#Prevent Disease

[nancylfitness]

Health With Aging

Healthy life habits are very important in dealing with negative health issues associated with aging.  One concern is the unavoidable decline in the levels of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) as we age. HGH helps to slow muscle loss which begins after the age of 40.  Since higher levels of HGH help to make you healthier and stronger it is important to work to maintain these levels. To increase your…

[meirimerens]

youtube shorts is just tiktok without being on the app the amount of "i'm a [qualification] and [misinformation]" could make one turn their skin inside-out in protest. "i'm a board-certified OB-GYN & it's only been about the last hundred years that women have actually experienced menopause. We didn't live long enough to experience it" how can you be so incredibly wrong about something so integral to your practice. King of the Hittites Hattusilis III was told in 1250 BCE that his sister was too old to reproduce at age 50+. Aristotle wrote in the 4th century BCE that women stopped menstruating between ages 40 to 50, common menopause ages today still. i cannot begin to tell you how 4th century & 1250 BCE don't really count as "the last hundred years" unless that -s is doing a lot of heavy lifting. waiter waiter more misinformation laws.

[reasonsforhope]

"Since it was first identified in 1983, HIV has infected more than 85 million people and caused some 40 million deaths worldwide.

While medication known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, can significantly reduce the risk of getting HIV, it has to be taken every day to be effective. A vaccine to provide lasting protection has eluded researchers for decades. Now, there may finally be a viable strategy for making one.

An experimental vaccine developed at Duke University triggered an elusive type of broadly neutralizing antibody in a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial. The findings were published today [May 17, 2024] in the scientific journal Cell.

“This is one of the most pivotal studies in the HIV vaccine field to date,” says Glenda Gray, an HIV expert and the president and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, who was not involved in the study.

A few years ago, a team from Scripps Research and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) showed that it was possible to stimulate the precursor cells needed to make these rare antibodies in people. The Duke study goes a step further to generate these antibodies, albeit at low levels.

“This is a scientific feat and gives the field great hope that one can construct an HIV vaccine regimen that directs the immune response along a path that is required for protection,” Gray says.

-via WIRED, May 17, 2024. Article continues below.

Vaccines work by training the immune system to recognize a virus or other pathogen. They introduce something that looks like the virus—a piece of it, for example, or a weakened version of it—and by doing so, spur the body’s B cells into producing protective antibodies against it. Those antibodies stick around so that when a person later encounters the real virus, the immune system remembers and is poised to attack.

While researchers were able to produce Covid-19 vaccines in a matter of months, creating a vaccine against HIV has proven much more challenging. The problem is the unique nature of the virus. HIV mutates rapidly, meaning it can quickly outmaneuver immune defenses. It also integrates into the human genome within a few days of exposure, hiding out from the immune system.

“Parts of the virus look like our own cells, and we don’t like to make antibodies against our own selves,” says Barton Haynes, director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and one of the authors on the paper.

The particular antibodies that researchers are interested in are known as broadly neutralizing antibodies, which can recognize and block different versions of the virus. Because of HIV’s shape-shifting nature, there are two main types of HIV and each has several strains. An effective vaccine will need to target many of them.

Some HIV-infected individuals generate broadly neutralizing antibodies, although it often takes years of living with HIV to do so, Haynes says. Even then, people don’t make enough of them to fight off the virus. These special antibodies are made by unusual B cells that are loaded with mutations they’ve acquired over time in reaction to the virus changing inside the body. “These are weird antibodies,” Haynes says. “The body doesn’t make them easily.”

Haynes and his colleagues aimed to speed up that process in healthy, HIV-negative people. Their vaccine uses synthetic molecules that mimic a part of HIV’s outer coat, or envelope, called the membrane proximal external region. This area remains stable even as the virus mutates. Antibodies against this region can block many circulating strains of HIV.

The trial enrolled 20 healthy participants who were HIV-negative. Of those, 15 people received two of four planned doses of the investigational vaccine, and five received three doses. The trial was halted when one participant experienced an allergic reaction that was not life-threatening. The team found that the reaction was likely due to an additive in the vaccine, which they plan to remove in future testing.

