Latest Melinda Carstensen News | Fox News

Prostate cancer treatment helps sustain 10-year-old with rare bone cancer

Wed, 05 Oct 2016 05:00:00 -0400

When Maddie Demers’ rare metastatic bone cancer stopped responding to conventional chemotherapy in June, her oncologist advised the young girl’s parents, Barbie and Mike, to put her under hospice care. But today, after receiving three rounds of a targeted radiation traditionally used to treat prostate cancer, bone scans suggest the cancer has stopped spreading.

“We’re steadily reducing her disease burden, and it may not cure her, but it’s made her a lot better,” Dr. Peter Anderson, Maddie’s oncologist at Cleveland Clinic Children’s, told FoxNews.com.

The treatment, called radium, targets the growth of new bone, which aligns with the spread of cancer. After suffering from a persistent leg ache, Maddie, an outgoing 10-year-old who was the captain of her school’s cheerleading squad, was diagnosed in early May with multicentric osteogenic sarcoma, a bone cancer so rare that most doctors never see a case in their lifetime. By the time she received a leg biopsy in Orlando, about 125 miles northwest of her hometown, Port St. Lucie, the disease had spread to her pelvis and spine. Doctors promptly started her on aggressive chemotherapy treatment but gave her only 15 months to live.

“I was already looking for doctors when they told us it was extremely rare bone cancer,” Barbie, 41, told FoxNews.com. “I had a friend of mine who was searching all the outlets she [could], and that’s when we found Dr. Anderson.”

When she called Anderson, who has been studying osteosarcoma since the mid-1980s, he recommended the same 10 rounds of the chemotherapy prescribed by Maddie’s doctors in Orlando, so the family moved forward with that plan. But five weeks into the regimen, a CT scan revealed treatment wasn’t working— Maddie’s cancer had spread to her lungs. Doctors recommended ending treatment and putting her under hospice care, Barbie recalled.

“I went back into [the room] where Maddie was and called Dr. Anderson … and I said, ‘We need to come there,’” said Barbie, who next relayed the unexpected turn of events to Anderson. “He said, ‘Be here by Friday.’”

The family took an air ambulance to the Cleveland Clinic, where Anderson placed Maddie on a 14-day chemotherapy drip and accompanying chemo pill, put her on a morphine drip, and cast and put nerve blockers in her leg to help ease the pain.

When Anderson suggested radium, Barbie’s mind flashed back to her early online research of Anderson, as well as a conversation she had with another patient’s parent in Orlando.

“Somebody (the parent) said to me, ‘Dr. Anderson used to be at MD Anderson [Cancer Center]. My daughter was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and was given grim chances, and he saved her life.’ That clicked into my head,” Barbie said. “This is a rare cancer that nobody’s heard of and she’s got so many tumors, it can’t hurt. So when he said, ‘This is what we want to try,’ I said, ‘Absolutely, of course.’”

Maddie has undergone three monthly rounds of the radium, and each injection is infused over one minute. She has three more rounds of the treatment to go for a total of six injections, a regimen that follows the typical treatment for prostate cancer and is slated to end in time for the holidays. Side effects of radium include an upset stomach and fleeting pain, the latter of which Maddie has experienced. Anderson has studied radium in osteosarcoma patients before, but he said Maddie is the youngest osteosarcoma patient he knows of who has received the drug.

Using sodium fluoride to detect where cancer is spreading, a PET scan suggests the radium has helped eradicate cancer cells in multiple areas of Maddie’s bone, including her skull base and the top of her spine.

“We would hope as we continue to do this her quality of life will stay good, and it’s something that would set her up for being on a chronic but tolerable medical regimen,” Anderson said. “It’s a temporary solution, and if there’s new treatments that would benefit her, we’d be the first to share that with her family.”

If the radium ends up failing, Anderson said he’d look to use a drug called muramyl tripeptide phosphatidyl ethanolamine (MTP-PE), which is not approved in the United States but is available in other countries such as Mexico, Europe, Taiwan and Israel, and has proven to extend osteosarcoma patients’ lifespan. He said he would also turn to a new class of drugs, immune checkpoint inhibitors, which are showing some promise for melanoma, and a type of oral gene therapy being developed by Ococeutics, a drug discovery and development company.

“With Maddie, I would say all bets are off on her— she’s doing better than expected,” said Anderson, who added that Maddie is currently being treated on an outpatient basis.

Dr. Kurt Richard Weiss, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Division of Musculoskeletal Oncology, and director of the Cancer Stem Cell Laboratory, said as a 15-year-old in 1999 he was cured of osteosarcoma with MTP-PE, which was being studied in a phase II trial at MD Anderson. After a phase III trial to confirm its efficacy, the Food and Drug Administration was not satisfied with the data presented, so it didn’t approve the drug.

But Weiss, who now operates on osteosarcoma patients, knows the power of experimental therapy in helping to save lives. He predicted immunotherapy would make waves in osteosarcoma treatment due to the cancer’s predictable nature of spreading to the lungs. Types of immunotherapy vary, but generally the treatment harnesses the immune system’s natural ability to destroy cancer cells. The therapy is at the forefront of cancer research today.

Although he hasn’t studied radium in a scientific setting, Weiss, said the drug appears to show promise too.

“Radiation has a poor track record with bone sarcomas … but [radium] is a different animal,” he told FoxNews.com. “This is getting the radiation to the bone from the inside rather than the outside, so it’s an interesting twist on how to do that.”

Weiss previously worked with Anderson and at MD Anderson, but he has not treated Maddie.

Maddie has weekly checkups with Anderson at the Cleveland Clinic, where she has blood work done. To rebuild her strength, she undergoes physical therapy two times a week. Recently, she walked 100 feet with her walker— a task made more challenging due to the leg biopsy in Orlando. Despite the physical discomfort, Maddie is a fighter, her mother said.

The day she was diagnosed, Barbie recalled, she had to explain to Maddie the importance of staying strong throughout this battle.

“I explained to her that, ‘You gotta fight; you can be pissed off and mad all you want, and have bad days, but the one thing we ask from you is to fight,” Barbie said. “And the girl fights, and she’s been fighting since.”

To learn more about Maddie's fight, visit her website, MaddiesFight.com. To support her family in covering her medical bills, visit Maddie's GoFundMe page.

Woman with MS to run 7 marathons on 7 continents in 1 year

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 11:03:00 -0400

When Cheryl Hile was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2006, she thought her running career was over. Instead, she got an orthotic brace, ramped up her training, and has run 36 marathons in the 10 years since. Next up: seven marathons on all seven continents— all of which she’s set to complete in the next year.

“I’ve always known that I wanted to do something really big,” Cheryl, 42, of San Diego, California, who ran the first in the series in Africa on Sunday, told FoxNews.com. If Cheryl finishes the seven marathons on all seven continents, she will be the first person with MS to do so.

Inspired by her longtime marathoner husband, Brian, Cheryl began running in 2000. She loved that it was an activity she and Brian could do together, and it filled her with joy.

“I guess I’m one of those people that reaches that runner’s high, where you just feel so good, and you feel like a machine and you want to keep running forever,” Cheryl said. “It’s a little different with MS because you don’t feel like a machine as much, but it’s something that elevates your spirits.”

MS is a neurodegenerative disease wherein the immune system attacks the protective sheath of nerves, called myelin, which hinders communication between the brain and the body, according to the Mayo Clinic. For Cheryl, MS manifests by weakening her muscles on the right side of her body, including her right foot, which she trips over due to drop foot, a common symptom of MS. The 1.2-pound orthotic brace that the Hanger Clinic created for her slightly elevates her right toes so she can’t trip and fall.

“Pretty much, I push off with the left side of my body, and my right side follows along,” said Cheryl, whose right-leg muscles have atrophied as MS prevents them from activating.

After Cheryl was diagnosed with MS, her first neurologist advised her to lower her expectations.

“I’m not the right person to say that to because she just pissed me off,” said Cheryl, laughing. “I wanted to prove her wrong, and I think I have.”

Her orthotist Ara Mirzaian told her he thought she could continue running, but he was skeptical about Cheryl’s wish to run a marathon.

“She’s always been active, and when she came to me, I said, ‘I can see you running, but running a marathon is pretty much impossible with drop foot,’” Mirzaian, who works at the Hanger Clinic’s Encinitas location, told FoxNews.com. “[She] said, ‘I can do it; give me a brace.’”

Cheryl went through about five different brace designs, breaking several, until she got her current model for running, which is made of carbon graphite. For each upcoming marathon, she’ll carry two backups as a precaution.

“She’s risen above it, and that’s hard to see in patients,” Mirzaian said.

Brian, 56, Cheryl’s husband of more than 10 years and partner of more than 20, said his wife is determined when she sets her mind to something.

“She’s stubborn in the sense that the doctor is not going to dissuade her from doing the things she has said [she’s going to do],” Brian, 56, told FoxNews.com. Brian and Cheryl work as fund managers at the University of California, San Diego, and the two plan to run Cheryl’s seven marathons together.

The Hiles said Cheryl has cleared the seven-marathon goal with her neurologist, but her neurologist could not be reached for direct comment.

To prepare for the races, Cheryl lifts weights every other day and had previously biked for cross-training. But she and Brian have stopped running and cycling to rest their legs, with the idea that each marathon will offer cardiovascular training for the next.

After completing her first race in Cape Town, South Africa, on Sept. 18, Hile will travel to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in October, and then Honolulu in December, Antarctica in January, Tokyo in February, and Vienna in April. The last scheduled race is in Christchurch, New Zealand, in June.

“Just having MS, just in case something were to happen, I wanted to give myself an extra three months to accomplish this, but I’m pretty confident I can do it in nine months,” Cheryl said.

To train and test their gear for the Antarctica race, where the equivalent marathon was -4 degrees F last year, the Hiles plan to do long runs in Denver over the holidays. Cheryl is worried about her symptoms there as well as in the heat in Honolulu, as extreme temperatures can cause her leg to become heavier and her arm to become number. But she takes comfort in knowing Brian will be by her side to encourage and help her open her water bottle, which MS makes tougher.

Cheryl is most looking forward to the New Zealand race— not only because it’s the last race but also because it falls on her birthday, June 4.

Before her MS diagnosis, Cheryl could complete a marathon around 4:15 or 4:20. Now, she’s aiming for 5:00. Cheryl finished her Cape Town race in 4:51:51.

Whenever she’s done with all seven races, she and Brian may plan a cross-country trip on their bikes. Cheryl recently met another woman with MS who climbed all seven summits in the United States.

“I’ve completed 49 marathons in such a short time span, and it’s because I have that sentiment in my heart that, ‘I better do everything I want to do now before something bad happens,’” Cheryl said. “Some people wake up, and the next morning they can’t move their legs. There is a bit of a rush to do everything I want to do, but at the same time, Brian tells me he feels that I’ll stop running on my own terms— I’ll decide I don’t want to run marathons anymore, rather than the disease dictating when I have to stop.”

