Category Archives: Integrative Medicine

EastIdahoNews.com is highlighting hardworking people who make our local businesses a success. Every Sunday, were Getting to Know YOU!

1. Name, job title and company: Kate Roth MSN, ARNP, FNP-C, WHNP-BCP, ARBHRT-C Nurse Practitioner and Medical Director for Beacon Specialty and Family Practice

2. What does your company do and what are your responsibilities? We provide an array of family medicine services. I specialize in comprehensive womens healthcare and bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. She treats thyroid disease, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility and vaginal rejuvenation treatment. I also perform annual wellness examinations, family planning, treatment of migraine headache, pre-marital exams and bio-identical hormone pellet insertion for men and women. My responsibilities as medical director include maintaining compliance with regulatory state board regulations, HIPAA security services, staff training and competency evaluation in accordance with state and federal law.

3. Where were you born and when is your birthday (dont need to include year)? Champaign, Illinois, October 2

4. How long have you lived in eastern Idaho and what city do you live in now? Ive lived in eastern Idaho for 18 years. (Didnt want to say the city she lives in).

5. Tell us about your first job after high school/college. Hired as staff, then charge RN for the University of Illinois at Chicagos first bone, or stem cell, transplant center.

6. What is the best business decision youve ever made? Partnering with Beacon Integrative Medical Center.

7. Tell us about your family. Wonderful husband, three children all active in sports and school activities. We enjoy doing anonymous service projects, hiking, watching movies, reading books, traveling, and skiing together.

8. Tell us about a movie or book that has inspired you the most in life. (Didnt want to answer)

9. Tell us about a lesson you learned from a mistake you made in your career/business. Corporate healthcare is not for me. I believe in providing compassionate, comprehensive healthcare and making sure my patients feel heard.

10. What is a goal you hope to accomplish in the next 12 months? Grow personally, physically, spiritually and professionally. Always learning!

11. What is one piece of advice you have for someone who wants to do what youre doing? Listen to and love your patients.

12. If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently? Nothing at all. I am thrilled to be who and where I am today.

13. Where is your favorite place to eat in eastern Idaho? Home!

14. Tell us something surprising about yourself. (Didnt want to answer)

15. How do you like your potatoes? Roasted with garden-fresh herbs.

If you have an employee or co-worker who we should get to know, email rett@eastidahonews.com.

Originally posted here:
Getting to Know Kate Roth at Beacon Integrative Medical Center in Rexburg - East Idaho News

I think we can all agree that it would be nice to have a miracle drink for weight loss, one where we could just take a few sips and instantly shed the pounds.

But sadly, this doesn't exist. And even though there isn't a miracle weight loss beverage for us to enjoy, there are types of drinks that can help support our goals as we pursue a healthy lifestyle.

Tea is one of the most talked-about of these "weight loss drinks," so we decided to learn as much as we can about why it's so highly talked about among those wanting to lose weight.

To do this, we spoke to Lauren Manaker, MS, RDN, author of The First Time Mom's Pregnancy Cookbook and Fueling Male Fertility and member of the Eat This, Not That! Medical Expert Board, and her response? That she supports using tea for weight loss as long as it's coupled with a healthy diet.

Read on to learn more about what Manaker has to say on how tea can help you lose weight, and for more healthy eating tips, make sure to sign up for our newsletter to get daily recipes and food news in your inbox!

The natural ingredients found in certain teas can make them great for supporting weight loss and weight management. For example, according to Manaker, "green tea contains catechins, which are antioxidants that have been linked to fat loss and an increased metabolism."

There are different types of catechins found in green tea, and one of the most predominant is known as EGCG. Many researchers attribute most of green tea's health benefits to its high quantity of catechins like EGCG.

Catechins in green tea have been known to support weight loss in a multitude of ways, including shrinking fat cells, blocking the formation of new fat cells, and regulating blood sugar.

RELATED: 11 Healthiest Drinks for Weight Loss

According to Manaker, "other teas, like black and oolong, have been shown to support weight loss too." There hasn't been as much research done on these types of tea as there has been for green tea, but current data shows they can still be helpful for your goals.

A study from the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine discovered that obese and overweight participants who consumed a daily serving of oolong tea for six weeks saw a decrease in body fat. Part of oolong's health benefits could be attributed to its catechin content as well, but green tea still contains the highest amount.

