Category: Health – Happiness

Tens of thousands of extra patients to get access to wonder obesity jab Wegovy

The Telegraph

Tens of thousands of extra patients to get access to wonder obesity jab Wegovy

Daniel Martin – June 6, 2023

Patients with additional support have been able to lose as much as 15 per cent of their total body weight on Wegovy - vitapix/E+
Patients with additional support have been able to lose as much as 15 per cent of their total body weight on Wegovy – vitapix/E+

Tens of thousands of extra people will get access to a new wonder obesity drug after Rishi Sunak called for it to be made available outside hospitals.

The Prime Minister launched a pilot study to see whether the drug Wegovy could be prescribed by GPs – allowing far more to take advantage.

Earlier this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) decided that obese people with heart conditions should be able to receive the drug Wegovy free on the NHS.

The drug has been proven to help adults living with obesity lose more than 15 per cent of their body weight when prescribed alongside diet, physical activity and behavioural support.

But at the moment, NICE says the drug can only be made available in specialist weight management centres based in hospitals – reaching just 35,000 people. If it could be made available outside hospitals it could reach tens of thousands more, Downing Street said.

Mr Sunak has therefore ordered a £40 million pilot to test how the drugs could be made available outside hospitals – including through GP prescriptions.

But there are supply issues with the drugs. The company making Wegovy has said that unprecedented demand means that large quantities may not be available for months.

The Prime Minister said: “Obesity puts huge pressure on the NHS.

“Using the latest drugs to support people to lose weight will be a game-changer by helping to tackle dangerous obesity-related health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer – reducing pressure on hospitals, supporting people to live healthier and longer lives, and helping to deliver on my priority to cut NHS waiting lists.”

Earlier this year, NICE recommended the use of Semaglutide (brand name, Wegovy) for adults with a body mass index of at least 35 and one weight-related health condition – such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Other drugs are currently under consideration in clinical trials.

There is evidence from clinical trials that, when prescribed alongside diet, physical activity and behavioural support, people taking a weight-loss drug can lose up to 15 per cent of their body weight after one year. Taking them alongside diet, physical activity and behavioural support can help people lose weight within the first month of treatment.

Obesity is one of the leading causes of severe health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, and it costs the NHS £6.5 billion a year. There were more than one million admissions to NHS hospitals in 2019/2020 where obesity was a factor.

NICE advises that Wegovy should only be available via specialist weight management services, which are largely hospital based. This would mean only around 35,000 people would have access to Wegovy, when tens of thousands more could be eligible.

The £40m pilot will explore how approved drugs can be made safely available to more people by expanding specialist weight management services outside of hospital settings.

This includes looking at how GPs could safely prescribe these drugs and how the NHS can provide support in the community or digitally – contributing to the Government’s wider ambition to reduce pressure on hospitals and give people access to the care they need where it is most convenient for them.

Obesity and cancer

Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary  said: “Obesity costs the NHS around £6.5bn a year and is the second biggest cause of cancer.

“This next generation of obesity drugs have the potential to help people lose significant amounts of weight, when prescribed with exercise, diet and behavioural support.

“Tackling obesity will help to reduce pressure on the NHS and cut waiting times, one of the Government’s five priorities, and this pilot will help people live longer, healthier lives.”

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS medical director, said: “Tackling obesity is a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan – it can have devastating consequences for the nation’s health, leading to serious health conditions and some common cancers as well as resulting in significant pressure on NHS services.

“Pharmaceutical treatments offer a new way of helping people with obesity gain a healthier weight and this new pilot will help determine if these medicines can be used safely and effectively in non-hospital settings as well as a range of other interventions we have in place.

“NHS England is already working to implement recommendations from NICE to make this new class of treatment available to patients through established specialist weight management services, subject to negotiating a secure long-term supply of the products at prices that represent value for money taxpayers.”

Related

Yahoo! Life

What is Wegovy? The Hollywood weight loss drug which could soon be offered by GPs

Marie Claire Dorking, Contributor, Yahoo Life UK – June 7, 2023

Watch: £40m pilot scheme launched to increase access to weight-loss drugs and cut NHS waiting lists

Access to a new weight loss drug on the NHS, described as a “game-changer” by Rishi Sunak, is set to be increased.

The PM made the comments while announcing a £40 million pilot scheme to increase access to specialist weight management services in a bid to combat obesity.

The government wants to tackle the health problems and £6.5 billion cost to the NHS of obesity by making it easier to access weight-loss treatments through GPs.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) gave approval for the use of appetite suppressant Wegovy earlier this year, but said it should only be available through specialist services which are largely hospital-based.

But the government is keen to explore how approved drugs can be made available to more people by looking at how GPs could safely prescribe the drugs.

Access to Wegovy on the NHS for weight loss could soon be improved. (Getty Images)
Access to Wegovy on the NHS for weight loss could soon be improved. (Getty Images)

Wegovy, or semaglutide, is usually prescribed as a type 2 diabetes medication that blunts appetite.

It has the same ingredient as Ozempic, which has been causing a stir recently having said to be used by celebrities to manage their weight.

But experts have warned that there could be some side effects to using the drug as an aid to weight loss, without medical supervision, with Dr Amir Khan previously appearing on both GMB and Lorraine to issue some advice.https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/14034102/embed?auto=1

Here’s everything you need to know about Wegovy or Ozempic in 11 points.

What is Ozempic? Ozempic, Ryblesus and Wegovy are all brand names for a compound called semaglutide. The drug is typically used as a diabetes medication, can be prescribed in various doses and can be in the form of a weekly injection – administered in the stomach, thigh or arm – or a daily oral tablet.

The drug reportedly reduces appetite. “It is a hormone that our guts naturally produce,” explained Dr Amir Khan on ITV’s Lorraine. “It sends messages up to the pancreas to start producing insulin. But one of the side effects is it slows down the movement of food in the gut so you stay fuller for longer and you don’t have much of an appetite. That means you eat less which results in weight loss.”

The drug is rumoured to be secretly used by many Hollywood stars. At the Critics Choice Awards earlier this year Chelsea Handler hinted that many celebrities were taking the injectable. “Like when celebrities joke they lost weight by drinking water, but really it’s because everyone’s on Ozempic,” she joked. “Even my housekeeper’s on Ozempic.”

Searches on social media also link the Kardashians with the drug. But despite Kim Kardashian never confirming her use of Ozempic and her sister, Khloe, issuing a statement denying that she’d used it, it continues to clock up hashtags.

Semaglutide is the official name for Ozempic, which is typically a medication for type 2 diabetes. (Getty Images)
Semaglutide is the official name for Ozempic, which is typically a medication for type 2 diabetes. (Getty Images)

Other celebrities have openly admitted using the drug as a weight loss aid including Elon Musk, who told Twitter he’d tried it. The Tesla founder said the once-weekly injectable was his secret weapon for being “down 30lbs”. Jeremy Clarkson also recently discussed using the drug in a bid to lose weight and help prevent type 2 diabetes.

It’s causing quite the buzz online. Thanks to its reputation as the weight loss drug du jour, Ozempic is quickly clocking up views and shares on social media. On TikTok the hashtag #ozempic already has 1.1 billion views and counting, while Instagram is littered with users sharing their “Ozempic journey” to weight loss.