Brian agreed.

“She’s a fighter,” he said.

Cheryl is fundraising to cover travel expenses for the marathons. To donate, visit CrowdRise.com.

Lingering debris, water from Hurricane Hermine could hamper Florida's Zika fight

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 15:11:00 -0400

As Floridians prepare for what may be a lousy Labor Day weekend, officials are bracing for what could be a more devastating effect of Hurricane Hermine: derailment of the state’s mosquito control efforts to prevent the spread of Zika, a virus that can be sexually transmitted and cause severe birth defects.

Although officials have identified active transmission of the virus in South Florida, some experts, including Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, think its local presence in the continental United States could be more widespread. That likely reality could come to light after the storm passes, Hotez said.

“The good news is that pretty aggressive storms with high wind and rain can wash away mosquito breeding sites, so in the short term it could have a potentially positive effect,” Hotez, also the Texas Children’s Hospital endowed chair in Tropical Pediatrics, told FoxNews.com. “But then what happens is as the flood waters recede, that could create new breeding sites for mosquitoes.”

Joe Conlon, technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association, said any winds beyond 10 mph would impact mosquito control efforts in South Florida, where three samples of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the primary vector of Zika, recently tested positive for the virus.

In the short term, the biggest problem Floridians may face is with nuisance mosquitoes, he added. A persistent drought in the state over the past few years has hampered those mosquito populations, but flooding water will inundate eggs, leading numbers to surge.

“We’ll experience a bumper crop of nuisance mosquitoes— there’s no question about it,” Conlon, who is based in Jacksonville, told FoxNews.com. “We’re going to have mosquitoes out the yin yang.”

During a press conference Thursday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Hermine has the potential to bring a storm surge of up to 9 feet in Florida and acknowledged that likely flooding could pose a threat in the state’s Zika battle. Aedes aegypti love standing water, Conlon said, especially in debris like tires and cups.

"You've heard the message with Zika,” Scott said during the conference. “We want no standing water. Well, we're going to have standing water when this happens.”

Conlon advised states along the Gulf Coast and the South, through which Hermine is projected to travel, to step up preventative measures against Zika. For officials, that means distributing public service announcements and increasing mosquito control efforts after the storm passes. Residents can protect themselves by wearing EPA-registered mosquito repellent, he said.

Conlon couldn’t predict whether the storm would trigger a spread of Zika across Florida or other states in the South, but said if he were a betting man, he didn’t think it’d change the virus’ projected course.

“Although there’s a potential that it would increase the probability of it spreading, everybody’s preparing for it anyway,” he said. “The only thing it might do is it might kick Congress into gear.”

In light of mosquitoes testing positive for Zika in South Florida and the federal government’s lack of a formal surveillance system for the virus, Hotez said he thinks the virus is likely already present elsewhere. He expressed concern over what he perceives as a false sense of public comfort over Zika.

“People think there’s just transmission going on in Miami and other places in South Florida, and I think that’s misleading,” he said.

He pointed out that, even during outbreaks of dengue fever— another virus transmitted by the Aedes aegypti— mosquito populations often won’t test positive for the virus.

“That, to me, indicates a pretty significant level of transmission that’s going on [in South Florida,]” Hotez said. “Nobody’s looking for Zika, and that’s a huge problem.”

New ‘zombie’ drug may be emerging in Florida as flakka use declines

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 10:34:00 -0400

When details of an attack allegedly involving a Florida State University student who police say stabbed an innocent couple to death then tried to eat the face of one of the victims were released earlier this month, many media outlets quickly pointed to flakka, a synthetic cathinone similar to bath salts that can cause violent, aggressive behavior. But if Austin Harrouff, the 19-year-old suspect who authorities say killed John Stevens, 59, and Michelle Mischon, 53, outside their home in Jupiter, Florida, was on the synthetic drug alpha-PVP, data suggests his case isn’t representative of a growing problem nationwide.

“In all synthetics, as well as cathinones, as well as bath salts, we’ve noticed a reduction— I think to something to the tune of 30 percent since October 2015,” Melvin Patterson, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told FoxNews.com.

That month, the Chinese government banned production of flakka and 115 other synthetic drugs, effectively stunting exports to the United States. Although the feds have seized flakka from some European countries like the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia, China has been the biggest exporter of flakka to the United States, said Jim Hall, an epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale and a nationally recognized expert on flakka and other illicit drugs.

While Harrouff’s toxicology report has yet to be released, experts say there are hints a different substance was to blame. After the killings, authorities said Harrouff had a body temperature of about 97 degrees. Flakka, or its chemical name alpha-PVP, and bath salts cause what experts call a state of “excited delirium,” wherein the user’s body temperature skyrockets to at least 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

“I am cautious in attributing it to flakka or another drug from the same category,” Hall, also a sentinel community epidemiologist (SCE) for the University of Maryland’s National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), told FoxNews.com.

An absence of hypothermia likely rules out those drugs but could point to something similar, he said. Police in the Palm Beach area reported a similar case Sunday of a teen seemingly with superhuman strength and high tolerance of pain smashing through a glass window. The unidentified drug appears to be some kind of bath salt, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Since the initial breaking news, various media have named steroids and unidentified chemicals possibly found in the victims’ garage as additional suspects.

“Evidently, human growth hormone (HGH) steroid use is done in cycles— several weeks on, several weeks off— and it’s when person is off the steroids that they can have an episode that can trigger the ‘roid rage,’” Hall said.

Harrouff’s case isn’t the first time zombie-like behavior has been associated with flakka and bath salts. A 2012 incident in South Florida involving a man nicknamed “the Miami causeway cannibal,” is often pegged to flakka. But the case actually involved a bad trip on conventional marijuana. The drug caused Rudy Eugene, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, to hallucinate, strip down and streak, and bite Ronald Poppo, a homeless man, in the face on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami.

Marijuana can trigger an episode of schizophrenia in someone prone to the disorder, and Eugene had a history of heavy use of regular and synthetic marijuana despite testing positive only for the former, Hall said.

Wade Harrouff, Austin Harrouff’s father, told the Post that mental illness was to blame in his son’s case, and that the family has a history of schizophrenia.

According to the NDEWS, reports of synthetic cathinone seizures increased by about 18 percent from 2014 to 2015— before the Chinese ban went into effect. The NDEWS, which draws data from the DEA’s National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS), won’t have 2016 drug reports available until later this year, Erin Artigiani, deputy director for policy at the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland, told FoxNews.com.

After the ban went into effect, South Florida saw a “dramatic” decline in the availability of alpha-PVP and its consequences, including related ER visits, excited delirium cases and admittances to addiction treatment centers, Hall said.

At four major hospitals in Broward County, medics observed about 12 alpha-PVP cases per day in summer 2015. By December, two months into the ban, cases were down to two per day, Hall said.

“In 2016, they have virtually seen none,” he said, adding that there were 63 alpha-PVP-related deaths from September 2014 – 2015, and none after that.

However, some parts of the U.S. are still seeing a rise in flakka use, albeit merely on a quantitative level. In Atlanta, for example, NDEWS SCE Dr. Brian Dew, chair of counseling and psychological services at Georgia State University, has seen a handful of flakka seizures crop up this year.

But, he said, “We’re starting in such a small place that even a few arrests will indicate an increase. It’s difficult to know whether it’s going up or down, or becoming a growing threat.”

He said regardless of what numbers end up revealing, demand for synthetic cathinones, including ethylones and methylones, remains high. Amid a nationwide opioid abuse and heroin use epidemic, most communities and public health officials have their eyes on fentanyl— one of the drugs not affected in the Chinese production ban—and the synthetic linked with the late pop star Prince’s death. Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times as strong as morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Although the drug isn’t known to be associated with excited delirium, heroin is often laced with it, and the two can make a deadly combination.

A CDC report released in August 2016 found that nationally, the number of fentanyl submissions and synthetic opioid deaths increased by 426 percent and 79 percent, respectively, from 2013 to 2014.

Harrouff’s toxicology report, which the FBI is processing in Quantico, Virginia, may not be available for another couple of weeks, the Post reported.

Minimizing risk poses unique challenges in Zika vaccine trials, scientists say

Wed, 24 Aug 2016 06:00:00 -0400

As health officials fight to suppress a rising number of Zika virus cases in Florida, scientists with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are working to identify a vaccine candidate that could offer a solution for all. Their main goal: concocting a live attenuated vaccine that would contain enough of the virus’ properties to elicit a protective antibody response, but to a weak enough degree that the virus itself could not be transmitted sexually among humans, or, through blood via mosquito bites, to the main vector itself.

Those risks make nailing the right formulation crucial because, unlike other illnesses for which these vaccines have been created, like the seasonal flu, Zika resides in several bodily fluids of infected individuals, and many of the virus’ effects remain mysterious. For example, scientists still don’t know how and when during pregnancy Zika can cause birth defects, nor do they know its relationship with Guillain–Barré syndrome, a condition that causes paralysis and that some research suggests may impact 1 in 5,000 people, particularly those over age 60, who get Zika.

“There are definitely some unique features of Zika, and Zika vaccines— particularly live attenuated vaccines— that we’re going to have to be aware of when we do these trials,” Dr. Anna Durbin, an international health professor at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, who will lead the forthcoming clinical trial of the vaccine beginning around December, told FoxNews.com.

In the next few months, Durbin is slated to receive a candidate vaccine from the NIH that she and her team will use to study whether the vaccine is inducing immunity to Zika in humans. Next, they will begin the trial’s human challenge portion, wherein participants will be vaccinated, and about six months later injected with the Zika virus to test whether the candidate is effective. The final vaccine likely won’t be ready for another couple of years after rigorous testing is complete.

Dr. Stephen Whitehead, a senior associate scientist at the NIH’s lab of infectious diseases, is leading the research on identifying a preliminary candidate vaccine by building upon previous research of dengue fever, an infection that causes annual clusters of illness in U.S. states with warm weather. Zika and dengue belong to the family flaviviruses, and they are primarily mosquito- and tick-borne. Ideally, the developing vaccine would protect against Zika and dengue.

“We see it as something we can do to kill two birds with one stone,” Whitehead told FoxNews.com.

During preclinical work, Whitehead’s team is studying whether certain vaccine candidates can be transmitted among mosquitoes. They also plan to study how they are excreted in blood, urine, saliva and semen in monkeys.

“When they start to evaluate vaccine candidates, they compare the vaccine to the wild-type virus in nonhuman primates to show that the vaccine actually is a weakened form— that it doesn’t grow as well as the wild type,” said Durbin, who has long worked with Whitehead’s team to develop the dengue vaccine.

“When the live attenuated vaccine is tuned just right so that it doesn’t cause illness and it can’t be transmitted by mosquitoes and things like that, then growing that vaccine for manufacturing is relatively inexpensive,” Dr. Barney Graham, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, under the NIH, told FoxNews.com. “It’s something that already has a track record that it can be turned into millions and millions of doses for global distribution.”