A recent study published in the European Journal of Nutrition found surprising results related to black tea and its potential weight loss benefits as well.

Researchers in this study learned that black tea might actually be able to alter the bacteria in your gut, which can attribute to weight loss. However, this study was performed on mice, so more research still needs to be done.

RELATED: 5 Best Metabolism-Boosting Teas for Weight Loss

Teas like green, oolong, and black can be great for supporting your weight loss goals, but Manaker reminds us that how you drink your tea makes a huge difference.

"If the tea is replacing caloric drinks like regular sodas, any variety would likely be a good choice when supporting weight loss," says Manaker, "and as long as the tea isn't being enjoyed with a large amount of sugar, honey, cream, or other caloric additions, it can be a fantastic choice for weight loss support as well as overall health support."

So when reaching for a cup of tea to help you with your weight loss goals, just remember that although it can help you, it's your daily food, movement, and sleep choices that make all the difference.

For more healthy eating news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read these next:

See original here:
The Final Verdict on Drinking Tea for Weight Loss Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

By Crissy Fishbane, WRAL contributor

Going to the doctor can be intimidating.

I am guilty of putting off certain doctors appointments for years. Yes, you read that right. Not months, but years.

Of course, I am busy, as all moms are. Most moms I know spend entire afternoons carting their kiddos around to appointments and practices all over town, their own health and well-being often taking a backseat.

But we cant ignore the fact that going to the doctors office can be scary. We tend to put doctors on a pedestal and often feel overwhelmed as we head in for our 10 precious minutes of solo time with our healthcare provider (to ask a years worth of questions).

I often find myself wondering what the doctor is thinking as they poke and prod my body (which is rapidly approaching middle-age. Shh, dont tell!). Are they judging my weight gain? Do they shudder at the sight of my bunion or shake their head when they come across that regretful tattoo I got back in college?

I thought it would be helpful to ask a few doctors what it is they wish their patients knew. In my quest for insights I spoke with a medical doctor, gynecologist, and physical therapist. Heres what they had to say:

First, I spoke with Elizabeth Sierakowski, MD, DABFM, DABOIM. Sierakowski is the medical director & provider at the Raleigh & Holly Springs locations of Essential Health. She is triple trained in family medicine, integrative medicine and functional medicine and has practiced from coast to coast.

Heres what Dr. Sierakowski had to say:

Your relationship with your provider can be so much better. With any professional advisor:

1. Seek the right fit, and be clear about your goals. "Non-compliance" is when your goals and the doctor's goals for you don't align. You can always seek another opinion or another relationship. Many practices dont offer free Meet and Greet appointments, but you can always ask! Increasingly providers are on media, or have a video of them talking on their clinics website. That can help you get a feel for someone ahead of time.

2. Once you find your fit, stick with it for a reasonable amount of time. Too many cooks spoil the soup. Medicine is absolutely a blend of art and science. While some treatment plans are very cut and dry and you may get the same answer from several people, most have significant room for variability. Adding layers of opinion, herb, prescription, oils, & other treatments can make you sicker instead of better or at best can hinder progress.

3. Prepare for your appointments. Call ahead and make sure you state what your chief goal is. Like your hair appointments, if you're coming in for a quick cut and are expecting foils, it won't end well.

4. Navigate the conversation. Ask up front for: Listening (is this bad?), Advice (what can I do?), or Intervention (is there a treatment?). Sometimes your doctor will suggest more than what you've asked for, but that's our job, too.

5. Be Honest. If you feel you cant tell your provider about your supplement regimen, barriers to change, home environment, fears, or anything else critical to creating an appropriate treatment plan for you thats a big sign thats not the right relationship for you.

6. Give feedback! Both positive and negative. Your providers only ever get better if you can tell them when you've improved, or if something isn't working, or especially if you've found healing from someone else. Learning from the approach of my colleagues is critical to being able to help that many more people.

Sierakowski also said, As you seek a provider who treats you with humanity and respect, please remember we are human beings, too, doing the very best we can to alleviate suffering in the world.