Still, they found that two doses of the vaccine were enough to induce low levels of broadly neutralizing antibodies within a few weeks. Notably, B cells seemed to remain in a state of development to allow them to continue acquiring mutations, so they could evolve along with the virus. Researchers tested the antibodies on HIV samples in the lab and found that they were able to neutralize between 15 and 35 percent of them.

Jeffrey Laurence, a scientific consultant at the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, says the findings represent a step forward, but that challenges remain. “It outlines a path for vaccine development, but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” he says.

For one, he says, a vaccine would need to generate antibody levels that are significantly higher and able to neutralize with greater efficacy. He also says a one-dose vaccine would be ideal. “If you’re ever going to have a vaccine that’s helpful to the world, you’re going to need one dose,” he says.

Targeting more regions of the virus envelope could produce a more robust response. Haynes says the next step is designing a vaccine with at least three components, all aimed at distinct regions of the virus. The goal is to guide the B cells to become much stronger neutralizers, Haynes says. “We’re going to move forward and build on what we have learned.”

-via WIRED, May 17, 2024

[tiapandayblogs]

World Heart Day: Prevention against Cardiovascular Diseases and How we can prevent it?

World Heart Day is observed and celebrated yearly on September 29 to raise awareness of cardiovascular diseases and how to control them to reduce their global impact. The World Heart Federation, in partnership with the World Health Organization, established the international holiday. This notion was the brainchild of Antoni Bayés de Luna, who served as the World Heart Federation's president from 1997 to 1999. The inaugural annual event was held on September 24, 2000, and until 2011, World Heart Day was commemorated on the final Sunday in September.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Every year, an estimated 17 million individuals die from CVD. The leading causes of these were coronary heart disease or strokes.

A prevalent misperception concerning CVD is that it affects more individuals in industrialised nations, where people rely more on technology and live sedentary lives. However, more than 80% of deaths occur in middle- and low-income countries. Fortunately, the primary causes of cardiovascular disease are changeable factors such as inactivity, smoking, and a poor diet. Cardiovascular diseases significantly impact countries' economic systems since treatment costs

are expensive, and failing to treat the disorders on time leads to lost productivity and protracted absences from work.

Every year, more than 90 countries participate in this international observance. As a result, World Heart Day has proven to be an effective strategy for spreading CVD information.

The high level of government and organisation involvement is especially critical for developing countries, which are significantly affected by chronic diseases.

Prevention is better than cure!

When it comes to one's health, particularly heart health, the saying "A stitch in time saves nine" is appropriate.

A few individuals tend to avoid routine health check-ups. When your car needs regular maintenance, how can it not apply to something even more complex, such as the human body, particularly the heart? Consider this: the heart beats approximately 100,000 times daily and about 35 million times yearly. The human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times in a lifetime! This emphasises the significance of regular check-ups.

In addition to frequent check-ups, it is critical to maintaining a structured, clean, and alert lifestyle. Mild to moderate exercise for 30 minutes five times per week is advised. Avoid sitting for a long time; individuals who work at a desk must take frequent, short breaks. Eating properly is essential to the greatest extent feasible; avoid processed foods, sweets, oils, and animal fat-based foods. It is also critical to manage stress and get at least seven hours of quality sleep daily. Tobacco-based goods put people at an increased risk of heart disease, which should be avoided.

Those with co-morbidities such as hypertension (blood pressure), high cholesterol, and diabetes should be extra cautious regarding heart-related risks.

How is Child Help Foundation helping?

Congenital heart defects are a significant cause of the decline in the infant mortality rate. Children suffer a lot because of heart defects that are either terminal or diagnosed way later in life. Child Help Foundation, to help save the lives of these children, provides emergency medical support to underprivileged children to protect them from the clutches of heart ailments and terminal illnesses.

Source - https://www.childhelpfoundation.in/

[juniper-clan]

When did the baby get so wise???

