Health

(NEW YORK) — On Oct. 8, 2013, 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein was crossing the street outside his home in New York when a car struck him, tragically ending his life.

“He was crossing the street for soccer practice. That should not be a deadly act. Kids should be able to navigate our streets,” his mother Amy Cohen told ABC News.

Sammy’s death is part of a distressing trend: Child pedestrian deaths in the United States have risen an alarming 11% since 2013, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In response, the AAP is urging communities to adopt policy changes and environmental safety measures to make roads safer and help save lives.

In its first policy statement on pedestrian safety since 2009, the AAP reports that there has been an increase in child pedestrian deaths despite a decrease in overall pedestrian deaths in the past 30 years. The increase in deaths is most prominent among 10 to 14-year-olds and 15 to 19-year-olds.

“The epidemiology of pedestrian safety has taken a turn for the worse. There’s been an urgency to get a statement out,” Dr. Brian D. Johnston, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and co-author of the report, told ABC News.

The rise in child pedestrian injury may be in part be because more children are walking to school in response to public health campaigns to promote physical activity and reduce pediatric obesity.

Another reason for the rise in child deaths on the road are smartphones and other technology that can distract both drivers and pedestrians.

“Adolescent pedestrians, when they are walking, they might be listening to music or looking at their phone,” Dr. Sadiqa A. I. Kendi, chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Boston Medical Center and co-author of the policy statement, told ABC News. “The combination of distracted walking and driving has contributed to the increased child deaths over time.”

In 2020, 235 child pedestrians (0-14 years old) died in roadway crashes and 81 died in incidents on driveways or private lots. An additional 245 pedestrian deaths were older teens (15-19 years old).

The United States has one of the highest motor vehicle crash deaths compared to other high-income countries, even after adjusting for population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. needs to shift its mindset around road safety, the AAP said in its policy statement. Individual education on road safety is important, but real change comes from policy changes and safer roads.

“Education only goes so far,” Kendi said. “People are people, they are not always going to know what to do.”

The AAP is promoting a policy called “Vision Zero,” which aims to eliminate all traffic fatalities. Vision Zero recognizes traffic injuries as a public health problem due to system failure, and aims to shift efforts away from correcting individual behavior and toward addressing systemic issues like unsafe roadways.

Initiatives include adding curb extensions, roundabouts and speed bumps to roadways in order to reduce car speeds.

Experts say speed is likely the largest risk factor in pedestrian death, with risk increasing dramatically as vehicle speed increases.

“It’s simple, the faster the car goes, the worse the injury,” Dr. Eric Fleegler, associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School, told ABC News. “That’s when we see life-threatening injuries.”

Other solutions to help reduce speed include lower speed limits, more automated speed limit enforcement cameras, and narrower roads.

Similar policies were introduced in Sweden in 1997. After their application, pedestrian fatalities were reduced by more than half.

Road safety measures are currently distributed unequally across the U.S. Those inequities are one reason why Black and American Indian pedestrians under 19 years old are almost twice as likely as white children to die in pedestrian events. Hispanic children have 1.2 times the risk of non-Hispanic children.

“Often, lower-income communities have larger arterial roads with multiple lanes and heavy traffic, with less green spaces and crosswalks,” said Kendi.

Lower socioeconomic areas also have “historically poor records of investments in infrastructure,” Johnston said. Targeting these communities with safety measures would likely help immediately with disparities, he noted.

The new guidelines are a wave of hope for families affected by child pedestrian death.

“I am thrilled to hear about this statement. We need systematic policy solutions,” Cohen told ABC News.

The AAP encourages pediatricians and community members to advocate for legislation addressing environmental changes such as street designs prioritizing pedestrian safety. Pediatricians can also join their local AAP chapter to help advocate for change.

“We have a lot of credibility as experts and spokespeople for child health. We can leverage our impact to make change that will actually make pedestrians safer,” Johnston said.

In 2014, Cohen co-founded Families for Safe Streets to help transform her grief into action.

“We started in New York after my son was killed and now we have 20 chapters across the country,” she said.

Joining local groups advocating for road safety is another way to help advocate for change, she said.

Ultimately, these changes are for the protection of all pedestrians.

