Tag Archives: salt lake

US

How to celebrate Black History Month in Utah

Leave a comment

The Sweeney family from West Valley City poses for photos at the Black Pioneer Monument at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City on July 22, 2022. Utah has had a small but vibrant Black community throughout its history. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Black history in the Beehive State dates back even further than Latter-day Saint history in the area, predating the Saints’ arrival by almost 25 years.

In fact, African Americans like James P. Beckwourth and Jacob Dodson were a part of fur trapping and exploratory expeditions in the Utah territory. And three Black slaves — Green Flake, Oscar Crosby and Hark Lay — were among the group that arrived in Utah with Brigham Young in 1847. Isaac James, Jane Manning and their sons arrived later that year; they were the first free Black pioneers to settle in the state. By 1850, the census listed 24 “free persons of color” and 26 Black slaves in Utah.

Since those early days of settlement, Utah has had a small but vibrant Black community whose contributions have included farming and settling the Millcreek area, serving in the military at Fort Douglas and Fort Duchesne — including the country’s first Black general, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. — expanding railroads and mines in the state and establishing numerous businesses, churches and social groups, like the Salt Lake and Ogden branches of the NAACP.

Today, over 50,000 Black Utahns live in the state, making up 1.5% of the population. Despite its small numbers, Utah’s Black community continues to make a large impact on the state.

Below are a number of events and resources to honor the triumphs and challenges of Black Utahns during Black History Month and beyond.

Poetic justice open mic

The Black Cultural Center, Utah Black Artist Collective and the Union Programming Council are hosting an open mic night Thursday at 6 p.m. at Union Theatre in Salt Lake City. The public is invited to share their singing, poetry, comedy and other talents.

Beloved Community Project film and panel

The film “Beloved Community Project” focuses on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “beloved community” in which everyone is cared for and there is an absence of poverty, hunger and hate. The panel will discuss where America is today and will include a reenactment of a 1963 discussion between civil rights leaders about the challenges African Americans faced.

The film and panel are from 2-4 p.m. on Feb. 13, followed by a reception at the Salt Lake Community College Redwood Campus in the Technology Building Auditorium. Reserve a free ticket here.

An evening in Harlem

The Utah Black Chamber is hosting its annual gala celebrating the Harlem Renaissance — the intellectual and cultural movement within the Black community during the 1920s and ’30s. The gala is Feb. 3, 7-10 p.m. at the Ken Garff Scholarship Club in Salt Lake City. Attendees should come dressed in their best 1920s attire for an evening of food, socializing, music, dancing and casino games. Tickets are available here, and the proceeds benefit the Black Success Center.

African American Read-In

The African American Read-In is a national initiative that aims to make literature a significant part of Black History Month. Salt Lake Community College is hosting a local African American Read-In on Feb. 14 at 12-2 p.m. at its Taylorsville Redwood Campus. It will also be broadcasted over Zoom.

Attendees will select either short pieces or excerpts from African American authors and share them with the audience. Individuals caan register to read here. Black writers affiliated with SLCC will be also share their own creative works, which are featured in a special issue of SLCC’s literary and arts magazine, Folio.

Civil rights songs and spirituals concert

Salt Lake Community College Chamber Singers will be joined by award-winning baritone Robert Sims for a concert from 7:30-9 p.m. on Feb. 15 at the college’s South City Campus. The evening will include African American spirituals, civil rights songs and other inspiring music. Reserve a free ticket here.

Black, Bold & Brilliant film series

The Utah Film Center’s Black, Bold & Brilliant series focuses on authentic and nuanced representation through film critique and discussions led by Black Utahns. This month the center will offer showings of “Little Satchmo,” which explores the life and legacy of Louis Armstrong through his relationship with the daughter the public never knew existed. Showings are Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 16 at 11 a.m. The public can reserve tickets for free here.

Sip and learn about Black History

The Cocktail Collective is hosting an event focused on cocktails created by America’s Black bartenders. The event will include a hands-on cocktail lesson, take-home recipes, a light snack and a brief historical deep dive into the cocktails and their creator. Registration is available here.

Utah: Black and open for business

The Utah Black Chamber and its partners are hosting a hospitality suite and art exhibit at the Zions Bank Eagle Emporium Building in Salt Lake, Feb. 16-17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. NBA All-Star Weekend attendees are encouraged to network with Utah’s Black business community and enjoy an exhibit featuring work from New York native and Utah resident Diann Harris-Wright. The event will also offer warm drinks and other programs through the chamber’s partners.

Mardi Gras in the Mountains Ball

On Feb. 18, the Leonardo Museum will transform into a Mardi Gras ball fit for New Orleans. The event will span all three floors of the museum and will include a crowning of the queen, regalia, live music and food from local Black eateries. The event is a signature event of the Utah Black Chamber. Tickets are available here.

