tingilinde

alzheimer's not a single condition

It has been suggested that Alzheimer's is a general classification - here researchers break it into six subgroups leading to hope that targeted treatments might be found.

 

 

on moving towards universal sanitation

Progress and potential on the toilets for all front.

 

wildfires and lung problems

Wildfires can have a severe impact on the developing lungs of children...  young kids who live in impacted areas of California this year may have to pay for it with their health.

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The current batch of California wildfires has reminded us of the acute short-term dangers of smoke inhalation. But the danger doesn’t stop there. A growing body of evidence suggests that wildfire smoke — whether from a single event or from multiple, recurrent exposures over several years — can have a big impact on children, increasing both individual risk of serious cardiovascular and respiratory illness later in life and the percentage of the adult population at higher risk of life-threatening breathing problems when new fires occur. As climate change increases the likelihood and size of wildfires in the western U.S., scientists say the next generation will likely find its biological future shaped by the choices of the past.

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children and air pollution

A serious problem worldwide ... particularly in the developing world

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Newborns and young children are also more susceptible to household air pollution in homes that regularly use polluting fuels and technologies for cooking, heating and lighting

“Air Pollution is stunting our children’s brains, affecting their health in more ways than we suspected. But there are many straight-forward ways to reduce emissions of dangerous pollutants ,” says Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at WHO.

“WHO is supporting implementation of health-wise policy measures like accelerating the switch to clean cooking and heating fuels and technologies, promoting the use of cleaner transport, energy-efficient housing and urban planning. We are preparing the ground for low emission power generation, cleaner, safer industrial technologies and better municipal waste management, ” she added.

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Reducing this sort of pollution is something the Trump administration is fighting tooth and nail... in the US as well as slashing US involvement around the world.

 

 

on stacey abrams

Her proposal for maternal health. 

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But I understand that Medicaid expansion is about more than our physical health and more than our economic health,” Abrams said. She detailed how expansion, a provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, provides federal funding for states to extend their own programs to cover poor and low-income adults. There’s “$3 billion to which we are entitled every single year,” Abrams continued. “That’s real money, those are real lives, and this is a real opportunity for change in the state of Georgia.”

Money, lives, and change. Those three words could roughly summarize any political race, but seem especially important in the state today. The issues facing much of the Georgia electorate are fairly simple: The state is the fifth-poorest in the nation. Its median wages and minimum wages are both below the national average. Across all races, the poor are underserved, often lack insurance, and face remarkably high rates of mortality and morbidity from preventable diseases. The state has huge swaths of rural land whose communities often lack basic services. Outside the urban oasis of the Atlanta metropolitan area, Georgia faces as many challenges to the health and welfare of its citizens as any state in the country. The most important policy issues in the governor’s race boil down to each candidate’s ability to fill those gaps.

 

But there’s a special dimension in Georgia that could very well mean the difference next week. The state is in the grip of a crisis, one that affects, in particular, the lives of black women like Abrams and like those who form the foundation of her coalition and organizing base. Across the country, black women’s health—particularly the fate of mothers and their newborns—is in peril, and mortality rates have spiked. Nowhere is this truer than in Georgia: The issue has been front and center in mobilizing black women, and it’s central to the policy platform of the candidate seeking to be the first black woman governor in U.S. history. To black women in Georgia, the stakes of the debate over health-care access are no less than life or death.

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a tip of the hat to  Linda

 

is exercise a potential treatment for dementia?

Perhaps...   in any event exercise is generally good for you.

 

 

call jane

An important piece of history that is extremely relevant now.  Be sure and watch the video too.

a tip of the hat to Jim

 

 

the us is not a first world nation

The impact of cancer on net worth and debt in the US

 

Death or Debt? National Estimates of Financial Toxicity in Persons with Newly-Diagnosed Cancer

 

Adrienne M. Gilligan, PhD, David S. Alberts, MD, Denise J. Roe, DrPH, Grant H. Skrepnek, PhD

 

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Across 9.5 million estimated new diagnoses of cancer from 2000–2012, individuals averaged 68.6±9.4 years with slight majorities being married (54.7%), not retired (51.1%), and Medicare beneficiaries (56.6%). At year+2, 42.4% depleted their entire life's assets, with higher adjusted odds associated with worsening cancer,

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a tip of the hat to Yoni

 

Of course there's nothing to worry about because Trump boasts Medicare for All - (another trademark lie on his part) 

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

 

 

pre-existing conditions

A problem for Republicans

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Democrats, who once worried the grass-roots energy that helped sink the repeal effort last year wouldn’t translate to electoral success this November, are worried no more about whether the health care issue will help them at the polls.

“It’s been a political gift,” said Brad Woodhouse of Protect Our Care, an activist group orchestrating much of the outside pressure on Republicans’ health care agenda. “Any prospect that they were going to get out of the health care box they put themselves in went away the minute this lawsuit was filed and the Trump administration weighed in.”

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altruism is healthy

At least a few studies suggest it is. Social/health studies like this are very difficult to get right, but it wouldn't be surprising.