How Health At Every Size Is Trying to Change the Way We Think About Weight and Wellness
Conventional medical wisdom tells us three things about weight: First, that too many of us are too heavy. Second, that having a higher-than-ideal body mass index (BMI) is dangerous. And third, that slimming down is the solution.
Yet, despite all that we know about nutrition—and the $72 billion Americans spend on weight-loss efforts each year—our collective waistlines are still larger than they were 35 years ago. The way we’ve been fighting our “weight problem” doesn’t seem to be working very well. Some researchers and providers believe that a better alternative is to throw out the focus on size, and emphasize self-care and self-acceptance instead. One thing’s for sure: It’s complicated.
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Humans Come in All Shapes
An initiative called Health at Every Size (HAES) is perhaps the most well-known approach to shifting the way we think about weight. One of the underlying principles of HAES and similar movements is that size diversity is normal, and that every person deserves respect. Higher BMIs in the United States are often blamed on a sedentary lifestyle and a diet built on convenience foods, but heavy people were around long before couches and potato chips: Stone Age sculptors created fat female figurines so detailed and realistic that anthropologists have concluded that obesity existed thousands of years ago.
Unfortunately, many fat people, particularly women, face an enormous amount of weight hate on a daily basis. (The word fat is used here as a judgment-free descriptor of body size. Many high-weight people and HAES advocates prefer the term.) According to a 2015 national survey run by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut, almost 41 percent of participants say they’ve experienced weight stigma. Heck, author and body-image activist Jes Baker was called “landwhale” so often by internet trolls that she made it the title of her second book.
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But it’s not just trolls who spread the stigma—women feel it even in comments from their own physicians. “I have patients come to me all the time who feel discouraged and hopeless because of recent interactions with a doctor,” says endocrinologist Jody Dushay, MD, clinical director at the Well Powered Weight Management & Wellness Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Perhaps more concerning, some doctors can be “blinded” by a person’s size, chalking symptoms up to weight and skipping tests and effective treatments they would automatically offer a slimmer patient, says Linda Bacon, PhD, a longtime weight researcher at UC Davis and author of Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.
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Diets Don’t Work for Everyone
Another key tenet of HAES is that for most people—particularly high-weight individuals and those who have a history of yo-yo dieting or disordered eating—weight-loss plans don’t pay off as promised. We know from research that many who slim down on a diet put the weight back on later. A large review of 29 studies, for example, found that 80 percent of lost pounds were regained within five years.
“Our willpower is no match for our biology,” notes Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating. Burning more calories than you take in triggers mechanisms in your body that lower metabolism and increase hunger, explains Bacon, which can ultimately increase your weight.
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Of course, not everyone who loses a few pounds winds up bigger in the end: The set-point theory is that the body has a built-in comfortable weight variation of between 10 and 20 pounds where antistarvation processes won’t kick in, says Harrison. You probably know someone who has slimmed down a little and stayed that way. It’s a different story for someone who’s being told to lose 5, 10, 20, or even 50 percent of their body weight.
Some doctors who treat obesity have expressed worry that encouraging size-acceptance offers people an excuse to “give up.” But Harrison says that’s one of the biggest misconceptions about HAES. “It’s actually about supporting your overall well being, feeling great, and getting to a place where you can engage with nutrition, exercise, and other self-care behaviors in a way that’s not coming from fear or trying to shrink your body.”
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The Health Factor
At the very heart of non-diet philosophies is the belief that a person’s BMI or the number on her scale doesn’t necessarily tell you about her health. This is also the most controversial aspect of these movements.
“You could have a BMI above the ‘obese’ cutoff and have no metabolic complications, eat a healthy diet, and move your body and I would say you are in very good health,” Dr. Dushay points out. That said, reams of research show a correlation between a higher BMI and certain negative health outcomes. “Obesity—in particular fat around the waist and deep within the abdomen around and inside organs—is commonly associated with metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or triglyceride levels, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” she says.
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But as Harrison notes, those findings don’t prove that weight causes those outcomes. One of the basic principles of scientific investigation is that correlation is not causation. Harrison points to two factors that may impact the correlation between BMI and illness: weight stigma and weight yo-yoing—both of which are extremely common for people with a high BMI.
Research has found that people who experience weight stigma are prone to higher blood pressure and levels of C-reactive protein (an inflammatory marker linked to heart disease); they’re also more likely to avoid the gym and put off doctor appointments. A large 2015 study found that people who experience weight bias may have a shorter life expectancy than those who don’t, regardless of the number on the scale.
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Weight yo-yoing has its own list of potential consequences: It’s also been linked to higher blood pressure, as well as chronic inflammation, muscle loss, osteoporosis, and heart disease, independent of BMI.
Many studies have found that dropping pounds is associated with better health outcomes—but claiming causation is tricky here, too, notes Dr. Dushay. Say there is a diabetes study in which a participant starts eating more nutritious foods, loses a little weight, and her blood sugar improves. “Was it the 8 pounds that helped, or was it that she’s eating a higher-quality diet?”
Some research suggests it could be the latter or a combination of both. In 2011, Bacon published a review of randomized, controlled trials of HAES-like health programs, which showed that the non-diet approach to health was associated with more physical activity and improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol, mood, and diet quality.
So where does all this leave us? “Ultimately, the way you approach weight and health in your own life should always be what’s going to work for you,” says Dr. Dushay. Has focusing specifically on weight loss been good for you, and are you physically and emotionally healthier now than ever before? If so, that’s great. But if repeatedly “failing” at weight loss has made you feel bad about yourself—or even develop disordered eating or exercise behaviors—it may be time to try something new, Dr. Dushay says. “I often advise patients to consider focusing less on, or even ignoring, the number on the scale. This switch of focus may be a relief and actually make you more likely to pursue healthy behaviors. Eating a highly nutritious diet and exercising every day are incredibly good for you whether they shrink the size of your body or not. Focus on what you do in these two areas, and you’ll be healthier for it, no matter what your BMI is.”
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< How Health At Every Size Is Trying to Change the Way We Think About Weight and WellnessCaroll Spinney, Puppeteer Behind Big Bird, Dies of Dystonia. What Is That?
lundi 9 décembre 2019
You may not be familiar with the name Caroll Spinney, but if you grew up watching Sesame Street, then you know this legendary performer. Spinney was the puppeteer behind iconic characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. He died at age 85 on December 8 “after living with dystonia for some time,” according to a tweet from the official Sesame Street account.
What exactly is dystonia? The condition refers to a group of distinct disorders that are characterized by involuntary abnormal muscle postures, Melisa Petrossian, MD, neurologist and director of the Pacific Movement Disorders Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, tells Health.
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“In medical terms, muscle tone refers to the ability of the muscle to properly relax when at rest; it has nothing to do with muscle definition sought out by exercising,” explains Dr. Petrossian. “When the muscles are not properly relaxed, they may show abnormal postures, tightness, or even tremor (shaking).”
These muscle movements can come in the form of spasms, which may be mild or painful, and they can interfere with daily life, according to Mayo Clinic.
In February, just after his appearance at Great Lakes Comic Con with some of his Sesame Street castmates, Spinney announced on Facebook that he was “slowing down” and shared some of the realities of living with dystonia.
“The fact is I’m 85 years old and also battle daily with the devastating symptoms of dystonia,” he wrote. “There is no cure. Some days are better than others.”
He went on to reveal that his symptoms included involuntary muscle contractions, slow repetitive movements, and cramps, which lead to an “abnormal posture at times.”
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Dystonia can be generalized (affecting the whole body) or focal (affecting just one body part), says Dr. Petrossian. Adult-onset dystonia is typically focal, and one of the most common types is cervical dystonia, which tends to present as neck spasm or pain, or as abnormal neck postures and head tremor. (FYI, cervical in this context refers to the neck, and has nothing to do with the reproductive organ.)
Another type of focal dystonia is spasmodic dystonia, which affects the muscles that control the vocal cords, causing a strangled or strained voice; blepharospasm, which strikes the muscles of the eyelids and results in excessive blinking and difficulty keeping the eyes open; and hemifacial spasm, which affects the muscles of one side of the face, leading to twitching or tightening of the muscles around the eye, cheek, or mouth on the affected side.
Spinney also suffered from some “less visible things this disease causes,” as he put it—namely light sensitivity in his eyes, twisting movements, and vocal box spasms. “This is why I can be very softly spoken or wear sunglasses indoors on certain days,” he explained. “It’s all related neurologically and also affects the ability to focus on a task at hand sometimes.”