Afro-Mexican photo exhibit

The Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City is hosting a photo exhibit titled “Beyond the Signs” by photographer Maricela Figueroa Zamilpa, who has been documenting daily life portraits showcasing Mexico’s cultural diversity since the ’90s. The exhibit is dedicated to the Afro-Mexican peoples of the Mexican states Guerrero and Oaxaca. The exhibit is available in English and Spanish and is open during the month of February.

BYU ‘Perspectives’ show

Brigham Young University is hosting “Perspectives,” a show that “celebrates and portrays the richness and diversity that exists among and within various Black cultures in different forms such as music, dance, fashion, gospel music, poetry and life experiences with the BYU community.” The free show is Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom on BYU’s Campus. It will also be livestreamed on BYU’s website.

WSU Black History Month speaker

Weber State University is hosting civil rights activist Fred Hampton Jr. for a free keynote address on Feb. 8, 12:30-2 p.m. at the Shepherd Union Ballrooms on campus. Hampton is the son of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, who was assassinated during the civil rights movement. Hampton Jr. is also the president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and the Black Panther Party Cubs.

‘One Night in Miami…’ movie night

The Black Cultural Center at the University of Utah is hosting a movie night and discussion of “One Night in Miami…” on Feb. 22, 6-8 p.m. The R-rated film explores the friendship between Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cook and Jim Brown. Register to attend here.

Learn more about Black history in Utah

There are a number of resources about Black history in the Beehive state, such as:

Don’t see an event? Please send details about Black History Month events to sgonzalez@deseretdigital.com.

Most recent Multicultural Utah stories

Sydnee Gonzalez is a multicultural reporter for KSL.com covering the diversity of Utah’s people and communities. Se habla español. You can find Sydnee at @sydnee_gonzalez on Twitter.

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Health

Weight loss surgery extends lives, Utah study finds

Leave a comment

Most bariatric surgery today is done via laparoscopy, said Ted Adams, the study’s lead author. (Portra, Getty Images)

Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Weight loss surgery reduces the risk of premature death, especially from such obesity-related conditions as cancer, diabetes and heart disease, according to a new 40-year study of nearly 22,000 people who had bariatric surgery in Utah.

Compared with those of similar weight, people who underwent one of four types of weight loss surgery were 16% less likely to die from any cause, the study found. The drop in deaths from diseases triggered by obesity, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, was even more dramatic.

“Deaths from cardiovascular disease decreased by 29%, while deaths from various cancers decreased by 43%, which is pretty impressive,” said lead author Ted Adams, an adjunct associate professor in nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah’s School of Medicine.

“There was also a huge percentage drop — a 72% decline — in deaths related to diabetes in people who had surgery compared to those who did not,” he said. One significant downside: The study also found younger people who had the surgery were at higher risk for suicide.

Supports earlier research

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Obesity, reinforces similar findings from earlier research, including a 10-year study in Sweden that found significant reductions in premature deaths, said Dr. Eduardo Grunvald, a professor of medicine and medical director of the weight management program at the University of California San Diego Health.

The Swedish study also found a significant number of people were in remission from diabetes at both two years and 10 years after surgery.

“This new research from Utah is more evidence that people who undergo these procedures have positive, beneficial long-term outcomes,” said Grunvald, who coauthored the American Gastroenterological Association’s new guidelines on obesity treatment.

The association strongly recommends patients with obesity use recently approved weight loss medications or surgery paired with lifestyle changes.

“And the key for patients is to know that changing your diet becomes more natural, more easy to do after you have bariatric surgery or take the new weight loss medications,” said Grunvald, who was not involved in the Utah study.

“While we don’t yet fully understand why, these interventions actually change the chemistry in your brain, making it much easier to change your diet afterwards.”

Obesity is a disease, too, yet we torture people with obesity by telling them it’s their fault.

–Dr. Caroline Apovian, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School

Despite the benefits though, only 2% of patients who are eligible for bariatric surgery ever get it, often due to the stigma about obesity, said Dr. Caroline Apovian, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and codirector of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Apovian was the lead author for the Endocrine Society’s clinical practice guidelines for the pharmacological management of obesity.

Insurance carriers typically cover the cost of surgery for people over 18 with a body mass index of 40 or higher, or a BMI of 35 if the patient also has a related condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure, she said.

“I see patients with a BMI of 50, and invariably I will say, ‘You’re a candidate for everything — medication, diet, exercise and surgery.’ And many tell me, ‘Don’t talk to me about surgery. I don’t want it.’ They don’t want a surgical solution to what society has told them is a failure of willpower,” she said.

“We don’t torture people who have heart disease: ‘Oh, it’s because you ate all that fast food.’ We don’t torture people with diabetes: ‘Oh, it’s because you ate all that cake.’ We tell them they have a disease, and we treat it. Obesity is a disease, too, yet we torture people with obesity by telling them it’s their fault.”