The drug was hailed a potential ‘game changer’ during an official UK study. It first started causing a buzz in the UK as a weight management tool after a University College London study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found just over a third (35%) of people who took it for obesity lost more than a fifth of their total body weight.

GPs could soon prescribe weight loss drug Wegovy. (Getty Images)
GPs could soon prescribe weight loss drug Wegovy. (Getty Images)

Ozempic does come with risks. Dr Amir Khan warned that side effects of the medication could include “nausea, vomiting, feeling bloated, diarrhoea, but in some, more serious, cases it can cause inflammation of the pancreas, that’s pancreatitis.”

He added it can also cause gall bladder problems. “It can even cause kidney failure,” he said, “so really it should only be available on prescription. I do prescribe it to my patients living with type 2 diabetes, but it’s very carefully monitored. It is not just given online.”

Eating disorder charities also have concerns. “Weight-loss medications like semaglutide can be extremely attractive to people with eating disorders as they appear to provide quick results,” Tom Quinn, Beat’s director of external affairs, explains.

“However, these medications can be very dangerous as they can worsen harmful thoughts and behaviours for those unwell, or contribute to an eating disorder developing for someone who is already vulnerable.”

Doctors say weight loss medications aren’t a magic cure. The NHS advises speaking to your GP for advice about losing weight safely “by eating a healthy, balanced diet and doing regular physical activity”.

They can also let you know about other useful services, such as local weight loss groups (either provided by the NHS or your local council, as well as private clubs that you pay for) and “exercise on prescription” (where you’re referred to a local active health team for sessions with a qualified trainer).

Additional reporting PA.View commentshttps://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-11-1/html/r-sf.html

Related

Reuters

Weight-loss drugs pilot to begin in UK amid uncertainty over Wegovy launch

Ludwig Burger and Maggie Fick – June 6, 2023

FILE PHOTO: Illustrations of Wegovy injector pens in Chicago

(Reuters) – Britain plans to launch a pilot programme exploring how new weekly weight-loss shots such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy can be given to obese patients by general practitioners even as the drug’s market launch remains unclear.

The government’s announcement on the 40-million-pound ($50 million) pilot programme comes after drug cost-effectiveness watchdog NICE in March recommended the use of Wegovy in adults with at least one weight-related condition and a body mass index of 35, but only within the National Health Service’s (NHS) specialist weight management scheme.

The timing of Wegovy’s launch in Britain – which would be only the fourth country to use it – is uncertain, however, after Novo last month rationed starter doses to secure supply to U.S. patients already on the regimen, after it was overwhelmed by demand there.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday the pilot and fighting obesity-related diseases could reduce pressure on hospitals.

It would also support “people to live healthier and longer lives, and helping to deliver on my priority to cut NHS waiting lists”.

The NHS endured a tough winter in England in particular, with waiting lists hitting record highs and staff striking for higher pay amid double-digit inflation.

Obesity is one of the leading causes of severe health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, and costs the NHS 6.5 billion pounds a year.

The government said that NICE, short for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, was also considering potential use of Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide, currently licensed to treat diabetes but expected to win approval to treat obesity as well.

The two-year pilot will be launched after the new weight loss drugs are available in the UK, it said.

DELAYS

Novo’s inability to keep up with U.S. demand for Wegovy has effectively delayed the launch in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. It has also had to overcome production problems at a contract manufacturer.

A company spokesperson would not comment on any commitment to supply the programme, but said there had been preliminary discussion on the role of treating obesity as part of the UK government’s ambition to bring people back into the workforce.

Eli Lilly said that its Mounjaro drug could be part of the solution, once approved.

The British government said that only 35,000 people would have access to Wegovy under the specialist hospital services, but tens of thousands more could be eligible.

Phil McEwan, CEO of health economics consultancy Heor Ltd in Cardiff, who advises Novo on market access, said the need for specialist services would have been a major bottleneck.

“You have to be referred to specialist care and that’s not the easiest thing to do. The challenge will be to access reimbursement,” he said.

Keen interest in the treatment is already showing elsewhere. One of Britain’s largest pharmacy chains, Superdrug, said its remote prescriptions service was anticipating significant demand.

“Superdrug Online Doctor has seen five time anticipated levels of registration,” a spokesperson told Reuters in April, declining to give numbers.

Outside the U.S., Wegovy has only been launched in Denmark and Norway but major medical insurance schemes there will not pay for it, saying the health benefits would not justify the extra budgeting.

Britain’s move is likely to heat up a debate about whether a drug is the right answer to the growing public health problem of obesity or whether there are other ways to encourage healthier lifestyles.

Duane Mellor, a dietitian and senior lecturer at Aston University’s medical school, said drugs like Wegovy were a tool, not the solution.

“It’s a political decision to say the government is doing something to tackle health issues linked to obesity … we need to be much braver and bolder in looking at root causes around access to health care and about making healthy food enjoyable.”

Simon Cork, a senior lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University, said obesity had been shown to be “incredibly difficult” to manage through diet and exercise alone and that Wegovy and similar drugs offered a step change.

“Hence the excitement from the general public and why the UK government seems to be pushing to make the drug available widely,” he said.

Wegovy works by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that triggers the feeling of fullness in the body after eating.

Trials showed it leads to an average weight loss of around 15%, alongside changes to diet and exercise.

($1 = 0.8051 pounds)

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Maggie Fick in London, additional reporting by Anusha S in Bengaluru and Helen Reid and Alistair Smout in London; editing by Lincoln Feast, Mark Potter and Jane Merriman)

Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

The Hill

Teens are spending less time than ever with friends

Daniel de Visé – June 7, 2023

America’s teenagers are seeing a lot less of one another.

The share of high school seniors who gathered with friends in person “almost every day” dropped from 44 percent in 2010 to 32 percent in 2022, according to Monitoring the Future, a national survey of adolescents. Social outings for the typical eighth grader dwindled from about 2 1/2 a week in 2000 to 1 1/2 in 2021.

The nation’s teens have traded face time for Facetime. Adolescents are spending less time gathering in shopping malls, movie theaters and rec rooms, and more time connecting on Instagram, TikTok and Discord.

Some researchers see the retreat from social gatherings as key to explaining the wave of adolescent ennui that is sweeping the nation. Numerous studies have tracked rising rates of loneliness among adolescents before, during and since the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared a national loneliness epidemic. And loneliness presages depression and other mental health maladies, which are also growing more prevalent among teens.

“Teens are spending a lot more time communicating with each other electronically and a lot less time hanging out with each other face to face,” said Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of “Generations,” a new book about generational differences.

“Going to the mall has gone down. Driving in the car for fun has gone down. Going to the movies has gone down,” she said. “We’re talking about kids who are spending five, six, seven hours a day on social media.”

Twenge sees a connection between the decline of adolescent gatherings and the rise of teenage loneliness.

About half of the nation’s high-school seniors met up with friends almost daily in the 1970s, when researchers at the University of Michigan began tracking their outings in the Monitoring the Future study.

In the decades since, a gradually shrinking share of teens has reported regular meetups with friends. The steepest decline commenced around 2010, just as smartphones and social media were taking hold. U.S. smartphone ownership reached 50 percent in 2012.

The loneliness epidemic arrived around the same time. A landmark 2021 study found that levels of adolescent loneliness nearly doubled between 2012 and 2018. Prior to 2012, researchers had spotted no loneliness trend.

