Oregon man bitten by stray cat diagnosed with the plague
Updated 1d 16h ago Comments
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Health officials have confirmed that an Oregon man has the plague after he was bitten while trying to take a dead rodent from the mouth of a stray cat.
The unidentified Prineville, Ore., man was in critical condition on Friday. He is suffering from a blood-borne version of the disease that wiped out at least one-third of Europe in the 14th century — that one, the bubonic plague, affects lymph nodes.
There is an average of seven human plague cases in the U.S. each year. A map maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that most cases since the 1970s have been in the West, primarily the southwest.
The plague bacteria cycles through rodent populations without killing them off; in urban areas, it's transmitted back and forth from rats to fleas. There's even a name for it, the "enzootic cycle."
The bacteria thrive in forests, semi-arid areas and grasslands, which plague-carrying rodents from wood rats to rock squirrels call home.
Once a coin flip with death, the plague is now easier to handle for humans in the U.S. The national mortality rate stood at 66 percent before World War II, but advances in antibiotics dropped that rate to its present 16 percent.
Central Oregon health officials don't blame the cat.
"The reality is that, in rural areas, part of the role of cats is to keep the rodent population controlled around our homes and barns" said Karen Yeargain of the Crook County Health Department.
The Prineville man, who is in his 50s, remained in critical condition Friday at a Bend hospital. His illness marks the fifth case of plague in Oregon since 1995.
State public health veterinarian Dr. Emilio DeBess said the man was infected when he was bitten by the stray his family befriended. The cat died and its body is being sent to the CDC for testing.
DeBess has collected blood samples from two dogs and another cat that lives with the man's family. DeBess also collected blood samples from neighbors' pets and from animals in the local shelter to determine whether the area has a plague problem.
More than a dozen people who were in contact with the sick man have been notified and are receiving preventive antibiotics.
Roper Hospital confirms case of flesh eating bacteria
By: Laura Hettiger | WCBD
Published: June 15, 2012
The doctors at Roper Hospital are treating with a patient battling necrotizing fasciitis--the medical term for flesh-eating bacteria.
It is the third confirmed case in the Palmetto state in the last two months. However, Dr. Todd Shuman, who is the main doctor treating the Roper patient, said the disease is not on the rise: the reporting of it is.
"The cause of those cases have been very different," Shuman said exclusively to News 2. "It is still a very rare problem that occurs in the community."
Shuman said it is so rare, only three cases are reported out of every 100,000 people.
"Is it increasing nationally?" Shuman asked. "As far as we can tell, in the United States, it really hasn't increased."
Due to HIPAA--or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act--Shuman could not give too many details about the patient at Roper aside from it being an adult male who was admitted several days ago. The man has already undergone surgery and will continue working with an anesthesiologist to relieve his pain. He will eventually have hyperbaric oxygen therapy which is the use of oxygen at above normal atmospheric pressure.
While Shuman could not elaborate on his patient's condition, he was very adamant about the health of the rest of the hospital.
"It is not contagious," Shuman said. "The spread of this particular infection is like the spread of any other infection. The way to minimize spread is by hand washing."
FDA proposes ban on artery-clogging trans fats in foods
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a proposal to ban trans fats, citing health concerns such as heart disease. Many companies have already phased out trans fats from products, which demonstrates that it is 'by and large feasible to do,' the FDA's deputy commissioner Michael Taylor said.
By Tracy Miller / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, November 7, 2013, 10:14 AM
Updated: Thursday, November 7, 2013, 3:03 PM
Alexes Garcia makes cinnamon rolls for student's lunch in the kitchen at Kepner Middle School in Denver using apple sauce instead of trans fats. Heart-clogging trans fats have been slowly disappearing from grocery aisles, and the Food and Drug Administration is now finishing the job, saying it will require the food industry to gradually phase out trans fats due to health threats.
Trans fats are going, going — and may soon be gone completely, if a proposed ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration takes hold.
The proposal, announced Thursday on the FDA's website, would require the food industry to gradually phase out all trans fats due to mounting health concerns.
A ban could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths each year according to Centers for Disease Control and prevention estimates, the FDA said. Though many companies have already dropped trans fats from their products, they "remain an area of significant public concern," FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg told the Associated Press.
The FDA has made a preliminary decision that trans fats no longer fall under the "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, category that includes thousands of food additives that manufacturers can include in their products without FDA review. Once finalized, food manufacturers would have to petition the agency to allow their use, which would likely be unapproved.
Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated oils, are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it solid. They are used to stabilize products on shelves and to enhance the flavor of processed and restaurant foods.
Trans fats occur naturally in small amounts in meat and dairy products. They are also created during the manufacturing process in other edible oils, which is unavoidable and would still be allowed, the FDA said.
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In 2006, the government began requiring that food manufacturers include the amount of trans fats per serving on nutritional labels, prompting many companies to phase them out of products. But they are still widely found in processed foods. Some of the foods affected by the ban include:
* Crackers, cookies and other snack foods
* Packaged baked goods and frozen pies
* Microwave popcorn
* Frozen pizza
* Vegetable shortenings and stick margarines
* Coffee creamers
* Refrigerated dough products (such as biscuits and cinnamon rolls)
* Ready-to-use frostings
Studies have linked partially hydrogenated oils to an increased risk of coronary heart disease — the leading cause of death in the U.S — and higher levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol.