Both men and women can benefit

Most of the people who choose bariatric surgery — around 80% — are women, Adams said. One of the strengths of the new study, he said, was the inclusion of men who had undergone the procedure.

“For all-causes of death, the mortality was reduced by 14% for females and by 21% for males,” Adams said. In addition, deaths from related causes, such as heart attack, cancer and diabetes, was 24% lower for females and 22% lower for males who underwent surgery compared with those who did not, he said.

Four types of surgery performed between 1982 and 2018 were examined in the study: gastric bypass, gastric banding, gastric sleeve and duodenal switch.

Gastric bypass, developed in the late 1960s, creates a small pouch near the top of the stomach. A part of the small intestine is brought up and attached to that point, bypassing most of the stomach and the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.

In gastric banding, an elastic band that can be tightened or loosened is placed around the top portion of the stomach, thus restricting the volume of food entering the stomach cavity. Because gastric banding is not as successful in creating long-term weight loss, the procedure “is not as popular today,” Adams said.

“The gastric sleeve is a procedure where essentially about two-thirds of the stomach is removed laparoscopically,” he said. “It takes less time to perform, and food still passes through the much-smaller stomach. It’s become a very popular option.”

The duodenal switch is typically reserved for patients who have a high BMI, Adams added. It’s a complicated procedure that combines a sleeve gastrectomy with an intestinal bypass, and is effective for type 2 diabetes, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

A serious complication

One alarming finding of the new study was a 2.4% increase in deaths by suicide, primarily among people who had bariatric surgery between the ages of 18 and 34.

“That’s because they are told that life is going to be great after surgery or medication,” said Joann Hendelman, clinical director of the National Alliance for Eating Disorders, a nonprofit advocacy group.

“All you have to do is lose weight, and people are going to want to hang out with you, people will want to be your friend, and your anxiety and depression are going to be gone,” she said. “But that’s not reality.”

In addition, there are postoperative risks and side effects associated with bariatric surgery, such as nausea, vomiting, alcoholism, a potential failure to lose weight or even weight gain, said Susan Vibbert, an advocate at Project HEAL, which provides help for people struggling with eating disorders.

“How are we defining health in these scenarios? And is there another intervention — a weight neutral intervention?” Vibbert asked.

Past research has also shown an association between suicide risk and bariatric surgery, Grunvald said, but studies on the topic are not always able to determine a patient’s mental history.

First, we as a society must consider obesity as a disease, as a biological problem, not as a moral failing.

– Dr. Eduardo Grunvald, a professor of medicine

“Did the person opt for surgery because they had some unrealistic expectations or underlying psychological disorders that were not resolved after the surgery? Or is this a direct effect somehow of bariatric surgery? We can’t answer that for sure,” he said.

Intensive presurgery counseling is typically required for all who undergo the procedure, but it may not be enough, Apovian said. She lost her first bariatric surgery patient to suicide.

“She was older, in her 40s. She had surgery and lost 150 pounds. And then she put herself in front of a bus and died because she had underlying bipolar disorder she had been self-medicating with food,” Apovian said. “We as a society use a lot of food to hide trauma. What we need in this country is more psychological counseling for everybody, not just for people who undergo bariatric surgery.”

Managing weight is a unique process for each person, a mixture of genetics, culture, environment, social stigma and personal health, experts say. There is no one solution for all.

“First, we as a society must consider obesity as a disease, as a biological problem, not as a moral failing,” Grunvald said. “That’s my first piece of advice.

“And if you believe your life is going to benefit from treatment, then consider evidence-based treatment, which studies show are surgery or medications, if you haven’t been able to successfully do it with lifestyle changes alone.”

Most recent Health stories

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Science

Earth’s inner core may have stopped turning and could go into reverse, study suggests

Leave a comment

The rotation of Earth’s inner core may have paused and it could even go into reverse, new research suggests. (Cigdem Simsek, Alamy)

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

ATLANTA — The rotation of Earth’s inner core may have paused and it could even go into reverse, new research suggests.

The Earth is formed of the crust, the mantle and the inner and outer cores. The solid inner core is situated about 3,200 miles below the Earth’s crust and is separated from the semi-solid mantle by the liquid outer core, which allows the inner core to rotate at a different speed from the rotation of the Earth itself.

With a radius of almost 2,200 miles, Earth’s core is about the size of Mars. It consists mostly of iron and nickel, and contains about about one-third of Earth’s mass.

In research published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday, Yi Yang, associate research scientist at Peking University, and Xiaodong Song, Peking University chair professor, studied seismic waves from earthquakes that have passed through the Earth’s inner core along similar paths since the 1960s to infer how fast the inner core is spinning.

What they found was unexpected, they said. Since 2009, seismic records, which previously changed over time, showed little difference. This, they said, suggested that the inner core rotation had paused.