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As many as 250,000 people in the United States have dystonia, making it the third most common movement disorder behind essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. It is a condition that knows no age, ethnic, or racial boundaries; it can affect young children to older adults of all races and ethnicities, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
The cause of dystonia isn't known, but some forms are inherited, states Mayo Clinic. And while there is no cure for dystonia, as Spinney wrote in his Facebook post, treatment options do exist, and they depend on whether it is focal or generalized.
“Focal dystonia often respond to botulinum toxin, such as Botox, which targets the muscles that have abnormal activity," says Dr. Petrossian. "The injections are typically done every three months and remain effective even after years of therapy,” she explains.
Oral meds, such as baclofen, cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril) and benzodiazepines like diazepam, are often required for generalized dystonia to reduce muscle spasm. A baclofen pump is an alternative to oral meds, Dr. Petrossian says––this inserts the med straight into the spinal canal, and it may result in fewer cognitive side effects, such as imbalance and grogginess.
If botulinum toxin and oral meds don’t improve the symptoms of cervical dystonia, another option may be deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. In this procedure, electrodes are placed into the brain, then connected to a pulse generator or battery that is inserted under the skin below the clavicle.
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In Spinney’s Facebook post, he paid tribute to his “great support team” in Deb, his wife of 40 years, and his agents. “They help me get through these issues that can be tough even under the best circumstances,” he added.
Ultimately, he didn’t let his illness hold him back, even at age 85. “I may have retired but I’m not ready to relegate myself to solitary confinement yet,” he wrote. "Now that I’m not as active with day to day programming on Sesame Street, I have more time to get out and about to meet the world. My fans’ stories, pictures, smiles, and tears are uplifting to the soul and are why I keep going!”
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< Caroll Spinney, Puppeteer Behind Big Bird, Dies of Dystonia. What Is That?This Influencer Just Shared Side-by-Side Bikini Pics to Celebrate Her 'Imperfections'
mercredi 4 décembre 2019
This Woman Was Born With Spastic Quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy—and Now She’s a Full-Time Model
mercredi 27 novembre 2019
American Couple Says They're Being Held 'Hostage' in Mexican Hospital Over $14K Medical Bill
An Atlanta couple forced to seek medical treatment while on a cruise vacation now say they’re being held “hostage” by a hospital in Mexico over an unpaid $14,000 medical bill.
Stephen Johnson, 31, and fiancée Tori Austin were two days into their trip on a Carnival Dream cruise ship when Johnson fell ill and was diagnosed on board with pancreatitis and diabetes, CBS affiliate WGCL reported.
At the behest of Carnival, Johnson sought treatment and was hospitalized in the Mexican town of Progreso, where he spent three days in intensive care, Good Morning America reported.
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Once he was on the mend, however, he was hit with a $14,000 bill that the couple is unable to pay, as they do not have health or travelers’ insurance.
“The plan is to pay the bill, it’s not to skip out on the bill,” Austin told GMA. “They saved his life. His life is more than $14,000.”
Austin said she offered $7,000 upfront and asked if they could work out a payment plan for when they were back in the U.S., but that her request was denied, and she and Johnson were barred from leaving the hospital.
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“We tried to leave Tuesday, but we were physically assaulted by the administrative staff,” she alleged. “They physically were pushing on him.”
Austin also claimed that hospital staffers locked the windows to further prevent them leaving, and threatened to call the police should they make a break for it.
“It’s been a nightmare. We just want to come home,” she told WGCL. “$14,000 in a matter of hours, I don’t know who has that type of money.”
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Added Johnson, “[It’s] hell. I very much so am a hostage. Don’t get sick and have to come to this hospital, that’s one thing I can tell you. They won’t let you leave.”
A U.S. Department of State official confirmed to PEOPLE on Friday that a U.S. citizen was being treated at a Progreso hospital, and that a consular officer visited the citizen in the hospital on Thursday.
The official said the department was monitoring the situation closely.
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Austin, meanwhile, shared an emotional video to Facebook on Wednesday, telling her followers she and Johnson were “coming home” and that someone had offered to pay their entire bill.
“Thank you whoever gave the money,” Johnson could be heard yelling in the background of the video.
Austin later wrote on Facebook Friday morning that she and Johnson were still “waiting” in Mexico.
Carnival confirmed to PEOPLE in a statement that a guest on the Carnival Dream had suffered a medical emergency and “was required to seek medical treatment in Progreso.”
“We are not in a position to comment on the personal matters related to his health or the financial arrangements regarding his treatment, but our CareTeam is providing support,” the statement read.
Austin, however, praised the company in a Facebook post, and wrote that their support had been “great” throughout the ordeal, though she did not go into specifics.
The hospital did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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< American Couple Says They're Being Held 'Hostage' in Mexican Hospital Over $14K Medical BillJenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb Said They Were 'Mad' After Weighing Themselves
jeudi 21 novembre 2019
5 Common Challenges Care-Givers Face, and How to Handle Them
It didn’t come as a total surprise when Elizabeth Miller’s 76-year-old mom landed in the hospital with serious respiratory problems in the spring of 2014. Her mother had struggled with chronic health issues for years. Even so, Miller, now 48, and her siblings had to scramble to figure out how to care for her. “Most of us lived hours from my parents, so we took turns visiting,” says Miller. She missed her son’s birthday, and had to work remotely. “My boss was understanding. But it wasn’t easy.”
What’s more, the siblings had to take on tasks they had never imagined—giving their mom injections, administering her breathing treatments, rubbing lotion on her swollen feet. Then that summer, Miller’s father developed sepsis after dental surgery and passed away shortly after. “We moved Mom to an assisted-living facility near me in Georgia, but she wasn’t happy,” Miller says. “I felt guilty, and wondered if we were making the right decisions.”
As the months passed, the pressure took a toll. Miller would find herself bursting into tears “at the drop of a hat,” and her doctor increased the dose of the anti-anxiety medication she’d been taking. “Caregiving stress is like the old fable of boiling a frog,” says Miller. “If you put a frog in tepid water and raise the temperature slowly, it doesn’t notice the heat till it’s too late. The stress of caregiving sneaks up on you too. You don’t realize the situation is getting dangerous until you’re at the boiling point.”
That’s an apt characterization, according to a slew of recent studies. And that proverbial frog? It’s most likely a woman. Of the country’s 40 million–plus unpaid caregivers of a person 65 or older, roughly 66 percent are women, many with jobs and kids at home. Despite those responsibilities, they spend an average of 21 hours a week on care—running errands, attending doctor’s appointments, and providing hands-on assistance. As Stanford University researchers wrote in a 2017 paper in the journal JAMA Neurology, “The best long-term care insurance in our country is a conscientious daughter.”
Most caregivers find their efforts meaningful, but it often comes at a personal cost. Caregivers are at risk for a host of health problems, including depression, back pain, arthritis, and heart disease, says Ruth Drew, director of information and support services for the Alzheimer’s Association. “It’s not uncommon for caregivers themselves to wind up in the hospital,” she adds.
But that doesn’t have to happen. Thanks to a growing body of research, the challenges of caregiving are becoming more widely understood. Here are five of the most common struggles women face—as well as effective ways to cope.
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Challenge 1: You have no bandwidth for yourself
Let’s do some quick math: 40 (or more) hours of work per week, plus 20-some-odd hours helping a loved one, plus child care equals zero time to take care of you. Sure, you’d love to work out regularly, get plenty of sleep, and cook nutritious meals. It just seems impossible.
But it’s vital to find small, doable ways to keep healthy, says Drew—not just for yourself but also for the person who needs your help: “Many of the women I work with finally start taking care of themselves when they realize their [older relative] would be lost without them.”
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When it comes to exercise, remember that short bouts count. “Accumulating physical activity in 5-, 10-, or 20-minute increments adds up,” says Eli Puterman, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. You might stash a pair of sneakers and a yoga mat in the trunk of your car so you can take a quick jaunt around the block or follow a vinyasa flow video on your phone while your loved one watches TV. There are also apps, like Tone It Up and J&J Official 7 Minute Workout, that will guide you through a brief strength routine. Your efforts will prepare your body for the more physical demands of caregiving, adds Puterman: “Helping an adult in and out of bed requires a strong lower back, core, and legs,” he points out.
Eating healthfully doesn’t have to be complicated either. If you buy fresh precut veggies, lettuce, and fruit, along with some canned beans and frozen chicken or fish, you can whip up fiber- and vitamin-packed meals that require little time or effort. And eating well will help you maintain your much-needed energy.
