Nancy Davis' Cure Addiction Now to Host First Fundraiser at Beverly Hills Hotel
By studying addiction as both a mental and physical illness, CAN aims to reduce the stigma surrounding SUD. Davis explained, "I think forever, everybody's really been fixated on the idea because there's not been any research of growing for AA in the 12-step program. And if that works for you, that's amazing. I commend everyone for doing that. But it's it's based on something very spiritual, and it's not based on anything scientific. I'm a scientific person, and I really believe that we use medicine and we really study things, that we can come up with a lot of cures and a lot of treatments and different ways of treating people."The organization recently awarded an Innovation Grant to fund research on Belsomra, a non-narcotic sleeping pill that may help those with insomnia related to SUD while potentially reducing drug cravings. "We're in the middle of developing a better version of that too and keeping the part that makes you sleep at the same dosage, but the part that stopped your cravings, we're gonna we're doubling that part of the medication, and it will stop you, hopefully, between 80 and 100% from craving drugs," Davis noted.The Cure Addiction Now Inaugural Fundraising Evening will feature performances by Rufus Wainwright, Siedah Garrett, Scout Willis, Luke K, Madison Love, and Colin Love. An auction will also take place to support the 10 doctors to whom CAN grants $75,000 each year.In response to recent L.A. wildfires, CAN plans to donate to a local center supporting SUD patients affected by the disaster, with a focus on youth who can no longer access treatment at their schools or community centers."People aren't paying attention about just how much the fires have affected so many people about a mental health problem or an addiction has made it 10 times worse."
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CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
California is seeing spike in tick-borne illness anaplasmosis, experts warn
Ticks carrying a disease called anaplasmosis are spreading quickly throughout California, experts say. The disease is mainly showing up in dogs. Since dogs spend more time outdoors, experts say rising cases in pets could signal that humans may soon be at greater risk. More than half of the state's counties are now considered "high risk," according to the nonprofit group Companion Animal Parasite Council's data. "There's not a lot of awareness in California because most people think it's primarily a disease of the Upper Midwest and Northeast," said Dr. Jane Sykes, a professor of veterinary medicine at UC Davis. The culprit is the same western black-legged tick that spreads Lyme disease. In dogs, anaplasmosis can cause fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, and weight loss. In some cases, dogs may also experience nosebleeds, neck pain, or even seizures. "They kind of look depressed, dull, they don't want to move," Sykes said. "They have a fever, and sometimes they can develop vomiting." Veterinarians say diagnosis can be difficult, especially if owners don't mention that their dogs are often in tick-prone areas, making awareness critical. The good news: the illness can be treated quickly with antibiotics. "It doesn't matter when you give the antibiotics, it just costs more to have your dog in the hospital, not feeling well, going back in and out of veterinary clinics before the right diagnosis is made," Sykes explained. According to the Companion Animal Parasite Council, between 2021 and 2024 the number of dogs testing positive for the illness nearly tripled. More than half of California's counties are now at "high risk," including Yolo, Placer, and El Dorado counties. Veterinarians say the best way to keep dogs safe is year-round tick and flea prevention, as well as examining pets after walks in grassy or wooded areas.
Medscape
2 days ago
- Medscape
Do Comorbidities Shape MS Outcomes?