“The emphasis in the 2023 version of the policy statement is on making walking environments safer for everybody,” Johnston said. “And that is the best way to make child pedestrians safe.”

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(NEW YORK) — June is national Brain Awareness Month and the start of summer is a great time to consider how our diet can potentially be beneficial for the brain.

While there is no singular food fix for better brain health, there are properties in certain ingredients that some nutritionists recommend based on scientific research and studies to incorporate in a healthy, well-rounded and varied diet.

Registered dietitian and nutritionist Maya Feller, who regularly contributes to ABC News’ Good Morning America, shared some insights backed by research to better understand what foods could benefit our brains.

Natural foods and ingredients for better brain function

“There is a growing body of research examining the link between gut health and brain health,” Feller said. “Researchers have looked at the importance of having a diverse set of colonic bacteria and seem to think the more diversity in gut bacteria the better, especially when it comes to brain health.”

Most of the research studies to date have been done in animal models, but scientists have recently started to investigate these links in humans too.

She explained that the “diversity in gut bacteria plays a role in mood, memory, cognition and the development of neurodegenerative conditions. The make-up of the gut is impacted by the foods we eat.”

For example, Feller said “pre-biotic fibers increase short-chain fatty acid production, and this is thought to have a beneficial impact on probiotic bacterial development.”

“Additionally, polyphenols found in plants have beneficial impacts on gut health,” Feller said of the naturally occurring compounds in grapes and berries. “Plant foods generally support gut health, which in turn supports brain health. I recommend enjoying a variety of plants that are affordable, accessible, and culturally relevant as an entry point to thinking about gut health.”

While Feller said there’s “not a particular magic number” of how much of a brain-healthy ingredient to consume,” she added, “The recommendation is to eat a variety of plant foods and to make them a mainstay in the pattern of eating.”

“I often recommend eating for flavor and utilizing a variety of herbs and spices, many of which contain bioactive compounds that support gut health,” she added.

According to Harvard Medical School, researchers have found the best brain foods to be the same as those that also protect the heart and blood vessels, such as leafy greens, fatty fish, berries, tea and coffee, and walnuts.

A recent study has also shown that the Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of dementia. This diet is also endorsed by the American Heart Association as a way to help maintain a healthy weight while improving both heart and brain health.

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(NEW YORK) — Public health experts fear that Meta’s decision to roll back some of its COVID-19 misinformation measures will lead to more disinformation about the virus, treatments for it and vaccines.

The company announced the changes on Friday after it asked its independent oversight advisory board whether it should continue its COVID-19 misinformation policy for Facebook and Instagram or take a “less restrictive approach.”

In countries that still have a COVID-19 public health emergency declaration, the policies still stand and content that violates Meta’s coronavirus misinformation policies will be removed. The policies will not be upheld in the U.S. due to the emergency expiring last month.

Meta said the World Health Organization downgrading the global public health emergency was a major reason behind the change.

“Our COVID-19 misinformation rules will no longer be in effect globally as the global public health emergency declaration that triggered those rules has been lifted,'” the company wrote in a statement. ‘We are consulting with health experts to understand which claims and categories of misinformation could continue to pose this risk.”

Infectious disease specialists told ABC News they are worried this misinformation and disinformation could reach vulnerable groups such as teenagers.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced with the pandemic, in some ways, was not the virus itself but it was the misinformation that was generated around the science of the virus and interventions that surrounded our control of the virus, whether that’s vaccines, or masking, or therapeutics,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

He continued, “That misinformation, it’s been a threat to science for many years, and that’s been amplified by social media.”

This is not the first time that social media platforms have rolled back misinformation policies. Twitter announced it would no longer label or remove posts that have COVID-19 misinformation in November 2022, a month after Elon Musk bought the company.

Other platforms, such as YouTube, are continuing to keep their polices about COVID-19 misinformation and removing content that contradicts health authorities. Health experts say that despite COVID-19 cases and deaths remaining low, misinformation is still prevalent.

“The ramifications are huge because the pandemic is not over yet. The end of the emergency doesn’t mean that it’s still not a threat,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. has seen more than 37,000 deaths from COVID-19 this year, which is more than seen in a typical flu season.