Next up, I thought it would be interesting to hear from a physical therapist, so I spoke to Holly Durney, PT, OCS. Durney is an APTA Orthopedic Certified Specialist and has pelvic floor rehabilitation training from the Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute. She utilizes her knowledge of orthopedics to treat pelvic pain, pre- and postnatal issues and incontinence at Smart Athlete Physiotherapy.

Heres what Dr. Durney had to say:

I wish my patients knew that pregnancy and delivery can be treated as an orthopedic injury. Unlike ankle sprains and low back pain that typically get referred out for care, pregnancy is something that women are expected to be able to rehabilitate on their own unless there's a traumatic delivery or some sort of complication. But if you think about the postural changes, the ligament changes, the structural changes and the muscle damage that occurs during pregnancy and delivery, standard outpatient care is something that should be sought regardless of trauma or complication during delivery. My hope is to encourage women to seek care postpartum as a standard part of their postnatal care. I hope to encourage women to seek physical therapists advice in order to reactivate their muscles and reclaim their body after giving birth.

Finally, I decided to take it to the most intimate of doctor-patient relationships. Who doesnt wonder what their gynecologist would secretly love to tell their patients? So, I spoke to Polly Watson, MD FACOG NCMP, founder and owner of Hormone Wellness MD.

Heres what Dr. Watson had to say:

I wish you knew and could take to heart that self care isn't selfish. So many women wait far too long to seek medical care. And they've been suffering for years before they finally take some time for themselves. The best diet and lifestyle advice, the most complicated cutting edge test, the most advanced nutraceutical protocol, none of that can be optimally helpful with a patient that isn't able to set boundaries for self care at work and at home.

So I invite you to create some space for yourself to step forward. Look at your calendar, and find one thing that you can say no to or you can delegate. If you could claim back 30 minutes a day to take care of yourself imagine how your health would change. The world is a pretty stressful place, especially now. Your body and your mind deserve some rest that's restorative. So let's reimagine what's possible for women's health and start by stepping forward and creating some space for yourself and your own self care.

To open up more time for self-care, Dr. Watson suggested things like taking a break from social media, letting up on the Netflix habit or ordering groceries electronically and having them delivered rather than spending time at the grocery store.

She also suggested trying journaling as a time of personal reflection. To work on lowering cortisol Dr. Watson suggests exploring tapping, meditation, or visualization. She also stressed the importance of social connection and spending time connecting with a treasured friend.

What do all of the doctors suggestions have in common?

All the doctors expressed genuine compassion for their patients. It is vital to build a relationship with a trusted provider and to be honest with them in your communication. If you dont have that kind of relationship it may be time to seek out a new provider.

Of course, it goes without saying, doctors are human and are certainly not infallible. Its crucial that women learn to trust their body and follow their intuition. If something doesnt feel right and a doctor is not listening to your concerns it is worth pursuing a second opinion. There are plenty of good doctors out there who are willing to listen and want to help you find health.

Crissy Fishbane is the co-founder of HER Health Collective, a supportive community and resource hub for moms. She is a certified therapeutic exercise specialist, personal trainer, wellness coach, and former high-school psychology teacher. Crissy believes in a holistic approach to womens health and is a strong advocate of improved screening and treatment of perinatal mood disorders. She is passionate about building a supportive community for moms where they can make genuine connections and build authentic relationships.

Read the rest here:
We asked a family practitioner, gynecologist and physical therapist what they wish patients knew - WRAL.com

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Laura Deschl has developed The Healing Imprint, a therapeutic garment that looks like activewear but is made to help heal trauma.

The project was developed to explore the potential of combining acupressure a non-invasive practice originating in traditional Chinese medicine with yoga-like movement to treat psychological trauma.

Deschl produced custom-knit garments with a grid stitched into them that allows small massage balls to be inserted and moved onto specific acupressure points on the body, feet, hands and head.

The garments' aesthetic is similar to activewear or leisurewear, and a full set includes a bodysuit, gloves, socks and a pillow.

The idea is to combine acupressure with an embodied movement practice based on yoga, which would allow a person's bodyweight to heighten the pressure at the targeted "acu-points."

Deschl based The Healing Imprint on research that shows how physical therapies can be incorporated into psychotherapy to help people heal from psychological trauma, in an approach known as integrative therapy.

