73 Palestinians killed while waiting for humanitarian aid across Gaza, health ministry says
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Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Nurse, 26, Lost 270 Pounds After Making These 3 Lifestyle Changes
When his doctor prescribed the first blood pressure medication, Kevin Goode knew his weight probably contributed to it. He was 465 pounds, but he thought his high blood pressure wasn't 'too serious.' Still, it remained high, and his doctor prescribed him a second drug to try to lower it. Soon after, he learned he had sleep apnea and his A1C was 'shooting upward.' If it didn't lower, Goode would need to add insulin to his growing list of prescriptions. Then his doctor gave him a warning. 'My doctor told me that I wouldn't live past 40 with this trend,' Goode, 28, a nurse at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, tells 'That's the moment that everything changed.' At the time, he was 26 and visited a bariatric surgeon for a consultation. The doctor advised Goode that he needed to lose weight before he qualified for surgery. He immediately headed to the gym and sat on a bench to lift some dumbbells. Soon, he started eating a moderate-fat, low-carbohydrate and high-protein diet. '(The doctor) wanted me to lose 20 pounds because that would show that I was dedicated enough for surgery,' Goode explains. 'I ended up losing 80 pounds.' In December 2023, he underwent surgery. As he recovered for six weeks, he was anxious to get back to his exercise routine. 'I was very much like, 'How soon can I get back to the gym?'' he says. 'I was sitting around doing nothing, and I'm not liking it.' Six weeks later, he was cleared to return to his regular exercise routine. Over time, he shed more weight, reaching 176 pounds. 'My goal from the beginning of this whole journey back in February of 2023 was, bluntly, to win back my life. It was never about the weight, never about the bodybuilding, never about looking good,' he says. 'It was very much about (how) I was told that I wouldn't live past 40, and that didn't sit right with me, and I wanted to get rid of all the diagnoses.' This year, Goode took his love of weight training to the next level and is working toward becoming a certified personal trainer. One of the trainers in the gym approached Goode and suggested he consider participating in a bodybuilding competition. 'He was like 'Have you ever thought about doing a show?' and I was like, 'No, I just love it here and I come for the health aspect,'' Goode recalls. 'That's when I looked into the transformation competition.' A transformation competition generally focuses on people who have lost weight. Goode will compete in October in Chicago. As part of his preparation, he has focused more on lifting and less on cardiovascular exercise. 'Instead of doing 45 minutes of strength training and 30 of cardio, it's more like an hour strength training and maybe 15 minutes cardio,' he says. This caused him to gain some weight, and he's now at 210 pounds, but it's 'more muscle.' His diet has changed, too, and he focuses on counting macronutrients. He still eats a lot of protein, but with lower-fat foods and now incorporates complex carbohydrates into his diet. Losing fat while gaining muscle has changed his outlook on calories and how important they are for energy, he says. Since losing weight and transforming his body with lifting, Goode feels he's become 'more emotionally intelligent.' 'I share a lot more about myself,' he says. 'I'm 20 times more confident than I have ever been in my life.' Ahead, Goode shares what worked for him when it came to transforming his body. 'Nutrition Is Going To Be Your Biggest Thing' Eating fewer calories than he burned, what's known as a calorie deficit, helped Goode shed the weight. 'Nutrition is going to be your biggest thing,' he says. 'The biggest advice as far as actually losing weight is just (being in) a calorie deficit.' 'Fall in Love with the Small Wins' Focusing too much on the scale can feel overwhelming. People might think they look great, but the scale shows their weight increased slightly. Instead of focusing on the numbers, Goode urges people to 'fall in love with the small wins.' Goode keeps a running list of his in his notes app. 'I don't have to pick up my foot to tie my shoe. I can just bend over,' he says. 'I always made a joke that laptops are not laptops. There's no way that is sitting on my lap. But now I'm like I got all this room.' But his 'biggest non-scale victory' has been the difference he's noticed at work. 'Being able to move around (the hospital) room a lot easier, being able to play with the kids without getting out of breath,' he says. 'I enjoy it so much more now because I'm not getting (to) the end of the 12-hour shifts completely, like, dead.' Find Support While Goode taught himself how to work out, he hasn't been entirely alone in his process. 'I had the community support from the gym. My mom has been a huge supporter. All the nurses at work, they've been fantastic,' he says. 'I can't go without mentioning my amazing girlfriend. She's just been super supportive.' This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
'A heavy burden:' On Ben Askren's new life and what to expect after a double lung transplant