Graham’s team is one of two worldwide that has begun developing a Zika vaccine that uses DNA to create an antibody response and protect against the virus. The other is Inovio Pharmaceuticals, which U.S. regulators granted approval for a human trial in June. DNA vaccines don’t use live attenuated versions of the virus at hand, but rather they contain expressed genes from a circular piece of DNA from the virus.

Although they are proven to work in scientific models and are quick to design, compared to live attenuated vaccines, DNA vaccines are more difficult to mass-produce.

“That part of the DNA vaccine process hasn’t been done before,” Graham said. “We don’t have a biological risk; we have more of a manufacturing and execution risk on the backend.”

Durbin said that after media began reporting on the human challenge portion of the clinical trial last week, as of Friday, she had received at least 20 emails from interested participants. Her team won’t begin formal recruitment until October or November. Patients in clinical trials often receive payment for their participation, and while Durbin expects some people may be enrolling in the Zika trials for that reason alone, she believes others are already raising their hands for more altruistic reasons.

“We saw this with HIV vaccine trails as well. People see the devastating consequences of Zika in pregnant people, and from news reports they know there’s a lot of knowledge we need,” she said.

Johns Hopkins declined to connect FoxNews.com with prospective participants.

For the clinical trial, Durbin is aiming to enroll 20 participants to receive the vaccine and eight people to receive a placebo. Based on potential Guillain–Barré syndrome risks, their age range will likely be 18 to 50. Individuals who are immunosuppressed or pregnant, as well as those who report they or their partners are trying to conceive, will be excluded. Those parameters are based on what research suggests Zika can do: In most healthy individuals, the virus causes mild symptoms, but during pregnancy, it can cause children to be born with severe birth defects, including microcephaly and possibly a rare joint disorder.

Durbin said scientists likely won’t have all the answers to questions about Zika by the time clinical trials begin.

“What we try to do is to educate the volunteer to the risk that we know,” she said, adding that participants go through several rounds of written and vocal comprehension evaluations to ensure they’re mentally sound and aware of the risks in a clinical trial. If a participant develops serious side effects as a result of getting the vaccine, researchers would tend to his or her hospitalization.

For those who do wish to enroll for superficial reasons, payment comes at no small price: During the human challenge model, patients must remain in an inpatient unit for 12 days to reduce the risk of transmission by mosquito or sex, and so researchers may observe their symptoms, as well as secretion of the virus in their blood, urine, semen, vaginal secretions, and saliva. After that, patients must agree to be observed every other day for about a week, as well as periodically over the subsequent months. Durbin and her team haven’t yet set the exact follow-up timeline for Zika.

“It’s a huge time commitment,” Durbin said.

Woman battling stage 4 breast cancer uses beauty pageant to inspire

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 08:20:00 -0400

Lots of women enjoy getting dolled up, but wearing red or nude lipstick and a stylish outfit offer more than amusement for 36-year-old Sarah White— looking her best gives her strength to continue fighting for her life.

After beating the disease in 2013, the special education teacher saw her triple negative breast cancer return and spread to her chest wall, spine and lungs in October 2015. The news was ill timed: White had been on her 10th year of teaching those students, and she had given birth to her second child only six months prior to her diagnosis. To prepare for more treatment and shield her fragile immune system, she went on medical leave and soon after fell into “a funk,” she said.

“When I found out it’s back at stage 4, I kind of did the bucket list thing, and my husband said, ‘I don’t want to hear this,’” White told FoxNews.com.

But ultimately, taking that approach helped White rediscover one of her childhood passions— beauty pageants— and rediscover herself. The endeavor not only helped her cope emotionally, but it also has provided a vehicle to inspire and educate other women battling disease.

“I am a person”

After a friend encouraged White to participate in the Miss All-Star United States Pageant, a national beauty pageant for women of all ages, White won the title of Mrs. West Virginia in April, and in July she competed for the national title. White used her cancer battle as a platform to raise awareness of the disease, propose new breast cancer-related legislation in West Virginia, and educate the public about clinical trials like METRIC, a national ongoing study in which she participates at the Cleveland Clinic.

Although results have not been finalized, so far the IV treatment is showing promise for White, who makes the five-hour drive from her hometown of Huntington, West Virginia, to the Cleveland Clinic, once every three weeks. The study is randomized and controlled, and White received the study drug, not the placebo.

“We saw near-complete disappearance of her lesions in the bone and lung and chest wall. It’s really working for her now,” Dr. Jame Abraham, director of the breast oncology program at the Cleveland Clinic, and White’s doctor, told FoxNews.com. The trial began about a couple of years ago, and Abraham estimated it will end in one year.

Triple negative breast cancer, which affects about 15 percent of breast cancer patients, is known to be aggressive. White had already undergone a double mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy the first time she fought the disease. Prior to seeking another opinion at the Cleveland Clinic about a year ago for her second battle, White said her doctor in Columbus told her that, if chemo stopped working, she had two to five years to live.

“She should have never put it in those words,” White said. “She put me as a statistic, and I am not a statistic. I am a person.”

Her husband, Nestor, filled out an online referral form for the Cleveland Clinic, where she was later tested for GPNMB , a protein present in about 20 percent of triple negative breast cancer tumors. White tested positive for the protein and enrolled in the study in December 2015.

The targeted treatment belongs to a new class of drugs that kill only diseased cells, not healthy cells as in chemo, and it has enabled White to travel for the Miss All Star United States Pageant albeit with some fatigue.

Nestor, 42, was reluctant when his wife first suggested participating in pageants because he was concerned for her physical wellbeing, but he said White’s passion for inspiring others has always been reflected in all aspects of her life.

“She was a special education teacher, and she chose that specifically because she had had teachers as a kid that gave her negative feedback, so she wanted to make sure that when she dealt with [her students] she was giving them positive feedback and let them know that they were going to make their way in the world,” Nestor, who works in banking, told FoxNews.com.

“She amazes me every day with her outlook and her response,” he said.

Recently in Savannah for the pageant, White competed with 49 other contestants for the national title. Although she didn’t win, White said the opportunity helped teach her children, Raegan, 7, and Benjamin, 3, an important lesson about life.

“I’m trying to teach my kids that no matter what happens— good and bad things happen, there are winners and losers, people get cancer, other people don’t get cancer— it’s a part of life,” White said. “I’m hoping that by being the way I am that I’m teaching my children to be strong.”

“People will listen”

The pageant gave White a platform to promote proposed legislation in West Virginia for which she’s now recruiting delegates. The bills would improve standard of care for patients with aggressive breast cancer and aim to aid in earlier diagnoses, as well as provide better mammogram coverage for women who want them or women who are at-risk. Another bill would restrict access to tanning beds for minors, as excess sun exposure is proven to increase the risk of cancer.

White has already garnered some supporters, including the American Cancer Society and her support group, the Sisters of Hope.

“One of the reasons I did the pageant was obviously to have something to focus on, but another reason is if I was standing on the street without a sash and without a crown talking about self-checking and breast cancer awareness or whatever, I might get two people who might listen to me, maybe five,” she said. “But if I have a sash on … you get a following, and people will listen.”

Tammy Johns, national director of the Miss All-Star United States Pageant, described White as “fantastic.”

“She truly does not let her illness hold her back or stop her,” Johns told FoxNews.com in an email. “She graced the stage with poise and elegance. Sarah's attitude and endurance is wonderful— a true queen.”

White also participated in the pageant to show other women with breast cancer what’s possible.

“Just because I have cancer and it’s stage 4 doesn’t mean I’m wallowing in it,” she said. “I don’t have to lay down and die. I could walk into the Cleveland Clinic and wear my PJs, and I’d look like death and feel like death, or I could put on a wig and my jeans and my Michael Kors sandals and lipstick.”

To continue inspiring patients like herself, she volunteers monthly for the American Cancer Society’s program “Look Good Feel Better,” where she teaches other women how to draw on their eyebrows, and put makeup on and tie their scarves.

“I show up with my wig and I take it off. When I show them that, the relief on their faces is unbelievable —it’s like, ‘Wow, you’re not just some ‘Joe Schmo’ who’s showing me how to do that … that makes me feel good.”

Ashley Graham on her cellulite: 'It doesn't define my worth'

Thu, 04 May 2017 10:43:00 -0400

In a new interview with V Magazine, plus-size model Ashley Graham gets personal about her start in the industry, her relationship with social media, and her top role models. But at the heart of her chat with interviewer Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter to legend Diana Ross, is 29-year-old Graham’s refreshing take on a word that’s become nearly taboo among women: cellulite.

“I feel that it’s OK to have cellulite,” Graham, who poses in racy black-and-white photos for the May 2017 cover story, tells V. “It doesn’t define my worth.”

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Graham explains that she first began to notice cellulite on her body in middle school. She showed her mom, remarking, “Isn’t it disgusting? It’s so ugly,” to which her mom reacted by pulling down her pants and showing Graham she had some too.

“I was like, ‘Gasp!’” Graham told V. “She looked at me, then at it, and just rolled her eyes. She didn’t tell me that it’s beautiful or ugly. She just made it a nonissue.”

Fortunately for Graham’s career, her mom — whom Graham considers one of her role models today — put a stop to the senseless body-shaming when Graham was first pursuing modeling. At the time, Graham was 18 and she had “hit bottom,” she told V.

“I was disgusted with myself and told my mom I was coming home,” Graham told the magazine. “And she told me, ‘No, you’re not, because you told me that this was what you wanted and I know you’re supposed to do this. It doesn’t matter what you think about your body, because your body is supposed to change somebody’s life.’

“To this day that sticks with me,” Graham continued, “because I’m here today and I feel that it’s OK to have cellulite.”

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Graham, whose book “A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like” comes out May 9, began commanding national attention in 2016, when she was the first size-16 model to star on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. She has since landed campaigns with brands like Lane Bryant and walked in high-fashion designer Michael Kors’ fall/winter 2017 show during New York Fashion Week, among other feats.

In addition to displaying her curves for V’s steamy photoshoot, the plus-size model lent her frame to this year’s Swimsuits for All campaign, which features models of different sizes and ages in equally flattering swimwear.

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Ashley Graham claps back at critics with sarcastic photo going viral on Instagram

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 12:08:00 -0400

Ashley Graham, the plus-size model who’s a self-proclaimed body diversity ambassador, is at it again.

The 29-year-old Sports Illustrated cover star shared a revealing behind-the-scenes photo from a recent shoot over the weekend with a snarky caption that’s catching media outlets’ eyes.

“When they call you ‘brave’…” she wrote sarcastically with the photo, which had garnered over 267,000 likes as of Monday morning.

Graham, who recently made headlines when she posed nude for V Magazine, is known for making candid comments about her physique that encourage self-love and acceptance among women of all body types.

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In her interview with V, Graham clapped back at critics of her cellulite, which she proclaimed “doesn’t define my worth.”