Twenge believes the timing of the two trends, falling face time and rising loneliness, is no mere coincidence.

“If it’s not smartphones and social media that have caused the rise in teen depression, what is it?” she said. Twenge was the lead author of the 2021 study, published in the Journal of Adolescence.

Today’s teenagers may be spending more time in front of screens than any prior generation.

The average teen spent eight hours and 39 minutes on daily screen time for entertainment in 2021, up from six hours and 40 minutes in 2015, according to Common Sense Media, publisher of a closely watched Common Sense Census.

To put those numbers into perspective: An entire household watched eight hours and 55 minutes of daily television, on average, in 2009-10, the historic peak of television consumption. But researchers caution against comparing the two.

“Screen time can be so many different things,” said Amanda Lenhart, head of research at Common Sense. “There’s all sorts of ways in which these platforms can be both good for kids and bad for kids.”

Nearly half of the nation’s teens now say they are online “almost constantly,” according to Pew Research. More than half say they are effectively addicted to social media and would have a hard time giving it up.

The surgeon general, among others, has linked social media to rising depression and anxiety in teenagers.

Loneliness deepened at the height of the pandemic. Three years later, the epidemic shows few signs of abating. New survey data from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, collected in December, shows 21 percent of teens report being lonely much or all of the time.

“I think social media has been a really significant factor in this decline,” said Richard Weissbourd, a senior lecturer at the Harvard education school.

Weissbourd and other researchers agree with Twenge that face-to-face relationships play a large role in adolescent development.

“Friendships and relationships are very important in adolescence,” said Adam Hoffman, an assistant professor of psychology at Cornell University. Social media “can really only supplement, and cannot replace, in-person relationships. We need to have both of these.”

Both he and Weissbourd stress, however, that social media is only one of several societal forces that have afflicted the mental health of adolescents and young adults in recent years.

“Teens rank achievement pressure really high in terms of negatively influencing their mental health,” Weissbourd said. Adolescents and their families report heightened financial stress. Teens in the 2020s fret about climate change and political strife.

Causes of adolescent loneliness vary by race, class and culture.

“What’s going on with low-income kids in rural areas or low-income kids in areas of concentrated poverty is really different from what’s going on with affluent kids in suburbs,” Weissbourd said.

Social media itself is, psychologically speaking, a mixed bag.

The social maelstrom of Instagram drives some teens into depression. For other young people, social media can bring connection. Nonbinary and transgender teens, for example, have reported joy and empowerment in discovering people like themselves through social media.

“I’m thinking about a gay kid in Montana, and he’s completely on his own, and he doesn’t really know anyone he can talk to,” Hoffman said. “But he’s developed a community online, and he’s got connections with gay kids all over the country.”

Other research suggests teens may ultimately be better off with a social media life than without one.

One 2022 study found that teens reported lower self-esteem when their Internet access was poor or nonexistent. The survey also found that adolescent self-esteem suffered when parents wielded strict control over screen time.

“There’s such strong rhetoric out there about the harms associated with these screens, but to be honest, the data is so weak,” said Keith Hampton, a professor of media and information at Michigan State University and co-author of the study.

“All the data supports the notion that adolescents who spend more time using social media spend more time in person with their friends,” he said.

Twenge agrees with that point. But she also notes that teens are spending less overall face time with their friends today than before the social media era.

As a group of friends migrates from mall gatherings to Instagram, Twenge explains, its most sociable member may spend more time than the others in both in-person and virtual get-togethers. But the group still winds up spending less face time together, in the end.

“There’s a big difference between being in the same place with someone and interacting with someone electronically,” she said. “When you’re in the same room with someone in real time, you’re having a conversation, you can see the look on their face, you can touch each other, and all of these things are important for teens.”

It started with a tick bite. How I lost my husband to undiagnosed Lyme disease

Today

It started with a tick bite. How I lost my husband to undiagnosed Lyme disease

Nicole Bell, as told to Genevieve Brown – June 5, 2023

It was 2016 when I got a call at work. It was the house alarm company. My husband, Russ, who picked up the kids from school each day, had arrived home and wasn’t able to turn the blaring alarm off.

I got home later that day and everything was fine. But I noticed Russ asking repetitive questions. Forgetting what time to pick up the kids. And he couldn’t remember the alarm code — the same one we had used for years.

In the time leading up to the alarm company incident, things between Russ and me had not been good. He was moody and irritable. He was angry. I thought we were headed toward divorce. But now I know those were the very first signs of tick-borne illness.

Bell describes her late husband as
Bell describes her late husband as

Because Russ was very outdoorsy, and because I knew he had ticks on him over the years, Lyme disease was actually one of the first things that came to mind when I started looking into the symptoms of my husband’s cognitive decline. The thing was, though, that Russ had never had a fever or a rash associated with ticks that we knew of, and when tested with the standard Lyme screener had come up negative.

We also got bloodwork from an integrative medicine doctor to take a deeper look at what was happening with Russ. It showed nothing out of the ordinary. Tick-borne illnesses, like Lyme, fell off my radar. Russ went to a neurologist for cognitive testing and his decline was far worse than I even suspected. He wasn’t able to do simple math patterns that my 6-year-old could easily do at the time. He was a computer scientist and electrical engineer. I was flabbergasted. The neurologist said he either had a stroke event or Alzheimer’s.

An MRI showed no stroke event. A PET scan showed severe deficiencies in metabolism patterns, consistent with late-stage Alzheimer’s. He was 60.

Bell published a memoir about her husband's story on what would have been his 65th birthday. (Courtesy Nicole Bell)
Bell published a memoir about her husband’s story on what would have been his 65th birthday. (Courtesy Nicole Bell)

Early onset Alzheimer’s, however, is not typically a quick decline without a genetic component, which Russ didn’t have. In Russ’ case, though, the decline was swift. But after about nine months, I accepted the diagnosis. That is, until I spoke to my brother, Scott, whose wife had been suffering from chronic illness for years and had just been diagnosed with multiple tick-borne illnesses. Scott told me, “I think this is what’s going on with Russ.”

Russ was tested with a PCR test, the same way we now test for COVID-19, which looked for the organism itself rather than the antibodies. Russ had three tick-borne infections — the three Bs as they’re known —  Borrelia (otherwise known as Lyme disease), Bartonella and Babesia. (Editor’s note: While Bell does not know which tick-borne infection caused the illness resembling Alzheimer’s, Elizabeth Landsverk, M.D., who specializes in the treatment of dementia and Alzheimer’s, told TODAY that untreated Lyme disease can cause brain fog and neurological symptoms that mirror the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, as well as “toxic scarring to the brain.”)

We had wasted 15 months. Still, there was hope. Infections, at least, can be treated. So that’s what we did. And the next year can only be described as a roller coaster. Antibiotics would help, and then Russ would come off them and decline. Some of the more well-known symptoms of Lyme came up — joint pain, swelling in his knees. But cognitively, he continued to decline.

After 18 months of treatment, I made the most difficult decision of my life — to move Russ to a respite care facility. It was three years ago this month.

For a time, Russ was OK. He had socialization I couldn’t provide at home. He was receiving good medical care. I visited him almost every day and helped with showering and things of that nature. It went on that way until March 2020. Then COVID hit, and I couldn’t see Russ for six months.