She was particularly inspired by the work of Bessel van der Kolk, whose 2014 book The Body Keeps the Score documents the effects of trauma and an array of methods that can be used to treat it.

"I was inspired by how he is incorporating 'untypical' ways of healing trauma, such as through yoga, tapping and community," Deschl told Dezeen.

"My research also encompassed certain other thinkers, but their take on healing trauma through the body is somehow similar," she continued. "One thing is certain: they are all convinced that the body needs to play a major role in overcoming the imprint left on the body caused by a traumatic event."

Acupressure has been used to address symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as trauma-related anxiety and depression.

With The Healing Imprint garments, the acupressure aims to help the wearer access buried memories or emotions, while the trauma-sensitive yoga practice would facilitate introspection around those recollections.

Deschl said that a person's body and their emotions are "two elements that are crucial for one's sense of self, but are often highly impaired as a result of trauma".

"Many people with histories of trauma and neglect experience an extreme disconnection from their body due to a deep divide between the sense of self and sensory experiences," said Deschl.

"The goal of this project is to help patients train embodiment and thus bring them closer to their bodies."

One of The Healing Imprint garment sets is knitted from predominantly merino wool plated with an elastic yarn, which was produced specifically for the project.

A second set with meridian patterns is made from a recycled knitted athleisure fabric, while the massage balls are gemstones.

The Healing Imprint includes a set of illustrations showing where to place the balls for which symptoms, and Deschl worked with a psycho-motor therapist to facilitate test sessions with trauma patients.

Deschl tested the garments at Eindhoven mental health institute GGzE and is seeking funding to further develop the project.

A social designer and artistic researcher, Deschl has a background in fashion and textiles as well as yoga teaching.

The Healing Imprint is her graduate project from the Master of Fine Arts and Design at Design Academy Eindhoven and is emblematic of her interdisciplinary approach.

"The garment is not only an interface for an individual to access embodied knowledge and self-awareness, but also represents how design can converge fields such as science, business, medicine, psychiatry and textile-making," said Deschl.

Other designers to have made tools for therapy include Ariadna Sala Nadal, whose Balisa kit is meant to help children express their emotions, and Nicolette Bodewes, whose tactile objects are to assist adults in talk therapy.

Photography is by Iris Rijskamp.

See the article here:
Design and integrative therapy combine in Laura Deschl's garments - Dezeen

As anyone who is involved in drug policy can tell you, Afghanistan wasn't really America's longest war. That shady honor belongs to the war on drugs, which has been waged at the state, local, and federal levels for well over a century, even before President Richard Nixon officially declared in 1971 that he was starting "an all-out offensive" on the "drug abuse" he called "America's public enemy number one."

Yet it's obvious that the drug war is in fact winding down. In the 1990s, medical marijuana was legalized in various states. Now 16 states have legalized recreational marijuana, with more to come. Last fall, nine out of nine drug legalization or decriminalization measures passed at the ballot box, the use of MDMA to treat PTSD is in final clinical trials with the Food and Drug Administration, and there is an increasingly visible cultural shift that is welcoming to psychedelics and other mind-expanding substances. This November, LSD even comes to that safest of all cultural playgrounds, Broadway, with the musical Flying Over Sunset, a fictional account of a meeting between novelist Aldous Huxley, playwright/ambassador Clare Boothe Luce, and movie star Cary Grant, all of whom experimented with psychedelics in the late 1950s and early '60s.

Nick Gillespie's guest is the one person in the best position to explain and interpret the country's shifting attitudes toward drug prohibition and drug use. He's Ethan Nadelmann, the 64-year-old founder and former head of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the oldest and most effective outfits fighting for pharmacological freedom. A former college professor who taught political science, Nadelmann brings together an academic's rigor and depth of knowledge with an activist's sense of urgency and energy (read a 1994 Reason interview with him conducted by Jacob Sullum).

Over the years, Nadelmann has allied and sparred with everyone across the political spectrum to make drug policy more humane and less punitive while also talking up the positives of responsible drug use. You can listen to him on his new weekly podcast Psychoactive, where recent guests have included psychedelic enthusiast and best-selling author Tim Ferriss, leading psychotherapist and psychopharmacologist Julie Holland, integrative medicine guru Andrew Weil, and advice columnist Dan Savage on "sex, drugs, and freedom."