“I feel that it’s OK to have cellulite,” Graham told the magazine, adding that her mom helped her realize the natural body process is “a nonissue.”

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In implying her latest viral cheeky photo isn’t brave, Graham joins the ranks of other curvy celebs, like Amy Schumer, who’ve lashed out at body shamers who celebrate certain women’s commonplace actions, like wearing a bathing suit, just because their figures don’t fit society’s typical beauty standards.

Based on the comments section of Graham’s post, her perspective clearly has struck a chord with other women. As of Monday morning, her post had garnered over 4,000 comments.

“Real woman posting Real woman pics-I love it!” one commenter wrote. “Keep’em (sic) coming Ashley!”

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Woman with body dysmorphic disorder shares unusual transformation photo

Tue, 30 May 2017 11:08:00 -0400

After scrolling through a feed of polished, photo-ready bodies on Instagram, not comparing ourselves to that standard of perceived perfection can take a healthy dose of willpower and a whole lot of self-love.

Milly Smith, a body confidence advocate on Instagram, knows the feeling. But in a new viral post, she’s calling on young women to stop the body shaming for good.

“Don’t compare,” she writes in the post. “Just live for you.”

As of Tuesday morning, Smith’s Jan. 29 post had received over 79,000 likes.

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In the post, she shares a pair of selfies taken on the same day. The only difference is, in one her tights are pulled up to cover her belly button, and in the other they’re pulled down.

Smith reveals in the caption that she suffers from body dysmorphic disorder, a mental illness in which people perceive contorted versions of their actual physical features, which can lead to a desire for numerous cosmetic procedures and obsessive behaviors to “fix” the perceived defects, according to the Mayo Clinic. Taking these pseudo-transformation photos helps her cope with the condition, she writes.

MODEL BARES ALL IN PHOTOSHOP-FREE CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE BODY CONFIDENCE

“We are so blinded to what a real unposed (sic) body looks like and blinded to what beauty is that people would find me less attractive within a 5 second pose switch! How insanely ridiculous is that!?” Smith writes in part. “I love taking these, it helps my mind so much.”

At the end of the post, Smith leaves her followers with an inspiring message: “The world doesn't need another copy, it needs you,” she writes. “We are worthy, valid and powerful beyond measure.”

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BBG trainer Kayla Itsines: Alcohol is 'poison,' but carbs sure aren't

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 15:15:00 -0400

Instagram fitness queen Kayla Itsines has never eaten at McDonald’s, but she insists she has had a cheeseburger.

For anyone who has followed Itsines’ journey to becoming an international phenomenon worth a reported $46 million, that tidbit may come as a surprise. After all, the 26-year-old (whose name is pronounced “Its-See-Ness”) has seemingly kept her media profile picture-perfect to fit her role: online personal trainer to 12 million followers on Facebook and 7 million on Instagram. Not to mention, she is an inspirational figure to the countless women who’ve bought into her buzzed-about Bikini Body Guide, a 12-week fitness and nutrition plan that’s set off a slew of hashtags on Instagram, including #bbg (tagged in 5.8 million posts) and #bbgcommunity (tagged in 2.6 million posts).

Does she drink alcohol? It’s “poison,” Itsines has been quoted saying. Has she ever had chicken nuggets? Nope, she told Fox News. Favorite pizza? “Supreme” with lots of veggies and, in Australia, where she’s from, pineapple.

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What she’d be if she wasn’t a personal trainer: “A teacher!” she exclaimed. What kind? “Fitness!”

Original? No. But when you get to know Itsines in person, there’s no question she's passionate about her work.

“Check this out,” Itsines said, pulling out her iPhone and showing off her newest program, BBG Stronger, on the SWEAT app, for which she’s collaborated with trainers Sjana Elise and Kelsey Wells, two other rising stars in the fitness world. (Itsines’ program teaches women how to incorporate weight machines at the gym into their workouts.) As a huddle of female colleagues passing by congregated around her post-interview, Itsines giddily scrolled through the different features — each move features a digital demonstration by Itsines, complete with a timer to help users stay on track — prompting satisfied oohs and ahs.

Forbes recently named the Adelaide native the most influential fitness personality worldwide — a title she’s earned through promoting her diet and fitness programs, books, in-person bootcamps, and custom merchandise, like yoga mats and foam rollers, on her site.

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Itsines’ fame, she told Fox News, has grown organically through an online community of women who inspire each other. On her social media accounts, you won’t find body shaming or recommendations to cut carbs (one of the biggest mistakes Itsines sees American women make), but rather, you will see inspirational quotes encouraging self-love, her followers’ side-by-side transformation photos, and snapshots of fruit plates and Itsines’ rock-hard abs. Suffice it to say she's helped lead the charge for the growing body-confidence movement on Instagram.

“I’ve been a female-only trainer my entire life — I started out at a female-only personal training center,” said Itsines, who got into the industry just before her 19th birthday. “I know women, I’m a woman myself, I know what they want, I know how they think, I know how they feel.”

Fox News: You dropped out of college to become a personal trainer, started working at a small gym in your hometown of Adelaide, and joined Instagram on a whim after your business partner and boyfriend, Tobi Pearce, encouraged you to do so. But at what point did you know that you had really created something big?

Itsines: World Tour in 2015 was huge because I got to hear people’s stories who followed my program, and I got to hear how I changed their lives. As a trainer, you sort of think, “Well, you did that because you put in the hard work and you put in the effort.” But they were so adamant in saying that, “No, Kayla, it was you. You gave me the confidence, you gave me the strength.” I was standing there thinking, “This is amazing. This is changing people’s lives.”

Fox News: How do you stay grounded?

Itsines: My family grounds me so much. They’re a big Greek family, and I live a minute from my grandparents, who don’t speak any English. They know what I do, but it’s almost like they don’t mind. They don’t think of me as anything special or as Kayla Itsines from Instagram. It’s just that I’m their granddaughter. They still yell at me when I’m late!

Fox News: You’ve transformed millions of women’s lives. What has that been like?

Itsines: That’s an indescribable feeling. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced someone coming up to you and saying, “You’ve changed my life,” but you can feel that emotion, and you try to hard not to cry and not to hug them forever.

Fox News: How do you pick the people to feature on your Instagram?

Itsines: This is something I spend a lot of time on, and it’s not necessarily someone who looks a certain way or talks a certain way. It’s someone who’s super inspiring, and I have to be able to go on their profile, see that they’ve done the program, see that they’re a positive person, and see that they actually have a journey that other women can follow and be inspired by.

Fox News: What are some of the biggest mistakes you see women make when they’re trying to change their bodies?

Itsines: One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen women make in America is the cutting-out-carbs thing. It’s, “I want to look like this” — when really, they should focus on how they feel rather than how they look. It should be: “I’m gonna do this to make myself happier, so in turn, I feel beautiful.” That’s really a mindset I’m trying to teach women.

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Another mistake women make would be going too hard too fast. As women, we have stages where we get this sudden motivation, we want to do everything — ‘I’m so motivated, I’m gonna go to the gym, I’m gonna work out for hours and hours’ — and they work out, they’re super sore, they can’t maintain it, and they become unmotivated. It’s just about taking things step by step: maybe doing a seven-minute workout and turning it into a 14-minute workout the next week. It’s about slowly building your workout up until you feel good rather than pushing it too far.

Fox News: What’s your advice for someone who is working out and trying to get more physically fit, but is not seeing results?

Itsines: Take a step back and check that they’re comfortable with their training regime, eating the right foods, and drinking enough water. Sometimes, it’s just about eating more and doing less — that’s something that’s a very hard concept to push to women, especially here in the U.S.

Fox News: Have you always been strong and fit? And if not, what challenges did you overcome to achieve the body you have today?

Itsines: I have always been fit — I’ve been into basketball since I was 5 years old. But in terms of strength, that took a lot of building up. I did that through basketball training and training in the gym. However, I’ve always been really, really happy within myself, and that’s what I try to push to women — that I think the more you do slowly, the better you start to feel.

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Fox News: Any advice for women struggling with body confidence?

Itsines: We could have the best bodies in the world, but if we don’t feel good on the inside, it doesn’t matter. I always say to people, “Think about the most beautiful person you know.” They’re not beautiful because they have a beautiful body! You don’t say, “Oh my best friend or the person I love the most is so beautiful because her body looks a certain way.” It’s because she makes me laugh, because she’s smart, because she’s there for me. Beauty comes from the inside, and the more that women start focusing on that, the more beautiful people become, including themselves.

Fox News: Your plan is really based on helping women become strong, not skinny — what would you say to anyone who doesn’t think strong is sexy or attractive?

Itsines: Strong is always sexy and attractive! And the word strong — what does that mean? Because strength comes from within, and BBG Stronger is a program that promotes women walking into the gym with confidence and feeling confident as they walk out. When you’re confident within you, it builds and it radiates, and it shines out of you.

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Fox News: Your Instagram is a serious source of inspiration and support. Can you speak a little to why having that sort of support is so important for people who are on a fitness journey?

Itsines: The transformations are really relatable — you can go onto the page and find someone who looked like you before, or who eats the way you do, or lives in the same country you do. I think that relatability is really nice to have, so you are not looking at one particular person thinking, “Well, I can’t eat that or I can’t do that.”

Fox News: Your programs are big on balance in that they involve weight training, cardio, stretching and resting — and, on the nutrition side, even dessert! Why is this mix so important for producing results?

Itsines: Balance is important in life. It keeps us sane! Why, as women, shouldn’t we be able to have our dinner and eat our dessert? Why shouldn’t we have that? For example, last night I had some pasta and chocolate after, and I don’t feel bad because I eat healthy and I work out. Everything in moderation!

Fox News: Do you ALWAYS eat healthy? What’s something you enjoy eating that people might not expect?

Itsines: Greek cakes! They’re Greek pastries with honey and walnuts. (Itsines’ parents are from Kos, Greece.)

Fox News: You turned 26 in May, and you’ve already accomplished more than most women your age. Do you ever feel like, “Where do I go from here?”

Itsines: No! My clients are the perfect example that age means nothing. Some of them are 40, 45, 50 years old and have the energy levels of a 20-year-old. For me, what’s next is helping more women and learning how I can do that in terms of getting feedback from the community and with BBG. It’s just so exciting.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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'Half Size Me': How a formerly obese mom of 3 dropped half her body weight

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 14:13:00 -0400

Like many Americans, Heather Robertson’s relationship with food at a young age influenced her weight in adulthood.

“I was using food to cope, so whenever I got time by myself or got money, I was buying food to eat for myself, and I wasn’t particularly active,” 41-year-old Robertson, of Lakeland, Florida, told Fox News.

Throughout her 20s and 30s, Robertson’s weight would fluctuate from 250 to 290 pounds as she tried fad diet after fad diet with limited success. Later, during her first pregnancy, she would peak at 339 pounds.

