Health
Domestic violence brain injuries likely outnumber head trauma from football players
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Home violence victims probably undergo a better fee of mind trauma than soccer gamers and troopers, however the precise quantity is unknown as a result of many of those accidents, which overwhelmingly happen in ladies, are by no means recognized, in accordance with the New York Occasions.
“Individuals may suppose, somebody smacked her within the head or pushed her, no large deal,” says Dr. Eve M. Valera, affiliate professor of psychiatry at Harvard College and a number one skilled on traumatic mind accidents amongst home violence survivors.
In 1990, Dr. Gareth Roberts evaluated the mind of a 76-year-old lady who died after years of abuse from her husband who was reported to have develop into ‘demented’ in her last years, in accordance with the information outlet.
However he found on post-mortem that her mind was just like these sufferers with Alzheimer’s and appropriate “to a level” with boxers who suffered from continual traumatic encephalopathy, and the case turned the primary connection within the literature between neurogenerative illness and abused ladies, in accordance with the Occasions.
Intimate accomplice violence (IPV) contains bodily, sexual or psychological abuse in a romantic relationship that roughly one in 4 ladies or one in 10 males have skilled as sexual or bodily violence and/or stalking throughout their lifetime, in accordance with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Strangulation is outlined because the exterior obstruction of blood vessels and/or airflow within the neck leading to lack of oxygen, in accordance with The Coaching Institute on Strangulation Prevention.
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Roughly 68% of IPV victims expertise near-strangulation, however solely half have seen indicators of trauma with solely 15% of those that do present proof of accidents subsequently photographed to doc the abuse, per the Institute.
However lack of consciousness can happen inside seconds and dying can comply with inside minutes throughout strangulation, with the Institute noting the percentages improve by 750% for an IPV survivor of 1 strangulation to be killed in comparison with somebody who has not been strangulated.
Frequent indicators of strangulation embody petechiae (small pink spots brought on by bleeding underneath the pores and skin) on the face, eyeballs and eyelids, swelling, scratch marks and abrasions across the neck, in accordance with a Strangulation in Intimate Associate Violence Truth Sheet.
The very fact sheet additionally notes victims might complain of reminiscence loss, dizziness, complications, a hoarse voice, problem swallowing or respiration.
Due to these signs, victims might have problem processing the occasion and infrequently don’t report it to the police, so many home assaults largely go unnoticed, per the Occasions.
The frequency and severity of the signs makes it ” … troublesome to suppose via or deal with the advanced, typically formidable organizational duties required for battered ladies to cease the violence, disengage from violent companions and/or set up unbiased lives,” stated the authors of a home abuse 2002 research, the place virtually all contributors had suffered head trauma with 40% dropping consciousness.
Despite the fact that a lot of the analysis relating to concussions and neurogenerative illness comes from learning male brains, among the analysis suggests ladies are extra inclined to concussions partly as a result of males have extra muscular necks to cushion a blow to the top and ladies have leaner nerve fibers, often called axons, that shear extra simply throughout trauma, in accordance with the Occasions.
However ladies additionally could also be extra weak to post-concussive signs due to intercourse hormones variations with analysis pointing to a progesterone disruption that happens presumably due to affect on the pituitary gland within the mind. A number of research counsel if a sufferer occurs to be in her menstrual cycle throughout the traumatic occasion, she will be able to undergo extra nervousness and despair afterward in comparison with males, per the Occasions.
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“A lot cash goes into investigating concussions in sports activities that these protocols and papers go on to form the way in which concussions generally are thought of,” stated Stephen Casper, professor of historical past of Clarkson College.
“There’s no cash to be comprised of learning intimate-partner abuse.”
The Authorities Accountability Workplace launched a report in 2020 concluding that IPV impacts over 30% of women and men in the US, however acknowledged as a result of the general prevalence information on these accidents is unknown, this has precipitated a lack of knowledge of the problem.
The Occasions compares extreme mind accidents to highly effective earthquakes, however as an alternative of bridges and buildings crumbling, our bones fracture as hemorrhages later erupt with uncooked painful facial wounds.
“However delicate mind accidents are smaller quakes: Books fall off cabinets; vases are damaged. It’s tougher to survey the harm and simple to overlook what’s damaged, however one thing is clearly unsuitable,” the paper stated.
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Name the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or click on right here for extra sources in case you need assistance.
Health
Scientists May Be Able to Make Grapefruits Compatible With Medications They Currently Interfere With
You may be among the millions of people who have seen a surprisingly specific warning like this on the labels of drugs you take:
Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice while using this medication.
Such warnings are issued for dozens of substances, including docetaxel, a cancer drug; erythromycin, an antibiotic; and some statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to more than a third of American adults over 40.
The problem is a set of molecules, furanocoumarins. High levels of furanocoumarins interfere with human liver enzymes, among other processes. In their presence, medications can build up to unhealthy levels in the body. And grapefruits and some related citrus fruits are full of them.
But there is no such warning for other kinds of citrus, such as mandarins and other oranges. Citrus researchers at the Volcani Center in Israel reported Wednesday in the journal The New Phytologist that, by crossing mandarins and grapefruit, they’ve uncovered genes that produce furanocoumarins in some citrus fruits. It’s a finding that opens the possibility of creating grapefruit that doesn’t require a warning label.
Scientists had worked out the compounds’ structures and pieced together a basic flowchart of how they are made years ago, said Yoram Eyal, a professor at the Volcani Center. But the precise identities of enzymes catalyzing the process — the proteins that snip off a branch here, or add a piece there — remained mysterious. He and his colleagues knew that one way to identify them was to breed citrus high in furanocoumarins with those without. If the offspring of such a cross had varying levels of the substances, it should be possible, by digging into their genetics, to pinpoint the genes for the proteins.