“We haven’t even reached the midpoint of the year and there’s still the potential for a winter surge,” Chin-Hong said. “So I’m worried that this fuel of misinformation, and the megaphone of misinformation, is going to threaten how we deal with not just COVID but all respiratory viruses this particular season.”

Both Brownstein and Chin-Hong recommended that people be careful about what they read online and look for trusted sources such as public health agencies.

“It’s at some level challenging because [for] someone not trained in science, it may be harder to separate fact from fiction,” Brownstein said. “But I would say, generally speaking, don’t use social media as the core information source, especially when it comes to making personal health care decisions.”

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Kristi Daugherty remembers the announcement like it was yesterday.

It was March 11, 2021—one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic—and in those twelve months, emerging data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that historic rates of mental illness, overdose deaths and deaths by suicide were soaring. Amid the horrific trends, the government decided to take action.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline was getting a makeover.

As part of the refresh, the 10-digit phone number was simplified to a succinct 9-8-8. The lifeline also added texting services, in addition to comprehensive mental health services beyond suicide prevention.

The program was supported with $200 million in funding through the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan.

As the chief executive officer at Emergence Health Network in El Paso — which provides behavioral health, crisis response and other services to nearly 30,000 Texans a year — Daugherty said she was excited about the developments.

But then, political pressure hit a boiling point and the launch timeline got moved up by half a year, Daugherty told ABC News. For months, EHN hustled to staff up in the face of tight budgets and tighter deadlines, she says, they didn’t see a dime of federal support trickle down from Austin. The Texas Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Daugherty’s claim.

She’s not alone in her frustration.

In some critical ways, 988 has bolstered an American mental healthcare system that the Department of Health and Human Services itself has called “long underfunded and under-resourced.”

Since its launch in July 2022, the new hotline fielded over 2 million calls from people in crisis — 45% more than the 10-digit hotline over the same period in the previous year, according to data from Vibrant Emotional Health, the organization appointed by the federal government to oversee the line.

Vibrant says the hotline has also answered over 1 million chats and texts. Average wait times have dropped from nearly 3 minutes to less than a minute. Additionally, 988 has rolled out variations of the line specifically devoted to the care of at-risk groups like veterans, Spanish-speakers and LGBTQI+ youth.

Outcome data on emergency responses, referrals to outpatient mental healthcare or inpatient stabilization services is not immediately available, according to Vibrant. But Tia Dole, the chief 988 officer at the organization, said the service has helped many people who may not have elsewhere to turn for help.

In 2021, one American died by suicide every 11 minutes, over 12 million considered suicide, and suicide was the second-leading cause of death in most youth or young adults, according to the CDC. Over 100,000 more Americans died from drug overdoses, per National Institute of Health data.

But almost one year after the crisis line’s rollout—and after nearly one billion dollars of federal investment—the majority of states are still struggling to ensure that their citizens’ calls get answered locally.

Unanswered calls roll over to national backup centers, but federal officials acknowledge these centers are generally less equipped to provide the local services callers may need. In April 2023 alone—the most recent month for which public data is available, according to Vibrant—states collectively missed over 11,000 calls. And in April 2023, despite stipulations to federal funding requiring answer rates above 90% by June 2022, only 15 states met that goal. Texas’ call answer rate, at 75%, ranked it amongst the worst performers.

“This thing we’re doing has never been done,” Dole told ABC News. “Is it perfect? No.”

Widespread staffing shortages

Many of these shortcomings may relate to a particularly thorny challenge: staffing.

Crisis call centers depend on behavior health workers to man the phones — a workforce that includes psychologists and psychiatrists, nurses and social workers, counselors and coaches. The number of job openings for those types of workers is expanding “much faster than the average for all occupations,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The market for mental health counselors, for example, is expected to outpace overall job growth by 4.5-times during the next decade.

In 2020, the country required over 1 million more behavioral health workers to meet Americans’ mental healthcare needs, according to federal data collected by the Government Accountability Office. That data also doesn’t account for the pandemic, which took a toll on the workforce, Dole told ABC News.

“I think the workforce, with regards to crisis services, has not recovered since [the pandemic],” Dole told ABC News.