As for sleep, getting a solid eight hours may not be realistic if you’re up in the middle of the night with someone who’s in pain, or who needs to go to the bathroom. But don’t discount the power of naps. Try to snooze when your loved one does, to make up for lost sleep.
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Challenge 2: Your nerves are frayed
“Caregiving is a superhuman task,” says Drew. “There’s a sense of urgency when someone absolutely needs your help and attention—so a lot of times the things that fill you up and nourish you are the things that seem expendable.” As a result, you rarely get opportunities to decompress, which can eventually lead to burnout.
Experts say one strategy that may help is mindfulness. “Caregivers are usually worrying about the future or the past,” says Susan McCurry, PhD, a clinical psychologist and research professor at the University of Washington. “Mindfulness is helpful because it brings you back to the present moment, where things are actually OK.” And when you anchor yourself in the now, your nervous system shifts from the sympathetic, fight-or-flight mode to the parasympathetic, rest mode.
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There’s even research to back up the benefits of mindfulness: A study done at the University of Minnesota found that this calming approach decreased stress and improved the mental health, mood, anxiety, and sense of burden in women caring for a parent with dementia.
Once you get the hang of mindfulness, you can practice it anytime, anywhere: while you’re sitting in a waiting room or standing in line to pick up a prescription, or when you wake up during the night. Here’s all you need to do, according to McCurry: Bring your attention to your senses—whether it’s the sounds around you or the feeling of your bedsheets against your skin—then turn your attention to your breath. Allow your mind to rest on the sensation of it moving in and out of your body.
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Challenge 3 : You’ve lost touch with your friends
Caregivers aren’t just exhausted and pressed for time; they are often isolated because they don’t want to burden other people. “But sharing your thoughts and feelings with supportive friends reduces blood pressure, strengthens immunity, and has beneficial psychological effects, including reduced stress,” says Joan Monin, PhD, associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health. Having even one person to talk to can positively affect caregivers’ well-being, according to a 2016 study by Japanese researchers.
What’s more, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University found that when caregivers stayed engaged with their social support network, their care recipients’ health was better than those being tended by a lonely caregiver. “Having support may help you perform your caregiving tasks more effectively,” explains lead author Dannielle Kelley, PhD.
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Ask a friend to come over for tea, or schedule regular phone calls or video chats so you can stay in touch. And find someone, whether it’s your spouse or a respite care professional, to cover for you as often as possible so you can get out of the house for dinner or drinks, or even a weekend away—because, as Monin puts it, “leisure activities are vital for your health and your peace of mind.”
Challenge 4: You’re anxious about money—and your job
According to a 2016 report by AARP, 78 percent of caregivers incur out-of-pocket costs—on average, $7,000 per year. To make ends meet, 30 percent have dipped into their personal savings, 16 percent have reduced contributions to their retirement accounts, and 45 percent have cut back on eating out or vacations. If you’re faced with new costs, it may be worth talking to a financial planner, who can help you budget and, ultimately, feel more in control of your overall money picture.
Job security may be at the top of your mind too, especially if you’re out of the office more than usual. It makes sense to explain your caregiver role to your boss or supervisor, says Nick Bott, an instructor at Stanford’s Clinical Excellence Research Center. Not every employer will respond positively, but if you emphasize how committed you are to your career, you may be able to work remotely or tweak your hours to better accommodate your caregiving responsibilities. Also, if you can afford it, see whether you’re eligible under the Family and Medical Leave Act for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year without losing your job.
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Challenge 5: You’re wrestling with guilt
Guilt is common in women who are juggling a career and family as well as caregiving. “They feel like they’re not doing enough—emotionally, physically, or financially. And they beat themselves up for not doing it all perfectly,” says Carla Marie Manly, PhD, a clinical psychologist in Sonoma County, California, who treats caregivers.
A little guilt can push you to do all the tough jobs that caregiving requires. But being too self-critical can increase your risk for depression. So make sure you practice self-compassion.
One easy trick: Shift your focus from what you’re not doing to all the many things you are, suggests Manly. Throughout the day, as you check stuff off your to-do list, take a moment to recognize and celebrate your accomplishments.
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Another key cause of guilt, adds Monin, is feeling like your loved one is suffering, despite your efforts. “It may help to realize that caregivers often overestimate their loved one’s suffering and underestimate their actual quality of life,” she says.
It can also help to spend some time with your loved one that doesn’t involve any physical therapy or medications. Miller tried this after her mom moved into the assisted-living facility near her home. “Because I felt like I could never do enough for her, I was resentful,” Miller recalls. But then at a support group for caregivers, someone suggested Miller plan some fun activities with her mom. “We started watching Grace and Frankie together, and playing cards. Rekindling a more normal mother-daughter relationship restored a healthier balance,” she says. “It helped me enjoy our time together—which was a gift.”
Sharing the load
“Many caregivers aren’t good at asking for—and accepting—help,” says Rani Snyder, a vice president at the John A. Hartford Foundation, which gives grants for caregiving research. But if you want to get through it in one piece, you need partners. Here’s how to take a team approach:
Make a list of tasks, and get others on board. “What are the things that only you can do—and what can someone else take on, like housecleaning, lawn maintenance, car maintenance, shoveling snow, grocery shopping, and laundry?” says Drew. Then, convene a meeting with siblings, either in person or on a conference call, and let everyone choose.
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Don’t forget to ask for help for yourself. “When my wife’s mom fell ill, we had an uncle who would come by once a week and stay with the kids, which gave my wife time to go to the park or see a movie,” says Steven Huberman, founding dean of Touro College Graduate School of Social Work. Ask for emotional support, too. If you tell a loved one that the thing you really need is someone to listen, most will happily show up—and feel like they’re being useful.
Express your gratitude. Caregiving can be emotionally fraught. Acknowledging everyone’s contributions sets a positive tone, which can go a long way toward relieving stress and avoiding tension and resentment.
Coping tools
These smartphone apps might make your life a little easier.
To help you stay organized… Caring Village lets you coordinate activities like transportation, meal delivery, and errands; store important documents; and manage medications. Another app, called CaringBridge, allows you to update—and receive assistance from—friends and family during a crisis.
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To help you provide better care… Need to treat a nosebleed, or a twisted ankle? First Aid: American Red Cross has advice for almost any everyday health emergency, and comes complete with step-by-step guides and videos. If your loved one is in pain, the PainScale app allows you to log and track pain symptoms over time. And eCare21 syncs information like glucose level, heart rate, weight, calorie intake, and sleep from wearable devices like a smartwatch or Fitbit.
To help you feel less harried… Sanvello uses techniques based on cognitive behavior therapy and mindfulness to address stress and anxiety. You should also check out Happify, which offers science-based activities and games to reduce stress, quell negative thoughts, and build resilience. It might have you list things you’re grateful for or notice positive words—all of which can help you think more optimistically.
Caring for someone far away
Long-distance caregiving is its own kind of burden. “You don’t have the daily demands, but the uncertainty and guilt can be tough,” says Sara Douglas, PhD, RN, a professor at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Fortunately, no matter where you are, you can provide indispensable help.
Find a local point person. “Whether it’s a family member, friend, or neighbor, you need someone who can visit your loved one and provide accurate information about key issues,” says Douglas. “Is there food in the fridge? Are they eating? Are they getting to their appointments?”
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Ask for assignments. Some examples of things you can do from afar: Pay bills online, arrange transportation, communicate with doctors, create and share a Google Calendar so local caregivers can coordinate meal delivery and taking out the trash, or post updates for family and friends.
Sit in on doctor’s visits remotely. You can use FaceTime or video conferencing. “Most doctors are open to it,” Douglas says.
Time your visits thoughtfully. Arrange them so you can give the local caregiver a break. “Ask when would work best—maybe a time when they can take a vacation,” suggests Douglas.
Consider hiring a nurse, or a social worker. If you can afford the extra expense, a professional caregiver may alleviate some of your worry, says Douglas.
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< 5 Common Challenges Care-Givers Face, and How to Handle ThemHow This Woman Is Using Old Bras to Support Homeless Women
mercredi 20 novembre 2019
I never thought I’d be starting a global nonprofit—and definitely not because I needed a new bra!
As a mom of two, I’d gained weight with both of my pregnancies and never really lost it. So in 2014, a couple of close friends told me over a glass of wine, “You need to take more time to get healthy.”
The message sunk in. I started making better food choices and running. Over the course of 10 months, I lost 35 pounds. I don’t care much about fashion, so I kept wearing my old clothes until the summer of 2015, when my husband told me one day, “You can’t go to a business meeting in that bra.”
