebody else’s child,” said Patel. “What might be RSV in one kid, could be influenza in another or COVID-19 in another or a sinus infection in another child, and treatment may differ.”

Symptoms that would call for urgent medical care include changes in their mental status like confusion or sleepiness, respiratory distress like gasping for air and difficulty breathing and signs of dehydration like not making tears when they cry or making less than one wet diaper every eight hours, according to Patel.

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(NEW YORK) — Americans are taking to the roads and to the skies as they travel to see family and friends for the holidays.

While the holidays are being celebrated semi-normally for the first time in more than two years, the threat of multiple respiratory viruses lingers.

Although cases of the flu and RSV are declining in some areas, they are still higher at this point in the year than in seasons past, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, weekly COVID-19 cases have increased over the last four weeks from 307,201 to 455,466, CDC data shows.

While heading to your destination, experts recommend masking and practicing good hand hygiene to avoid getting infected — or passing infection to others — while traveling.

“The good news is that we are now all educated about how to protect ourselves against COVID and just sort of pulling out that COVID toolbox,” Dr. Sandra Nelson, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, told ABC News. “Again, we can apply the lessons that we learned on how to prevent infections for the other respiratory viruses that are circulating as well.”

Stay up to date on vaccinations and boosters

Experts said the most important thing you can do to keep yourself safe, whether traveling by car, train or plane, is to make sure you’re up to date on your vaccinations and boosters.

For COVID-19, this includes the primary vaccine series and the updated bivalent booster than specifically targets omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

However, only 14.1% of Americans aged 5 and older have received the booster despite a recent study from the CDC that shows the booster was 80% effective at preventing seniors from being hospitalized and provided benefits for adults of all ages.

For the flu, this means getting the annual flu shot. As of Dec. 11 — the latest date for which CDC data is available — only 46.7% of Americans adults say they have received the vaccine.

According to the CDC, the flu shot reduces the risk of illness by 40% to 60%. Experts say the flu vaccine this year matches well to currently circulating strains.

“It’s important for an individual to get vaccinated, especially if they have high-risk conditions, they are immunocompromised, elderly and such that they should get vaccinated,” Dr. Abinash Virk, an infectious diseases specialist at the Mayo Clinic, told ABC News. “We know those vaccinations do decrease the [risk of] severe disease. They may not completely prevent you from having something, but at least they will prevent that severity.”

Consider wearing a mask

While traveling in an airplane or on a train, public health experts recommended Americans wear masks and only remove them while eating or drinking.

“Really, the highest risk time on an airplane is in getting on and off the plane before and after the ventilation systems on the airplane are up and running,” Nelson said. “So during boarding and disembarking the airplane, that is the highest risk time.”

She continued, “But there remain risks even when the flight is, is airborne. Even with the good ventilation systems, there’s still the potential for transmission from people who are sitting near us.”

When it comes to wearing a mask, doctors suggest wearing a well-fitting high-quality mask such as a KN95 or an N95 mask over a surgical mask or a cloth mask.

Practice good hand hygiene

Making sure you wash or sanitize your hands after touching contact surfaces such as an airplane bathroom door or tray table is one of the best ways to prevent infection, the experts said.

Even though COVID-19 is not primarily spread by coming into contact with contaminated surfaces, cold, flu and other viruses can live on surfaces from several hours to several days.

“Hand hygiene has never been more important with all these viruses that are transmitted through droplets,” Dr. Justin Fiala, pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Medicine, told ABC News. “So, someone sneezes, sneezes on their hand, wipes their nose and then turns the doorknob or handle, any of those things then can allow the virus to persist.”

“Nothing wrong with being a little bit more judicious getting that Purell or whatever the hand sanitizer is at the airport, at the Amtrak station, wherever people are this holiday season,” he added.

Open windows

If traveling by car, and if the weather isn’t too cold, the doctors recommended opening the windows for ventilation.

Ventilating the car and filtering air flow can help reduce virus particles and lower the risk of spread, according to the CDC.

“If you’re in like a warmer climate, it really is all about ventilation,” Fiala said. “And so, if you can get whatever the air is cycling through relatively frequently, then that conceivably will lower your risk.”

Stay home if you feel sick

If you develop cold or flu-like symptoms and it’s possible to delay or cancel travel plans, the experts recommended doing just that.

“This just comes down to if you’re feeling lousy enough where you’re wondering what to do, whether to go or not to a family gathering, usually I tell patients that is a good litmus test to say, ‘Oh, you know, what? You’re probably feeling bad enough, where this is not a good idea,'” Fiala said.

Additionally, people should also reconsider venturing out when sick if they’ll be visiting someone who is at high risk for severe illness such as those who are elderly or have weakened immune systems.

If you can’t get out of your travel plans, the experts suggest following the earlier recommended steps.

“If you have to travel, then I would definitely recommend that you wear a mask so that others don’t get infected, and in and preferably in an N-95 mask but if you have an additional risk of severe disease, then you really have to be a little bit more critical of that decision,” Virk said.

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