Longpaw??? Great intelligence but what??? /pos

[eatclean-bewhole]

[stuffbymail]

as a connoisseur of melancholy mid-2000s JRPGs I’m really excited for more people to get to play P3. have an aigis because I love her

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

Recently been filling time by trying to think what the best possible course of action would be to prevent Kaito and Kokichi's deaths if I was plopped into v3 right at the beginning of chapter 5

[lgbtlunaverse]

Estrogen could've saved her

[the-paris-of-people]

The past couple days online have been... interesting. I consider myself a leftist, think capitalism is corrupt, and think that it needs to be seriously reformed/overthrown. I admit that while I've thrown around phrases and terms like "burn it all down" and "the revolution needs to come" out of frustration without actually thinking about what a revolution entails: excellent organization, unity, and strategy to defeat the United States, the world's largest military superpower which has inflicted political and social destabilization across the majority of countries around the world. There also needs to be superb infrastructure and community to support the disabled, elderly, and poor populations who rely on government assistance and programs, healthcare, and accommodations while this so-called revolution rages on.

All I've received from the far leftist movement are lectures from condescending intellectuals who rattle off academic citations regarding ideological theory rather than practical, tangible steps to advocate for change in our local and regional communities. I have not seen one of them actually discuss conversations they've had with their friends, family, or Americans about what they want to see reflected for the future of the country. I have not seen one of them discussed how destructive, detrimental and traumatic a Trump presidency was for social prejudice and morale in the United States. I understand that for many marginalized groups they've been living in a facist state for centuries so the possibility Project 2025 doesn't galvanize them to see the two parties differently, but I don't think it is fair to white leftists falsely equivocate the election of both parties for the entire American population at all??? Or like at least specify the issues you're referring to in which you view both parties as the same????? Literally one TikTok creator who I used to follow talked about how true leftists are so much better than liberals because they aren't waiting for a presidential candidate to save the world NOW due to the accelerated apocalypse due to climate change but when asked how to change the world they suggest sharing ideas of your future utopia with other leftist groups. How the fuck is sitting around talking about living in a walkable community is great considered "saving the world now"? How are you going to dismantle and restructure American infrastructure to create these communities? How are you going to remove existing racial and social tensions to create a community where everyone lives happily side by side? Do people not consider reality at all?????

And is it not wrong for people to have a fucking sliver of optimism and hope at incremental change that's achieved within the corrupt bipartisan system of American politics, even if they know it's propaganda??? Is it wrong for people to have a singular fucking moment of relief in feeling like their values, beliefs, and lives will be better protected and THEY can advocate for change better??? Is it wrong when there's a couple months until the most pressing election in recent history for people to make the choice they feel will reduce the most amount of harm???

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The U.S. surgeon general on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health crisis, driven by the fast-growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in the country.

The advisory issued by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation's top doctor, came as the U.S. grappled with another summer weekend marked by mass shootings that left dozens of people dead or wounded.

"People are scared in many communities I visit around the country to do normal things like go to school or the grocery store or work and they're worried about the risk to their life," Murthy said in an interview with "CBS Mornings" on Tuesday.

To drive down gun deaths, Murthy calls on the U.S. to ban automatic rifles, introduce universal background checks for purchasing guns, regulate the industry, pass laws that would restrict their use in public spaces and penalize people who fail to safely store their weapons.

None of those suggestions can be implemented nationwide without legislation passed by Congress, which typically recoils at gun control measures. Some state legislatures, however, have enacted or may consider some of the surgeon general's proposals.

Murthy said there is "broad agreement" that gun violence is a problem, citing a poll last year that found most Americans worry at least sometimes that a loved one might be injured by a firearm. More than 48,000 Americans died from gun injuries in 2022.

"People want to be able to walk through their neighborhoods and be safe," Murthy told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Murthy's advisory promises to be controversial and will certainly incense Republican lawmakers, most of whom opposed Murthy's confirmation — twice — to the job over his statements on gun violence.

Murthy has published warnings about troubling health trends in American life, including social media use and loneliness. He's stayed away from issuing a similar advisory about gun violence since his 2014 confirmation as surgeon general was stalled and nearly derailed by the firearm lobby and Republicans who opposed his past statements about firearms.