The workforce shortages have meant crisis call centers across the country have struggled to staff up. According to data reviewed by ABC News from state health departments, in Rhode Island, 52% of positions were empty as of May 2023. In Wisconsin, 30% of positions were empty. According to a 988 jobs board maintained by the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), nearly every state in the country has vacancies.

For Vince Brancaccio, the labor scarcities are a daily struggle.

Brancaccio, who is the chief executive officer at Health Network of Southeast Ohio—one of the state’s 988 centers—is spending a significant part of his days now simply trying to find interested candidates. That’s instead of doing the work of crisis stabilization and mental healthcare itself, Brancaccio told ABC News.

Most of the time, his days spent hiring are riddled with frustration by way of empty Zoom rooms. More often than not, candidates “don’t show for interviews,” Brancaccio said. Or if they’re hired, he said, “they don’t show for the job the first day.” About half of the 988 chairs at his center are empty, he said.

Inflexible work requirements

Another challenge call centers are facing around staffing relates to managing remote versus in-person work.

In a post-pandemic world, remote work has become standard, according to a 2021 McKinsey report, especially for computer-based office work, like answering calls. However, many 988 centers — like Brancaccio’s — are not offering remote work: according to the SAMHSA 988 jobs page, over 70% of centers are in-person only.

Additionally, fewer than 5% of 988 centers currently use Vibrant’s new software platform — the development of which was funded in part by federal money — to answer calls, Dole told ABC News. Many are still using legacy software whose origins stretch back to the 2004 launch of the pre-988 lifeline—software that too often is ill-equipped to handle the complexities of remote work almost two decades later, Dole said.

These dynamics mean that states with already-scarce behavioral health workers are experiencing a brain drain, Joshua Thomas, the chief executive officer at the Delaware chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, told ABC News. According to a December 2022 study by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, there is a widespread shortage of mental health resources in the state.

Thomas said that lack of flexibility around remote work—combined with “an income potential that is significantly lower than it is elsewhere”—present the risk that states like his will struggle to compete with others who are better resourced or more flexible.

In comparison, states like Massachusetts—which devoted $10 million from state coffers to 988, increasing wages and providing hybrid work options—has more than doubled its staff since the hotline’s rollout, according to Vibrant. Massachusetts’ call answer rate in April was 88% — just under SAMHSA’s 90% answer rate threshold — compared with Delaware’s 73%, according to date collected by Vibrant.

Gift-wrapping an empty box

Daugherty worries that the accelerated timing of the rollout was short-sighted: the rush to announce 988—followed by the scramble to get it operational and the struggles that have ensued—may have undercut trust in the line over the longer-term.

At the time of the hotline’s launch, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said that “988 is more than a number, it is a message: we’re there for you.” Eleven months later, amid centers’ struggles to staff up, Daugherty compares those promises to gift-wrapping an empty box.

Monica Johnson, SAMHSA’s 988 director, acknowledged the hotline’s growing pains so far. But Johnson also pointed towards the progress of the hotline to date—over 3 million contacts answered, shrinking wait times, almost $1 billion invested—as signs that things are moving in the right direction.

“I think about, okay, what month are we in into this first year—[and] did we demonstrate that we have the capacity to answer the calls?” Johnson told ABC News. “The answer to that, so far, has proven to be yes.”

Still, for people like Molly Jacobson, those growing pains are a matter of life and death.

Jacobson, a Florida native, said she called the line in October 2022 on behalf of a loved one in crisis. A relative had attempted suicide before, and she worried, might do so again. However, when she dialed 988, she says she was immediately put on hold.

When she finally spoke with someone, after a series of triage questions, the operator sounded resigned, she said. “‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what I can offer,'” Jacobson recalls him telling her.

Jacobson said she didn’t know where else to turn.

She said, “For something that’s funded by hundreds of millions of dollars…where’s all that going?”

Jacobson’s experience highlights some of the challenges the state has had so far: in April, Florida received over 10,000 calls, of which it answered only 73%–putting it amongst the worst performing states. Florida’s Department of Children and Families, which oversees the management of the 988 hotlines in the state, did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Jacobson’s case.