“I decided then that I was going to make a change,” said Robertson, who explained her OB-GYN’s advice not to gain any more weight during pregnancy helped motivate her to alter her lifestyle.

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Over the next five years, Robertson joined Weight Watchers and ended up developing sustainable healthy habits, like exercising for fun and not depriving herself of dessert. Eventually, her hard work paid off and she ended up dropping 170 pounds, or about half of her body weight.

That accomplishment, which she calls her “Mt. Everest,” has become the basis of her company, Half Size Me, in which she teaches other people how to do the same.

“We wanted people to know [weight loss] is possible,” said Robertson, but “they have to change their mindset.”

Through Half Size Me, the mom of three boys coaches other people like herself through a podcast, a community program and a personalized coaching program. Since the company’s inception in 2012, Robertson has served “tens of thousands” of people, she said.

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The podcast is free to download, but joining the community, which involves online support and weekly webinars, is $19.99 per month. On the podcast, Robertson interviews other people who have lost weight and asks them to share their tips, and through the webinars, Robertson teaches her followers weight loss lessons like how to better manage their time and break the diet cycle.

The basis of Robertson’s approach involves asking the question, “Is this something I am willing to do for the rest of my life?” She offered the example of passing up birthday cake at parties, which she no longer does because for her, saying no wasn’t sustainable.

“I had to change my mindset and say, ‘What can I do and maintain my weight?’ because I don’t want to lose all that weight and gain it all back,” she said.

Another tenet she teaches? Moving every day for at least 30 minutes.

“Your minimums should be your bare-bone minimums,” she said. “I track my weight every day even though it may not be pretty. Every day, I move 30 minutes. I can go above that, but I can’t go below that.”

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Through her coaching program, which so far involves 25 to 30 people, Robertson has found that another core practice to help individuals maintain weight loss is being open to different types of exercise, especially in the event of an injury.

“I see this come up time and time again: If they can’t do the activities they love to do, their eating habits go out the window,” Robertson said. “You have to realize the modality of your fitness has to change. If you have that space for fitness, you’ve allowed yourself to grow and adapt.”

Today, Robertson tries to keep her own weight between 150 and 160 pounds — an achievement that’s helped her get back on her feet, grow her business, and raise her three sons.

“There are so many gimmicky diets and plans, and people get sucked in, and I know this because I did this,” Robertson said. “What we want people to know is there are so many various ways of doing this and you have to find what works for you. There’s no right way or wrong way.”

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Military wife shares importance of self-care after husband's PTSD diagnosis

Thu, 08 Jun 2017 10:00:00 -0400

Two weeks before mom-of-three Brittany Zurn was set to begin a new job in 2014, she learned her husband, Aaron, had fallen nearly 20 feet out of a helicopter while deployed overseas as part of a special-forces unit in the U.S. Marine Corps. The traumatic brain injury (TBI), along with numerous other injuries he suffered during his 10 and a half years in the military, has left 31-year-old Aaron with the mental capacity of a 13-year-old.

While singlehandedly caring for Aaron and their three children — ages 4, 6 and 7 — Zurn, 29, dealt with starts and stops in her endeavor to become an elementary school teacher. But thanks to assistance from an organization for military families called Hope for the Warriors, she was able to find the time and funding to achieve her goal.

“I really needed my own thing,” Brittany Zurn, who teaches first grade in Hampstead, North Carolina, told Fox News.

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Hope for the Warriors was founded in 2006 to help retired service members better transition into civilian life and be seen as more than only their medical diagnoses, Robin Kelleher, the co-founder, president and CEO of the nonprofit, who is also a former military spouse, told Fox News.

“Our mission at the end of the day is to ensure that service members and their family, and those family members of the fallen, are restored with a sense of hope,” said Kelleher, whose organization has served 13,000 families since its inception on the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

In the Zurns’ case, Aaron’s TBI led to significant brain and behavioral changes that affected his daily life. TBIs are caused by an external force that strikes the brain or body, leading to physical damage to the brain and potentially death, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Aaron's role in the special-forces unit MARSOC also caused him emotional trauma. Certain war experiences — like watching fellow Marines get blown up by rocket-propelled grenades in Iraq when he was newly deployed at age 19, and sacrificing himself to save his fellow service members atop a mountain in Afghanistan in 2012 — led him to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and an eventual addiction to alcohol.

PTSD occurs when an individual has stressful reactions that cause distress, and interrupt home and work life, for longer than three months after the traumatic event, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Symptoms include having flashbacks, avoiding situations that may refresh memories of the traumatic event, experiencing negative feelings, dealing with sleep and concentration problems, and getting startled by loud noises. PTSD can increase the risk of depression and suicide, according to the VA.

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Brittany developed secondary PTSD as her husband leaned on her for emotional support and she dealt with the realities of being a military wife. That included not being able to use her real name on Facebook, and sending photos and hand-drawn pictures by their children to Aaron while he was deployed, only to have him burn them so the insurgency could not access them.

“I went through a lot of therapy and had postpartum depression every time I got pregnant because I was alone,” added Zurn, whose family is in Dayton, Ohio.

Meanwhile, Zurn was trying to finish her education, which was initially interrupted when she relocated from Dayton to Jacksonville, North Carolina, two years after Aaron was deployed during her senior year of high school.

“I couldn’t live without him,” said Zurn, who explained the two grew up about 1 mile away from each other and were “middle-school sweethearts.”

In 2013, Zurn ended up graduating with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), but because she needed to tend to Aaron during his recovery, she was never able to complete her student teaching and earn her teaching license.

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While raising their children, she fought for Aaron to receive the treatment he needed for PTSD, which he was officially diagnosed with in 2014. While Aaron insisted on staying in MARSOC, Brittany pushed for him to get treatment. In April 2016, he ended up retiring for medical reasons. Now, he is 100 percent disabled.

With help from Hope for the Warriors, which they began working with in 2015, the Zurns were able to better manage the 50 percent loss in income from Aaron’s retirement, as well as covering the upwards of $800 needed to take Aaron to and from his doctor’s appointments each month. And, in 2014, Brittany received a scholarship through the organization to help her finish school.

“Being a caregiver can be very difficult — especially on young families,” Kelleher said. “It really changes what your hopes and dreams were for your future. So to be able to say, ‘Hey, this is my family. I’m standing strong with them, but I’m going to go back to school’ because that is self-fulfilling for [Brittany] … that’s the one piece of advice all caregivers need to hear. You have to take care of yourself.”

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Brittany said she continues to attend therapy and helps her husband adhere to his own treatment plan, which involves using their service dog, Maddy, a 4-year-old golden retriever and Labrador mix, for emotional support, and fishing near their home. But she’s still prioritizing herself in her pursuit for higher education, as she is working on her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at UNCW.

“I needed this recovery process so badly — to have my own thing outside of being a military wife and a mom,” Zurn said. “[Those are] wonderful things to be, but they’re also very taxing. And being a teacher is also taxing, but it’s given me a sense of self-worth that I’m helping cultivate someone else’s mind and helping them grow.”

Dog flu in Florida: Health officials confirm 7 cases of potentially deadly virus

Wed, 31 May 2017 13:44:00 -0400

Seven canines in Florida have been diagnosed with potentially deadly dog flu, a highly contagious virus that popped up in 10 states and infected nearly 1,000 dogs in Chicago in 2015.

In a news release Tuesday the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services confirmed the animals had the H3N2 canine influenza virus, which cannot infect humans. The canines are being treated at the University of Florida (UF) College of Veterinary Medicine, and health officials suspect six additional cases.

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Dr. Michael Short, the state's chief vet, told the Miami Herald that all of the dogs are in stable condition but several had to be hospitalized.

Despite not being spreadable to humans, the dog flu can infect cats, the Herald reported. Most cases are not fatal, but, if left untreated, the virus can progress to pneumonia.

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The department of agriculture noted symptoms include loss of appetite, fever and lethargy. Most dogs recover within a few days without complications.

Dog owners in Florida and elsewhere can help protect their pets against the illness with vaccinations, which are not required by every veterinarian.

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The Herald reported that vets recommend infected dogs be quarantined for at least four weeks and that the live virus can live for 24 hours. When sick dogs cough or sneeze, their germs may spread up to 20 feet. Risky areas of transmission include grooming parlors and dog parks, the newspaper noted.

Because the virus is so contagious, vets advise pet owners who suspect their dog has the virus not to take their animal to the waiting room but rather through a separate entrance to avoid infecting other animals, USA Today reported.

“It’s very contagious, so you have to be careful,” Dr. Marta Lista of Trail Animal Hospital in Miami, told the Herald. “Most dogs don’t have immunity and they don’t have vaccines.”

In an interview with the Herald, UF officials declined to disclose where the Florida cases occurred.

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Cashews, Macadamia nuts recalled for possible listeria risk

Wed, 31 May 2017 10:54:00 -0400

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced two unrelated nut recalls — Kroger’s Simple Truth Dry Roasted Macadamia Nuts and Ava’s Organic Cashews Roasted & Salted — because they may be contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

Although most people suffer only short-term symptoms from listeria, the infection caused by exposure to the bacterium, pregnant women, their unborn children or newborns, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems can suffer serious complications or death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Macadamia nuts affected by the recall have a UPC code of 11110-02478 and a sell-by date of May 2, 2018, and they come in 12-ounce packages. According to the FDA, they were sold in Kroger, Gerbes, Backers and Dillons stores in Ohio, Southeast Indiana, Kansas, Northern Kentucky, Missouri and Nebraska. The company hadn’t received any reports of illness as of Wednesday morning, but it advised anyone who bought the product to return it to their place of purchase for a full refund or replacement.

The recalled Ava’s Brand cashews were sold in 8-ounce tubs and distributed in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, according to the FDA. Their UPC code is 8-10111-01035-1, and they have a best-by date of April 28, 2018 and were sold in lot No. 11817-L2.

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Ava’s also hadn’t received any illness reports as of Wednesday morning, according to the FDA. Food inspectors traced the contamination to manufacturing equipment used on one of the product’s ingredients, the company said, and although test results indicated the cashews were not exposed to Listeria monocytogenes, Ava’s recalled the products out of an abundance of caution.

Customers who purchased the affected Ava’s product can also return it to their place of purchase for a full refund.

Facebook users recruit friends for diet, supplement programs — but is it legit?

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 13:16:00 -0500

Last winter, Natalie Vargas was nearing her mid-30s, eating fast food for lunch, drinking about nine cups of coffee a day, and feeling exhausted and sick to her stomach. But all of that changed in April 2015, when she began following a program she heard about on Facebook from a friend who had been struggling with similar issues.

“My body started to feel better and better and better,” Vargas, an aesthetician who lives in Newburgh, N.Y., told FoxNews.com.

Vargas, 34, credits the transformation to a $125/month weight loss and cleanse program she purchased through Plexus. The company is one of countless that uses multi-level marketing (MLM)— a trend that experts say has helped fuel the U.S. dieting industry’s growth to an estimated $64 billion value, the latest data available from research firm Marketdata Enterprises.