I finally did see him because he was moved to a hospital because of a seizure. It was now September of 2020. He had lost so much weight. He was hunched over. The man who had once been so engaging — the life of the party — was vacant. People asked if I thought he recognized me. I didn’t think so. Russ passed away in January of 2022.

Throughout this journey, I journaled. I had lost my partner, the person I communicated with every day. Journaling my experiences was an outlet. It was during 2020 that I wrote my memoir, “What Lurks in the Woods.” It was published on Oct. 23, 2021 — Russ’s 65th birthday. I wanted to honor his life, but also to raise awareness for tick-borne illnesses. They don’t always present in a typical manner, and if you or a loved one is experiencing sudden mood changes, anxiety or depression, I encourage you to find a Lyme-literate doctor through the database of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). I wish I had done that sooner.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Couple charged in ‘torture’ abuse case that left 5-year-old boy with 46 visible injuries

Daytona Beach News – Journal

Couple charged in ‘torture’ abuse case that left 5-year-old boy with 46 visible injuries

Mark Harper, The Daytona Beach News-Journal – June 3, 2023

A 5-year-old boy whose skull was fractured when his mother’s live-in boyfriend struck him with a mop handle, breaking it in half, has been beaten, neglected, and tortured repeatedly, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office revealed on Saturday.

Investigators discovered video surveillance from inside the DeLand-area home revealing the child once had his hands tied behind his back for more than 19 hours. Doctors examining him found, in addition to the skull fracture, 46 visible injuries as well as internal injuries, Volusia Sheriff’s spokesman Andrew Gant said in a news release.

There were three children in the home, including an 8-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy.

“The torture these kids endured is hard to imagine. The good news is they’re in safe hands now, and their scumbag abusers will have to answer for what they did,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood wrote in a Facebook post Saturday.

More: Woman wanted in child abuse, torture case works for child welfare organization say police

Alleged abuser’s history: Man who severely beat 5-year-old is a convicted felon who has spent time in prison

Unlawful desertion charge: Daytona Beach woman charged after abandoning son near Boardwalk on Mother’s Day

Shawn M. Stone, 32, has been in custody since May 9. In addition to one count of aggravated child abuse, he was charged on Friday with 23 other counts of abuse and neglect.
Shawn M. Stone, 32, has been in custody since May 9. In addition to one count of aggravated child abuse, he was charged on Friday with 23 other counts of abuse and neglect.

The boyfriend, Shawn M. Stone, 32, has been in custody since May 9. In addition to one count of aggravated child abuse, he was charged on Friday with 23 other abuse-and-neglect-related counts.

Jail records show Stone is facing eight counts of neglect of a child causing great bodily harm; five counts of aggravated child abuse; four counts of neglect of a child; three counts of failing to report suspected child abuse; two counts of false imprisonment of a child under 13; and two counts of tampering with a witness in a life felony proceeding.

He is being held without bond.

Meanwhile, the mother, Taylor B. Schaefer, 28, is facing 25 charges after investigators said she repeatedly witnessed abuse and failed to stop or report it. She has yet to be located by authorities, Gant said.

Schaefer called 911 after the mop handle incident, saying she had a “gut feeling” that Stone was abusing the victim, then checked the video footage and confirmed it.

Taylor Schaefer
Taylor Schaefer

But investigators who watched hours of video found that she had been present in the house when the 5-year-old was being beaten, Gant said, while the mother also saw the boy visibly injured and limping, but did not provide medical attention.

“On the day that Schaefer did report the abuse, video showed her mopping up the area where the victim was beaten with the mop handle,” Gant said.

The 5-year-old boy had been repeatedly bound for hours at a time. In one instance, his hands were tied behind his back at 6:43 p.m. one night, and left that way until 2:02 p.m. the following afternoon.

Shawn Stone
Shawn Stone

The victim had also been tied up and placed in a dog cage, Gant said, adding that a common form of punishment for him was food deprivation.

“Another child in the home was forced to drink boiling water, sprayed with boiling water, and beaten with several household objects,” Gant said. “That child also witnessed the brutal abuse inflicted on the younger victim.”

A third child victim in the house was not receiving proper nutrition or care for a serious medical condition, and also witnessed the constant abuse, Gant said.

Investigators’ video evidence is backed up with text messages and witness interviews, Gant said.

All three children were removed from the home and placed in a “safe environment” on May 9, Gant said.

Chitwood shared a Go-Fund-Me page to help the adults who are now caring for the children.

Glen Hobbs, the organizer of the page, has provided several updates on the children. All three have been released from the hospital, where they began eating regularly.

The 5-year-old will need a wheelchair and walker, and “has a long road to recovery,” Hobbs said. The 8-year-old girl is eating well, while the oldest boy “is in good spirits and looks healthy.”

The Go-Fund-Me had raised more than $8,000 of a $20,000 goal as of late Saturday afternoon.

Top Chinese scientist concedes that coronavirus may have leaked from Wuhan lab

Yahoo! News

Top Chinese scientist concedes that coronavirus may have leaked from Wuhan lab

George Gao told the BBC that the possibility of a lab accident should not be discounted.

Alexander Nazaryan, Senior W. H. Correspondent – June 1, 2023

Eight workers in protective suits disinfect the pavement in front of a school.
Workers disinfect a school following a COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, in August 2021. (China Daily via Reuters)

The debate over the origins of the coronavirus has largely been conducted in the West, despite the fact that the pathogen originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Chinese authorities have officially maintained a vague stance, meant largely to deflect criticism. Meanwhile, scientists who may hold clues to how the pandemic began — likely sometime in late 2019 — appear to have been silenced.

That changed ever so slightly this week, when George Gao, the former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, offered his thoughts on the contentious question to a BBC podcast.

Read more from Yahoo News: The endless — and potentially harmful — debate over COVID’s origins

What did Gao say?
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, a large brick building.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in May 2020. (Stringer/Reuters)

“Don’t rule out anything.”

It may not seem like much, but Gao was clearly acknowledging that the coronavirus could have emerged as a result of a laboratory accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The remarks came in a new BBC podcast, “Fever: The Hunt for Covid’s Origin.”

Initially, most scientists thought the virus originated at a wildlife market in Wuhan. But gradually, opinion has shifted toward the likelihood of human error.

China has strenuously denied that such a “leak” took place, and Gao did not present any evidence to counter those denials. But he also did not make such a denial himself when presented with the chance to do so.

Lab leak proponent and former National Security Council official Jamie Metzl told Yahoo News that he could not recall another Chinese scientist making a similar concession.

“At least on the surface, he has been pretty honest and straightforward from the beginning,” Metzl said of Gao. “My personal sense is that he is trying to maintain scientific credibility while not overly upsetting the Chinese government.”

In fact, Gao may have even been encouraged by Beijing, speculates Richard Ebright, a Rutgers molecular biologist and an outspoken lab leak proponent. “Gao’s statement may have been authorized by China’s government and thus may augur a change in China’s government’s stance on the subject,” Ebright told Yahoo News.

Read more from our partners: WHO, advisors urge China to release all COVID-related data after new research

An investigation by China?
The Huanan Seafood Market is seen from above.
Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market, where the first cluster of COVID cases emerged, in 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Gao also told the BBC that the Chinese government investigated the Wuhan laboratory, though he gave no details about the investigation.

“The government organized something,” Gao said. “That lab was double-checked by the experts in the field.”

