FRIDAY, April 22, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Showing freeway loss of life tolls on roadside message boards in a bid to curb crashes may very well trigger extra accidents, a brand new research suggests.

That’s as a result of they distract drivers, the researchers mentioned.

At least 27 states have used such messages. The new report targeted on Texas, the place officers determined to show freeway loss of life tolls one week of each month.

“People have restricted consideration,” mentioned research co-author Joshua Madsen, an assistant professor within the School of Management on the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “When a driver’s cognitive load is already maxed out, including on an attention-grabbing, sobering reminder of freeway deaths [can] change into a harmful distraction.”

For the research, Madsen and his staff in contrast Texas crash information from January 2010 to July 2012, earlier than the marketing campaign, to August 2012 to December 2017 when it was underway. They additionally checked out weekly variations every month through the marketing campaign.

The investigators discovered that there have been 4.5% extra crashes alongside the ten kilometers (6.21 miles) of freeway the place loss of life numbers have been displayed throughout weeks after they have been proven than in message-free weeks.

The enhance is corresponding to elevating the pace restrict 3 to five miles per hour or decreasing freeway troopers by 6% to 14%, earlier analysis exhibits.

The findings, revealed April 21 within the journal Science , recommend that every yr highway fatality messages precipitated an added 2,600 crashes and 16 deaths in Texas.

That’s as a result of this “in-your-face” messaging about highway deaths quickly impacts drivers’ potential to answer modifications in visitors circumstances, the research authors mentioned in a college information launch.

The researchers additionally discovered that the extra crashes related to the messages elevated because the loss of life toll rose. The highest quantity occurred in January, when messages displayed the earlier yr’s complete variety of deaths.

The research additionally confirmed that crashes elevated in areas the place drivers required larger focus, equivalent to heavy visitors or driving previous a number of message boards.

According to review co-author Jonathan Hall, “The messages additionally elevated the variety of multivehicle crashes, however not single-vehicle crashes.” Hall is an assistant professor within the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy on the University of Toronto in Canada.

“This is in step with drivers with elevated cognitive hundreds making smaller errors as a consequence of distraction, like drifting out of a lane, reasonably than driving off the highway,” Hall added.

The researchers did discover a discount in crashes when the displayed loss of life tolls have been low and when messages have been proven in areas the place highways have been much less complicated.

Overall, the findings recommend that states ought to think about different methods of elevating consciousness about highway security, in response to Madsen.

“Distracted driving is harmful driving,” he mentioned. “Perhaps these campaigns may be reimagined to succeed in drivers in a safer approach, equivalent to when they’re stopped at an intersection, in order that their consideration whereas driving stays targeted on the roads.”

More info

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has sensible tricks to preserve you secure.

SOURCE: University of Minnesota, information launch, April 21, 2022

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March 28, 2022 — Last evening’s Academy Awards ceremony is a buzzing matter of dialog as we speak.

Troy Kotsur grew to become the primary deaf man to win an Oscar – and the extremely coveted greatest supporting actor award, at that.

But it was what occurred afterward that arguably stole the present.

Viewers and viewers members alike watched in awe as actor Will Smith marched on stage and struck award presenter and comic Chris Rock within the face after he directed a joke at Smith’s spouse, Jada Pinkett Smith, for her shaved head.

Pinkett Smith has publicly shared her struggles with alopecia areata, which is a dysfunction that causes your immune system to assault your hair follicles. For many, it can also carry stigma and may result in emotions of melancholy or psychological sickness.

The result’s hair loss, which may differ from quarter-size patches to dropping all of the hair in your head and even your complete physique. About 700,000 folks within the U.S. have alopecia areata, in keeping with a 2020 research. Of them, barely greater than half are girls, and greater than 77% are white.  (To be taught extra info on alopecia areata and hair loss, click on right here.) 

The incident set social media ablaze, and robust sentiments had been heard from those that have been personally affected by alopecia.

Illness Is Never Funny

Rock’s remark may be triggering to the tens of millions who’ve been affected by hair loss, says Carolyn Goh, MD, a dermatologist at UCLA Health.

“As someone with alopecia myself, I consider it a microaggression,” Goh says. “I’ve experienced many similar comments. These build up over time and wear us down.”

One U.Okay.-based Instagram consumer, Kitty Dry, says the expression on Pinkett Smith’s face represented the harm felt by so many with this situation.

“I want to preface this post by saying that in no way do I condone any sort of violence, but thank you Will Smith,” says Dry, 23, who was identified with alopecia universalis after dropping all her hair in 12 weeks.