Read more stories about innovative and inspirational women, check out our Wellness Warriors series
It didn’t fit me around the torso anymore, and I couldn’t tighten it. While buying new bras at a local store, I asked the clerk what I could do with all of my perfectly good used bras that no longer fit me. She looked at me and said, “Homeless women need bras.”
Those four simple words changed my life. I went home and called a shelter near my home in the Washington, D.C., metro area. Their response: “How soon can you bring them?”
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I don’t normally post on Facebook, but I felt compelled to mention that I’d just learned of this overwhelming need. Did anyone else have old bras to give away? The shelter had mentioned that women and girls are also frequently in need of pads and tampons, so I asked for donations of those, too.
People shared, and reshared, my request, and it got crazy really fast, in a “lightning in a bottle” way. Within two days, my Facebook group, Support the Girls, was born. A few months later, my husband made a website to keep up with the demand.
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By that time, I’d made it to the shelter, and I had collected more than 1,000 bras and more than 7,100 pads and tampons. It didn’t make sense to stop there. Today, Support the Girls has nearly 60 affiliates across the U.S., as well as around the world. We’ve donated around 5 million products, including mastectomy bras, prosthetics for women going through cancer treatment, binders for trans boys and men, menstrual underwear, and menstrual cups. We’ve donated to Chicago public schools and the Indiana Department of Corrections, and provided supplies during and after natural disasters like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Dorian.
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< How This Woman Is Using Old Bras to Support Homeless WomenHow the Founder of GirlTrek is Fighting Diabetes in Her Community
mardi 19 novembre 2019
In 2011, I heard a statistic that 50 percent of black women are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. It just so happened that I was teaching fifth grade at the time, and those were the women-to-be in my classroom.
I couldn’t sit by as their futures were threatened by this silent health crisis. And so, I started taking girls hiking on Saturdays. Each time, we walked and talked about things that might be a barrier to them living their healthiest lives. At the same time, my best friend, Vanessa Garrison, was grappling with women in her family dying too early. I knew we had to do something bolder and more transformative.
Read more stories about innovative and inspirational women, check out our Wellness Warriors series
Vanessa and I set an audacious goal to get 1 million women to walk—to improve their own health, to create a new culture of health for their families, to inspire their daughters, and to take back their neighborhoods. We invited 532 friends on our combined email lists to walk with us.
Walking is the single most powerful thing you can do for your health. Walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week reduces most chronic disease by half. Each time we walk, we also combat loneliness and isolation, and build community, friendship, and culture.
RELATED: Your Walking Speed Can Tell You How Fast You're Aging
This is how GirlTrek was born. And not only do we organize walks but we also audit the needs of our neighborhoods as we walk. “Oh, we could put a garden there.” “There really needs to be a traffic stop here.” Or: “This mother has lost her son. Let’s walk and talk with her while she grieves.”
The more we walked, the more word spread. Today, with more than 270,000 members, we’re one of the largest public health nonprofits for African American women and girls in the U.S., and we aspire to reach 1 million members in the near future.
RELATED: These Are the Best Walking Workouts, According to Fitness Experts
When we are asked who’s in GirlTrek, we say: It’s rowdy college students, it’s the lunch lady, it’s all the women on the church pew—it’s everybody working together.
Our national team walked 100 miles on parts of the Underground Railroad, inspired by the footsteps of Harriet Tubman. But I find it rewarding when women have their own quiet breakthroughs, like a woman who’s gotten up and walked by herself every single morning for a year, and on the 365th day, she tweets about it.
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< How the Founder of GirlTrek is Fighting Diabetes in Her CommunityCollege Gymnast Dies After 'Tragic Freak Accident' on Uneven Bars
Melanie Coleman, a decorated gymnast and junior nursing student attending Southern Connecticut State University, died on Sunday after sustaining a devastating accident during gymnastics practice on Friday.
According to the The Connecticut Post, which first reported on the news, and NBC News, Coleman, 20, suffered a spinal injury while training on the uneven bars at New Era Gymnastics in Hamden, Connecticut, where she had trained for 10 years.
One of Coleman’s longtime coaches, Tom Alberti, described the incident as “totally unexpected in its occurrence and its outcome.” A GoFundMe account set up for Coleman’s family echoed that sentiment, calling the incident a “tragic freak accident” that initially left Coleman in critical care. The GoFundMe page raised over $56,000 in just two days.
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Mary Fredericks, head coach of Southern Connecticut State University gymnastics, revealed in a statement that the team was "heartbroken and stunned. "She was an incredibly hard worker and a sweet-spirited young woman," she said. "Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to her family at this time."
The Connecticut Post also reported that Coleman’s organs are being donated to keep others alive. “We are confident that her spirit, laughter, and humor will live on through the ones who loved her most, as well as through the gift of life to those who needed it most through organ donation,” the Coleman family wrote in a statement published by WTNH-TV
Gymnastics is, unfortunately, not a sport that comes without risks—it was named the most dangerous women’s sport, according to a 2008 study published in the journal Pediatrics.
RELATED: Gymnast Samantha Cerio Walks Down the Aisle After Breaking Both Knees in Horrific Injury
For the study, researchers from The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital examined gymnasts between the ages of 6 to 17, finding that nearly 27,000 gymnasts were hospitalized annually. Overall, the annual injury rate for gymnastics was 4.8 for every 1,000 participants.
"We don't typically think of gymnastics as a dangerous sport. In fact, many parents consider it an activity, but it has the same clinical incidence of catastrophic injuries as ice hockey," Nationwide Children's Hospital Lara McKenzie said in a video release at the time the study was published.
In addition to setting up the GoFundMe account, the page’s organizers also set up a meal train for the family, to provide them with dinners and other meals during this difficult time.
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< College Gymnast Dies After 'Tragic Freak Accident' on Uneven BarsJessica Mulroney Claps Back After Trolls Attack Her Latest Bikini Photo: ‘Get a Clue’
mercredi 6 novembre 2019
The Youth Suicide Rate Is on the Rise, and This 23-Year-Old Who Attempted to Take Her Own Life Has Some Thoughts About Why
jeudi 31 octobre 2019
On New Year’s Eve in 2017, Kaitlyn Buchko felt like everyone in the world was celebrating except for her. Most other 21-year-olds were out celebrating the first New Year's they could legally order drinks at a bar, but not Buchko. She was at home with her parents—and she wasn’t planning on making it to 2018.
Buchko, who is from South Carolina, was battling anxiety, bipolar disorder, and narcolepsy. She tried medication after medication, but she was still struggling. She had also just gotten out of an abusive relationship, and she wasn’t handling the breakup well. It felt like new layers kept getting added to her pain. So as people around the globe popped champagne and threw confetti, Buchko attempted to end her own life.
Buchko’s story isn’t uncommon. Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report that shows the suicide rate among people ages 10 to 24 rose 56% between 2007 and 2017, after remaining relatively steady from 2000 to 2007. In 2017, suicide was the second-leading cause of death among this age group, behind unintentional injuries, such as car crashes or drug overdoses.
Researchers aren’t sure of the exact causes fueling these alarming statistics. “The increase in suicide is very broad,” Sally Curtain, a statistician at the CDC and an author of the report, tells Health. “It’s across all race groups and virtually every state. We can’t isolate this to one group or area—it’s pervasive across the US.”
Experts believe a rise in depression among adolescents, drug use, stress, social media usage, the visibility of suicide in the media and online, and access to firearms may all be contributing factors, though further research needs to be done to know for sure. In the meantime, Curtain says it’s important to talk to young people about their stressors and experts who work to prevent suicide in order to better understand the crisis.
RELATED: What to Say–and What Not to Say–When You Talk About Suicide
One reason it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact causes, says Curtain, is that in most cases, there’s not just one thing that makes a person suicidal. That was true for Buchko. It wasn’t simply because of the stress of school or the pressure of social media. Rather, she felt like she “kept getting slammed with another thing to deal with,” she tells Health.
It all started during her junior year in high school. Buchko regularly experienced stomachaches growing up, but they were getting much worse. When they were really bad, she couldn’t eat or even walk. She went to see a specialist and was diagnosed with gastroparesis, or paralysis of the muscles in the stomach. The doctor said it was caused by anxiety.
“At first I thought, ‘But I’m not anxious?’” says Buchko. She had noticed that her stomachaches were worse when she was in a class with a strict teacher or studying a subject she didn’t believe she was good at, but she didn’t think much of it. “I just assumed that happened to everyone,” she says. Her doctor explained that stomachaches can be a symptom of anxiety, and that sometimes anxiety presents as physical pain. “The more I thought about it, I was like, ‘OK, maybe not everyone freaks out the way I do every day when they go to school,” she recalls.