“We were afraid to approach it, because it’s very time-consuming and it takes many years,” he said, noting how involved it can be to grow new trees from seeds and assess their genetics. “But finally, we decided we have to dive in.”
When they examined the offspring of a mandarin and a grapefruit, the researchers saw something remarkable. Fifty percent of the young plants had high levels of furanocourmains, and 50 percent had none. That particular signature meant something very specific, in terms of how the ability to make these substances is inherited.
“We saw there was only one gene that could have controlled it,” said Livnat Goldenberg, a Volcani Center researcher who is the lead author of the new study.
The researchers soon identified the gene controlling the production of furanocoumarins in leaves and fruit, which produces an enzyme called 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, or 2OGD for short. Mandarins, it turns out, have a mutated form of this gene that keeps the enzyme from functioning properly. This version cropped up in all the mandarin and orange varieties the researchers checked, explaining why they do not cause the same problems as grapefruit in people taking prescription medications. In these plants, furanocoumarin production is paused.
With gene editing technology, it should be possible to alter the gene in grapefruit as well, Dr. Eyal suggests. The team at the Volcani Center is now exploring that project.
Looking at how widespread this mutated version is in mandarins and some other citrus, the scientists speculate that some gene nearby on the genome must play an important role in a highly prized trait. A long-ago citrus breeder, selecting for some unknown quality, must have unwittingly spread this furanocoumarin-busting version of the gene to an ancestor of modern varieties of mandarins and oranges.
All these years later, that person’s work is coming to light, under the gaze of geneticists, who may, someday, put grapefruit back on the menu.
Health
‘Rabbit fever’ cases rising in US as CDC warns of zoonotic bacterial disease
Cases of tularemia, also known as “rabbit fever,” are on the rise in the U.S., according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Caused by the bacteria Francisella tularensis, the disease commonly infects rabbits, hares and rodents. However, it is zoonotic, which means it can spread from animals to humans.
The bacteria is a “tier-1 select agent,” a classification given to agents and toxins that “present the greatest risk of deliberate misuse with significant potential for mass casualties or devastating effects to the economy, critical infrastructure or public confidence, and pose a severe threat to public health and safety,” per the CDC.
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Although tularemia is relatively rare, with only 2,462 diagnoses between 2011 and 2022, cases have risen 56% compared to the prior decade (2001 to 2010), as reported in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
“Increased reporting of probable cases might be associated with an actual increase in human infection, improved tularemia detection or both,” the report states.
Health
Diabetes, heart disease cases skyrocket — and scientists pinpoint one key reason
Millions of new cases of diabetes and heart disease every year are caused by sugary drinks, according to newly published research.
Tufts University in Boston led the study, which found that about 2.2 million new diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease were attributed to sugar-sweetened sodas and juices each year, according to a press release.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine this week.
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The highest rates were found in Colombia, where 48% of new diabetes cases were linked to sugary drinks, and in Mexico, where nearly a third of cases were attributed to them.
Meanwhile, in Latin America, more than 24% of new diabetes cases were linked to sugary beverages, and 21% in sub-Saharan Africa, the study found.
In South Africa, 27.6% of new diabetes cases and 14.6% of cardiovascular disease cases were attributed to sugary drinks.
Sugary drinks are rapidly digested, causing a spike in blood sugar levels with little nutritional value.
Sugary drinks cause blood sugar to spike because they are “rapidly digested,” the research team said.
When consumed on a long-term basis, these types of beverages, in addition to increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, can also lead to weight gain and insulin resistance, the researchers added.
Professor Dariush Mozaffarian, the study’s senior author, said in a university press release, “Sugar-sweetened beverages are heavily marketed and sold in low- and middle-income nations.”
He added, “Not only are these communities consuming harmful products, but they are also often less well-equipped to deal with the long-term health consequences.”
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Certain groups are more likely to experience negative health effects from sugary drinks, including men and younger adults, the researchers noted, as news agency SWNS also noted.
New Jersey-based registered dietitian Erin Palinski-Wade, who was not involved in the research, said the findings were to be expected, as diets rich in added sugars are more likely to increase the risk of chronic health conditions, including type 2 diabetes.
“Sugar-sweetened beverages are a major cause of added sugar in the diet and easy to overconsume, as they provide little fullness,” she told Fox News Digital.
“The high calorie content and lack of satisfaction due to little protein, fat or fiber in these drinks can lead to excess calorie consumption, which can lead to weight gain — especially gains in visceral fat (belly fat), which has been found to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes,” she went on.
“Sugar-sweetened beverages are easy to overconsume, as they provide little fullness.”
Palinski-Wade pointed out that there were some limitations to the new research.
“This was an observational study, not a causation study, and shows only an association between diets containing sugar-sweetened beverages and diabetes,” she noted.
“It does not prove that those drinks alone trigger an onset of type 2 diabetes.”
What needs to change?
To remedy the issue, the study authors called for a “multi-pronged approach,” including public health campaigns, regulations on advertising and taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, the release stated.
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“We need urgent, evidence-based interventions to curb consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages globally, before even more lives are shortened by their effects on diabetes and heart disease,” first author Laura Lara-Castor, now at the University of Washington, said in the release.
Mexico implemented a sugary drinks tax in 2014, which has shown to be effective in reducing consumption, the researchers stated.
“Much more needs to be done, especially in countries in Latin America and Africa, where consumption is high and the health consequences severe,” wrote Mozaffarian.
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“As a species, we need to address sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.”
Many different factors are involved in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, Palinski-Wade noted.
“As a species, we need to address sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.”
“However, reducing your intake of sugar-sweetened beverages can go a long way toward improving overall blood sugar regulation and future health.”
The new research was supported by the Gates Foundation, the American Heart Association and Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for further comment.
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