New York was the first city to ban trans fats in 2007, and other cities and states have followed suit. A 2012 study found that the amount of trans fats consumed by New Yorkers dropped considerably after the ban.
Mayor Bloomberg weighed in on the FDA decision Thursday, saying his administration was "greatly encouraged" by the proposed measures.
“Our prohibition on trans fats was one of many bold public health measures that faced fierce initial criticism, only to gain widespread acceptance and support," Bloomberg said. "The groundbreaking public health policies we have adopted here in New York City have become a model for the nation for one reason: They've worked.
"Today, New Yorkers’ life expectancy is far higher than the national average, and we've achieved dramatic reductions in disease, including heart disease. The FDA deserves great credit for taking this step, which will help Americans live longer, healthier lives.”
Trans fat intake among American consumers declined from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to around one gram per day in 2012, according to the FDA.
The FDA proposal is open for comment for the next two months, after which officials will set a timeline for the phase-out. Different foods may have different timelines to allow manufacturers time to find substitute ingredients.
"We want to do it in a way that doesn't unduly disrupt markets," Michael Taylor, FDA's deputy commissioner for foods, told the AP. The food industry, he said, "has demonstrated that it is by and large feasible to do."
Forget resolutions―use these nerdy lifehacks to make life a little better in a lot of ways
Written by William MacAskill 1/3/2016
It’s New Year’s. You want to set goals, and achieve them. But, realistically, you’re probably not going to. Researchers find that anywhere from 40% to 8% of Americans who set New Year’s resolutions successfully stick to them.
The problem is that people often aim to completely overhaul their lives, setting themselves lofty and unachievable goals: “I’m going to get up at dawn every day, then go to the gym, meditate and eat five portions of fruits and vegetables all before work.” Once one part in this magnificent edifice of intention gets chipped away (you hit the snooze button, for instance), it all comes crashing down and you find yourself eating ice cream for breakfast in bed twenty minutes after you’re meant to be at work.
Instead, I suggest you should think about life tweaks: things you might actually do, and which will make your life a little better in a lot of different ways. With that in mind, here are some fun, nerdy and easy-to-implement hacks to take with you into 2016.
■How to save time at restaurants
The problem: Suppose you’re at a restaurant for dinner with six friends. The bill, including tip, comes to $140. You want to split it equally, which means that everyone should pay $23.33. Everyone has to interrupt the conversation to wrangle the approximate change while stepping lightly around the etiquette of who might be overpaying or underpaying. It’s potentially uncomfortable and a waste of time.
The solution: Randomly pick one person to pay the whole bill. You can do this by having someone turn their back, numbering everyone, and then having the person who turned their back shout out a number. Or, if you’re worried that process won’t be truly random (“John always chooses number three”), you can use a randomization website like pickatrandom.com.
Why it works: Randomly choosing one person cuts down the time spent looking for change and means no one overpays or underpays. And in the long run―if you were to do this over dozens of dinners―everyone is likely to pay the same amount as they would if you split the bill equally every time.
■How to make bad events less bad
The problem: Bad events, like failing an exam or having a potential spouse reject your marriage proposal, make your life seem worse.
In effect, betting against yourself is a way of taking out an emotional insurance policy. The solution: Bet against yourself. If you think there’s a 40% chance that you’ve failed an important exam, then find someone who’ll take the following bet: you’ll pay them $80 if you pass the exam, and they’ll pay you $120 if you fail. In general, if you think something bad might happen, make a bet that it will happen.
Why it works: In effect, betting against yourself is a way of taking out an emotional insurance policy. If you get good news, then you’ll be so happy you won’t mind parting with your money. If you get bad news, then at least you’ve gained a bit of cash, and can treat yourself as compensation.
Warning: Beware incentive effects. If you bet a large amount of money that you’ll fail before you’ve sat the exam, then you might prepare less hard than if you hadn’t made the bet.
■How to stay alert during the day
The problem: You often feel tired during the day.
The solution: Stock your office with really bright lights, mimicking daylight more closely. You could either use any one of many Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) lamp options, or several halogen lamps.
Why it works: There’s only anecdotal evidence behind this one, but it’s easy to try out so there’s little cost to giving it a go and seeing if it works for you. It’s possible that greater exposure to light slows the synthesis of melatonin (which makes you feel sleepy) from serotonin.
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■How to get out of bed
The problem: Bed feels really nice and, if you don’t have an imminent reason to get up, it’s easy to sleep in.
The solution: Set two alarms in the morning: one for the time you want to get up, and one an hour earlier. When you wake up, you suffer from sleep inertia. Luckily there’s a pill for that. Leave an iced coffee, energy drink, or caffeine pill next to your bed. When your first alarm goes off, consume the drink or pill, and go back to sleep. When the second alarm goes off, you’ll find it easy to get out of bed.