She did what she could to manage her stress, but things only got worse. One night, at the start of her senior year, she got into a fight with her mom about her room not being clean, as she (and most other teenagers) had so many times before. But this time, something was different. The fight sent Buchko into a rage, and she tried to run away.
She got into her car and started driving. She was screaming, crying, punching the steering wheel. “It was the first time I was suicidal,” she says.
RELATED: 8 Signs Someone Is at Risk of Suicide
Buchko eventually returned home, and her family made sure she got help. She went to her general practitioner, who referred her to a psychiatrist. She was then diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar disorder, a type of bipolar disorder characterized by having four or more episodes of depression and/or mania per year.
Following her diagnosis, Buchko finished the last few months of her senior year. It wasn’t easy, as stress is a trigger for her bipolar disorder, but she did it. She decided to take a year off before starting college to prioritize her mental health. Then, in the fall of 2015, she enrolled as a nursing student at Anderson University in South Carolina.
Buchko was excited to go to college, to get back to “normal.” But it wasn’t long before the stress of freshman year started getting to her. “Stress is the biggest trigger for my bipolar,” she says. “When I get stressed, it flares up, and I get manic or depressed.” On top of that, Buchko was also dealing with narcolepsy, or overwhelming daytime drowsiness, which she wouldn't be officially diagnosed with until a few months later.
At the beginning of 2016, as she was starting her second semester, Buchko’s psychiatrist suggested she take a medical withdrawal. “I was really upset about it,” she says. “It was really hard to feel like I failed at something.”
Buchko felt like her mental illness was derailing her life, and she spent the time after she withdrew from college trying to get better. She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for a week, went to therapy, tried different medications, and took up horseback riding. She was learning how to control her emotions. But at the end of 2017, everything started to unravel.
RELATED: 6 Ways to Help Someone Who Lost a Loved One to Suicide
She had been in a relationship, and just after Christmas, she and her partner broke it off, which she says sent her “spiraling.” A few days later was New Year’s Eve, when the pain drove her to attempt suicide.
Fortunately, Buchko’s mom found her before it was too late. She survived, and when she woke up the next day, she was immediately grateful to have been given a second chance.
Buchko was almost part of the statistics in the CDC’s new report on the rising youth suicide rate. When she heard the numbers from that report, she wasn’t surprised. “There’s a lot of pressure on youth and young adults these days,” she says. “People say, ‘Oh you’re young, you can’t be that stressed,’ but that’s not true.”
She says the pressure to do well in school and get into a good college is only intensifying for young people. And Jennifer Rothman, manager of youth and young adult initiatives at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, agrees.
“A lot more is being asked of students,” Rothman tells Health. “They’re trying to juggle being involved in extracurriculars, doing their homework, and keeping their grades up. They don’t have the coping skills to handle that kind of stress. I know many adults who don’t have the coping skills to handle stress like that.”
RELATED: Why Do People Kill Themselves? These 5 Factors Help Explain It
Interestingly, in a 2018 survey by the American College Health Association (ACHA), college students reported that anxiety and depression are among the biggest factors negatively affecting their academic performance.
Rothman adds that between everything students are involved in, they don’t have much downtime, and whatever time they do get to themselves is spent online. “They’re on their phones, their iPads, their computers,” she adds. Buchko also believes time spent online is a contributing factor. “Social media can be a very negative place, especially if you’re struggling,” she says. Various studies have linked social media to depression in young people, which is also on the rise.
The 2018 ACHA survey determined that 42% of students had felt so depressed in the past year, it was difficult for them to function. Yet the same survey given in 2009 found 31% of students felt that level of depression. More students are, however, utilizing their campus counseling centers, which experts attribute to a reduction in the stigma of having mental illness.
Buchko agrees that mental illness is becoming more accepted, but she says there's still a long way to go, and young people need to be reminded that there’s nothing wrong with asking for help. “We get into this mindset that no one understands,” says Buchko. “We feel so alone, but if we would just talk about it, we would realize that we’re really not.”
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< The Youth Suicide Rate Is on the Rise, and This 23-Year-Old Who Attempted to Take Her Own Life Has Some Thoughts About WhyThis Mom's Photo of Eating While Breastfeeding Is Going Viral Because It's So Relatable
mercredi 30 octobre 2019
Pippa Middleton Says Cranial Osteopathy Helped Calm Her 1-Year-Old Son—But What Is It?
mardi 29 octobre 2019
The Duchess of Cambridge’s younger sister, Pippa Middleton, has embraced an alternative therapy known as cranial osteopathy for her 1-year-old son.
“Soon after Arthur was born last year, I heard a few mums talking about seeing a cranial osteopath,” the 36-year-old wrote in her Waitrose Weekend magazine column over the weekend, per People.
“It’s a popular alternative therapy for newborns, particularly those who have had a traumatic birth, are unsettled, or have trouble sleeping,” she continued. “It claims to heal, relax and promote sleep, digestion and body alignment through gentle head and body manipulation." Pippa added that she started taking her son Arthur when he was just 7 months old.
Pippa claims the results of the treatment were immediate. “I was fascinated to see how calming it was for him, but also how valuable the feedback was,” she wrote. “The osteopath noticed one side of his neck was tighter than the other, which explained why he favored one side sleeping. She also saw that his arms were stronger than his legs, so she gave me an exercise to help him.”
While Pippa acknowledged that the treatment has "a lack of scientific evidence," it still begs the question: What is it—and could be beneficial for babies, or people in general?
RELATED: Pippa Middleton Shows off Postpartum Body in Bikini 10 Weeks After Welcoming First Baby
What exactly is cranial osteopathy?
Cranial osteopathy is the subtle movement of the cranial bones to help alleviate pressure and allow for the movement of cerebral spinal fluid, Erica Steele, ND, a board-certified naturopathic doctor at Holistic Family Practice, tells Health. “Traditionally trained osteopaths are trained to move these bones on a subtle level," she says.
The practice is a form of osteopathic medicine—or using the body's musculoskeletal system to play a part in health and disease—which was founded in the late 19th century, stemming from the belief that the body contains everything it needs to maintain health, if it's properly stimulated, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. Osteopathic physicians (aka, DOs), use hands-on techniques that release tension in the muscles, joints, and nerves to promote healing.
“Cranial osteopathy specifically takes those same osteopathic principles and applies them to include the 29 bones (22 in the skull itself, plus 3 little bones in each ear and the mandible) of the skull and the central nervous system, in addition to the whole body,” Annette Hulse DO, president of the Osteopathic Cranial Academy, tells Health. In slightly manipulating those bones in the skull, ear, and mandible, osteopathic doctors can "change and/or slightly restrict the movement of [cerebrospinal] fluid," says Dr. Hulse—which can, again, have a relaxing effect on the patient.
These cranial osteopathy session typically involve an osteopathic doctor holding various fulcrums (or hand positions) on the skull, says Steele, while a patient is lying down on a table. Overall, Dr. Steele says the practice is "a deeply profound and relaxing experience for the participant," and that "the person arises feeling more relaxed, at ease, and at peace."
RELATED: A Guide to Choosing the Best Holistic Doctor for Your Needs
Okay, but is there any scientific evidence to back up cranial osteopathy?
Unfortunately, as Pippa mentioned in her article, there is very little conclusive scientific evidence that cranial osteopathy is effective. “The treatment regime lacks a biologically plausible mechanism, shows no diagnostic reliability, and offers little hope that any direct clinical effect will ever be shown,” Steve E. Hartman, PhD, a professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of New England, wrote in one paper published in the medical journal Chiropractic and Osteopathy.
Hartman did note, however, that “In spite of almost uniformly negative research findings, ‘cranial’ methods remain popular with many practitioners and patients.” Dr. Hulse and Dr. Steele also believe that research has not yet fundamentally disproved the benefits of cranial osteopathy either. "The totality of its physiology and the capacity for the brain to control the body is still seemingly understudied," says Dr. Steele.
Still, as far as credible research goes, it maybe best to stick to conventional medicine and use alternative therapies, like cranial osteopathy, only as a supplemental approach.