“That slap was for anyone with alopecia who has ever been at the butt of an unwanted joke, comment or stare,” Dry says.

Others posted feedback elevating consciousness of the tragic passing of Rio Allred, a 12-year-old woman with alopecia who died by suicide final week.

Allred is alleged to have endured severe bullying at college, with classmates pulling off her wig and smacking her head, in keeping with the Canadian Alopecia Areata Foundation.

It’s frequent for many who have hair loss situations to really feel helpless, and typically confused, says Amy McMichael, MD, a professor and chair of the Dermatology Department at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

That’s why it’s important for these folks to see a board-certified dermatologist, so that they know they aren’t alone, she says.

“As dermatologists, we can not only diagnose the type of alopecia, but we can also render treatment,” McMichael says.

Alopecia Awareness

Dermatologists also can assist join sufferers to organizations that deal with the bodily and emotional struggles of those that have hair loss, such because the National Alopecia Areata Foundation and the Scarring Alopecia Foundation, McMichael says.

She hopes final evening’s occasion reveals folks the “many faces of hair loss” and reveals that these situations can occur to folks of all ages, ethnicities, and genders.

The National Alopecia Areata Foundation calls what occurred on the Oscars a “teachable” second.

“We encourage both our community and the broader public to learn more about alopecia areata so we can end the stigma around this disease,” the group mentioned in a press release.

Goh says that anybody with hair loss ought to be happy to discover potential medical causes and, if wanted, hunt down psychological well being therapy, too.

The post Oscars Fight Highlights for Many the Toll Alopecia May Carry appeared first on Healthy and Slim Life.

FRIDAY, March 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) — If you assume the reported worldwide dying toll from the pandemic is already too excessive, new analysis suggests the variety of extra deaths could also be triple that of official estimates.

The official COVID-19 dying toll between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021, was 5.9 million. However, the brand new evaluation estimates that greater than thrice the variety of extra deaths — 18.2 million — might have occurred over the identical interval.

Excess deaths are the distinction between the variety of recorded deaths from all causes and the quantity anticipated based mostly on previous traits, and they’re a key measure of the true dying toll of the pandemic.

By area, South Asia had the best variety of extra deaths (5.3 million), adopted by North Africa and the Middle East (1.7 million), and Eastern Europe (1.4 million), in keeping with the report.

By nation, the best variety of extra deaths occurred in India (4.1 million), the United States (1.1 million), Russia (1.1 million), Mexico (798,000), Brazil (792,000), Indonesia (736,000) and Pakistan (664,000). These seven international locations accounted for greater than half of worldwide extra deaths throughout the 24-month research interval.

The extra dying fee was 120 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants globally, however 21 international locations had charges of greater than 300 extra deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, the findings confirmed.

The highest charges had been in Andean Latin America (512 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants), Eastern Europe (345 deaths per 100,000), Central Europe (316 deaths per 100,000) and southern sub-Saharan Africa (309 deaths per 100,000).

Several areas exterior these areas had equally excessive charges, together with Lebanon, Armenia, Tunisia, Libya, a number of areas in Italy, and a number of other states within the southern United States.

The findings from the primary peer-reviewed estimates of extra deaths throughout the pandemic had been revealed March 10 in The Lancet.

The massive unfold between extra deaths and official information could also be a results of underdiagnosis of COVID-19 as a consequence of lack of testing and points with reporting dying information, the researchers famous.

The post COVID’s Global Death Toll May Be 3 Times Official Numbers appeared first on Healthy and Slim Life.

MONDAY, Nov. 1, 2021 (HealthDay News) — The worldwide demise toll from COVID-19 surpassed 5 million on Monday, and the greater than 740,000 lives misplaced within the United States is essentially the most of any nation, Johns Hopkins University knowledge present.

“This is a defining second in our lifetime,” Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious illness specialist on the Yale School of Public Health, advised the Associated Press. “What do we have now to do to guard ourselves so we do not get to a different 5 million?”

Being a rich nation offered little safety: The United States, Britain, Brazil and European Union account for one-eighth of the world’s inhabitants, however almost half of all reported COVID-19 deaths because the pandemic started 22 months in the past, the AP reported.

“What’s uniquely totally different about this pandemic is it hit hardest the high-resource nations,” Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP, a world well being heart at Columbia University in New York City, advised the AP. ” That’s the irony of COVID-19.”