He did not say which agency employed those experts, or what they found, other than that they discovered no “wrongdoing.”

But the revelation that an investigation had been conducted suggests that Chinese authorities took the possibility of a lab leak more seriously than they had previously indicated.

Read more from our partners: Chinese virologist accuses Beijing of hiding details on coronavirus

A persistent controversy
Members of the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of COVID pose for pictures.
Peter Ben Embarek, Peter Daszak and Marion Koopmans, members of the WHO team tasked with investigating the origins of COVID, at a hotel in Wuhan in 2021. (Aly Song/Reuters)

Chinese officials and state media have gone so far as to spread conspiracy theories that the coronavirus originated at Fort Detrick, a bioweapons facility in Maryland.

There is no evidence for that outlandish accusation, but it is telling all the same. In some ways, Beijing has treated the coronavirus with some of the same propaganda and obfuscation that the Soviet Union deployed after the Chernobyl partial meltdown in 1986.

In early 2021, China allowed investigators with the World Health Organization to conduct a carefully managed visit to Wuhan. In a subsequent report, the WHO endorsed the view that the virus originated at the Huanan Seafood Market, where it jumped from an “intermediate” animal species to humans.

China has denied the market origin hypothesis as strenuously as the possibility of a lab leak, doing all it can to stymie investigations.

Read more from our partners: COVID-19 likely originated with lab leak, U.S. Energy Department finds in new report

Here comes the raccoon dog
A raccoon dog stands in its enclosure at the Shanghai Zoo.
A raccoon dog in its enclosure at the Shanghai Zoo on May 12. (Staff/Reuters)

In March, a group of researchers made a controversial, highly contested claim. Analyzing genetic data from swabs taken at the Huanan Seafood Market, which had been inadvertently uploaded to an international server, they claimed that the virus had originated in a cage containing raccoon dogs.

Critics quickly noted that the mixture of raccoon dog DNA and viral matter did not necessarily mean that the animals had transmitted the coronavirus to humans. The virus could have been deposited in the raccoon dog cage by a sneezing human already sickened with COVID-19 — or by some other inadvertent means.

And, it turned out, the amount of viral DNA in the raccoon dog sample was minuscule to begin with.

Among the critics of the raccoon dog argument was Gao, who like Chinese political leaders maintained that the virus had been brought to the Huanan market by humans, not animals, in what appeared to be an effort to discount both origin hypotheses without offering a credible alternative.

Gao disparaged the raccoon dog findings as “nothing new.”

Read more from our partners: Expert says origins of pandemic could be known in few years

Preparing for future pandemics
A research team investigating emerging zoonotic diseases lays down some tarps at a bat breeding shed.
A research team investigating emerging zoonotic diseases prepares to collect samples from a bat breeding shed at Accra Zoo in Accra, Ghana, in 2022. (Francis Kokoroko/Reuters)

The attention devoted to Gao’s comments seems to reflect an enduring fascination with the pandemic’s origins, even as coronavirus concerns recede for most people in the United States and elsewhere.

Some have argued that both the wildlife trade and laboratory safety need reform, in China and elsewhere, regardless of how the virus originated.

“As Professor Gao said, science deals in probabilities and not in certainties. In reality, it may never be possible to know with confidence how the covid-19 virus entered the human population,” said James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge. “What is important is that lessons are learned and that live wildlife trade, a well recognised route for zoonotic virus transmission, is reduced or banned and that laboratory safety is properly regulated.”

Read more from our partners: The Chinese wild-animal industry and wet markets must go

Walking this number of steps a day only a few days a week has major health benefits

Today

Walking this number of steps a day only a few days a week has major health benefits

 Sarah Jacoby – June 1, 2023

As the June Start TODAY challenge kicks off, you may be wondering how much you need to walk in order to see health benefits. For beginners, it’s more than reasonable to start small and try to build up your walking habit, as is the goal of the June challenge. But for walkers ready to make the most of their exercise, what should your daily step count goal be, and how often do you need to hit it?

Before you spend your evening walking laps around your home, know that new research shows that you don’t necessarily have to hit your step goal every single day to improve your health. A new study found that walking 8,000 steps just once or twice per week can be enough to significantly reduce the risk of death over 10 years.

The inspiration for the study was people who only have time to walk as exercise on the weekend, study co-author Dr. Kosuke Inoue, a chronic disease epidemiologist at Kyoto University in Japan, tells TODAY.com.

“Although recent studies have shown that more daily steps were associated with a steady decline in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk up to approximately 8,000 daily steps, we realized that evidence is lacking about the health benefits of walking intensively only a few days a week,” he explained.

For the study, published this week in JAMA Network Open, researchers used data previously collected for the 2005 and 2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. These long-running nationally representative surveys are conducted by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers included 3,101 participants for whom the surveys had accelerometer data that tracked their daily steps for one week, as well as mortality data for at least 10 years. The participants’ average age was 50, about half were women, and about half were white.

Their results showed that participants who walked at least 8,000 steps (about 4 miles) one or two days per week were 15% less likely to die within 10 years. There were 75 deaths out of 532 participants who walked at least 8,000 steps only one or two days per week. And there were 107 deaths among 1,937 participants walking 8,000 steps three or more days per week.

But the benefits plateaued after walking at least 8,000 steps three days per week, meaning those who walked that much for four or more days didn’t see any further reductions in mortality risk.

And it didn’t have to be 8,000 steps exactly: Researchers saw the same benefits, in general, when participants walked anywhere between 6,000 to 10,000 steps.

The participants who took 8,000 or more steps during the week were also more likely to have never smoked, to not have obesity, to not have mobility limitations and to not have other conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. And, the authors note, participants’ steps were only measured for one week at baseline, so their walking habits may have changed during the following decade.

So it’s possible that the people who were able to walk that many steps that frequently were less likely to die within 10 years for reasons unrelated to walking, such as medication adherence, smoking status of family members, genetics, et cetera, Inoue said.

Although the study has its limitations, Inoue explained that the findings are important “given that a lack of time is one of the major barriers to exercise in modern society.” They suggest “that for individuals who face difficulties in exercising regularly … achieving recommended daily steps only a couple of days per week may have meaningful health benefits,” he said. “Of course, our findings should not discourage walking more days for those who can, though.”

Finding the right form of exercise for you

Experts generally agree that regular walking can be great exercise and can have benefits for body and mind — and you don’t necessarily have to hit that 10,000 steps goal to get those, as TODAY.com explained previously.

In fact, Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery, tells TODAY.com that the 10,000 steps goal actually comes from an ad campaign for an early pedometer ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, so it’s “completely fabricated” goal, he says.

For people who don’t enjoy other forms of fitness, walking can be a great way to keep moving. For those who do partake in more intense forms of exercise, walking can also be a low-impact way to get some movement in on a rest day. And regardless of how you work out, there are benefits to simply making activity a natural part of your daily routine.

In fact, experts are encouraging “activity snacks” taken throughout the day rather than — or in addition to — getting all of your fitness in one high-intensity class or long walk, for instance. “Moving around throughout the day … is like the fire that keeps the metabolic furnace burning,” Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery, tells TODAY.com.

When finding the right type of exercise, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer — as long as it’s something you enjoy enough to do it consistently, he says.