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< Pippa Middleton Says Cranial Osteopathy Helped Calm Her 1-Year-Old Son—But What Is It?Here's How the Brain Makes Memories—and What You Can Do to Keep Your Mind Sharp
vendredi 25 octobre 2019
Hyperhidrosis Is a Disorder That Makes Me Sweat Constantly—and I've Finally Learned to Live With It
lundi 21 octobre 2019
Do you wear light-colored shirts without fear of getting sweaty pit stains? Do you shake hands with confidence because your palms are perfectly dry? If you answered yes to both of those questions, then consider yourself lucky. I envy you. That’s because I have hyperhidrosis, a condition that causes me to perspire a lot more than the average person.
Hyperhidrosis is a fancy word for excessive sweating. It usually occurs under the armpits, the palms, the soles of the feet, the face, and a bunch of other body regions where people typically sweat. Doctors call it "focal" hyperhidrosis, because it affects one or more body areas—which differs from another form of hyperhidrosis that involves the entire body and is usually related to some underlying condition.
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What causes this sweat overload? While most cases occur in people who are otherwise healthy, Fran Cook-Bolden, MD, a dermatologist with Advanced Dermatology PC in New York City, says that “neurologic, endocrine, infectious, and other systemic diseases can sometimes cause hyperhidrosis.” Heat and emotions may trigger hyperhidrosis in some, but many of us who have it sweat during nearly all their waking hours, regardless of their emotional state or the weather, she adds.
What it’s like living with hyperhidrosis
Plain and simple: I’m always sweating. I sweat right after I shower, during sex, when I work out, when I sleep, when I sit in the car, when it’s 20 degrees, when it's 95 degrees, when I’m nervous, and when I’m calm. I've had hyperhidrosis my whole life, and I remember going to a dermatologist when I was in elementary school, hoping the doctor could explain why I was so much sweatier than other kids.
My feet, hands, and armpits are basically always damp and clammy, which isn’t very sexy when I hold hands, sleep next to, or cuddle with a partner or potential partner. It's not uncommon for me to reach for someone's hand and then have them reply, “Eww, why are your hands so clammy?” When that happens I get even more sweaty—because I’m anxious about how gross it must feel for them to touch my slimy hand.
According to Dr. Cook-Bolden, excessive sweating isn't life-threatening, but it can compromise your well-being. “About one-third of people with focal hyperhidrosis describe their symptoms as significantly affecting their quality of life,” she says. I can explain why: because sweating a lot is really awkward and embarrassing.
RELATED: The Weird Reason Why Stress Sweat May Smell Worse Than Exercise Sweat
My personal experience perfectly aligns with the frustrations that most patients report. I've had to change my cute outfit more times than I can count. Not 10 minutes after dressing up to go out, whatever I'm wearing is already soaked at the pits. It's super uncomfortable, but I wear black cardigans or jackets over my clothes, so no one can see the sweat stains. I also dab my armpits with napkins a million times on the way to wherever I'm going.
Drippy perspiration can foil even simple business transactions. Ever tried signing your name when your hand is so moist that the pen slips away or you splotch the ink on the page? And, of course, it creates challenges in the romance department, as I've already alluded to.
Sweating so much can become problematic when it causes secondary skin issues, like macerations (similar to pruney fingers from sitting in a bath too long), athlete’s foot, warts, or bacterial infections from moist skin. I used to get eczema under my arms and behind my knees from trapped moisture, but now I apply steroidal ointments that prevent flare-ups.
Hyperhidrosis also leaves me more susceptible to vaginal infections. I have to change my workout clothes immediately post-workout, or else I risk getting a yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis. Hanging around in damp leggings poses a risk to most folks with vaginas, but symptoms of either of these infections typically strike for me after an hour, unless I change clothes.
How I’ve tried to stop the sweating
I relied on help from a dermatologist when I was younger, and it seems the treatments for hyperhidrosis are basically the same now as they were then. I’ve tried prescription antiperspirants that permanently stained my armpits a weird yellow color and tons of different over-the-counter deodorants with aluminum, which can supposedly stop sweat. None of them work for me. Lasers and surgery sound extreme, and I’m too nervous to try Botox, but I hear that these are all advanced options that could stop the sweat.
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Luckily, I’ve learned to manage hyperhidrosis my own way. I warn people that my hands are sweaty when I go to hold or shake theirs. I never buy tight, colored tops. Wearing black clothes has become a staple of my wardrobe in an effort to eliminate pit stains, and it’s also part of my personal brand now.
I sit on a blanket or a towel in my car in the summertime because my thighs sweat so much against the seats. I’m mindful of the fabric of any chair I sit on in public when I wear shorts, so my legs don’t saturate or stick to the seat. I use an aluminum-charcoal deodorant, which seems to work okay, but I still sweat through it.
Managing my hyperhidrosis is mostly a matter of attitude. After struggling with it my whole life, I mainly just accept my excessive sweating as a part of my identity now, which helps to reduce my anxiety about it. Living with this condition was more frustrating back when I was in middle school and didn’t know how to deal. Now, it is what it is. I’m perpetually sweaty. Love me or leave me.
Once upon a time, I body-shamed myself for my excessive perspiration. Now, I accept my sweaty pits and clammy palms as just another normal part of me—and perhaps even my very own form of radical self-love and body positivity. After all, if I can’t love me at my sweatiness, how can I expect someone else to? Sweating a lot might dampen my body, but it won’t put a damper on my days anymore if I can help it (and I can).
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< Hyperhidrosis Is a Disorder That Makes Me Sweat Constantly—and I've Finally Learned to Live With ItRihanna Shows Off Her Incredible Abs and Legs in Black Bikini Video on Instagram
vendredi 18 octobre 2019
Why Would Someone Poop in a Public Bathroom and NOT Flush? We've Got Answers
vendredi 11 octobre 2019
Introducing Health's new column, Why Would Someone Do That? Here, psych experts decipher the reasons behind the most puzzling human behavior mysteries.
It’s your worst office nightmare: You’ve stumbled through the first few hours of work thanks to three cups from the Keurig, checked to make sure that no one’s stolen your lunch, and finally wandered into the restroom to relieve yourself and take a tiny, unsanctioned break from your coworkers.
But what you’ve walked into isn’t a bathroom; it’s an active crime scene. And when you open a stall, you know that no jury would convict you if you found the person who’s defecated all over the place and disposed of them, Liam Neeson–style.
Right now, you’re probably thinking about the last time you walked in on such a bananarama of human indecency in your workplace. And you’ve got feelings. Everyone does.
RELATED: Is Your Poop Healthy? The Bristol Stool Chart Shows What It Should Look Like
Every office has this poop problem, apparently
One person I spoke to—on condition of anonymity—told me that the women in their office wanted to launch a full-on hunt for the person who’d gone number two in a plastic bag and then dumped it in the bathroom trash can. They’d size up one another at the water cooler, asking leading questions about gut health and what everyone had for lunch. In that time span, the poop bandit got away with the same thing two more times.
In another office, a man fed up with unflushed anonymous poo took it upon himself to snap pictures of his workmates’ feet as they used the stalls. (Illegal!) If a mess were to be made, he reasoned, he’d just match the stall to the culprit’s footwear and inform the authorities—thought it wasn’t clear whether that would be the police, HR, or a vigilante group he’d found on the internet.
Other people I asked said they preferred to block out whatever mess they came across. One friend, a person who would otherwise agree we are close, balked at my question about the bathroom habits of officemates. “Why,” he said, ‘what have you heard?” and then: “Yeah, we’ve had a few problems, but now most of us just use bathrooms on other floors.”
Why other floors didn’t have the same issues, he couldn’t tell me. But he did say that the notes that HR put up—every variation of “be a sweetie and wipe the seatie” in one poster to “NO MORE ‘BIG JOBS’—THX, SANDRA" in another—didn’t seem to help. If anything, conditions may have gotten worse, though he couldn’t be quite sure why.
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Searching for the psychology behind a poo and run
What goes through the mind of someone who walks into a serviceably clean bathroom at their workplace and proceeds to go on a rampage with no regard for the people they see five days a week?
Here’s one interpretation: People just aren’t aware of what they’re doing. They’re so worried about not catching anything from the seats, they can’t imagine they might be contributing to the bathroom problem the entire staff complains about.
One person told me that her last office had a chronic hoverer who let her commitment to personal hygiene be known by the dew drops or urine she left behind. “I sometimes wondered aloud at the logic,” the innocent bystander told me, “because toilet seats aren’t all that germy—unless you piss all over them because you refuse to plant your cheeks.”
A man who works in an office in San Francisco told me that I might be chasing a culprit that doesn’t exist. In a twist as shocking as any of the (first three) Saw movies, he suggested that the messes in the bathroom weren’t the work of one angry person but a group effort from anxious office workers who had to do their business and couldn’t help but ignore or add to the horror.