Ben Askren headed home from the hospital this week with a new set of lungs and a second chance at life. Or, depending on how you think about it, maybe it's more like a fourth or fifth chance, since that's about how many times he estimated he'd already died while in the hospital battling severe pneumonia linked to a staph infection. 'Amy, how close was I to dying?' Askren asked his wife in the car ride home while posting an update for his social-media followers. 'Too close,' she told him. 'A few times.' As recently as early June, Amy Askren had told those same social-media followers she was 'praying for a miracle.' Her husband — a retired MMA fighter, two-time NCAA national champion wrestler and former Olympian — was unconscious and hooked up to machines, including a ventilator and an ECMO device (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation — essentially a form of life support). The prognosis was dire. Askren needed a double lung transplant. If he didn't get it, he'd die. All over those combat sports sections of the internet, the support came in the form of prayers and fundraisers. Former opponent Jake Paul and UFC CEO Dana White, among others, contributed financial support. And then in late June, the miracle came. Amy Askren announced June 30 her husband had received a double lung transplant. 'We are forever thankful to the donor and his family,' she wrote on Facebook. 'This is the beginning of a new lifestyle for Ben, but every new day he has is a gift. It still doesn't feel real that he was walking around completely healthy just 5 weeks ago. So much can change so quickly.' But the challenges for Askren are still just beginning, according to Dr. Kirlos Haroun, a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. As both a fight fan and a doctor, Haroun followed Askren's story closely. He's seen similar cases in his work as an emergency room physician and Johns Hopkins faculty member, he said, so he knows the risks lung transplant patients face. 'I've dealt with a lot of really acute lung injury, and I've dealt with transplant patients. The double lung transplant is this really complex last resort for very, very severe lung injuries,' Haroun told Uncrowned. "It's the only transplant that is exposed to the air with every breath, so it's exposed to the world at every moment. You combine that with pretty strong drugs, somebody who's immunocompromised, and your risk for infection every day is incredibly high.' There are two main threats for any lung transplant patient, according to Haroun. The first is that, as with any transplant, the body may reject the new organ. Medication can lower this risk — and transplant patients will need to remain on that medication for their entire lives — but it does so by suppressing the body's natural immune system. That leaves patients at higher risk of infection, but also vulnerable to diseases like cancer, Haroun said. 'Whenever I see a transplant patient in my ER, and they come in with a cough, the thought is always opportunistic infections. There are viruses, there are fungal infections, and then there's really bad drug-resistant bacteria,' Haroun said. 'Ben's going to be taking some very heavy immunosuppressive drugs just to let the transplant work. I mean, people with transplants, they live their lives, but there is always this concern. Anyone you're around can expose you to something. "I would be cautious about him even entering a gym, let alone rolling and wrestling just because of the infection risk. A skin abrasion can lead to a severe reinfection that can be life-threatening, and I think that's a really, really emotionally and mentally difficult thing beyond the physical risks he has.' One person who understands both the physical and emotional challenges is Jeffrey Pinard, who underwent a double lung transplant a little less than two years ago. Pinard was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a child, he said, so medical risks and challenges have essentially always been a part of his life. After dealing with multiple infections that affected his lungs, he was finally placed on the lung transplant list while in his early 50s. 'I was on the wait list about eight months,' Pinard said. 'I had to be taken off the wait list five different times because there was a question about going through with the transplant since I had such drug-resistant bugs in me. "No one told me this beforehand, thankfully, but I only had a few weeks to live when I finally got my lungs. When the surgeon cut into my lungs to start taking them out, they exploded. That was something they had never seen before. There was just so much infection packed in there.' Pinard knew more than most what to expect. As a college student, he'd studied genetics and microbiology at the University of Michigan. He was even an undergrad assistant on the research team led by geneticist Francis Collins who, in conjunction with Lap-Chee Tsui and his team at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, first isolated the gene for cystic fibrosis. Because of his experience with that disease, Pinard said, he was already well-accustomed to the sometimes drastic steps needed to avoid infection after the lung transplant. 'Everyone who has a cold is a threat to you,' Pinard said. 'Like, a mortal threat. Big crowds, things like that, you have to change your behavior so that you minimize your risk as much as possible. "The first year post-transplant is the hardest. That's when you're going to have the highest levels of steroids, prednisone and some of the other anti-rejection drugs. As you improve and your body gets used to the new lungs, then they can start tapering those off and then there will be a little bit less risk. But of course, that never goes away and you really have to balance the threat of infections with the threat of rejection.' But after reading about Askren, Pinard said, he does see reason for optimism. He was a relatively young man and healthy lifelong athlete with no major known comorbidities prior to the illness that necessitated the transplant. At the same time, there are more than just the physical adjustments to consider after such a dramatic life change. 'This transplant is so different for every single person,' Pinard said. 