“The holy grail of fitness, in my world, is compliance,” Metzl explains. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a yogi or a biker or a walker or a swimmer. We know that people will be the most compliant with something they’re smiling about doing.”

If the number of steps in your tracker is what motivates you, then use that as a tool; if you prefer to focus on time, then throw on a podcast that lasts for the number of minutes you’re shooting for, he suggests.

But it’s still important to remember that the “right” amount of steps to aim for in a day may be different from person to person. And you don’t need to push your body to hit an arbitrary goal.

“You shouldn’t ignore your body to hit a target,” Dr. Lawrence Phillips, an associate professor of medicine and medical director of outpatient cardiology at NYU Langone Health in New York, told TODAY.com previously. “You can spread your activity throughout the day rather than having one set period,” he added.

Of course, there are all kinds of reasons (including supporting your mental well-being and, if you walk with others, socializing) to get some steps in more frequently than that. But, based on these results, it’s OK if you don’t hit your step goal every single day. As long as you can get some steps in once or twice a week, you’re likely to see some benefits.

CORRECTION (March 30, 2023, 9:05 a.m. ET:) A previous version of this story stated that Dr. Kosuke Inoue is a chronic disease epidemiologist at UCLA. He is now affiliated with Kyoto University.

Five college towns worth staying put in after graduation

MarketWatch – Livability

Five college towns worth staying put in after graduation

Lesley Kennedy – June 1, 2023  

Imagine living in these lively towns without all the classes and homework
Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and home to the flagship state university. ISTOCK

Your diploma has been framed, the cap and gown are in storage, and you’ve been to more going-away parties than you can count. Now, where to focus that job hunt and narrow down where to live after graduation? If your destination wish list includes lots of culture, a smaller-town feel and football Saturdays (you’re never too old to tailgate), it may be time to head back to school — only without all the classes and homework.

Here are five college towns that are great places to live after graduation. 

1. Madison, Wis.
Lakes Monona and Mendota and the urban core of Madison, Wis. ISTOCK

If the Midwest is calling your name, this authentic college town, home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an easy answer. Frequently recognized on award lists — one of the best cities in the Midwest, best city for biking, happiest city in the world, greenest city, fittest city, etc. — the state capital has the feel of a smaller town (population: 272,159) but offers big-city amenities and culture. With an array of museums, the largest producer-only farmers market in the nation and plenty of food fests — from the world’s biggest Brat Fest to the Isthmus Beer Cheese Festival — it’s also just 77 miles from Milwaukee and 122 miles from Chicago.

Madison is also an excellent place for 20-somethings (more than half the population is younger than 30) and those who seek an active lifestyle (you’ll find five lakes, more than 260 parks and bike paths everywhere you look). 

Ready to move? The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,567, roughly $400 below the national average, and the median home value in Madison is $339,874. The largest job sectors include healthcare, life sciences, agriculture, advanced manufacturing and IT, and, of course, public employment in education. Is that “On, Wisconsin” we hear you humming?

2. Corvallis, Ore.
Corvallis is home to Oregon State University. ISTOCK

So your ultimate town wish list includes charming homes, proximity to outdoor adventures, a vibrant college campus and breweries, wineries and independent restaurants? It’s a tall order, but Corvallis, home to Oregon State University, will check all your boxes. 

The pretty, stately campus, situated near downtown, is one of just a few in the country with National Register of Historic Places status and hosts many cultural events (and Pac-12 athletics) open to the public throughout the year. 

With a population of 58,612 and an average Benton County home price of $527,363, it’s also a place where creative jobs are common — nearly half of the workforce is engaged in careers in science and technology, design and architecture, arts, entertainment and media, healthcare, law, management, and education.

Also see: 25 of the best places to live out West

Weekend warriors will love its location in the Willamette Valley (just 90 minutes from Portland), where both skiing and the Oregon coast are within easy drives, but crowd-drawing events, including a festival called da Vinci Days and the Corvallis Fall Festival, make staying put fun, too. 

3. Ames, Iowa
A view of the Iowa State University campanile. ISTOCK

“Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.”

Longtime residents of Ames may tire of the famous “Field of Dreams” line, but the movie quote isn’t far off. Boasting Iowa State University, 36 parks, a fun downtown scene, miles and miles of bike trails, four golf courses and more, this college town is a solid place to put down roots.

And it’s not just us saying it: Ames, with a population of 66,361 (including students), has racked up a long list of accolades, including best place for STEM grads, best town for millennials and healthiest city. 

If you plan to have kids, Ames has one of the nation’s top school systems. If you crave culture, the university brings Broadway shows, Pulitzer Prize–winning speakers and famous artists from across the world. If you love collegiate athletics, the Big 12 member ISU Cyclones will have you cheering. 

Don’t miss: This Iowa town will pay you to build a house there

And it’s affordable, too: The median home value is $246,387, and the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $725. Top jobs are in education, government and professional, and scientific and technical services.

Heaven? No, it’s Ames. 

Also see: The best affordable places to live in the U.S.

4. Ann Arbor, Mich.
Liberty Street in Ann Arbor. GETTY IMAGES

Thinking of moving to Wolverine territory? Start by learning the lyrics to the University of Michigan fight song (“Hail! to the victors valiant; Hail! to the conqu’ring heroes; Hail! Hail! to Michigan, the champions of the West!”), then get ready to take notes on what makes this city (one of the best in the country) so beloved.

First is the college’s award-winning museums, cultural performances, nationally ranked sports teams (the football stadium seats a whopping 107,601, with epic tailgating on its exterior) and Instagram-worthy campus. Then there’s the food and drink scene: more than 300 restaurants, food trucks, a charming farmers market and a host of breweries.

See: 25 of the best cities and towns to live in the Northeast U.S.

Or the festivals held most weekends, such as July’s Ann Arbor Art Fair, April’s FoolMoon and FestiFools and holiday lights fest. Or the outdoor options — you could golf, hike, mountain bike, snowshoe or cross-country ski or canoe, paddleboard or kayak the Huron River. 

Named a winner on lists celebrating the most educated cities in America, best coffee, best college towns, happiest cities, best cities for entrepreneurs, best city for millennials and so on, Ann Arbor boasts about 122,915 residents (U. of M. students included). The median home value is $377,706, and almost 10% of the workforce is employed by the university (the city’s largest employer); unemployment is low, with the healthcare, automotive, IT and biomedical research fields as local leaders.

Ann Arbor? Hail, yes!

5. Fort Collins, Colo.
On the Poudre River Trail in Fort Collins. ISTOCK

When it comes to Rocky Mountain college towns, Boulder tends to get most of the love. But Fort Collins, home to CU’s intrastate rival, Colorado State, is bursting with potential as a worthy city in which to put down roots.

And if you’re a beer drinker, it’s time to hoist a pint. Fort Collins makes roughly 70% of the craft beer produced in the state of Colorado and has one of the highest numbers of microbreweries per capita. When friends visit, hop on a brew tour (there are plenty to choose from) to sample a Fat Tire from New Belgium, a 90 Shilling from Odell or a Dunkel from Zwei. 

Just an hour’s drive north of Denver, this town (population: 172,676), may center on CSU (which boasts a world-class performing-arts center, historic buildings and a state-of-the-art stadium), but it also supports a ballet troupe, opera company, symphony, art galleries, museums and lots of live music venues. The major employers in the area include Advanced Energy Industries, Anheuser Busch, Banner Health and CSU. 