This is a great and rollicking conversation about the past 50 years of drug laws and drug cultureand what comes next as America oh-so-slowly starts pulling out of its longest war.

Photo: Gage Skidmore.

Read the original:
Ethan Nadelmann: How To End the Drug War (and What Comes Next) - Reason

Newswise Irvine, Calif., Oct. 22, 2021 A new study led by University of California, Irvine researchers is the first to reveal the specific molecular mechanism that controls the transition from acute to chronic pain, and identifies this mechanism as a critical target for disease-modifying medicines.

Findings from the study, titled NAAA-regulated lipid signaling governs the transition from acute to chronic pain, published today in Science Advances, show that disabling N-acylethanolamine acid amidase (NAAA)an intracellularenzymein the spinal cord during a 72-hour time window following peripheral tissue injury halts chronic pain development in male and female mice.

Delineating the nature, localization and timing of the events involved in pain chronicity is necessary to pinpointing control nodes in the process that can be targeted by new classes of disease-modifying medicines beyond analgesics, said Daniele Piomelli, Distinguished Professor in the UCI School of Medicine Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology. This study is the first to identify that NAAA, a previously unrecognized control node, can be effectively targeted by small-molecule therapeutics that inhibit this enzyme, and block the transition from acute to chronic pain.

Chronic pain evolves from acute pain caused by the physical trauma of tissue damage due to surgery or injury and is a massive problem, affecting more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. Chronic pain continues long past tissue healing, is often resistant to therapy, and remains seriously undertreated. Treatment is largely dependent on a handful of analgesic drug classes such as opioids, which may lose effectiveness over time and can also lead to addiction. Nerve damage is considered to be a critical factor in the transition to chronic pain, but the underlying molecular events leading to its emergence have been poorly understood.

Our findings suggest a new class of drugs NAAA inhibitors can be used to treat various forms of chronic pain and in preventing incisional and inflammatory injuries following surgery, Piomelli said.

This work was funded by grants R41NS106999, R42DA033683 and DA041229 from the National Institutes of Health.

About the UCI School of Medicine: Each year, the UCI School of Medicine educates more than 400 medical students, and nearly 150 doctoral and masters students. More than 700 residents and fellows are trained at UCI Medical Center and affiliated institutions. The School of Medicine offers an MD; a dual MD/PhD medical scientist training program; and PhDs and masters degrees in anatomy and neurobiology, biomedical sciences, genetic counseling, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, pathology, pharmacology, physiology and biophysics, and translational sciences. Medical students also may pursue an MD/MBA., an MD/masters in public health, or an MD/masters degree through one of three mission-based programs: Health Education to Advance Leaders in Integrative Medicine (HEAL-IM), Leadership Education to Advance Diversity-African, Black and Caribbean (LEAD-ABC), and the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC). The UCI School of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Accreditation and ranks among the top 50 nationwide for research. For more information, visit som.uci.edu.

Read the original post:
UCI-led study first to reveal specific molecular mechanism that controls the transition from acute to chronic pain - Newswise

Founded in 2018, Medfuture, has quickly established itself in Quebec as the leader in home blood collection services, following the acquisition of Myrrha Sant in February 2019. The company, which aims to position itself as a key player in the field of preventive health, has since multiplied its initiatives by diversifying its product and service offering, taking advantage of technological advances in the field of biotechnology.

By the age of 35, many of the functions that are essential to everyday life begin to decline, at different rates for different people and with different consequences. Genetic, environmental and lifestyle components - diet, physical activity, smoking, sleep hygiene - are involved in this aging process, which can lead to chronic diseases, cancers, and other disabling conditions.

"We are currently observing a worldwide trend in favor of prevention in the health field. Some countries are even in the process of identifying aging as a disease on which we will be able to act and thus, reduce the costs of care in the public health system," says Amlie Paquette, Executive Director of Medfuture. "With the help of technological innovations developed in recent years, it is now possible to measure several biomarkers of aging, to create individual aging scores and thus, to assess the impact of interventions designed to modify the trajectory of aging of a person to make it more favorable."