Jacobson says her loved one ended up fine despite the negative experience with the line. But she worries about what might happen next time—or, to someone else in a similar situation.

“When any of us are in our darkest hour,” Jacobson said, “what we need is to be heard.”

Despite some of the staffing challenges, if you or a loved one is struggling with a mental health crisis or considering suicide call or text 988.

ABC News is looking into challenges and successes with implementation of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If you have had issues or successes with the line, please contact us here.

Michal Ruprecht, a member of the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed reporting.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Ways to lose weight have been trending with the rising popularity and success stories of certain drugs that help with weight loss, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, and more people turning to supplements like berberine, deemed “nature’s Ozempic.”

Still, many people who have obesity report struggling to sustain weight loss.

Now, new research shows that it’s not just about willpower to lose weight and keep it off: Experts say how your brain responds to food may make a big difference.

A recent study published in Nature Metabolism found that the brain responds to nutrients differently in people who have obesity, even after meaningful weight loss.

Researchers studied 60 participants over 40 years old; half had a diagnosis of obesity and half did not.

To understand how the brain responds to food in these two groups, different solutions containing glucose, lipids or water alone were directly infused into participants’ stomachs on separate days. Brain responses were then measured with functional MRI scans for about 30 minutes post-infusion, and researchers also measured hormonal levels in the blood and participant-reported hunger scores.

The results showed that the group of participants without obesity had appropriate activation of reward centers in the brain in response to the nutrients.

Conversely, these same areas of the brain were not activated on the scan for participants with obesity.

This finding did not change after repeating the scan three months later in participants with obesity who experienced 10% diet-driven weight loss.

Experts say this lack of reward response could lead to overeating and make it difficult to change eating habits that can contribute to weight gain.

“This study really, really proves the biological and brain causes are contributions for overweight and obesity are really a real thing,” said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent and board-certified obesity medicine specialist.

While these findings further support what experts know to be true, that there’s more behind weight loss than willpower, researchers in the study caution there are important limitations.

It was only done in a relatively few number of adults over 40 years old, so it may not be generalizable to younger populations. And the study used a feeding tube to give the nutrients that doesn’t mimic how most people really eat or account for food choices, so these differences in the brain may not hold true in all circumstances.

Experts also emphasize that these findings do not guarantee someone with obesity can’t lose weight and keep that weight off even in the setting of these changes. Ashton adds that she hopes studies like this one fuel more targeted treatments for people who are overweight or have obesity, and add to evidence supporting why medications that are used for weight loss, like Wegovy, are proving to work so well for some people.

“I think it represents a possibility for target and intervention starting in the brain with those hormonal signals of hunger and satiety, and that’s what a lot of these FDA-approved weight loss drugs are doing,” Ashton said.

Dr. Jade A Cobern, M.D., M.P.H., board-eligible in pediatrics and resident in General Preventive Medicine at Johns Hopkins, is a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(DES MOINES, Iowa) — The Iowa Supreme Court prevented a six-week abortion ban that was signed into law several years ago from going into effect.

The court was split in a 3-3 decision Friday on the case, meaning abortion remains legal in Iowa.

The 2018 bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds, prevents abortions from being performed once cardiac activity can be detected, which typically occurs around six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant.

However, the law was struck down by a district court in January 2019, which ruled that the law violated the Iowa Constitution and that there was no state interest in banning abortions so early in pregnancy.

In that ruling, Polk County District Judge Michael Huppert referenced a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court decision in regard to a different bill that attempted to restrict abortion, in which the justices had written “a woman’s right to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy is a fundamental right under the Iowa Constitution.”

Currently, abortion is banned in the state after 22 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group focusing on sexual and reproductive health.

Patients who want an abortion in Iowa must have one in-person counseling sessions and then return at least 24 hours later for the abortion.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, Iowa’s highest court in June 2022 reversed the 2018 decision and concluded that abortion is not protected by the state constitution.

Since the 2018 decision, the composition of the state Supreme Court had shifted with Reynolds, a Republican, appointing four of the seven justices.

But the court disagreed that it could revive a law that had been struck down years prior.