As New Year’s resolutions to hit the gym and eat healthy begin to wane, droves of Americans like Vargas will turn to similar programs that suggest their brand-specific supplements can help kick-start users’ metabolism, detoxify their systems and boost their energy.

Many people will learn about these programs through friends on social media who are then compensated by the company whose products they’re promoting— the basis of MLM, or network marketing.

But due to flexible federal regulation of weight loss products and their often obscure ingredients, many registered dietitians question whether these programs offer more than what can be attained through a traditional healthy lifestyle. Others worry some may be Ponzi schemes that could leave participants not only sicker— but also broker— than when they started.

Can you really “detox” the body?

On Amazon, nearly 3,000 products are listed under the subcategory “Detox & Cleanse.”

“The terms ‘detox’ and ‘cleanse’ have become so mainstream in the dieting world that those terms don’t mean too much anymore,” Heather Mangieri, spokeswoman for American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) based in Pittsburgh, told FoxNews.com.

But if you talk to anyone with a degree in dietetics from an accredited university— like Mangieri, who received her master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh— or any biologist with similar credentials, they’ll tell you the same thing: The body already cleanses itself. That’s what the liver, kidneys and colon do naturally.

“If [cleanses] ever did the kind of thing they’re claiming to do, they’d kill you,” Michael D. Gershon, a pathology and cell biology professor at Columbia University, told FoxNews.com.

Gershon, who studies the bowel’s relationship with the nervous system, said the bacterium in the body’s colon lining plays a fundamental role in digestion and nourishment. For example, cellulose, a component of fiber found in leafy greens like lettuce and spinach, can’t be digested by the body without the delicate balance of bacterium that self-regulates in the colon.

When the colon absorbs toxins— by way of exposure to a foodborne illness like salmonella or cholera, for instance— the body becomes nauseated and vomits to try to rid itself of that toxin. In foods that are safe to eat, toxins aren’t absorbed. The body flushes them naturally.

“One way to avoid a toxin is don’t eat it,” Gershon said.

Taking any supplement in excess has the potential to have the opposite of its desired effect— that is, overloading on supplements may intoxicate the body, said Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center.

Heller, a registered dietitian for nearly two decades, referred to Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling’s 1969 theory that vitamin C was a “miracle” supplement that could cure the common cold and extend people’s life spans. Following that belief, which has been debunked multiple times but is still popularly held today, people began taking too much vitamin C, causing the vitamin to transform from a disease-fighting antioxidant to a pro-oxidant, Heller said.

“Our bodies are designed to deal with these vitamins in teams,” Heller told FoxNews.com. “[Vitamin C] works closely with vitamin E and selenium to balance the body’s system, so too much of one or the other can really knock it off. So in addition, you may be overloading your body’s ability to metabolize and detoxify these supplements, overwhelming your liver and kidneys.”

“We don’t know what large doses of these supplements may do to our bodies,” Heller said.

Can supplements help you lose weight?

Popular programs like Plexus, as well as Isagenix, AdvoCare and Arbonne, call for taking supplements, either in pill or powder form, and some version of fasting from whole foods.

Heller hasn’t extensively studied the ingredients of products in those plans, but she said a quick review suggests many contain Stevia, a non-nutritive sweetener that research suggests may “interfere with the gut-brain axis, increase sweet cravings and appetite, and shift the gut microbiome in an unfavorable direction.” The microbiome refers to that crucial population of bacterium that Gershon described.

Heller said some of the products for these programs also contain laxatives.

“Looking at the long lists of ingredients in these products, one wonders, ‘Why not just eat real food, where Mother Nature has created the perfect balance of nutrients for the body?’” Heller said. “These kinds of programs are a waste of time and money.”

Isagenix, a company that has about 230,000 likes on Facebook, has a whole catalog of packages not only for weight loss, but for performance enhancement and energy, among other solutions. Its 30-Day Cleansing and Fat Burning System calls for, during two different periods throughout the cleanse, an elimination of full meals and taking a mix of shakes and supplements the company says may “accelerate” weight loss, as well as “cleanse” and “flush” the body.

AdvoCare, which has about 374,000 likes on Facebook, has a 24-Day Challenge that features a bundle of supplements to be taken during a 10-day cleanse phase to “rid your body of waste,” among other effects, and then offer “appetite control and overall wellness” during the following 14-day phase.

Whether it’s helpful at all to supplement a healthy, balanced diet with any vitamins and minerals in the first place is unclear, registered dietitians say.

Although sales of supplements have led to the growth of a multibillion dollar industry, the science behind whether they’re helpful or harmful— or do nothing at all— is fuzzy.

Studies on multivitamins, for example, have produced mixed results, with some research suggesting people who take them may be less inclined to follow a healthy diet— thus increasing their risk of early death— and other studies suggesting they may extend an individual’s life span.

Some experts say individuals could benefit from taking a vitamin D supplement, Heller noted, but the popular belief that vitamin B12 can offer an energy boost is a myth because the body excretes the vitamin before fully absorbing it.

A big reason why companies can say their products may have certain benefits lies in terms laid out by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Those rules outline what dietary supplement companies and their ambassadors may imply during marketing, but they allow companies to clarify claims with asterisks that indicate their products may not work for everyone and that they are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Since 1994, when Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, supplements— whether sold individually or bundled in weight loss packages— have been freed of regulation from the FDA.

“It is the company’s responsibility to make sure its products are safe and that any claims made about such products are true,” Lynsday Meyer, an FDA spokeswoman, told FoxNews.com in an email. “But just because you see a supplement product on a store shelf does not mean it is safe.”

“The FDA has received numerous reports of harm associated with the use of weight loss products, including increased blood pressure, heart palpitations (a pounding or racing heart), stroke, seizure and death,” Meyer said. “When safety issues are suspected, FDA must investigate and, when warranted, take steps to have these products removed from the market.”

To Heller’s knowledge, there is no supplement that has been scientifically proven to expedite weight loss.

“There isn’t any,” Heller told FoxNews.com. “[Weight loss] has to do with how much physical activity you do, and how much calories you burn and how much you take in, and it’s really as simple as that. But the quality of those calories counts.”

Heller and Mangieri both said two-day cleanses that call for consuming only juice may help someone get into a proper mindset to jump-start their weight loss goal and, depending on the plan, leave them properly hydrated. But for any time beyond that, these types of juice cleanses can be dangerous.

“If you’re not consuming food that has some protein and some carbohydrates and some fats over a period of time, then you are scaring your body,” Heller said. “And so it launches into this urgent mode, and why would we want to do that to our bodies, which are dealing with enough difficult stuff as it is?”

Mangieri said any safe program would include the basic foundation of a nutritious diet: fruits, vegetables, lean protein, whole grains and healthy fats.

“Any program that’s avoiding certain nutrients is a huge red flag— also programs that claim that they’ll help you lose weight in a certain amount of time,” Mangieri told FoxNews.com.

Depending on a person’s starting weight, generally speaking an individual can lose 2 pounds a week with a healthy eating plan and without supplements, she said. “That’s 8 pounds a month, which is really good."

Vargas, the Plexus participant, said she lost 8 pounds on the company’s TRI-PLEX Combo, which consists of a powder to be mixed into water, plus two solid supplements. Now expecting her first child, she has continued taking the combo each month and said the healthy track Plexus has put her on helped her keep off the weight until her second trimester of pregnancy. She also credited the program with helping her conceive, which she’d had trouble doing prior.

Vargas cleared the TRI-PLEX Combo with her OB-GYN and communicates on a private Facebook page with about 10,000 other women who are pregnant or trying to conceive while taking Plexus products. She said she’s working on becoming an ambassador for the program by sharing personal testimonials with her friends in hopes of recruiting new participants on Facebook. With that rank, she’ll get the TRI-PLEX Combo for $109 a month instead of $124. She’ll have to make that $109 monthly quota, either through sales to other people or with her own purchases of Plexus products.

Is your diet worth the price?

In programs that operate under MLM marketing, participants hear about the product at hand through an ambassador or distributor who sells them the product then acts as their adviser throughout the program, like the relationship between Vargas and her coach.

While legal MLM companies can resemble fraudulent pyramid, or Ponzi, schemes, it is likely legal if it meets certain criterion outlined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the SEC, pyramid schemes and legal MLM companies both suggest participants can profit when they recruit new followers and often require a “buy-in” or fee of some amount to become a seller. Kaitlyn Iannuzzi, Vargas’ coach, said the sign-up cost to become a Plexus ambassador is $150, which includes the ambassador’s first month of products.

Some of the key characteristics of pyramid schemes are that they don’t offer a real product, promise a “get rich quick” model with little to no work required, and have a complex commission structure, according to the SEC. While some of the commission structures of popular cleanse programs could be considered complicated, companies like Plexus, Isagenix and AdvoCare do offer products and require their ambassadors to actively recruit new members to earn money.

The SEC monitors those companies that are publicly traded, while those that are privately owned may list their financials online.

Depending on his or her level and the program at hand, an ambassador for a popular cleanse program can earn between about $700 to over $1 million per year. The aim is that the more they sell, and the more people they recruit, the greater their earnings.

Laura DeAngelis, a 41-year-old personal trainer based in New York City, bought a supply of Isagenix’s 30-Day Challenge products last February and talks openly about her experience, but she isn’t an official, paid ambassador for the company.

DeAngelis said she felt the program helped kick-start her metabolism and lose problem pounds she wasn’t able to shed on Weight Watchers, a program whose tenets she has followed since 2004. When all was said and done, she lost 10 pounds in 30 days, and the program’s rules against consuming caffeine, alcohol and processed foods helped her refocus on what she was putting into her body afterward. DeAngelis said she paid about $300 for the 30-day supply of Isagenix products.

“Some people may look at the price tag and say, ‘That’s a lot of money,’” DeAngelis told FoxNews.com, but “when I broke it down, it was fiscally responsible for me, so I think people need to sit down and see what they’re spending on junk food and other things.”

“For me, it was [worth it],” she added. “It was an investment for my feeling better.”

Iannuzzi, Vargas’ Plexus coach, would not disclose how much she earns as an ambassador for the company, but she said that income covers her student loans and mortgage in Orange County, N.Y. Iannuzzi, who is 30 and lives in Greenville, said she’s on her way to becoming a full-time ambassador for Plexus.

“I’m so passionate about the company,” Iannuzzi, currently a nuclear medicine technologist and a bartender, told FoxNews.com. “When you believe in something and believe it works, you want to share it with the whole world.”

Mangieri has met people like Iannuzzi who are ambassadors for cleanses because they support the product they’re promoting, but she said the absence of their formal education and certification in nutrition and dietetics concerns her.

“It’s not safe, and unfortunately the knowledge is not there to be teaching proper nutrition,” Mangieri said. “I don’t want to put out that these people selling it don’t care because I’m sure some of them do care about helping others,” she added, “but it is a business, bottom line. It’s about making money and getting other people on board.”