Also see: I’m looking for a place that has year-round mild, sunny weather and is near or on the water, and my budget is $125,000 — where should I retire?

And the setting ain’t bad. Located along the Cache la Poudre River and along the Front Range, camping, hiking, skiing, fishing, biking and other outdoor adventures are just moments away. It’s a perpetual award winner on top-cities lists, from the best city for cycling to the best place to raise a family to the best place to live.

The average home price in Fort Collins is climbing — currently, it’s at $487,730, with one-bedroom apartments renting for $1,500 on average. But it’s easy to see why folks come here for college and stay forever. 

Climate Shocks Are Making Parts of America Uninsurable. It Just Got Worse.

The New York Times

Climate Shocks Are Making Parts of America Uninsurable. It Just Got Worse.

Christopher Flavelle – May 31, 2023

A firefighter tried to save a home in Meyers, Calif. (NYT)

The climate crisis is becoming a financial crisis.

This month, the largest homeowner insurance company in California, State Farm, announced that it would stop selling coverage to homeowners. That’s not just in wildfire zones, but everywhere in the state.

Insurance companies, tired of losing money, are raising rates, restricting coverage or pulling out of some areas altogether — making it more expensive for people to live in their homes.

“Risk has a price,” said Roy Wright, the former official in charge of insurance at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and now head of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, a research group. “We’re just now seeing it.”

In parts of eastern Kentucky ravaged by storms last summer, the price of flood insurance is set to quadruple. In Louisiana, the top insurance official says the market is in crisis, and is offering millions of dollars in subsidies to try to draw insurers to the state.

And in much of Florida, homeowners are increasingly struggling to buy storm coverage. Most big insurers have pulled out of the state already, sending homeowners to smaller private companies that are straining to stay in business — a possible glimpse into California’s future if more big insurers leave.

Growing ‘catastrophe exposure’

State Farm, which insures more homeowners in California than any other company, said it would stop accepting applications for most types of new insurance policies in the state because of “rapidly growing catastrophe exposure.”

The company said that while it recognized the work of California officials to reduce losses from wildfires, it had to stop writing new policies “to improve the company’s financial strength.” A State Farm spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Insurance rates in California jumped after wildfires became more devastating than anyone had anticipated. A series of fires that broke out in 2017, many ignited by sparks from failing utility equipment, exploded in size with the effects of climate change. Some homeowners lost their insurance entirely because insurers refused to cover homes in vulnerable areas.

Michael Soller, a spokesperson for the California Department of Insurance, said the agency was working to address the underlying factors that have caused disruption in the insurance industry across the country and around the world, including the biggest one: climate change.

He highlighted the department’s Safer From Wildfires initiative, a fire resilience program, and noted that state lawmakers are also working to control development in the areas at highest risk of burning.

But Tom Corringham, a research economist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego who has studied the costs of natural disasters, said that allowing people to live in homes that are becoming uninsurable, or prohibitively expensive to insure, was unsustainable.

He said that policymakers must seriously consider buying properties that are at greatest risk, or otherwise moving residents out of the most dangerous communities.

“If we let the market sort it out, we have insurers refusing to write new policies in certain areas,” Corringham said. “We’re not sure how that’s in anyone’s best interest other than insurers.”

A broken model

California’s woes resemble a slow-motion version of what Florida experienced after Hurricane Andrew devastated Miami in 1992. The losses bankrupted some insurers and caused most national carriers to pull out of the state.

In response, Florida established a complicated system: a market based on small insurance companies, backed up by Citizens Property Insurance Corp., a state-mandated company that would provide windstorm coverage for homeowners who couldn’t find private insurance.

For a while, it mostly worked. Then came Hurricane Irma.

The 2017 hurricane, which made landfall in the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm before moving up the coast, didn’t cause a particularly great amount of damage. But it was the first in a series of storms, culminating in Hurricane Ian last October, that broke the model insurers had relied on: One bad year of claims, followed by a few quiet years to build back their reserves.

Since Irma, almost every year has been bad.

Private insurers began to struggle to pay their claims; some went out of business. Those that survived increased their rates significantly.

More people have left the private market for Citizens, which recently became the state’s largest insurance provider, according to Michael Peltier, a spokesperson. But Citizens won’t cover homes with a replacement cost of more than $700,000, or $1 million in Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys.

That leaves those homeowners with no choice but private coverage — and in parts of the state, that coverage is getting harder to find, Peltier said.

‘Just not enough wealth’

Florida, despite its challenges, has an important advantage: A steady of influx of residents who remain, for now, willing and able to pay the rising cost of living there. In Louisiana, the rising cost of insurance has become, for some communities, a threat to their existence.

Like Florida after Andrew, Louisiana’s insurance market started to buckle after insurers began leaving following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Then, starting with Hurricane Laura in 2020, a series of storms pummeled the state. Nine insurance companies failed; people began rushing into the state’s own version of Florida’s Citizens plan.

The state’s insurance market “is in crisis,” Louisiana’s insurance commissioner, James J. Donelon, said in an interview.

In December, Louisiana had to increase premiums for coverage provided by its Citizens plan by 63%, to an average of $4,700 a year. In March, it borrowed $500 million from the bond market to pay the claims of homeowners who had been abandoned when their private insurers failed, Donelon said. The state recently agreed to new subsidies for private insurers, essentially paying them to do business in the state.

Donelon said he hoped that the subsidies would stabilize the market. But Jesse Keenan, a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans and an expert in climate adaptation and finance, said the state’s insurance market would be hard to turn around. The high cost of insurance has begun to affect home prices, he said.

In the past, it would have been possible for some communities — those where homes are passed down from generation to generation, with no mortgages required and no banks demanding insurance — to go without insurance altogether. But as climate change makes storms more intense, that’s no longer an option.

“There’s just not enough wealth in those low-income communities to continue to rebuild, storm after storm,” Keenan said.

A shift to risk-based pricing

Even as homeowners in coastal states face rising costs for wind coverage, they’re being squeezed from yet another direction: Flood insurance.

In 1968, Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program, which offered taxpayer-backed coverage to homeowners. As with wildfires in California and hurricanes in Florida, the flood program arose from what economists call a market failure: Private insurers wouldn’t provide coverage for flooding, leaving homeowners with no options.

The program achieved its main goal, of making flood insurance widely available at a price that homeowners could afford. But as storms became more severe, the program faced growing losses.

In 2021, FEMA, which runs the program, began setting rates equal to the actual flood risk facing homeowners — an effort to better communicate the true danger facing different properties, and also to stanch the losses for the government.

Those increases, which are being phased in over years, in some cases amount to enormous jumps in price. The current cost of flood insurance for single-family homes nationwide is $888 a year, according to FEMA. Under the new, risk-based pricing, that average cost would be $1,808.

And by the time current policyholders actually have to pay premiums that reflect that full risk, the impacts of climate change could make them much higher.

“Properties located in high-risk areas should plan and expect to pay for that risk,” David Maurstad, head of the flood insurance program, said in a statement.

The best way for policymakers to help keep insurance affordable is to reduce the risk people face, said Carolyn Kousky, associate vice president for economics and policy at the Environmental Defense Fund. For example, officials could impose tougher building standards in vulnerable areas.