“We show surprising observations that indicate the inner core has nearly ceased its rotation in the recent decade and may be experiencing a turning-back,” they wrote in the study.

“When you look at the decade between 1980 and 1990 you see clear change but when you see 2010 to 2020 you don’t see much change,” added Song.

The spin of the inner core is driven by the magnetic field generated in the outer core and balanced by the gravitational effects of the mantle. Knowing how the inner core rotates could shed light on how these layers interact and other processes deep in the Earth.

However, the speed of this rotation, and whether it varies, is debated, said Hrvoje Tkalcic, a geophysicist at the Australian National University, who was not involved in the study,

“The inner core doesn’t come to a full stop,” he said. The study’s finding, he said, “means that the inner core is now more in sync with the rest of the planet than a decade ago when it was spinning a bit faster.”

“Nothing cataclysmic is happening,” he added.

Song and Yang argue that, based on their calculations, a small imbalance in the electromagnetic and gravitational forces could slow and even reverse the inner core’s rotation. They believe this is part of a seven-decade cycle, and that the turning point prior to the one they detected in their data around 2009/2010 occurred in the early 1970s.

Tkalcic, who is the author of “The Earth’s Inner Core: Revealed by Observational Seismology,” said the study’s “data analysis is sound.” However, the study’s findings “should be taken cautiously” as “more data and innovative methods are needed to shed light on this interesting problem.”

Song and Yang agreed that more research was needed.

Studying the Earth’s core

Tkalcic, who dedicates an entire chapter of his book to the inner core rotation, suggested the inner core’s cycle is every 20 to 30 years, rather than the 70 proposed in the latest study. He explained why such variations occur and why it was so difficult to understand what happens in the innermost reaches of the planet.

“The objects of our studies are buried thousands of kilometers beneath our feet,” he said.

“We use geophysical inference methods to infer the Earth’s internal properties, and caution must be exercised until multi-disciplinary findings confirm our hypotheses and conceptual frameworks,” he explained

“You can think of seismologists like medical doctors who study the internal organs of patients’ bodies using imperfect or limited equipment. So, despite progress, our image of the inner Earth is still blurry, and we are still in the discovery stage.”

Most recent Science stories

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Health

Woman pleads for Utahns to get HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer

Leave a comment

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month and approximately 14,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with this type of cancer each year.

Dr. Jonathan Grant, a radiation oncologist, at Intermountain Healthcare said long-lasting infections of human papillomavirus are the main cause of cervical cancer.

“Cervical cancer is unique because it is one of few cancers that is simulated by a virus,” he said.

There is now a vaccine to help prevent this disease, the HPV vaccine.

The American Cancer Society said cervical cancer rates have dropped 65% from 2012 to 2019 after a generation of young women were vaccinated against HPV for the first time.

“The HPV vaccine is one of the great success stories over the last ten to twenty years,” Grant said.

West Valley resident Marianne Peterson, 40, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in September of 2021.

“I just felt like I was floating. It was surreal to be diagnosed with cervical cancer,” she said.

Her last two pap smears came back with abnormal cells and a month before her next yearly checkup she started having heavy bleeding.

Grant said that is a sign of cervical cancer. She started chemotherapy and radiation treatment immediately.

“I had never felt that sick in my whole life,” she said.

But she kept fighting through the sickness.

“It was mostly making sure I was here to take care of my kids and my dogs but mostly my kids,” Peterson said.

Peterson is now cancer free and spends her time camping with family and friends.

She said if the vaccine was available when she was younger, she would have gotten it. “I just think if there is a vaccine that reduces the risk of getting this disease it’s an absolute no brainer,” Peterson said.

Grant says the HPV vaccine is recommended for boys and girls between the ages of nine and 26 and before they are sexually active.

Most recent Health stories

Ayanna Likens

Ayanna Likens is an Emmy award-winning special projects reporter for KSL-TV.

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Science

Billions of celestial objects captured in new survey of the Milky Way

Leave a comment

Astronomers have released a new survey of the Milky Way that includes 3.3 billion celestial objects. (NOIRLab)

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

ATLANTA — A new survey of the Milky Way galaxy has unveiled 3.3 billion celestial objects.

Our galaxy is brimming with hundreds of billions of stars, dark pillars of dust and gas, and gleaming stellar nurseries where stars are born. Now, astronomers have documented those wonders in unprecedented detail during the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey, which captured 21,400 individual exposures over two years.

The survey, which marks the second data release from the program since 2017, is the largest catalog of Milky Way objects to date. The Dark Energy Camera, located on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the National Science Foundation’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, captured the data for the survey.

The telescopes there sit at an altitude of about 7,200 feet and can observe the southern sky in great detail across visible and near-infrared wavelengths of light. The two data releases from the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey cover 6.5% of the night sky. Astronomers will be able to use the data release to better map the 3D structure of the galaxy’s dust and stars.