Wealthier nations are likely to have bigger numbers of older folks, most cancers survivors and nursing dwelling residents, all of whom are weak to COVID-19, El-Sadr famous, whereas poorer nations sometimes have bigger shares of kids, teenagers and younger adults, who’re much less more likely to fall significantly in poor health from the coronavirus.

For instance, regardless of a terrifying Delta surge that peaked in early May, India now has a a lot decrease reported day by day demise fee than Russia, the United States or Britain, although there’s uncertainty round its figures, the AP stated.

But inside nations, poverty nonetheless performed a job: In the United States, COVID-19 has taken a much bigger toll on Black and Hispanic folks, who’re extra doubtless than white folks to stay in poverty and have much less entry to well being care.

“When we get out our microscopes, we see that inside nations, essentially the most weak have suffered most,” Ko advised the AP.

The demise toll rivals the variety of deaths brought on by battles amongst nations since 1950, in line with the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

COVID-19 is now the third main reason for demise worldwide, behind solely coronary heart illness and stroke. The staggering statistic is nearly actually an undercount due to restricted testing and other people dying at dwelling with out medical consideration, particularly in poor components of the world, the AP stated.

More info

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for extra on COVID-19.

SOURCE: Associated Press

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By Robert Preidt and Robin Foster
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Drug overdose deaths within the United States hit a brand new file for the 12-month interval ending March 2021, new authorities information reveals.

A file excessive 96,779 drug overdose deaths occurred between March 2020 and March 2021, representing a 29.6% rise, new statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics discovered. The numbers are provisional, and the CDC’s estimate for predicted deaths totals greater than 99,000 from March 2020 to March 2021, CNN reported.

“It is necessary to do not forget that behind these devastating numbers are households, associates, and neighborhood members who’re grieving the lack of family members,” Regina LaBelle, performing director of the Executive Office of the President Office of National Drug Control Policy, stated in an announcement, CNN reported

The state with the most important enhance in overdose deaths (85.1%) throughout that point was Vermont. Opioids accounted for the very best variety of overdose deaths, adopted by artificial opioids, excluding methadone, which was linked to the bottom variety of overdose deaths.

Three states noticed their variety of overdose deaths decline from March 2020 to March 2021: New Hampshire, New Jersey and South Dakota. South Dakota’s reported overdose deaths declined by 16.3%, the very best of any state.

Between March 2020 and March 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic took maintain within the United States and disrupted regular every day routines, CNN famous.

The CDC information additionally present a 29.7% enhance in drug overdose deaths between February 2020 and February 2021.

Earlier this yr, the CDC stated the greater than 93,000 drug overdose deaths already reported in 2020 was practically 30% greater than the quantity noticed in 2019, and the most important single-year enhance ever within the United States, CNN reported.

At the time, National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Dr. Nora Volkow referred to as the determine “chilling” and stated the COVID-19 pandemic has “created a devastating collision of well being crises in America.”

More info

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for extra on drug overdose deaths.

SOURCE: CNN

The post CDC Reports Record High 12-Month Drug Overdose Death Toll appeared first on Healthy and Slim Life.

Amie Reaux, mom of Keighlie Reaux, Youngsville, LA.

Michelle Owens, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson.

Torri Metz, MD, affiliate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Emily Adhikari, MD, medical director of perinatal infectious ailments, Parkland Hospital, Dallas.

Danielle Jones, MD, obstetrician-gynecologist, Austin, TX.

Mary Healy, MD, affiliate professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston.

CDC: “COVID-19 Vaccination for Pregnant People to Prevent Serious Illness, Deaths, and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes from COVID-19,” “Maternal Mortality Rates within the United States, 2019,” “COVID-19 Vaccination for Pregnant People to Prevent Serious Illness, Deaths, and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes from COVID-19,” “COVID-19 Vaccines While Pregnant or Breastfeeding.”

Obstetrics & Gynecology: “Disease Severity and Perinatal Outcomes of Pregnant Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).”

Washington Post: “Pregnant ladies agonize over whether or not to get coronavirus vaccine.”

New England Journal of Medicine: “Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons.”

Twitter: @MamaDoctorJones.

Commonwealth Fund: “Maternal Mortality and Maternity Care within the United States Compared to 10 Other Developed Countries.”

American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology: “Increasing severity of COVID-19 in being pregnant with Delta (B.1.617.2) variant surge.”

British Medical Bulletin: “The administration of hypertension in ladies planning for being pregnant.”

GoFundMe “Keighlie Renee Reaux Covid Relief Fund.”

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