The Agemeter Vitality Index is an innovative test developed in collaboration with a team of physicians and researchers who are experts in the non-invasive evaluation of aging. Deployed on a mobile application and lasting about 20 minutes, it is composed of six tests, associated with functions that decline with age: memory, hearing, decision making time, reaction time, movement speed and coordination.

Medfuture also announces that it will make its customer portal available in early 2022; this portal will offer customers a dashboard of past blood work history. This dashboard will show trends and trajectories of each biomarker at a glance and thus, adjust customers' action plans to act preventively.

The longevity industry, estimated at $17 trillion, is exploding, and the market opportunity will reach $27 trillion by 2026, according to experts. The fields of integrative medicine, gerosciences, nutraceuticals, regenerative medicine, gene therapies and connected health are gaining momentum, mainly due to advances in artificial intelligence, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, robotics and cognitive sciences.

About Medfuture Clinic Inc.Medfuture specializes in the longevity field by helping people who actively seek control over their health, their most precious possession, to live an optimal and long life. Medfuture is a facilitator that aims to slow, stop or reverse the consequences of aging using tools to measure biomarkers related to the processes involved and concrete preventive actions, all with the use of advanced technologies and the practice of personalized medicine. Medfuture's multidisciplinary team offers a unique, human-centered experience.

For more information, visit https://medfuture.ca/pages/agemeter-indice-de-vitalite

SOURCE Clinique Medfuture Inc.

For further information: Alexandra Audy, [emailprotected], 514-378-7000 # 4487

https://medfuture.ca/

More here:
MedFuture announces the launch of the Agemeter Vitality Index - Canada NewsWire

When you're preparing to bake, you probably head straight for your pantry for the bulk of your recipe's ingredients. Yet experts warn that there's one common baking ingredient that you should never store in your pantry. That's because this one food runs a high risk of going rancid when stored improperlyleading to tainted flavors and, in some cases, health issues as well. Read on to find out which common pantry item you're likely storing wrong and how to spot a problem with this popular ingredient.

RELATED:If You Notice This on a Potato, Don't Eat It, Experts Warn.

While you may think nothing of putting a bag of flour in your cabinet or pantry until you need it again, experts say that it's a major mistake to store whole grain flour in either of these spots. That's because this type of flour is prone to rancidity, meaning it will go bad much faster if it's left unrefrigerated.

"When grains are ground, their interiors are exposed to the air," Harold McGee, PhD, a food scientist and author, tells The Chicago Tribune. "The whole grains contain the germ and the bran, both of which are rich in oils that are especially prone to oxidizing and going rancid. So you end up with off flavors very quickly in whole grain flours compared to refined flours," he explained.

RELATED:If You Notice This on Your Eggs, Throw Them Out Immediately, Experts Say.

In addition to refrigerating whole grain flour, you'd be wise to refrigerate any open packaged foods that contain whole grain flour, like cookies, crackers, and cakes. The oils found in these foods are also prone to rapid rancidityespecially when they contain polyunsaturated oils, such as nut oil or olive oils.

"Healthy" packaged snacks often include these ingredients, given that they're often considered nutritionally superior to refined white flour and saturated fats or trans fats. While they may be better for your body, their shelf life is significantly shorter than snacks that used refined flours and vegetable oils.

Part of the problem is that many Americans have become accustomed to the taste and smell of rancidity. Experts say that one way to lower your odds of eating a rancid food is to train your nose to recognize its smell. "We assume that rancid flavors are normal," McGee says, "because, in some cases, that's what we've gotten used to."

So what should you look out for? Integrative medicine specialist Andrew Weil, MD, told The Chicago Tribune that rancid food often gives off "the smell of oil paint," however faintly. "Linseed oil, which is the same as flax oil, is the basis of oil paint. It's highly unsaturated and so it oxidizes fast when exposed to the air," he explains.

For more food safety tips sent directly to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

Though whole grain flour may go bad faster than its refined counterpart, that doesn't mean you should stop buying it. There are several things you can do to keep this baking ingredient fresher for longer.

First, only buy what you need. Unless you bake daily, this means you probably want to opt for the smallest package available. Second, seal your leftovers in an airtight container or bag and refrigerate them. Finally, if you do choose to keep your whole grain flour in the pantry, always be sure to transfer it from its original paper bag to an airtight glass or plastic container. Keep it in a cool, dry, dark place until use, and always check for signs of spoilage before using it in your next recipe.