'I know people who've had it and were doing great within a month. I'm close to two years and I'm still struggling. But it's also about perspective. The year or so before my transplant, I was basically living on the couch, which isn't much of a life. Even getting up to make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich felt like an enormous task that took so much effort. So now, when I can do something like empty the dishwasher and it doesn't take every ounce of effort I have? It feels phenomenal. It makes me feel like a million dollars. But I don't know how he'll feel about that, having been an MMA fighter and an athlete. Being so strong and then having the rug pulled out from under you, it can be a shock.' There's also the looming question of mortality. Survival rates for lung transplant patients have steadily improved over the years, but Pinard noted the five-year survival rate for this procedure is still just a little over 50%. Recent statistics suggest slightly more than one-third of double lung transplant recipients are now making it past the 10-year mark. Some have lived 20 years or more after the procedure, but they are the exceptions. 'Psychologically, it is kind of a heavy burden. If you look at the statistics, 10% of double lung transplant patients die every year,' Pinard said. 'You can't help but see that you've got an expiration date.' Still, Pinard said, he sees more reason for optimism than pessimism in Askren's situation. His support system, his experience pushing through physical and emotional challenges, all the same things that made him successful as an athlete, these should serve Askren well in his new life, Pinard said. But make no mistake, he added, it is a new and different life awaiting the former fighter as he recovers from the transplant surgery. 'It will get better. That's the thing I'd say to Ben right now, is it will get better,' Pinard said. 'I wish I'd known that more. At first, every day can be very difficult to get through. You're learning how to breathe again with new lungs. You're learning how to get up and walk again. Some people are in a lot more pain than others after the surgery. But it will get better, so don't set deadlines for yourself or get disappointed if it takes longer than you expect. If it takes a year to get back to a stable place, that's fine.' As Askren lay in the hospital awaiting his transplant, he noted in one social-media post it was difficult at times to ward off negative feelings. Here he was, a man who hadn't smoked, had always tried to take care of his health, and now he needed new lungs just to have a chance at survival. 'I will not feel bad for myself,' Askren said at one point. Earlier this week, as he headed home, his message was one of gratitude. 'I said this already in one of my videos, but the support you guys gave me, whether it was sending a GoFundMe, whether it was helping my kids and wife get through it — I had friends from all over the country come to visit and hang out for a couple of days — it meant so much,' Askren said in one video. 'It was so great to just have all this support and all the love, and hopefully I'm not in this situation again for a really, really, really long time. I plan on living a while.'
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
People in Gaza are 'walking corpses' - with one in five children malnourished, says UN
People in Gaza are 'walking corpses' - with one in five children malnourished, says UN A fifth of the children in Gaza City are malnourished and more than 100 people, most of them youngsters, have reportedly died of hunger there, the UN has said. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), quoting a colleague, said on Thursday that people in Gaza, where the supply and distribution of aid is controlled by Israel, "are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses". Most of the youngsters the agency sees are "emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don't get the treatment they urgently need. "This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave." ADVERTISEMENT UNRWA's frontline health workers are surviving on "one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all. They are increasingly fainting from hunger while at work", Mr Lazzirini said. "When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing." The warning comes as news organisations asked Israel to allow journalists to move freely in and out of Gaza amid fears reporters there are facing the risk of starvation. BBC News, Agence France Press, Associated Press and Reuters said in a statement published on Thursday they are "desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. They said: "For many months, these independent journalists have been the world's eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. ADVERTISEMENT "Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them. "We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there." Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told Sky News that food shortages have "been engineered by Hamas", and that there "is no famine in Gaza". Speaking on Wednesday's News Hour with Mark Austin, Mr Mencer said aid is "flowing" into the enclave but Hamas "loots the trucks [and] deliberately endangers its own people". The fighters deny stealing food. More than 4,400 aid trucks have been allowed into Gaza since Israel lifted its blockade in May, roughly 70 trucks a day, which is the lowest rate of the war and far below the 500-600 trucks a day the UN says is needed. ADVERTISEMENT "The problem is not Israel," he said. "The problem is Hamas." Read more: Gaza situation 'worst ever' - charity Hundreds of thousands 'food insecure' 'Scarred' by Trump max security prison The UK and several other countries have condemned the current aid delivery model, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by the Israeli and American governments. It has reportedly resulted in Israeli troops firing on Palestinian civilians in search of food on multiple occasions. More than 800 people have reportedly been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near distribution centres. More than 2.1 million people live in Gaza, according to the UN.