Both Vargas and Iannuzzi said they know Plexus’ products aren’t FDA approved, but that doesn’t concern them.

“No supplements are FDA approved— whether it’s the vitamins you’re taking, the protein shakes you’re taking, even the probiotic your doctor is prescribing,” Iannuzzi said. “I knew people in the health care field using these products and selling these products.”

Heller, also the author of “The Only Cleanse,” which outlines a 14-day cleanse based on whole-food and lifestyle choices, said one of her biggest qualms with many popular or fad cleanses is their lack of sustainability.

“[These programs] take the decision making piece out of it, and then the person doesn’t have to think about what they’re eating, they don’t have to plan ahead, they don’t have to cook, they just have to follow the program, and for some people that can be attractive for a short period of time,” she said. “But the reality of it is life happens … and then all of that goes down the tube because the person has not learned the strategies they need to manage real life.”

“Real life is a rollercoaster,” she said. “We keep hoping it’s going to be a nice, smooth easy ride, and for the most part it’s not. So we want to learn how to manage that in mind, body and spirit in a way that helps optimize our health and our coping skills.”

But for Vargas, Plexus’ TRI-PLEX program has done just that— in a way that no other approach she’d previously used had.

Last spring, after being hospitalized for irritable bowel syndrome, doctors discharged her with an antacid prescription. Vargas returned to her poor eating habits and her digestive issues returned. She then tried a 10-day, $250 celebrity cleanse that included shakes, multiple probiotics, and only an organic apple for whole food.

“You were literally starving yourself for 10 days. It was cleaning me out, but then I still felt like crap,” Vargas said. “So I started working out. Then I changed my workout regimen and did weight lifting to give me some energy or something. Nothing was working for me, not until I tried Plexus.”

Mom shares photos of painful breast-feeding infection in viral Facebook post

Mon, 22 May 2017 13:39:00 -0400

Breast-feeding has some potentially big benefits for Mom and Baby, including better immune function and fewer illnesses for your little one. But as many moms know, breast-feeding isn’t always easy.

In a Wednesday Facebook post that has since gone viral, mom Jessica Martin-Weber writes about a painful bout with mastitis, a breast tissue infection that sometimes occurs while breast-feeding. The condition can lead to swelling, tenderness, redness and warmth, and in her post Martin-Weber shares photos in which she’s on her knees with her newborn underneath her to help drain the milk from her breast.

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“These photos are of me trying to survive,” Martin-Weber, who maintains the website The Leaky Boob, writes. “My temp here was over 103 and I was in agony. Complete and utter agony.”

Mastitis can be caused by bacteria entering the milk duct through a crack in the skin on the nipple, as well as from a blocked milk duct, according to the Mayo Clinic. In Martin-Weber’s case, a too-tight bra with a skipped feeding was “the perfect storm” that caused the condition, she shares.

“This was my 5th baby and only my 2nd time with mastitis. I knew what had caused it,” she writes.

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According to the Mayo Clinic, women with mastitis may begin to exhibit flu-like symptoms before noticing physical signs on their breasts. While the antibacterial properties of milk protect babies from the infection, women with mastitis should call their doctor if they suspect they are infected. Not receiving prompt treatment can lead to an abscess that may need to be surgically drained, according to the Mayo Clinic.

As for Martin-Weber, the mom of six’s honest post is garnering support from thousands of moms across the web. As of Monday afternoon, her post had garnered over 2,000 reactions, about 330 shares, and nearly 400 comments.

“Parenting isn't all sun spotted mother goddess moments or white drenched stock photography families,” she writes. “There are these moments too with fevers and pain and unflattering positions as Netflix (sic) blares in the background and kids devour every goldfish in the house. And we survive.”

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Instagram is the worst social media platform for young people's mental health

Mon, 22 May 2017 11:56:00 -0400

You probably already know too much social media use can affect your mood, but when it comes to degrees of severity, is one platform better or worse than the others? A new study suggests that’s the case, and the researchers have bad news for those of us who love scrolling through our friends’ photos online.

The report, conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health and the Young Health Movement in the United Kingdom, ranked Instagram the worst social media site and YouTube the best for young people’s health. Twitter was considered the second-least harmful, followed by Facebook and Snapchat.

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Researchers surveyed 1,500 people ages 14 to 24 and asked them to rate how the five social media platforms typically affect various areas of their mental health and physical well-being, including their sleep and relationships, and feelings about their body image, loneliness, anxiety and depression.

YouTube was the only site that resulted in a “net positive” effect on young people’s health, researchers found.

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Instagram may have a negative impact on young people because it inspires envy and mental illness, experts speculated in a news release for the report.

“It’s interesting to see Instagram and Snapchat ranking as the worst for mental health and well-being — both platforms are very image-focused, and it appears they may be driving feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in young people,” Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, said in the release.

While social media addiction — or internet or smartphone addiction, for that matter — isn’t a term in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which is a catalogue of proven mental illnesses, other observational studies appear to support the current study’s findings.

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For example, a study published in the March edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine drew a link between greater social media use and increased feelings of isolation.

Nonetheless, that study, as well as the current one, are observational — meaning the relationship between using social media and feeling more anxious or depressed isn’t definitely causal. Plus, the current study wasn’t published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, which also would add credibility to the researchers’ findings.

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As the American Psychological Association (APA) points out, social media can influence young people positively, too: Young people who spend more time on Facebook may be more adept at showing empathy with their online acquaintances, and social media can create a safe space for introverts to socialize with their peers.

For parents who may be concerned about their youth’s social media use, Larry D. Rosen, PhD, professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, told the APA that talking with your children or teens about how they are feeling is key.

“Communication is the crux of parenting,” Rosen told the organization. “You need to talk to your kids, or rather, listen to them. The ratio of parent listen to parent talk should be at least five-to-one. Talk one minute and listen for five.”

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There's probably pee in your swimming pool — what's the health risk?

Thu, 02 Mar 2017 13:12:00 -0500

If you’ve ever been to a public swimming pool, you’re familiar with the stinging sensation of chlorine hitting your nostrils when you approach the water. Except that’s not just chlorine — it’s also urine, a new study suggests.

The research, from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, found that the average swimming pool contains 75 liters of human pee — proving true the commonly held belief that people relieve themselves underwater.

“Our study provides additional evidence that people are indeed urinating in public pools and hot tubs,” said lead study author Lindsay Blackstock, a graduate student at the university, according to the Guardian.

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Study authors sampled 31 pools and hot tubs in two Canadian cities, and measured the concentration of the artificial sweetener acesulframe potassium (ACE), which is commonly added in processed food and goes through the body unchanged. They found ACE present in 100 percent of the samples, the Guardian reported, with concentrations that reached up to 570 times the underlying level in tap water samples. Study authors used those concentrations to approximate the volume of urine in the average swimming pool.

“We did not monitor the number of pool users over the three-week time period ... so there is no way we could estimate the number of individual urination events per day,” Blackstock told the news website.

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Before the 2012 Olympics in London, U.S. Olympic swimmers Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps admitted that peeing in the pool is acceptable behavior.

“I think everybody pees in the pool,” Phelps said. “Chlorine kills it, so it’s not bad.”

Lochte said, “I think there’s just something about getting into chlorine water that you just automatically go.”

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Common or not, peeing in the pool isn’t so harmless, research suggests.

A study published in 2014 in Environmental Science & Technology, for example, found that when uric acid in human urine mixes with chlorine, a toxic compound called cyanogen chloride (CNCI) and trichloramine (NCl3) is formed, TIME reported. CNCI can harm the central nervous system, the lungs and the heart, while NCI3 has been associated with acute lung injury.

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Other research has found that compounds in urine can react with disinfectants to form byproducts called DBPs, which can cause irritation to the eyes and respiratory system, the Guardian reported. Chronic exposure to the compounds also has been associated with asthma in pool workers and professional swimmers, according to the website.

“We want to use this study to promote public education on appropriate swimming hygiene practices,” said Blackstock, according to the Guardian. “We should all be considerate of others and make sure to exit the pool to use the restroom when nature calls.”

It's impossible to be 'fat but fit', study of 3.5M people finds

Thu, 18 May 2017 19:30:00 -0400

If you’re overweight but seemingly healthy otherwise, consider trying to still lose weight, as new research suggests you’re likely still at risk of life-threatening ailments like heart attack and stroke.

For the research, presented at the European Congress on Obesity this month, study authors aimed to learn whether people diagnosed with metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) were still at risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a news release. People with MHO are obese, but don’t have the metabolic risks that typically come with obesity, like diabetes, high blood pressure, poor blood sugar control, and abnormal blood fats — all of which are known risk factors for heart disease. A BMI of 30 or above is considered obese, while 25 to 29.9 is overweight, 18.5 to 24.9 is normal, and below 18.5 is underweight, according to the National Institutes of Health.

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To figure out these folks’ risk, researchers reviewed the electronic health records of 3.5 million adults without heart disease in The Health Improvement Network, a U.K. general practice database, spanning 1995 to 2015.

Researchers divided the study group by their BMI, as well as by the absence or presence of diabetes, high blood pressure and hyperlipidemia, or abnormal blood fats. They took those scores together to give each personal a metabolic abnormality score of 0, 1, 2 or 3. (People with MHO don‘t have any of those abnormalities.)

Next, study authors analyzed whether a person’s risk of developing four cardiovascular diseases varied depending on whether they were normal weight without the metabolic conditions and whether they had MHO. Those diseases were coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (like stroke or transient ischaemic attack), heart failure and peripheral vascular disease (PVD).

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After accounting for potentially compromising factors like age and smoking habits, which can affect disease risk, researchers found that, compared with the normal weight individuals without metabolic complications, people with MHO ended up having a 50 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease, a 7 percent risk of cerebrovascular disease, a twofold higher risk of heart failure, and an 11 percent increased risk of PVD. Unsurprisingly, for obese individuals with the metabolic complications, the risk of those diseases was even higher when compared with the healthy, normal weight people.

The research only suggests a link between people with MHO and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, not a definite causal relationship. Also, the study was only presented at a conference; it wasn’t published in a peer-reviewed journal, which helps add to a piece of research’s credibility.

FASTING DIET FOR WEIGHT LOSS NOT BE ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE

But the study authors said their findings suggest the words healthy and obese ought not to be used together, as their research suggests there’s no such thing.

"At the population-level, so-called metabolically healthy obesity is not a harmless condition, and perhaps it is better not to use this term to describe an obese person, regardless of how many metabolic complications they have,” study author Dr. Rishi Caleyachetty, a research fellow at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, said in the release.

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What not working out for 2 weeks does to your body

Wed, 17 May 2017 19:30:00 -0400

Not exercising every day is in your best interests. In fact, experts agree that incorporating rest days in your workout regimen can help reduce the risk of injury and help you better meet your fitness goals.