RELATED:Never Eat Microwaved Food Before Doing This, FDA Warns.

Read more here:
Never Put This Common Baking Ingredient in Your Pantry, Experts Warn Best Life - Best Life

Like many other overweight Bangladeshi teenagers, I too, was relentlessly fat shamed out of "concern for my health" by everyone. From relatives to peers, it seemed like everyone had something to say. So, I decided to throw in the towel and surrender to a series of unfortunate attempts at dieting.

I say unfortunate because the Bangladeshi "dieting" scene revolves around handing out a pre-made or slightly customised diet plan that lists what you must eat and what you must avoid, and when. My numerous attempts at losing weight told me how many almonds to eat a day but did not tell me why I keep finding myself binge eating whenever I am stressed.

Our unhealthy eating habits and, in extreme cases, eating disorders, are greatly impacted by emotional and psychological factors. Furthermore, many people struggling to maintain a healthy weight through dieting may be emotional eaters. Emotional eating is a condition where the person suffering from it tends to eat whenever they feel fluctuations in their emotional state.

In my experience of going through a whole host of dieticians over the years, not one person mentioned my emotional well-being while dieting, or referred to my relationship with food. Never did they mention that my relationship with food might not be improving because I have mental blocks that I need to overcome. Instead, they told me that "I am bad at dieting."

When I pointed out to them that I might be an emotional eater and asked for advice, it was dismissed with an offhand comment along the lines of, "Oh, everyone is an emotional eater, it's all about will power so just stick to the diet."

Stick to the diet, they said. However, is it reasonable to expect someone to follow a strict diet when the person in question cannot make a distinction between emotional eating and eating out of genuine hunger?

Although people seem to be becoming more health conscious day-by-day, the general understanding of following a diet plan in Bangladesh often includes skipping meals to "lose weight." Therefore, in a typical Bangladeshi dieting scene, with its preconceived notion that people struggling with weight issues are just lazy and lack will power, there is also a lack of emotional support for people who are seeking to make changes in their lifestyles and eating habits.

Diane Robinson, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist, and program director of Integrative Medicine at Orlando Health said in her interview with PsychCentral that, "Most people focus almost entirely on the physical aspects of weight loss, like diet and exercise. But there is an emotional component to food that the vast majority of people simply overlook, and it can quickly sabotage their efforts."

While some dieticians are ignorant of the emotional aspect of dieting, on the other side of the spectrum, there are some dieticians who use "eating disorder" as an excuse for their failing diet plans without a proper psychological assessment.

Tasnim Nishat Islam, a 23-year-old university student going through a weight loss journey says, "When my weight didn't change after a few months of dieting, I was told it was because of mental issues although the dietician herself was not a psychologist, nor did she conduct a proper assessment to find out."

Sabekun Nahar Mumu, a practicing dietician at Evercare Hospital Dhaka says, "Certified dieticians in Bangladesh are trained on patient counselling but the training is not extensive or practical enough for them to treat patients with eating disorders. They are expected to refer such patients to a psychologist. The problem here is that the number of psychologists in Bangladesh who deal with eating disorders is not sufficient."

People who go to dieticians are often people who have experienced body shaming to some extent and are sensitive to judgmental comments. This is why it is especially important that practicing dieticians take the emotional side of dieting more seriously, so that people do not end up being misdiagnosed or have their concerns dismissed without assessment.

Tunzida Yousuf Chhonda, Managing Director and CEO at Cfitz women's fitness centre, who also works as a fitness expert, mentions, "Well reputed dieticians have the psychological training necessary to deal with emotional eaters. However, I have my doubts that some may not be as adequately equipped or trained as others. This needs to change, whether it is a curricular issue or a training issue, the field needs to adopt the psychological effects of emotional eating into its territory."

Mumu also points out that although graduates from food and nutrition who go into the clinical side are given training through an internship period, it is not widely available or enforced everywhere.

For this field to take into consideration the emotional and psychological side of dieting, it is imperative for dieticians to receive better training and practice empathy towards the clients they help. Otherwise, they may end up doing more harm than good.