“The State appealed [the January 2019 ruling], and now asks our court to do something that has never happened in Iowa history: to simultaneously bypass the legislature and change the law, to adopt rational basis review, and then to dissolve an injunction to put a statute into effect for the first time in the same case in which that very enactment was declared unconstitutional years earlier,” Justice Thomas Waterman wrote in the court’s decision Friday.

The justice added, “In our view, it is legislating from the bench to take a statute that was moribund when it was enacted and has been enjoined for four years and then to put it into effect.”

If the court had decided in favor of the ban, Iowa would have joined several others states that have passed so-called “heartbeat bills” in the past including Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Texas.

Ohio and South Carolina have also passed six-week abortion bans, but both are currently facing legal challenges.

Abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa, praised the decision. The group wrote on Twitter, “The Iowa Supreme Court just preserved abortion access in Iowa by blocking a near-total abortion ban from taking effect. This is a resounding victory for Iowans and reproductive freedom. #BansOffOurBodies”

Reynolds criticized the court, saying it failed to exercise its authority.

“To say that today’s lack of action by the Iowa Supreme Court is a disappointment is an understatement,” she wrote in a statement. “Not only does it disregard Iowa voters who elected representatives willing to stand up for the rights of unborn children, but it has sided with a single judge in a single county who struck down Iowa’s legislation based on principles that now have been flat-out rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. There is no fundamental right to abortion and any law restricting it should be reviewed on a rational basis standard — a fact acknowledged today by three of the justices. Still, without an affirmative decision, there is no justice for the unborn.”

Since Roe was overturned, providers in states like Iowa are struggling with worker shortages and other barriers to keeping their doors open. In data provided exclusively to FiveThirtyEight by #WeCount — a national research project led by the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit that supports research on abortion and contraception — of the eight remaining clinics in Iowa and Nebraska, four had no available appointments, three had wait times between four and five weeks and one had an appointment available in one to two weeks in April.

The data also indicated that there were 24,290 fewer legal abortions between July 2022 and March 2023, compared to a pre-Dobbs baseline.

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(NEW YORK) — With summer on the horizon, many are breaking out their flip-flops and summer shoes. But these popular options can lead to more injuries and foot pain in the warmer months, including plantar fasciitis, one of the most common foot injuries, according to The Washington Post.

What is plantar fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis is a very common condition that affects approximately two million people each year, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

When the plantar fascia, a ligament at the bottom of the foot, is overused, it can cause inflammation, pain, micro tears and tight muscles, impacting how one walks or runs. Plantar fasciitis can also cause, in some cases, a heel spur, a type of bony growth by the heel, according to the National Library of Medicine.

What do flip-flops and summer shoes have to do with plantar fasciitis?

Because flip-flops and summer shoes tend to have less cushion, they can be less supportive than other types of shoes, like sneakers. The lack of cushion and support can lead to more stress and tension on the feet and muscles in the area.

How do you prevent plantar fasciitis?

The best way to prevent plantar fasciitis, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, is to wear cushioned shoes with arch support. Tension-reducing inserts, such as soft silicone heel pads, may help too. Avoid shoes without arch support or those that are already worn out, like overused running shoes, which should be replaced on a regular basis.

When starting a new exercise routine, start slowly and do daily stretches at the beginning of the day or before or after a workout to keep muscles loose.

To stretch the plantar fascia, place feet flat on the ground and then raise the toes and then the arches of the feet. This can help lengthen the ligament and encourage any healing needed.

What can I do if I already have plantar fasciitis?

To address immediate pain, following the RICE method, which stands for “Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate,” can help. Easy hacks include rolling a tennis ball or a frozen water bottle along the balls of the feet to relieve pain.

Over-the-counter pain relief medication may also be helpful as well as calf stretches and plantar fascia stretches. A night splint could also be used to stretch muscles while sleeping.

Most plantar fasciitis symptoms tend to resolve within a year but other long-term treatment options may include a surgical procedure that lengthens the calf muscle and/or a cut to the plantar fascia to reduce tension, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Anyone with foot pain that doesn’t go away should speak to a health care provider about their options.

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(ATLANTA) — Patients with HIV in the United States saw an increase in rare, deadly meningococcal infections last year, new preliminary data shows.