“This is quite a technical feat. Imagine a group photo of over three billion people and every single individual is recognizable,” said Debra Fischer, division director of astronomical sciences at the National Science Foundation, in a statement.

“Astronomers will be poring over this detailed portrait of more than three billion stars in the Milky Way for decades to come. This is a fantastic example of what partnerships across federal agencies can achieve.”

A new image showcasing the celestial objects captured by the survey was released on Wednesday, which includes stars and dust across the Milky Way’s bright galactic disk. The galaxy’s spiral arms also lie in this plane. Together, such bright features make observing the Milky Way’s galactic plane — where most of its disk-shaped mass lies — a difficult task.

Dark streaks of dust seen in the image obscure starlight, while the glow from star-forming regions make it hard to spot the individual brightness of celestial objects.

By using the Dark Energy Camera, astronomers were able to peer through the dust of the galactic plane using near-infrared light and used a data-processing method to mitigate the obscuring effects of the star-forming regions.

The data set was shared in a study published Wednesday in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement.

“One of the main reasons for the success of DECaPS2 is that we simply pointed at a region with an extraordinarily high density of stars and were careful about identifying sources that appear nearly on top of each other,” said lead study author Andrew Saydjari, a doctoral student at Harvard University and researcher at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in a statement.

“Doing so allowed us to produce the largest such catalog ever from a single camera, in terms of the number of objects observed.”

Related stories

Most recent Science stories

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Health

Eating fast food linked to potentially life-threatening liver condition, new study finds

Leave a comment

If you needed another reason to kick that late-night fast-food habit, a new eye-opening study on the negative impact of fast food may provide just that. (Alicia Clarke, Alamy)

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

TORONTO— If you needed another reason to kick that late-night McDonald’s habit, a new eye-opening study on the negative impact of fast food may provide just that.

A peer-reviewed study from Keck Medicine of USC published in the Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology journal has found that consumption of fast food is associated with a potentially life-threatening condition of non-alcoholic fatty liver disorder.

“Our findings are particularly alarming as fast-food consumption has gone up in the last 50 years, regardless of socioeconomic status,” said hepatologist and lead-author on the study Ani Kardashian in a press release.

Those examined in the study who consumed fast food as one-fifth of their daily calories were found to have severely high levels of fat in their liver compared to those who consumed less or none at all.

Even those who consumed a relatively modest amount of fast food can experience harm to the liver, the study found.

The researchers analyzed recent data from the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the largest annual nutrition survey in the U.S., in order to determine how eating fast food can impact liver steatosis, which is the condition caused by having too much fat build up in your liver.

Fast food was classified as being from either a drive-through restaurant or one without wait staff in the study, including pizza.

The researchers compared the fatty liver measurements of approximately 4,000 adults in the survey to their consumption of fast food, and found that 52% of those evaluated consumed fast food.

Of this group, 29 consumed 20% or more of their daily calories on fast food. This percentage of people were the only ones of the survey to show a rise in liver fat levels.

The prevalence of the fast food and liver steatosis link was true for both the general population and for those with obesity or diabetes, even after data was adjusted for other factors such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, alcohol use and physical activity.

According to Statista, around 29% of Canadian adults 18 years old and above were obese in 2021, and 36% were overweight.

And while there have been other studies linking fast food and obesity, this is the first of its kind to find the impact on liver health, according to Kardashian.

Fat intake should comprise of less than 30% of one’s daily calories and it in order to improve NAFLD, it is essential to consume anti-inflammatory foods rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, according to another study.

Foods such as avocados, nuts, and fish are some of the foods high in these beneficial fatty acids.

The researchers hope that these findings encourage health care providers to offer patients more dietary education in the future to those at a higher risk of developing NAFLD from fast food, such as those with obesity or diabetes

Most recent U.S. stories

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Health

Sitting too much is bad for your health, but offsetting the impact is easy, study shows

Leave a comment

The scientific community has known for decades that sitting can increase risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancers. New study says reducing the risk is easy. (Mac Duong Vu, Alamy)

Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes

ATLANTA — Sure, you’ve heard the dangers of sitting all day, but with most jobs there isn’t much you can do about it, right?

Not according to a new study, which looked into the impacts of prolonged sitting.

Five minutes of light walking every half hour can help alleviate some of the increased risk that comes with sitting for long stretches of the day, according to the study published Thursday in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

The scientific community has known for decades that sitting can increase risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancers, said Keith Diaz, the study’s lead author and assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. But until now there haven’t been clear guidelines about how long you can sit and how often you should be moving.

“We’ve known for probably about a decade now that sitting increases your risk for most chronic diseases and increases your risk for early death,” said Diaz, who is also director of the Exercise Testing Laboratory at the university’s Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health. “Just like how much fruits and vegetables they should eat and how much exercise they should do, we need to give (people) specific guidance on how to combat the harms of sitting.”