References

1. PsychCentral. (December 2, 2015). Emotional Part of Weight Loss Often Overlooked.

2. PubMed. (March 26, 2020).

Emotional eating and obesity in adults: the role of depression, sleep, and genes.

When Tazreen is not pretending to be a high-brow literary critic, she quite likes Rupi Kaur's poetry collections. Send verbal eye-rolls at tazreenzahan@gmail.com

Go here to see the original:
The Emotional Side of Dieting - The Daily Star

image:The VPI10463 and M68 represent the classic and the hypervirulent C. difficile, respectively. GTD-VPI preferentially modifies Rho family GTPases (Cdc42, for example) by glucosylation, while GTD-M68 more effectively modifies R-Ras. Due to their different selectivity toward Rho or Ras family GTPases, these two different TcdB variants cause two distinct types of cytopathic effects. view more

Credit: UCI School of Medicine

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 22, 2021 A University of California, Irvine-led study suggests that the glucosyltransferase domain (GTD) is an ideal molecular target for therapeutic interventions for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). These findings may lead to new treatments to fight this deadly disease.

Based on their findings that established the structural basis for Toxin B recognition of the small GTPases Rho and R-Ras families, the study, titled Structural basis for selective modification of Rho and Ras GTPases by Clostridioides difficile toxin B, was published today in Sciences Advances.

CDI is the leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and gastroenteritis-associated deaths worldwide, accounting for 500,000 cases and 29,000 deaths annually in the U.S. Classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the top health threats. There is growing global concern surrounding the emerge and spread of hypervirulent C. difficile strains, resembling the occurrence of new virus variants in current COVID pandemic. TcdB is one of two homologous C. difficile exotoxins, and TcdB alone is capable of causing the full spectrum of CDI diseases.

We focused on the structure and function of TcdBs crucial GTD, which is the toxins warhead. The GTD is delivered by the toxin inside the host cells and causes most of the cytosolic damage to patients, said Rongsheng Jin, PhD, professor in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the UCI School of Medicine, and corresponding author. We discovered molecular mechanisms by which the GTD specifically recognizes and blocks the physiological functions of the human GTPases Rho and R-Ras enzyme families that are crucial signaling molecules.

The team also demonstrated how the classic form of TcdB and the hypervirulent TcdB recognize their human targets in different ways, which leads to distinct structural changes to the host cells caused by bacterial invasion.

Once the GTD of TcdB is inside the cells, it is shielded by our cells and becomes inaccessible to passive immunotherapy. But our studies suggest that small molecule inhibitors could be developed to disarm the GTD, which will directly eliminate the root cause of disease symptoms and cellular damage, Jin said. This new strategy can potentially be integrated with and complement other CDI treatment regiments.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health under awards R01AI125704, R21AI139690, R21AI123920, R01NS080833, R01AI132387, R01AI139087 and R21 CA235533.

Team members also include Zheng Liu and Peng Chen from the UCI Department of Physiology & Biophysics; Sical Chang, Songhai Tian, Ji Zeng, and Min Dong, Department of Urology, Boston Childrens Hospital, and Department of Microbiology and Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston; and Kay Perry, NE-CAT and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; and Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois.

About the UCI School of Medicine: Each year, the UCI School of Medicine educates more than 400 medical students, and nearly 150 doctoral and masters students. More than 700 residents and fellows are trained at UCI Medical Center and affiliated institutions. The School of Medicine offers an M.D.; a dual M.D./Ph.D. medical scientist training program; and Ph.D.s and masters degrees in anatomy and neurobiology, biomedical sciences, genetic counseling, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, pathology, pharmacology, physiology and biophysics, and translational sciences. Medical students also may pursue an M.D./M.B.A., an M.D./masters in public health, or an M.D./masters degree through one of three mission-based programs: Health Education to Advance Leaders in Integrative Medicine (HEAL-IM), Leadership Education to Advance Diversity-African, Black and Caribbean (LEAD-ABC), and the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC). The UCI School of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Accreditation and ranks among the top 50 nationwide for research. For more information, visit som.uci.edu.

Experimental study

Cells

Structural basis for selective modification of Rho and Ras GTPases by Clostridioides difficile toxin B

22-Oct-2021

Authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Originally posted here:
UCI-led study suggests new molecular target for therapeutic interventions aimed at C. difficile infection - EurekAlert