RELATED: What It Means to Be a High-Functioning Sociopath—and How to Tell if You Know One
“You walk into the bathroom,” he said, “and you see a mess. But it isn’t your job to clean it up and you don’t want to tell someone because they think it might be you. So you just slowly back out and hope that no one blames you. What am I supposed to do? I don’t know how to fix a toilet.”
Of course, it’s a little bit different if there’s an emergency element, and you don't have a second to spare to back away and use another stall. “If it’s a photo finish situation, then, yeah, I might have to do something I wouldn’t necessarily tell other people about,” the man added.
So that’s another twist: Even people who’ve never considered themselves bathroom vandals may contribute to the eldritch terrors that greet you when you’ve entered the restroom during your afternoon slump. None of us are innocent.
But these theories may be a touch too kind. A janitor I spoke to said he’s definitely seen people engage in deliberate bad behavior in the office bathrooms he takes care of.
“When my job is done right, people don’t know I’m around. They only remember when I screw up and some people are sort of mean. It’s like, you forgot to take out my trash, so here’s a little surprise,” he says. “When I make people mad at work, they know that if they make a little mess in the bathroom, I have to deal with it.”
Office workers have left feces, he says, in places where it would have been very hard for it to find itself otherwise. But these heavy hitters are few and far between. Most people, I’m told, just splash water everywhere or miss the garbage can “on accident.” Sometimes it feels like they’re doing it to remind him that they’re better than him—or to remind themselves that even when their bosses come after them, there’s always someone safe to take their aggression out on...someone who will always have to clean up their mess.
RELATED: Sociopath vs. Narcissist: Experts Explain the Difference
A professional sheds some light
In the course of writing this story, I launched a desperate campaign to speak to someone who’s deliberately trashed their office toilet or, at the very least, just made some yellow and let it mellow.
I asked friends, acquaintances, people I’d just met. I posted my question on Twitter—giving my email address so any interested parties could contact me anonymously—and I enlisted the aid of “Help a Reporter Out,” a site whose thousands of users rush to answer questions posed by bloggers and journalists.
But my pleas to speak to a bathroom annihilator went loudly unanswered. Even though, once again, I’d promised to take their secrets to the grave. And even beyond.
Shuli Sandler, PsyD, a New Jersey–based clinical psychologist with more than a decade of experience, wasn’t surprised. “Even when you say something’s anonymous, I don’t think that’s true,” Sandler, the only person to allow the use of her name in this story, told me.
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“Anonymity is protection over our true impulses. So if someone owns up to it, they either don't believe they're truly anonymous or they're no longer anonymous to themselves. They have to acknowledge their own actions in a meaningful way,” she says.
By asking people to unmask themselves (even to themselves), Sandler believes I’d be forcing them to attach feelings to their actions. Shame, guilt, and self-criticism, where before there was just excitement and aggression and impulsivity.
Some people just want to crap on their boss, literally
If you look at behavior from a psychoanalytic perspective, and especially from the perspective of Freud’s psychosexual stages, you’ll quickly learn that mastering one’s bowels (the anal stage) is a symbol for learning self-control in general. Your parents aren’t just toiling at the toilet so they’ll save on diapers, they’re also teaching you to follow social rules—the biggest of which is to keep your shit in the proper places, where others don’t have to deal with it.
The problem is that some of us have a lot of pent-up aggression. And if we don’t have an outlet for all that bottled up rage (therapy, for instance), it’ll come out in unexpected ways. When a bathroom defiler’s had a hard day at work, Sandler theorizes, there’s a push-and-pull between the part of them that says “you can’t make messes,” and the part that says “No, I’m an adult, I do whatever I want.”
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The well-meaning signs that remind us to be kind to others when tinkling and sprinkling become invitations for a regressive rebellion. There are no cameras in bathrooms, so what’s the cost of engaging? By the time the mess is discovered, the perpetrator is long gone, back at their desk or buying a Coke from the vending machine in the break room.
The messes that these people leave behind, Sandler suggests, are indicative of the internal messes that they’re struggling with. “People have a tendency to act out their feelings in a way that can often be destructive as a way to sort of push away the need to personally reflect, to be thoughtful, to open up their minds.” she says.
Being aware of these feelings is what separates someone who says “I want to shit on my boss” and remind themselves that we don’t do that in polite society from someone who says “I want to shit on my boss” and then goes off on the bathroom and quickly distances themselves from the action.
So the prescription for the poop bandits in your office? Maybe it’s just therapy for the guilt and insecurity they feel in their lives. But don’t post a sign about it in the bathroom.
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< Why Would Someone Poop in a Public Bathroom and NOT Flush? We've Got AnswersThis Man Had a 3-Inch Pair of Tweezers Stuck in His Urethra—But Showed No Symptoms for 4 Years
A 22-year-old man recently presented to an emergency room in Saudi Arabia for a highly unusual reason: He admitted to having inserted tweezers into his urethra four long years ago.
According to a May 2019 report in Urology Case Reports that's now gone viral, attending physicians were surprised not only by the placement of the three-inch tweezers, but also that the man had no visible symptoms. He told doctors that he didn’t have any pain, chills, fever, or problems with urination—unusual in cases like this with a foreign object inside the body. The man also didn't say how or why the tweezers wound up in his urethra.
Still, an X-ray revealed that, sure enough, there was a pair of metal tweezers lodged near the front of the man’s urethra (aka, the tube that lets urine—and in men, semen—pass through the body). Surprisingly, the man's bladder wasn’t distended and the opening of his urethra appeared normal.
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The removal of the tweezers was no easy feat. With the patient under general anesthesia in the operating room, doctors attempted to remove them without causing any internal damage. But there was one major problem: the open end of the tweezers, which could have torn the urethral opening.
To address this issue, a surgeon assistant held the tweezers closed throughout the procedure in what researchers called an “external pressure technique.” Meanwhile, a surgeon removed them endoscopically with a pair of foreign body forceps. The patient fared well after the ordeal—and urinated successfully without a urinary catheter—and went home.
The removal of foreign bodies from the urethra is an uncommon, but not unheard of, procedure. An 11-year-old boy in China underwent a two-hour operation to have 70 magnetic beads removed from his urethra earlier in 2019, according to an article in the South China Morning Post. Some cases are the result of accidents or injuries. Other patients may insert foreign objects into the urethra because of curiosity, mental illness, intoxication, or autoeroticism, according to a series of case studies in the International Neurourology Journal.
Many patients in these cases hesitate to seek medical care because of shame or embarrassment. One case report in Emergency Medicine suggested that patients who had self-inserted objects into the urethra be referred to a psychiatrist to deal with any possible guilt, anxiety, or symptoms of mental illness.
The patient in this case was referred to a psychiatrist, but he refused the referral and has also refused to access outpatient care.
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< This Man Had a 3-Inch Pair of Tweezers Stuck in His Urethra—But Showed No Symptoms for 4 YearsMiracle Baby Born With Brain Outside of Skull Believed to Be First to Survive Rare Condition
mercredi 9 octobre 2019
A New Jersey family who was told their son wouldn't survive past birth are now celebrating their seven-month-old miracle baby.
During her 10-week ultrasound, Maria Santa Maria's unborn son, Lucas, was diagnosed with a rare defect that would cause him to be born with his brain outside of his skull—a condition known as exencephaly. He's believed to be the first infant born with the condition to survive.
Local news station ABC 7 New York reports that Santa Maria's doctor told her even if Lucas made it to birth, he wouldn't survive more than a few hours. That's because exencephaly, a rare malformation where the skull doesn't fully form, leaving a "large, unorganized mass of brain tissue," according to a letter to the editor written by doctors in Siddhartha Medical College in India that was published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine's Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences.
Santa Maria was told she should get an abortion. "That's not what I wanted to do," she said. She knew she wanted to carry Lucas to term, and she later delivered him at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. Doctors were stunned that he survived through birth. But still, Santa Maria prepared herself and her family for what the doctors had warned: that he ultimately wouldn't survive.
Santa Maria told Good Morning America that she made funeral arrangements and also had a child life specialist prepare her daughters Sophia, 8, Nia, 7, and Giana, 3, in case Lucas didn't make it.
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ABC 7 New York
But when doctors saw Lucas was otherwise healthy, they performed a life-saving surgery four days after he was born. Dr. Tim Vogel, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at the North Jersey Brain and Spine Center, told GMA that Lucas' surgery involved removing abnormal brain tissue to prevent it from damaging the functioning area of his brain.