The walk can be as light as 1.9 miles per hour, which is slower than most people walk normally, Diaz said. The goal is to just break up the sitting with some movement.

Several health markers were measured for different combinations of periods spent sitting and walking for this study. Although the sample size was small, the study was rigorous with strong methodology, said Matthew Buman, director of the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. Buman was not involved in the study,

Scientists don’t yet know exactly why sitting is so bad, but the working theory is that muscles are important in regulating things like blood sugar and cholesterol levels. But when you sit for too long, your muscles don’t have the opportunity to contract and operate optimally, Diaz said.

Does five minutes every half hour still seem like a stretch? Even little “activity snacks” like one minute of walking every hour was shown to reduce blood pressure in study participants by a “sizable amount,” Diaz said.

And all the participants in the study were generally healthy adults, meaning that those with chronic conditions may see an even greater benefit, Buman said.

Why your boss should greenlight it

Even with clearer guidelines, moving regularly may still seem unattainable if office culture doesn’t promote it.

“There are so many of us who lead inactive or sitting-based lifestyles or have sitting-based jobs,” Diaz said. “There are these social norms where if you are up out of your desk, people think you’re not working.”

Diaz has been working to convince employers of the importance of moving during the workday — not only for individual health, but for the bottom line, too.

“Sitting is an occupational hazard and a healthy employee is a more productive employee,” he said.

Sitting is an occupational hazard and a healthy employee is a more productive employee.

–Keith Diaz, study’s lead author

The team found that there were more than just physical health benefits for participants who broke up their sitting. They also found that it reduced fatigue and improved mood, Diaz said.

“Just sitting at your desk and grinding away for 8 hours actually may not be all that great if you’re just concerned about the bottom line about your work productivity,” he added.

And although standing desks are popular, they may not be the answer.

“I’m not sure there’s really solid scientific evidence that standing is really any better than sitting,” Diaz said. “I worry that people have this false sense that they are healthy because they are using this desk, and maybe they’re not actually that much better.”

How to move more at work

What Diaz really wants people to take away from the research is that getting enough movement is achievable.

Moving doesn’t have to mean leaving your desk if that’s not in your workplace culture, said CNN fitness contributor Dana Santas, a mind-body coach for professional athletes.

The most recent research only looked at the effectiveness of walking, but Santas said there are other ways to move your muscles regularly.

“You can simply practice box squats by getting up and sitting back down gently then popping right back up again and repeating that motion over and over,” Santas said via email.

If you do have the opportunity to get more space, Santas loves to recommend a dance break.

“Since most songs average at least 3 minutes, you can dance off the negative impact of too much sitting. And, as a bonus — dancing to your favorite tunes will also boost your mood!” she said.

For people with limited mobility or who use wheelchairs, there are still accessible ways to break up sedentary times.

Everyone should stretch out and move hands in all directions, Santas said. And someone in a wheelchair can do stretches, sidebends and twisting exercises from the chair, she added.

“Even when you can’t move your lower body and actually get up from sitting, actively taking deep breaths that use your diaphragm and move your ribs, is beneficial for your posture and overall health,” Santas said.

“The overall message is to move in as many ways that are possible based on your abilities,” Buman said.

The bar for movement doesn’t have to be high, Diaz added. “To the extent that you can break up your sitting with some kind of movement breaks, you’re still going to yield some benefit,” he said.

Related stories

Most recent Lifestyle stories

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Science

Russia sets new contingency plan for crew of damaged space capsule

Leave a comment

A stream of particles, which NASA says appears to be liquid and possibly coolant, sprays out of the Soyuz spacecraft on the International Space Station, forcing a delay of a routine planned spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts Dec. 14, 2022. (NASA TV)

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

MOSCOW — Russia’s space agency Roscosmos announced new contingency plans on Saturday for the three crew of a damaged capsule docked to the International Space Station, saying the U.S. member of the trio would return to Earth in a separate SpaceX vessel if they needed to evacuate in the next few weeks.

The Soyuz MS-22 capsule, which serves as a lifeboat for the crew, sprang a coolant leak last month after it was struck by a micrometeoroid — a small particle of space rock — which made a tiny puncture and caused the temperature inside to rise.

Roscosmos and NASA said this week that a new spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, would be launched next month to bring back cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio. But it will not dock with the ISS until Feb. 22.

Given there could be an earlier emergency, Rubio’s seat was being moved from the MS-22 to a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, also docked to the ISS, Roscosmos said on Saturday.

“If an emergency evacuation is necessary, Francisco Rubio will return to Earth on it (the Crew Dragon), and the Roscosmos cosmonauts (will return) on the Soyuz MS-22, it said.