Why it works: When you wake up, you suffer from sleep inertia, caused by the build up of adenosine in the brain. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors, making you more alert.
Warning: You might find that the caffeine takes more or less than an hour to kick in, in which case you should alter the timing of your first alarm.
■How to eat more healthy foods
The problem: Vegetables, while good for you, don’t taste as good as other, less healthy foods. It’s Kid’s Meals 101.
The solution: Buy powdered monosodium glutamate (“MSG”; available from most Asian supermarkets), and sprinkle it onto vegetables after you cook them. It’ll make them taste delicious.
Why it works: Glutamate is the molecule that gives foods the “umami” taste―a meaty, full flavor. It’s in part what makes parmesan cheese, soy sauce, and tomatoes taste delicious, and it’ll make vegetables taste much better.
Sprinkle MSG onto vegetables after you cook them. It’ll make them taste delicious. It’s also completely safe. Sadly, there’s a prevalent myth that it causes headaches or stomach problems. This idea came from an anecdote mentioned in a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine in 1968; however, multiple studies have shown that there is no such effect. The only potential downside of MSG is that it’s a source of sodium, too much of which may be linked to high blood pressure. However, MSG only contains one third of the sodium content of table salt; insofar as you could use MSG as a substitute for table salt, it may even be better for you in terms of sodium consumption.
■How to get smarter
The problem: Your brain doesn’t work as fast as you’d like it to.
The solution: Take 5mg (one teaspoon) of creatine monohydrate―the stuff bodybuilders take to build muscle mass, available at almost every supplements store―every morning.
Why it works: Creatine helps you to create adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which your body uses to transport energy between cells. Your brain is a heavy energy user, accounting for 20% of resting metabolism; increasing your levels of creatine potentially enables your brain to harness the energy it needs when faced with intellectually demanding tasks.
Some studies have demonstrated that people who take small amounts of creatine show significant improvement (pdf) on IQ and other cognitive tests, with the most promising effects occurring for vegetarians, who, unlike meat-eaters, don’t get creatine naturally in their diet. But, as the researchers suggest: “We would… expect to see a beneficial effect of creatine supplementation on brain performance in most omnivores apart from those who consume very high amounts of meat.”
Warning: The number of studies on this is still small, but the potential benefits are very great―IQ is a better predictor of educational, economic and social outcomes than any other known psychological variable―so it’s worth trying. There’s also some evidence that creatine has positive effects on mood for those taking antidepressants.
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The right things to say ― and not say ― to the bereaved
BY Joan E. Markwell
DAILY NEWS CONTRIBUTOR
Friday, July 21, 2017, 2:00 PM
It’s easy to say the wrong thing to a person grieving the loss of a loved one. The best advice: be sensitive, sympathetic and sincere.
It’s easy to say the wrong thing to a person grieving the loss of a loved one. The best advice: be sensitive, sympathetic and sincere. (RichLegg/Getty Images)
"I can't believe you just said that to me!"
Yes, so many times the bereaved walk away with that very thought flashing across their mind. That is because well-meaning people who have every intention of offering words of sympathy to those who are grieving, manage to do just the opposite.
They do so because they simply do not know the right thing to say so the wrong words fly out of their mouths. These same people will slide on by those grieving because they feel uncomfortable in their presence for the same reason.
Oh, but there are plenty of appropriate ways to express support t hat can be so helpful to the bereaved. Because people are creatures of habit, they continue to say and do the same old things they have heard time and again.
There is a need to move past these sayings and even forget the majority of them. If you never utter another grieving cliché again, you would be doing us (the bereaved) a great service.
Phrases such as "you're doing great," "time heals all wounds," "everything happens for a reason," "be glad you have other children," "your child wouldn't want you to feel this way," "you are so strong," "God had a plan," "God will never give you more than you can handle" and on and on and on. There are too many to share.
People utter one of these phrases and walk away feeling better. They have patted us on the shoulder and said something nice for them, not us. They feel better because they have done their job by offering words of condolence, whereas we may feel no comfort at all. We may even think, "I can't believe you just said that to me."
However, there is a solution to this conflicting situation. We, the bereaved, so want you to help us in our grief. In fact, we need your comfort and support. There is a resolution and it is simple. Before approaching, take any of the above statements and turn them into something personal and positive for the grieving.
For example, don't tell us "time heals all wounds," because we can't see a future without our loved one. You could turn this around and say, "I know healing will be a long process for you; I will be here for you."
This justifies our feelings and does not make us feel guilty for not being able to move on; and it's encouraging to hear the supporter is in for the long haul. This also makes your words seem more personal.
Another example: "Be glad you have other children." When people say this, our thought is which child would you want us to give up or would you give up? A better comment would be: "I know your other children will help provide comfort for you as your family tries to work through your loss." Try to keep the family reminded of the love and support by which they are surrounded.
Here's one commonly used: "You're so strong." Ah, the bereaved are great foolers. That's because they wear an invisible mask that requires adjustment every day so that they look strong to the outside world even though on the inside they are crumbling.