Dr. Vogel told Fox News that since the surgery, bone has started to form a protective layer around Lucas' brain, and that the scalp has started to grow over it, complete with hair. He added that future operations will involve taking the bone that's currently growing and shaping it around other areas that are lacking. They'll later start thinking about cosmetic goals, focusing on the top of his skull.
As far as Lucas' neurodevelopment, Dr. Vogel said he's on the same path that a child his age normally would be. Lucas can lift his head and has already started to crawl, something babies typically learn between six and 10 months of age.
Santa Maria told GMA that Lucas is making great progress and that their family feels extremely fortunate to have him in their lives. "I don't see myself without Lucas," she said. "Sometimes there are miracles. We wanted to meet our baby boy...to us it's a blessing every day."
Dr. Vogel said to Fox News that he hope other families facing a tough diagnosis can find inspiration in Lucas' story. "It’s such a night and day difference from what they told the family was going to happen—it’s just fantastic to see, it really is," he said.
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< Miracle Baby Born With Brain Outside of Skull Believed to Be First to Survive Rare ConditionMiley Cyrus Has Been Hospitalized With Tonsillitis—Here's What You Need to Know About the Infection
Miley Cyrus has been through a lot lately. First, she split with her husband, Liam Hemsworth, after less than a year, then she had another breakup with her (now ex–) girlfriend Kaitlynn Carter. Now, Cyrus has apparently been hospitalized with a nasty bout of tonsillitis
Cyrus revealed her hospitalization in her Instagram Stories Tuesday, sharing multiple shots from her hospital room. In one hospital photo, Cyrus said she's trying to “heal [as] quick as possible to make it to Gorillapalooza” this weekend. “Send gooooood vibes my way! Hoping the Rock star G*DS send me a boost of bad ass and help me kick this s—t to the curb where it belongs! We got gorillas to save!" she wrote.
In another post, she shared a photo of herself in a hospital gown with her mom, Tish Cyrus, brushing her hair. She also posed for a photo after "redesigning" her hospital gown, and, in a now-deleted Instagram Story, Cyrus also had a few choice words for her tonsillitis (she called it a "f—king f—k").
Luckily, Cyrus seems to be on the mend—but you might still be wondering what tonsillitis is exactly, and why she'd need to be hospitalized for it. Here's what you need to know.
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Okay, what is tonsilitis?
Tonsillitis is, essentially, inflammation of the throat that affects your tonsils, the visible lumps of tissue on the left and right sides of the back of your throat, according to the US National Library of Medicine (USNLM). Just FYI: Your tonsils are part of your lymphatic system, which clears away infections and keeps bodily fluids in balance. Your tonsils (along with your adenoids, which are a patch of tissue high up in your throat behind your nose) actually work by trapping germs that come in through the mouth and nose.
Tonsillitis is typically caused by a viral infection, but sometimes bacterial infections (like strep throat) can also be to blame.
Children and teens are more likely to develop tonsillitis, but, while it's not common in adults, technically anyone can develop it, per the USNLM. And while tonsillitis itself isn't contagious, the bacteria and viruses that cause it are—which is why frequent hand washing and other precautions are important to prevent catching or spreading the infections.
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What are the symptoms of tonsillitis?
Symptoms can vary, but the USNLM says these are pretty typical signs that you have tonsillitis:
- Sore throat
- Swollen and very red tonsils with a yellowish coating
- Difficulty swallowing
- Swollen and painful lymph nodes in the neck
- Fever
- Bad breath
- Fatigue or lethargy
RELATED: 7 Signs You Could Have Strep Throat
How is tonsillitis diagnosed—and how is it treated?
Doctors typically begin a tonsillitis diagnosis with a medical history and current symptoms. Then, the provider will do a visual check of your throat and neck for redness or white spots on the tonsils (which can signal strep throat) and swollen lymph nodes. You may also need a rapid strep test or throat culture to check for strep throat.
Once it's determined that you have tonsillitis, it’s treated with medication to relieve the pain and fever, like ibuprofen or acetaminophen, along with antibiotics (if the tonsillitis is caused by a bacterial infection), per the USNLM. Using throat lozenges, gargling with salt water, and drinking tea may also help with symptoms.
In some cases, if you've had tonsillitis regularly, if bacterial tonsillitis doesn't get better with antibiotics, or your tonsils are so inflamed that you're having trouble breathing and swallowing, your doctor might recommend having a tonsillectomy, or a surgery to remove your tonsils. Luckily, that's often a same-day surgery and can take just 1–2 weeks to fully heal.
As for Cyrus, she hasn’t revealed why she was hospitalized for her tonsillitis or if she’s having surgery; but it seems like whatever happens, she'll be documenting it on Instagram.
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< Miley Cyrus Has Been Hospitalized With Tonsillitis—Here's What You Need to Know About the InfectionThis Dad Says His Baby Was Charged $3,500 For His Own Delivery—How Common is That?
There are a lot of bills to wade through after you have a baby, especially if the birth took place in a hospital. But one new dad noticed something unusual with a hospital bill his family received: His newborn son seemed to have been billed for his own delivery.
Redditor QuicksandGotMyShoe shared a post about his family’s experience that’s now gone viral. “My wife gave birth three months ago and, when going through the bills, we noticed that our baby was billed for its own delivery,” he wrote. “Conveniently (for the insurance company), this meant that it applies towards my son's deductible ($3,500) instead of my wife's which had been fully met at that point due to an earlier hospital stay.” QuicksandGotMyShoe said the family’s insurance “covers in-network hospitalizations fully after the deductible has been met."
QuicksandGotMyShoe later followed up with some good (and not-so-good) news: That the baby was not charged for its own delivery—and that the charges are valid. After speaking with a hospital representative, QuicksandGotMyShoe said he was told "most of what my son was charged was 'newborn charges' ($1,200/day, $2,400 total), the circumcision ($1,800) and 'other charges.'"
The Redditor added that, while he's still appealing some of the charges to see if they can be moved to his wife's insurance, but says that, overall, the charges are "legit"—but it still raises an important question: How exactly does insurance and billing work when it comes to giving birth?
So what do babies (and moms) get billed for during birth?
Health insurance coverage can be confusing under the best of circumstances, and it’s hard to know the details of this particular situation and the family’s coverage. (Health reached out to QuicksandGotMyShoe for comment, but didn’t hear back.) But, when it comes to having a baby, health insurance can be even more maddening.
“When babies are born, there are two components to the bills,” says Katalin Goencz, CIC, co-president of Alliance of Claim Assistance Professionals. One is the delivery, which is billed to the mother; The other is baby care, which is billed to the insurance on file under the newborn, she says.
As far as deductibles go, which are also confusing, some insurance policies have a per person deductible (i.e. the amount you pay for covered health care before your insurance plan starts to pay). “So, if the baby is born there is a new person on the policy and per person deductible kicks in,” Goencz explains.
Many policies also have a larger family deductible in addition to the personal deductible of each member, says Adria Gross, president of MedWise Insurance Advocacy and author of Solved! Curing Your Medical Insurance Problems. If the family deductible wasn’t met yet, the baby’s birth wouldn’t be covered, she says, adding that "it's a normal thing with health insurance."
In general, you usually have 30 days after you give birth to add your new baby to your healthcare benefits, says Abbie Leibowitz, M.D., founder, chief medical officer. and president emeritus of HealthAdvocate. If you do that, your child’s birth should be covered—again, provided your deductible has been met.
What can you do to make sure you’re not paying unusual bills after you give birth?
When you’re pregnant, make sure your doctor and hospital are in your network, Gross says. And, if your health insurance changed during your pregnancy, you’ll want to check your coverage again.
If you’re planning on having pain management during labor or a C-section, know that anesthesiologists are often out of network. Check your plan in advance to see what your in– and out–of–network coverage entails and, if you’re not sure, Gross recommends calling the hospital where you plan to give birth to ask in advance which insurance companies their anesthesiologists accept. If you have a scheduled induction, call and ask who will be the anesthesiologist who will work with you and make sure they’re in your network, she says. If they’re not covered, ask upfront what the cost will be. “If they tell you in advance what the amount will be, that’s what it should be,” Gross says.
It’s easy to just assume a bill is correct and pay it to avoid a hassle, but insurance mix-ups can and do happen. “Never pay a medical bill without questioning it,” Leibowitz says. You can contact your insurance provider directly or, if that doesn’t seem to help, there are patient advocacy organizations that can take this on for you.
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< This Dad Says His Baby Was Charged $3,500 For His Own Delivery—How Common is That?
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