“The descent of two cosmonauts instead of three will be safer, as it will help reduce the temperature and humidity in the Soyuz MS-22.”

The mission was due to end in March, but the plan now is to extend it by several months and bring the three men home on the MS-23. The latter had been due to take up three new crew in March, but instead will be launched empty next month to dock with the ISS.

Four other crew members are currently on the orbital station — two more from NASA, a third Russian and a Japanese astronaut, who all arrived in October on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

Relations between Russia and the United States have been poisoned by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine but the two countries continue to work closely together on the ISS, an orbital laboratory abut 250 miles above the Earth that has been continuously occupied for two decades.

Russia has said, however, it plans to quit the ageing project after 2024 and launch its own station.

Most recent Science stories

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Health

Scientists find potential cure for COVID-related loss of smell

Leave a comment

If a lost ability to smell after a COVID-19 infection has sapped some of the color from your world, relief might be on the way. (Stephanie Amador, Associated Press)

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

TORONTO — A team of researchers in California struck upon a possible cure for long-term COVID-19-related smell loss that uses a blood product from patients’ own bodies.

In a randomized, controlled trial of 26 patients who had lost their sense of smell following a COVID-19 infection, half received nasal injections of platelet-rich plasma derived from their own blood, while the rest received a placebo.

The study’s authors, researchers from the University of California and Stanford University, found that those who received the treatment were 12.5 times more likely to improve than patients who received placebo injections. The results were published Dec. 12 in the International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology.

Dr. Zara Patel, one of the authors and a professor of otolaryngology at Stanford Medicine, has studied loss of smell as a symptom of viral infections for years.

“Many viruses can cause smell loss, so it wasn’t surprising to us as rhinologists when we found out that COVID-19 causes loss of smell and taste,” she said in a media release published on Monday. “It was almost expected.”

Patel knew the condition could last for months, that it was related to nerve damage and that few effective treatments were available. She also knew platelet-rich plasma has been promoted as a treatment for other nerve-related ailments such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Platelet-rich plasma is a concentrated form of plasma — the liquid portion of blood — minus blood cells and other blood components. It’s rich in platelets and growth factors, which are compounds known to help regenerate tissue. Platelet-rich plasma injections have been tested as a treatment for mild arthritis, wrinkles and hair loss.

According to Patel’s research, COVID-19-related smell loss is a neurological problem in which the virus prevents nerves deep in the nasal cavity from regenerating correctly, even after an infection has subsided. These nerves connect to the brain and normally regenerate every three to four months.

“It’s a nerve damage and nerve regeneration issue that we’re dealing with,” Patel said.

Patel had already completed a small pilot study demonstrating the safety of platelet-rich plasma injections in the nasal cavity when the pandemic hit, so it was natural to pivot her plans for a larger trial to focus specifically on COVID-19-related smell loss.

According to her research, SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t target nerve cells directly. Instead, it attacks supporting cells known as sustentacular cells, which have the ACE-2 receptor the virus uses to infect cells. These cells play a role in correct nerve regeneration, so persistent inflammation and damage to these cells may lead to long-term loss of function.

Patel’s hope was that by injecting platelet-rich plasma into the site of her subjects’ nasal nerve damage, she could promote the regeneration of those nerves required for smell and taste.

Patients who had suffered from a persistent loss of smell lasting between six and 12 months were given injections — either of platelet-rich plasma or sterile saline — every two weeks for six weeks. They were then tested on their ability to detect and identify a range of odors for three months afterward.

Three months after their first injection, 57% of the platelet-rich plasma group had shown significant improvement, compared with just 8.3% in the placebo group. Everyone recruited for the study had previously tried other treatments – such as olfactory training and steroid rinse – with no success.

Following the success of the experiment, Patel now offers nasal platelet-rich plasma injections to patients outside of the trial.

A survey Patel conducted with colleagues from California and the United Kingdom in 2022 revealed that about 15% of people who experienced smell loss from COVID-19 — or nine million Americans — continued to have problems for at least six months.

“People tell me all the time that they never realized how important their sense of smell and taste was to them and their quality of life until they lost it,” she said. “People say, ‘My life has gone gray.'”

Patel hopes therapies like platelet-rich plasma injection will help more of these people regain their sense of smell.

“Our olfactory systems can be resilient,” she said. “But the sooner you perform some sort of definitive intervention, probably the better chance you have of improvement.”

Related stories

Most recent Coronavirus stories

Megan DeLaire, CTVNews.ca

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here

Business

S&P 500 closes out dismal year with worst loss since 2008

Leave a comment

A man rides his bicycle past monitors showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Friday. Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Friday following encouraging U.S. employment data but were headed for double-digit losses for the year. (Hiro Komae, Associated Press )

Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes

NEW YORK — Wall Street capped a quiet day of trading with more losses Friday, as it closed the book on the worst year for the S&P 500 since 2008.