Murthy ended up promising the Senate that he did "not intend to use my office as surgeon general as a bully pulpit on gun control."

Then-President Donald Trump dismissed Murthy in 2017, but President Joe Biden nominated Murthy again to the position in 2021. At his second confirmation hearing, he told senators that declaring guns a public health crisis would not be his focus during a new term.

But he has faced mounting pressure from some doctors and Democratic advocacy groups to speak out more. A group of four former surgeon generals asked the Biden administration to produce a report on the problem in 2022.

"TAKE THIS ISSUE OUT OF THE REALM OF POLITICS"

"It is now time for us to take this issue out of the realm of politics and put it in the realm of public health, the way we did with smoking more than a half century ago," Murthy told the AP.

A 1964 report from the surgeon general that raised awareness about the dangers of smoking is largely credited with snubbing out tobacco use and precipitating regulations on the industry.

Children and younger Americans, in particular, are suffering from gun violence, Murthy notes in his advisory called "Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America." Suicide by gun rates have increased significantly in recent years for Americans under the age of 35. Children in the U.S. are far more likely to die from gun wounds than children in other countries, the research he gathered shows.

"My hope is that if we understand this as a kid's issue that we will raise it on the priority list, that we will see it not as a political issue but as a public health issue that should concern all of us," Murthy said.

In addition to new regulations, Murthy calls for an increase on gun violence research and for the health system — which is likely to be more amenable to his advisory — to promote gun safety education during doctor visits.

"The good news is there's a lot we can do," he said on "CBS Mornings." "There are, for example, community violence intervention programs that we can invest in. There are safe storage education programs that we can expand. There are firearm risk reduction strategies like background checks and other measures that would seek to create time and space between firearms and individuals who would seek to harm themselves and others."

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported rates of gun injuries last year remained above levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic for a fourth straight year. Preliminary CDC data on gun deaths also show rates last year remained worse than in 2019 nationwide, despite a slowdown off of peak levels in 2020 and 2021.

A new FBI report released Monday showed that active shooters violently targeted members of the public across the U.S. at a rate that was 89% higher from 2019 to 2023 than in the previous five-year period. Last year, 105 individuals were killed during those active shooting incidents, the highest level in recent years.

The public safety numbers released Monday by federal investigators showed a mix of slight year-over-year improvements in some areas of concern across the country — including a 4% decrease in active shootings in 2023 compared to 2022 — and small drops in other metrics, like total casualties and "mass killing" events.

Throughout the U.S., 244 victims were shot by active shooters last year; 139 were injured and 105 were killed. Compared to the previous year, total casualty rates — injuries and deaths combined — were down from 313 in 2022, but five more people were killed in 2023 than in 2022.

Those incidents represent just a fraction of the overall toll of gun violence. On average, gun homicides killed more than 53 people per day in the U.S. in 2022, according to CDC data.

[cluescorner]

Arlecchino's whole deal is unbelievable

Arlecchino: Huh I wonder what's causing my weird powers? I can't really worry about that right now tho, I've gotta become King and then kill my "Mother".

*Kills Clervie and "Mother"*

Arlecchino: Huh I wonder why I was able to defeat a Fatui Harbinger when I'm like 17 or so? I can't really worry about that right now tho, I've gotta be in jail and become a Harbinger.

*Is in jail for a while and becomes a Harbinger*

Arlecchino: Huh I wonder why I am-

Pierro: Hey what's up hello, anyways you're descended from the Crimson Moon Dynasty of Khaenri'ah. I'm sure that this is a lot for you to take in so-

Arlecchino: Ok.

Pierro: ...You're just cool with that?

Arlecchino: IDK maybe? I can't really worry about that at the moment, I'm a father now. This orphanage full of children I love (who also are child soldiers and are not allowed to leave or else I'll execute them except maybe now I'm just gonna wipe their memories IDK I'm morally complex) isn't gonna run itself.

*Runs the orphanage/spy recruitment initiative*

Me, the fucking player: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ARE KHAENRI'AN? WHY WASN'T THIS BROUGHT UP IN YOUR FUCKING QUEST?? OR ANYTHING ELSE????