Nearly 10% of all meningococcal disease cases in 2022 were among people with HIV, according to a report published Thursday afternoon by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is much higher than the previous five years, from 2017 to 2021, during which patients with HIV made up between 1.5% and 4.3% of annual meningococcal disease cases in the U.S., the report said.

Meningococcal disease is a rare illness caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis. The bacteria are spread by coming into contact with an infected person’s saliva or spit, such as through coughing or kissing. Sometimes the bacteria also spread through prolonged general contact with an infected person.

The illness can often turn severe and lead to meningitis, which is an infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord.

Symptoms included headache, fever, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting and — if the disease gets into the bloodstream — a dark purple rash.

Between 10% and 15% of all people who fall ill end up dying of the disease even with antibiotic treatment, the CDC said.

Recently, an outbreak of the meningococcal disease in Florida primarily infected men who identify as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men and resulted in at least 24 confirmed cases and seven deaths, according to the CDC.

The federal health agency recommends that people at risk for meningococcal disease — including patients with HIV — receive a two-dose series of the MenACWY vaccine, which protects against four types of the bacteria that lead to severe illness.

However, vaccination rates among patients with HIV are low. The report cited a recent study of data from January 2016 to March 2018 that found only 16.3% of those with HIV received one or more doses of the vaccine within two years of being diagnosed.

Of the cases among patients with HIV in 2022, 75% were not vaccinated with the MenACWY vaccine, 20% had unknown vaccination history and the remaining 5% had received a vaccine but the number of doses was unknown.

The CDC stressed the importance of primary care doctors and health care providers making sure any patients with HIV in their care are up to date on the meningococcal vaccine.

“MenACWY vaccine coverage among persons with HIV is low; given the recent increase in meningococcal disease cases in this population, health care providers should ensure that all persons with HIV are up to date with MenACWY vaccination,” the authors wrote. “Health care providers should also maintain a high index of suspicion for meningococcal disease among persons with HIV who have symptoms of meningococcal disease.”

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(NEW YORK) — Three of America’s top female athletes have suffered life-threatening complications while giving birth.

Now, the two athletes who survived giving birth, Olympic gold medalists Allyson Felix and Tianna Bartoletta, are speaking out to shine a spotlight on the Black maternal health crisis in the United States as they mourn the loss of their teammate, Tori Bowie.

Bowie, 32, was found dead in her home last month near Orlando, Florida. Authorities said Bowie was eight months pregnant and had been in labor when she died.

An autopsy report released this week found that Bowie’s death was “natural,” noting that possible complications included respiratory distress and eclampsia.

Eclampsia is a medical emergency that happens when a pregnant woman with preeclampsia develops seizures, which can lead to coma or death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bowie won a gold medal at the 2016 Olympics alongside Felix and Bartoletta as a member of the 4x100m U.S. relay team.

In reaction to Bowie’s cause of death, Bartoletta shared a post on Instagram noting that three of the four members of that gold medal-winning relay team “have nearly died or died in childbirth.”

“Why? Black women have the HIGHEST maternal mortality rate. 3 times higher than white women,” Bartoletta wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of the teammates celebrating their 2016 Olympic win. “And the more educated the black woman, the higher her mortality rate becomes.”

Bartoletta added that when she went to the hospital last year after going into labor with her son at 26 weeks pregnant, she was “NOT AT ALL confident that I’d be coming home.”

“We went to the hospital with my medical advance directive AND my will. Additionally I had a VERY tough conversation with @cwryaniii about who to save if it came down to it,” Bartoletta wrote, referencing her partner Charles Ryan.

Felix, who also faced a potentially deadly experience when she gave birth to her daughter in November 2018, commented on Bartoletta’s post, writing, “It’s heartbreaking.”

“We continue to face a maternity mortality crisis in this country. Black women are at risk. It’s why I won’t stop doing this work,” Felix wrote. “We can’t sit by and continue to watch our loved ones die when many of these complications are preventable. Standing with you T.”

Felix, now 37, has said publicly in the past that just before giving birth to her daughter Camryn, she was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia, high blood pressure that typically occurs in women after the 20th week of pregnancy, according to the CDC.