However, taking too long of a break from working out — even just two weeks — may lead to some pretty serious health effects, an observational study suggests.

The research, presented this month at the European Congress on Obesity in Portugal, found that, in a small group of people, not working out for 14 days led to metabolic changes and muscle mass reduction consistent with a higher risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and possibly early death. The study doesn’t prove that not working out for two weeks will raise your risk of disease; it simply drew a link between the factors.

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To draw their findings, researchers at the University of Liverpool analyzed 28 healthy, physically active men and women with a mean age of 25 and a body mass index (BMI) of 25. (BMI is a measurement of body fat, and 25 indicates the lowest measure for being overweight.) Researchers looked at the participants’ muscle and fat mass, as well as their physical fitness levels, and their mitochondrial function, or their ability for recovering from exercise and regulating energy.

Prior to the study, the participants did not work out regularly but had taken an average of 10,000 daily steps. Over 14 days, participants reduced their daily step counts to around 1,500, or by about 80 percent of their former activity levels. They wore fitness trackers so researchers could measure their activity, and participants also maintained a food diary to ensure their diets remained the same throughout the study.

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Those reduced step counts coincided with about 161 minutes of moderate- to vigorous exercises to only 36 minutes — an average reduction of 125 minutes per day, according to a news release. Their sedentary time increased by an average of 129 minutes.

At the end of the study, researchers found that while participants’ ability to recover from exercise didn’t change significantly, participants did have decreased muscle mass and increased body fat in the belly area, which is linked with an increased risk of chronic disease. Researchers also observed that participants’ stamina waned and their skeletal muscle mass declined.

While the findings are preliminary and the study hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the authors noted their findings shed light on the possible risks of being sedentary for too long.

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The National Institutes of Health recommends children and youth do at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day and that adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity per week. Meeting those recommendations can reduce the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death worldwide, type 2 diabetes, and being overweight. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over one-third of American adults are obese and about two-thirds are overweight.

"Our day to day physical activity is key to abstaining from disease and health complications,” lead study author Dr. Dan Cuthberson, of the University of Liverpool, said in the release. “People must avoid sitting for long periods of time."

Why air mattresses may be dangerous for babies

Thu, 18 May 2017 11:28:00 -0400

Next time you’re on vacation or even sleeping at home, think twice before letting your small child sleep on an air mattress.

That’s the stern warning offered in a new paper that details the instances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) involving air mattresses are up, and parents should be mindful that although the mattresses may be inexpensive and not prone to bed bugs, they shouldn’t let their small children sleep on them, NPR reported. SIDS is the sudden and unexpected death of a baby younger than 1 who is otherwise healthy, according to the Mayo Clinic.

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Authors of the essay, published online this month in the American Journal of Public Health, point out that low-income families who are minorities may be the most at risk to these dangers, according to NPR.

Between 2004 and 2015, the paper states, 108 infants’ deaths involved sleeping on an air mattress. Researchers drew their conclusions from data collected in 24 states from the National Child Death Review Case Reporting System, according to NPR. In 2015, the most recent data available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 900 babies died of SIDS due to accidental strangulation or suffocation in bed in the United States. Overall, 3,700 babies died of SIDS in the U.S.

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Still, the paper states, parents should be wary of letting their kids sleep on air mattresses.

While praising the Consumer Product Safety Commission for helping create warning labels with the air mattress industry, the researchers call on health care workers, as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Institutes of Health to help raise awareness of the issue in their practices or on their websites, respectively.

"It has to be multiple strategies," study author Jennifer Doering, a public health researcher and nurse at the College of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, told NPR.

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Couple gets married in the middle of a marathon

Thu, 18 May 2017 11:41:00 -0400

As any athlete knows, just finishing a marathon is an impressive enough feat on its own. But one couple made the achievement all the more remarkable when they exchanged vows during their big race.

Anthony Johnson and James Makokis wed while running the Vancouver Marathon on May 6, Runner’s World reported. Around mile 20, the pair traded their water belts for tuxedo jackets, and bounced their knees up and down to keep their legs warm for the remaining 10K of the race.

“We kind of started seeing marathon training as a metaphor for a relationship in terms of you have to put in the work and you have to have a good attitude,” Johnson told Runner’s World. “So we thought it would be a great way to celebrate our union by getting married.”

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The setting was also appropriate, as the couple view running as a time to be alone with one another and talk without the distraction of their technology.

“It’s hard to be angry when you’re running, and it’s hard to use extra words that aren’t productive when you’re trying to breathe and focus on your pace,” Johnson told the magazine.

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The Cut reported that the ceremony involved a teepee and healing medicines, and was inspired by Johnson and Makovis’ Native cultures. Johnson is from the Navajo Nation in Arizona, and Makokis is Cree from Saddle Lake in Canada.

As word of their nuptials caught fire on social media, an audience of family and friends expanded to include spectators and tour groups wanting to watch the ceremony.

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They crossed the finish line as a married couple, with the announcer broadcasting their new union.

“It was a really magical way to end the race,” Johnson told Runner’s World.

An ‘exercise pill’ may replace workouts in the future

Wed, 03 May 2017 11:13:00 -0400

Anyone with a job, kids, or heck, a life knows fitting in fitness isn’t always easy. Then there are the folks who can’t exercise at all — be it due to a pre-existing health condition or old age.

If you’re among those groups, but want to reap the physical and emotional benefits of working out, what are you to do?

Turns out, a still-developing “exercise pill” may hold the answer in the future.

A new study published in the May edition of Cell Metabolism identified a chemical compound that helped increase athletic endurance by 70 percent in mice.

Though the benefit may not necessarily translate in humans, researchers say their study results could hold promise for a day when non-exercisers can enjoy a better mood, improved heart health and a longer lifespan — without breaking a sweat.

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In their study, authors from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, report that activating a genetic pathway typically triggered by running produced the same benefits of the exercise, including stamina and fat loss, without movement.

"It's well known that people can improve their aerobic endurance through training," senior author Ronald Evans, professor and director of the Gene Expression Laboratory at Salk, said in a news release. "The question for us was: How does endurance work? And if we really understand the science, can we replace training with a drug?"

In a previous study, researchers found that sedentary mice that were genetically engineered to have a permanently activated gene called PPAR delta (PPARD) had better markers for physical fitness than ordinary sedentary mice. In particular, the mice developed long-distance running skills, tended to burn more fat, and were more responsive to insulin. That study identified that the chemical compound GW1516 (GW) activated PPARD, which mimicked the fat burning and insulin response benefits, but fell short because it did not lead the rodents to become long-distance runners unless they exercised daily.

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In the current study, researchers tweaked their method to try to find a formula that could mimic the effects of exercise without the need for movement. They again used formerly sedentary mice, but they administered a higher dose of GW, and increased the administration period from four to eight weeks.

They put these mice on treadmills and found those that didn’t take the drug could run for 160 minutes — but those who did could run about 70 percent longer, or about 270 minutes. The mice continued to be more responsive to insulin and resistant to weight gain.

When researchers took a closer look at what was going on molecularly, study authors found the chemical triggered a gene to switch from burning sugar to burning fat — an important marker for preserved brain function and endurance.

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Researchers also analyzed the mice’s muscles and, to their surprise, found that the mice who took the exercise drug didn’t have additional mitochondria, the main drivers for energy in cells; blood vessels; or more tissue that burns fat instead of sugar. To the researchers, that proved the benefits of aerobic exercise don’t have to be obtained through exercise itself — this drug works too.

"Exercise activates PPARD, but we're showing that you can do the same thing without mechanical training. It means you can improve endurance to the equivalent level as someone in training, without all of the physical effort," first author Weiwei Fan, a Salk research associate, said in the release.

Next, researchers are working to identify a pharmaceutical company that can develop clinical trials to test the drug in humans.

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If it’s successful, not only could the exercise pill signal the end of gyms — it also may help improve the United States’ staggering obesity and type 2 diabetes rates.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of adult Americans are obese and about two-thirds are overweight, while about 29 million, or about 9.3 percent, of Americans have diabetes.

Fasting diet for weight loss isn't all it's cracked up to be

Mon, 01 May 2017 16:28:00 -0400

Anyone who’s tried a popular commercial diet knows sticking to the plan can be tricky. That’s why some people have experimented with alternate-day fasting — an approach in which you eat whatever you want one day and restrict your calories the next.

While some studies have suggested there’s a potential longevity benefit to intermittent fasting, new research hints the approach might not lead to the weight loss and health benefits some people suspect.

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In the new study, which was published May 1 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers randomly divided 100 obese adults into three groups: one in which participants restricted their calories to 500 every other day, one in which they restricted calories by 25 percent their usual consumption every day, and one in which they ate whatever they wanted.

Among the participants, 86 of which were women and 14 of which were men, researchers observed that, after one year, the alternate-day fasting group was the least likely to stick with the diet — and, although the approach led to weight loss, it wasn’t significantly more than the group told to restrict their calories.

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At the end of the study, the alternate-day fasting group saw an average 6 percent weight loss while the calorie-restriction group saw an average 5.3 percent weight loss. That equated to an average of 13 pounds lost for both groups. Researchers also didn’t see that alternate-day fasting resulted in changes of other health markers like blood pressure, heart rate and insulin resistance.

However, study author Krista Varady, an associate professor of nutrition the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of “The Every-Other-Day Diet,” told TIME that although she was “shocked” the diet didn’t result in more weight loss, it can prove successful for some.

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She told the magazine that several people on the alternate-day fasting diet lost between 20 and 50 pounds.

“If people have failed other diets, maybe this will work,” Varady told TIME. “People will pick what diet works best for them."

Red meat eaters may have a higher risk of dying from these 9 diseases

Wed, 17 May 2017 13:18:00 -0400

Bad news for red meat lovers: A new study suggests eating one of America’s favorite foods may increase your risk of dying from nine ailments, including cancer and heart disease.

The research, published in the May edition of BMJ, supports previous studies that have linked diets high in red meat to an increased risk of disease, like stroke and again, cancer.

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For this study, researchers analyzed the eating habits of about 540 men and women ages 50 to 71 to start. After 16 years, they looked at who died and why. Researchers learned that those in the highest one-fifth of people who ate red meat had a 26 percent increased death risk compared with the one-fifth of people who ate the least red meat. Beef, lamb and pork qualified as red meat.

In addition to cancer and heart disease, researchers found a correlation between eating red meat and an increased risk of death from respiratory disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, liver disease and kidney disease.

Those who ate the most white meat, on the other hand, had a 25 percent reduced risk of death from those causes compared with people with the lowest intake level of that meat. White meat was defined as fish or poultry.

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The findings held true regardless of whether red or white meat was processed or unprocessed.

Researchers pointed out their study is only observational, meaning eating that burger for dinner this weekend won’t for sure cut years off your life. But the findings do suggest that, when you can, swapping your steak for chicken may reduce your risk of suffering from some of the deadliest diseases worldwide.

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