Arlecchino, talking to me through my phone: I honestly don't know why you care, I'm too busy to give a shit. Anyways, I'm gonna go fight fate itself I guess. I'm sure that I don't share any thematic parallels with any other Khaenri'an characters (particularly as it relates to acting and family angst) and that I haven't made the idea of 'curses' on Khaenri'ans and what they entail even more complicated than they already were. See ya.

[reasonsforhope]

Cancer

“Starting at home, a study last year found that US cancer deaths had declined by 33% since 1991. This is equivalent to around 3.8 million people alive thanks to various efforts to combat the disease family.

The report was authored by the American Cancer Society, and published in the journal CA. American Cancer Society CEO Karen Knudsen called the drop “truly formidable,” while the report attributed the fall to the development of better treatments, the reduction in smoking habits, and earlier detection methods.

Just between 2019 and 2020, cancer death rates dropped 1.5%, while the deployment of the HPV vaccine was correlated with a 65% drop in cervical cancer rates from 2012 through 2019 among women in their 30s.

The report also found that not only are death rates falling, but 5-year survival rates for detected cancers have increased 68% among all diagnoses made between 2012 and 2018.

Guinea Worm Disease

Cancer research often involves cutting edge medical research, but across West Africa and India where cutting edge medicine is not widely available, human determination has succeeded in nearly eradicating Guinea Worm disease.

There are records of this truly unpleasant parasite affecting human health going back thousands of years, and in 1989, there were nearly 1 million cases globally.

But in 2022, this unwelcome waterborne guest created just 15 cases worldwide—a decline of 99.998%, and almost all 15 of those cases occurred in Chad.

This monumental turnaround was not the result of some experimental vaccine, but simple education, teaching people how to avoid drinking contaminated water, when and where this mostly seasonal parasite is likely to be found, and how to treat water to purify it of the Guinea worm.

Ebola

Other than Chad, Guinea Worm disease was also found in Uganda, which produced another medical milestone with the successful eradication of a recent Ebola outbreak.

The outbreak began in September, driven on by the incurable Sudan strain of the virus. It was the worst outbreak in 20 years, but even though there is no vaccine for the Sudan strain, the health authorities managed to contain it to just two administrative districts, and 142 confirmed cases.

“The magic bullet has been our communities who understood the importance of doing what was needed to end the outbreak, and took action,” said health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero last Wednesday.

Vaccine trials involving Oxford University are currently underway for the Sudan strain, but until that time, health authorities received congratulations for their swift actions, and were thanked for the “lessons learned.””

-via Good News Network, 1/19/23

[juniper-clan]

Heronstar's on a banger legacy challenge, 5th generation, grinding for the top-notch infant trait, raising a perfectly ideal family, has never been more girlfailure and Slickclaw just set the camp on fire. also the apprentices are fighting. this is world war 3 but there is a sad woman happy in the middle of it and that is all I need

Heronstar spent three hours and 40 KB downloading hairstyle and clothing mods for all her characters she was BUSY

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

listen. i can't explain why i find this section of the wikipedia article on kuru hilarious. i just do.

[autumn2may]

Johnson & Johnson is currently, like right this minute, trying to extend their patent on the TB drug bedaquiline, keeping it out of generic for another four years. TB killed about 30,000 people last week and is the world's deadliest infectious disease.

If this drug does not go generic now it could affect 6 million people in the next four years (the time it would take the "new" patent to run out). Out of those millions of people who get TB, but can't get bedaquiline, most of them will die. From a PREVENTABLE DISEASE.

Why is this happening? Money. But also, because TB is not an issue in countries like the US. We can afford its $1.50 a pill price. But if you live in a poor country, that's too much money to spend on something you need to take for up to four months.

J&J needs to let this drug go public and do its job in places that can't currently afford it. They need to help people, instead of trying to wring the last few drops of money out of one of their many products, at the cost of human lives. @sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog does a waaaay better job of explaining this than me. Check out the video and the video description for links and ways to help!