Felix’s condition was discovered during a routine prenatal visit. She was immediately admitted to the hospital and underwent an emergency C-section, after which her daughter spent a month in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

“Looking back, I wish I would have been better informed about potential warning signs and talked to the doctor about those symptoms,” she said in 2021, when she joined the CDC’s “Hear Her” campaign, which works to create public awareness of the warning signs of pregnancy emergencies. “I really want women to have information, to know if they’re at risk, to have a plan in place, to not be intimidated in doctor’s offices and to feel empowered to speak up when they have concerns.”

While eclampsia is more rare, preeclampsia, a condition of high blood pressure and kidney damage during pregnancy, is common, affecting as many as 1 in 25 pregnancies in the U.S., according to the CDC.

As Black women, both Felix and Bowie are among the population most affected by preeclampsia, data shows.

According to the Preeclampsia Foundation a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, the rate of preeclampsia is 60% higher among Black women than white women, and Black women are more likely to develop severe preeclampsia.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also lists being Black as among the “moderate risk” factors for preeclampsia, a condition for which the exact cause is not known.

Bowie, Felix and Bartoletta, as Black women, are also in the highest risk category for death due to pregnancy-related complications.

In the U.S., Black women and Native American women are two to three times as likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause as white women, according to the CDC. Across all races, the U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with around 700 women dying each year as a result of complications due to pregnancy.

Despite having one of the world’s most advanced health care systems, the U.S. has the highest rate of maternal mortality among developed nations and the rate has steadily risen for nearly 40 years, according to the CDC.

In 2021, the Biden administration issued a “nationwide call to action” on the maternal health crisis in the U.S. That same year, President Joe Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation for Black Maternal Health Week.

In late 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched an action plan to combat the high rates of pregnancy-related complications and deaths. The plan set out three key targets aimed at improving maternal health by 2025: reducing the maternal mortality rate by 50%, reducing low-risk cesarean deliveries by 25% and controlling blood pressure in 80% of reproductive age women.

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(LONDON) — Women diagnosed with breast cancer in England are living longer than they would have 20 years ago, new research by Cancer Research UK and the University of Oxford has found.

The research found that the proportion of women surviving early-stage breast cancer has improved “substantially” since the 1990s.

In the 90s, women diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer had a 14% risk, on average, of dying within five years of diagnosis. But women diagnosed with the same today have a “less than 3%” risk of dying from breast cancer within the first five years of diagnosis, the study found.

This means that over 90% of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer today will survive the disease for five years or more, according to the study.

“Our study is good news for the overwhelming majority of women diagnosed with early breast cancer today because their prognosis has improved so much,” said Carolyn Taylor, lead author of the study and Professor of Oncology at Oxford Population Health. “In the future, further research may be able to reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer even more.”

The study examined routine data from the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service of 512,447 women in England diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer between Jan. 1993 to Dec. 2015. They found that the prognosis for women has “improved substantially” and that “most [women] can expect to become long term cancer survivors,” the study said.

The study also focused on women with early-stage breast cancer who were “initially treated with surgery,” but excluded those who were diagnosed with multiple cancers or those whose cancer had already spread.

“The prognosis for patients with breast cancer has improved, and that improvement is dramatic,” said Dr. David Dodwell from Oxford University’s Department of Population Health. “Our general feeling that things are getting better has been confirmed and, not only that, we can probably be more optimistic than we had dared to hope.”

Experts say some of the gains may boil down to better disease tracking and earlier diagnosis. Evidence, however, also shows that early detection, increased breast cancer screening as well as advancements in treatments surgery and radiotherapy are all factors that accounted for the increased survival rates.

Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, described the findings as “heart-warming.”

The study did find, however, that for a few women, the risk of death remained “appreciable.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), breast cancer is the first or second leading cause of female cancer deaths in 95% of countries worldwide. There are an estimated 2.3 million breast cancer cases annually, making it the most common cancer among adults.

“Countries with weaker health systems are least able to manage the increasing burden of breast cancer,” said WHO Chief Tedros Ghebreyesus. “It places a tremendous strain on individuals, families, communities, health systems and economies so it must be a priority for ministries of health and governments everywhere.”

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