The benchmark index finished with a loss of 19.4% for 2022, or 18.1%, including dividends. It’s just its third annual decline since the financial crisis 14 years ago and a painful reversal for investors after the S&P 500 notched a gain of nearly 27% in 2021. All told, the index lost $8.2 trillion in value, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The Nasdaq composite, with a heavy component of technology stocks, racked up an even bigger loss of 33.1%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, posted an 8.8% loss for 2022.

Stocks struggled all year as inflation put increasing pressure on consumers and raised concerns about economies slipping into recession. Central banks raised interest rates to fight high prices. The Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes remain a major focus for investors as the central bank walks a thin line between raising rates enough to cool inflation, but not so much that they stall the U.S. economy into a recession.

The Fed’s key lending rate stood at a range of 0% to 0.25% at the beginning of 2022 and will close the year at a range of 4.25% to 4.5% after seven increases. The U.S. central bank forecasts that will reach a range of 5% to 5.25% by the end of 2023. Its forecast doesn’t call for a rate cut before 2024.

Rising interest rates prompted investors to sell the high-priced shares of technology giants such as Apple and Microsoft as well as other companies that flourished as the economy recovered from the pandemic. Amazon and Netflix lost roughly 50% of their market value. Tesla and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, each dropped more than 60%, their biggest-ever annual declines.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine worsened inflationary pressure earlier in the year by making oil, gas and food commodity prices even more volatile amid existing supply chain issues. Oil closed Friday around $80, about $5 higher than where it started the year. But in between oil jumped above $120, helping energy stocks post the only gain among the 11 sectors in the S&P 500, up 59%.

China spent most of the year imposing strict COVID-19 policies, which crimped production for raw materials and goods, but is now in the process of removing travel and other restrictions. It’s uncertain at this point what impact China’s reopening will have on the global economy.

The Fed’s battle against inflation, though, will likely remain the overarching concern on Wall Street in 2023, according to analysts. Investors will continue searching for a better sense of whether inflation is easing fast enough to take pressure off of consumers and the Fed.

If inflation continues to show signs of easing, and the Fed reins in its rate-hiking campaign, that could pave the way for a rebound for stocks in 2023, said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

“The Fed has been the overhang on this market, really since November of last year, so if the Fed pauses and we don’t have a major recession, we think that sets us up for a rally,” he said.

The Fed has been the overhang on this market, really since November of last year, so if the Fed pauses and we don’t have a major recession, we think that sets us up for a rally.

–Jay Hatfield

There was scant corporate or economic news for Wall Street to review Friday. That, plus the holiday-shortened week, set the stage for mostly light trading.

The S&P 500 fell 9.78 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 3,839.50. The index posted a 5.9% loss for the month of December.

The Dow dropped 73.55 points, or 0.2%, to close at 33,147.25. The Nasdaq slipped 11.61 points, or 0.1%, to 10,466.48.

Tesla rose 1.1%, as it continued to stabilize after steep losses earlier in the week. The electric vehicle maker’s stock plummeted 65% in 2022, erasing about $700 billion of market value.

Southwest Airlines rose 0.9% as its operations returned to relative normalcy following massive cancellations over the holiday period. The stock still ended down 6.7% for the week.

Small company stocks also fell Friday. The Russell 2000 shed 5 points, or 0.3%, to close at 1,761.25.

Bond yields mostly rose. The yield on the 10-Year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 3.88% from 3.82% late Thursday. Although bonds typically fair well when stocks slump, 2022 turned out to be one of the worst years for the bond market in history, thanks to the Fed’s rapid rate increases and inflation.

Several big updates on the employment market are on tap for the first week of 2023. It has been a particularly strong area of the economy and has helped create a bulwark against a recession. That has made the Fed’s job more difficult, though, because strong employment and wages mean it may have to remain aggressive to keep fighting inflation. That, in turn, raises the risk of slowing the economy too much and bringing on a recession.

The Fed will release minutes from its latest policy meeting on Wednesday, potentially giving investors more insight into its next moves.

The government will also release its November report on job openings Wednesday. That will be followed by a weekly update on unemployment on Thursday. The closely-watched monthly employment report is due Friday.

Wall Street is also waiting on the latest round of corporate earnings reports, which will start flowing in around the middle of January. Companies have been warning investors that inflation will likely crimp their profits and revenue in 2023. That’s after spending most of 2022 raising prices on everything from food to clothing in an effort to offset inflation, though many companies went further and actually padded their profit margins.

Companies in the S&P 500 are expected to broadly report a 3.5% drop in earnings during the fourth quarter, according to FactSet. Analysts expect earnings to then remain roughly flat through the first half of 2023.

U.S. stock markets will be closed Monday in observance of the New Year’s Day holiday.

Photos

Most recent Business stories

Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga

More stories you may be interested in

Read original article here