Government-mandated programs, like the flood insurance plan, or Citizens in Florida and Louisiana, were meant to be a backstop to the private market. But as climate shocks get worse, she said, “we’re now at the point where that’s starting to crack.”

This Is the Early Heart Attack Symptom That’s Missed the Most Often, According to Cardiologists

Parade

This Is the Early Heart Attack Symptom That’s Missed the Most Often, According to Cardiologists

Leigh Weingus – May 31, 2023

When you think of a person having a heart attack, you most likely picture them falling to the floor clutching their chest. Because of this, many people don’t realize that there are a handful of other symptoms associated with heart attacks.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States. Because of this, not knowing all the signs is particularly dangerous.

With that in mind, Parade spoke with cardiologists to find out what the most commonly missed early heart attack symptom is—and other top symptoms to watch out for.

The Most Commonly-Missed Early Heart Attack Symptom

According to Dr. Estelle Jean, MD, a cardiologist with MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Montgomery County, Maryland, the most commonly missed heart attack symptom is shortness of breath. Because shortness of breath can be attributed to many things, if it’s occurring without chest pain, people don’t tend to think it means they’re having a heart attack. “Shortness of breath is a commonly missed early symptom of a heart attack, and it can occur with or without chest discomfort,” she explains.

Dr. Max Brock, MD, a cardiologist at Cook, echoes this. “Trouble breathing, or ‘dyspnea’ in medical lingo, can be caused by many things, but sometimes it is the only sign of a heart attack for some patients,” he says.

Related: This Is the Most Commonly Missed Early Cancer Symptom

Other Commonly-Missed Heart Attack Symptoms

Dr. Brock says you should also watch out for chest pressure, even if it isn’t accompanied by pain. “As many people are aware, chest discomfort is the most common symptom of a heart attack, but people tend to think that has to mean pain specifically where your heart is, on the left side of your chest,” he says. “Chest pressure, a crushing sensation or tightness in the chest, and upper abdominal pain are also some of the many ways patients describe their heart attack. Do not wait around for left-sided chest pain!”

Dr. Jean adds that other heart attack symptoms include pain in the shoulder, arm, neck, jaw, back and stomach. “People may also experience nausea or vomiting, heartburn, dizziness, sweating, palpitations and fatigue when having a heart attack.”

Related: Here’s What Your Resting Heart Rate Can Really Tell You About Your Heart Health

How To Prevent a Heart Attack

While it’s important to take as many preventative measures as possible, Dr. Jean says understanding the signs of a heart attack is crucial. “Know the signs of a heart attack and don’t ignore your symptoms. The chances for surviving a heart attack depend on receiving immediate and timely care,” she explains, adding that 80 percent of heart attacks can be prevented by taking healthy lifestyle measures. “This includes maintaining a healthy weight, staying physically active, eating a healthy diet, not smoking, limiting alcohol intake, sleeping seven to nine hours at night and managing your stress,” she says. “And don’t forget to schedule a visit with your healthcare provider to assess your risk for heart disease, and to learn about your personal health numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar).”

Related: What To Know About the Connection Between Blood Sugar and Heart Disease

Dr. Brock emphasizes the importance of movement. “Staying active is so important for your heart, as it is for many of your other organs,” he explains. “You don’t need to go out and sprint or bike long distances. Moderate exercise is sufficient—and when I say moderate, I tell my patients this is the type of exertion where it is harder to hold a long conversation with your exercise partner, but you are still able to talk in shorter sentences. It’s the type of exercise where you break into a sweat by the end!”

While heart disease is scary, there’s a lot you can do to prevent it—and catch it early enough to not put your life at risk.

Next up: This Is the Worst Habit for Blood Sugar, According to an Expert

Coconut Water: The Super Drink That May Ease Inflammation, Lower Blood Pressure, and Speed Weight Loss

Womens’s World

Coconut Water: The Super Drink That May Ease Inflammation, Lower Blood Pressure, and Speed Weight Loss

Ann Green – May 31, 2023

Tired of drinking plain water? It’s important to stay hydrated, but that doesn’t mean your beverages have to be flavorless and boring. Enter coconut water: an excellent alternative with important nutrients. Not only is it sweet and hydrating, but it also contains minerals that are vital to your wellbeing. In addition, research shows that coconut water may have impressive health benefits for inflammation, high blood pressure, and high blood pressure. It may even aid in your weight-loss journey. Learn more about this super drink below.

Coconut water may ease inflammation.

Research has shown that coconut water contains antioxidants, which may reduce inflammation in the body. In an animal study, investigators learned that coconut water reduced inflammation in rats on a high-fructose (a complex sugar) diet. Another study found that a concentrated form of coconut water eased inflammation in animal liver cells. Why might this drink work on inflammation? Antioxidants protect our tissues from oxidative stress — a natural phenomenon that occurs when unstable molecules, known as free radicals, damage our cells.

It may lower blood pressure.

Unsweetened coconut water contains potassium, which relaxes blood vessel walls. And that’s not the only proof it may help reduce blood pressure. A 2016 animal study found that coconut water extracts contain antioxidants that have a hypolipidemic effect, meaning they help reduce cholesterol levels in the blood. Keep in mind that you may need to watch your coconut water intake if you are on blood pressure medication — ask your doctor for more information.

It may speed slimming.

Though not enough studies show that coconut water directly speeds weight loss, it’s an excellent beverage to add to your diet if you are trying to lose weight. Staying hydrated can help you burn more calories and reduce hunger cravings. One cup contains just 60 calories, 4 percent of your daily calcium, 4 percent of your daily magnesium, 2 percent of phosphorus and 15 percent of potassium — vitamins that are important for maintaining proper body functions as you cut calories.

It may steady blood sugar.

Some research shows that unflavored coconut water can help people maintain healthy blood sugar levels — especially if they are diabetic. For instance, one study published in 2015 found that coconut water had anti-diabetic properties in animals, thanks to its L-arginine (an amino acid that helps the body build protein). Another study published in 2021 noted that coconut water reduced blood sugar levels in animals.

Coconut Water Smoothies To Try

Wondering how you can incorporate more coconut water into your routine? We recommend Harmless Harvest Organic Coconut Smoothies (Buy from your local grocery store, prices vary). Try these delicious smoothie recipes.

Coconut Spinach Smoothie

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This delicious blend may fight wrinkles, hair loss, and inflammation.

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces coconut water
  • 1 handful leafy greens, kale or spinach
  • 1 cup frozen pineapple or mango chunks (or use ½ cup of both!)
  • ¼ ripe avocado
  • 1 scoop collagen powder

Instructions:

Combine ingredients in a blender. Enjoy!

Coconut Mango Smoothie

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Enjoy a taste of summer with this delicious, creamy blend. This smoothie contains spinach as well, but if you’re not a fan, simply leave it out.

Ingredients:

  • 12 ounces coconut water
  • 1 cup frozen mango chunks
  • 1 cup or a handful of spinach (or any leafy greens)
  • 2 tablespoons chia seeds

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Enjoy!

Berry Coconut Smoothie

Coconut Berry Smoothie
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Replace your dessert with this delicious mix, and you’ll be well on your way to a healthy lifestyle.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups frozen berries
  • 2 tablespoons warm water
  • 1 cup of coconut milk yogurt or your favorite alternative
  • 1 cup coconut water
  • 1 banana
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Instructions:

Combine ingredients in a blender. Enjoy!