This transcript has been edited for clarity. Thanks so much for the opportunity to talk to you today about the effects of comorbidity in people living with multiple sclerosis (MS). My name is Ruth Ann Marrie. I'm a professor of medicine and community health and epidemiology, and the Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Research Chair at Dalhousie University. Today, I'd like to talk to you about what comorbidities often affect people with MS, how often they occur, and the effects of comorbidity on MS-related outcomes. When we talk about comorbidity, we're referring to the total burden of illness other than the specific disease of interest. In our case, MS is the disease of interest, so the comorbidities could include diabetes or hypertension, for example. We exclude from this definition complications that are secondary to MS, like urinary tract infections due to neurogenic bladder. Why? Well, it has importance in terms of thinking about the clinical target. Common Comorbidities in MS: What Can We Learn? Why, more broadly, are we interested in studying comorbidity? Comorbidity may help us to better explain the difference in outcomes between people with MS; we know outcomes are highly heterogeneous. It may help us better prognosticate and make treatment decisions for people with MS. It may also give us insights into the pathogenesis of MS. If we found that diabetes was associated with worse outcomes, we might think about how diabetes affects the brain in terms of its effects on the endothelium, for example, or the role of insulin receptors, and that might then lead to new treatment avenues. What do we know about comorbidity in MS at the present time? We know it's present throughout the disease course, and people with MS actually have a higher burden of some comorbidities even before they present with their first clinical symptoms. We've seen that people with MS have an increased incidence of psychiatric disorders, for instance, five to 10 years before their first clinical presentation. At the time of an MS diagnosis, the most common conditions that we see are depression, hypertension, chronic lung disease (particularly asthma), and anxiety disorders. Depending on the age of the individual with MS at the time of their initial presentation, the prevalence of those conditions may exceed 15%. Overall, we think at least 1 in 4 people with MS have a comorbid condition at diagnosis. If we take a random snapshot of any prevalent MS population, then the most common comorbidities we see are similar to those that we see at diagnosis, with depression and anxiety disorders as well as hypertension being prevalent. Hyperlipidemia and irritable bowel syndrome are also present. An important issue is how the prevalence of those conditions evolves over the course of MS. About 20%-30% of people with MS are going to have depression or an anxiety disorder at any given point in their disease course. In contrast, conditions like hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes are going to increase in prevalence with age. This means people are typically going to have a much higher burden of comorbidity later in their disease course when it's already becoming more difficult to manage their MS, and they may be taking many symptomatic therapies. You might say, well, they're common and we have to worry about polypharmacy between managing the comorbidities and the symptoms of MS, but what's the actual impact on outcomes? Comorbidities and Disease Progression Well, there's been a large amount of work to show that cardiometabolic and psychiatric comorbidities affect multiple outcomes in MS, ranging from delays in the time from symptom onset to diagnosis, the severity of disability at diagnosis, the rapidity of disability progression and lifespan, and quality of life. I'm going to focus on a couple of those for today — specifically, relapses and disability progression. Multiple studies suggest that comorbidity influences relapse rates and the rate of disability worsening. One of the earliest studies was done at the State University of New York at Buffalo by Bianca Weinstock-Guttman and colleagues. It suggested that if you had dyslipidemia, you had faster disability progression and faster accrual of new hyperintense T2 lesions on MRI. Some subsequent studies — for instance, one done by Dr Kyla A. McKay and colleagues — found that among individuals with psychiatric comorbidity, their disability progressed faster. She [and her colleagues linked data from two Canadian clinical and population-based health administrative databases] and, using these datasets, followed over 2000 people for an average of about 10 years. For people who had a mood or anxiety disorder, they accrued nearly 0.3 more Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) point per year than people without psychiatric comorbidity. You might think, well, that's not very much. When you consider that most people with a psychiatric disorder are going to face that long term, you think about that over a 10-year time horizon, that's the difference of about 3 EDSS points. That's the difference between mild and moderate disability, so it's quite substantial. Similar findings have been reported looking at physical comorbidities as well. There was a fairly recent study done by Dr Amber Salter, who is based at UT Southwestern, and colleagues, using meta-analysis of clinical trial datasets. It included 17 trials involving almost 17,000 people with MS. The advantage of this dataset is that people in clinical trials are followed very closely and rigorously, with frequent assessments. She and her colleagues identified comorbidities at the time of enrollment in the clinical trials, and 61% of participants in the trials had some evidence of disease activity, whether it was relapses, disability worsening, or new lesions on MRI. Individuals who had three or more comorbidities had a 14% increased rate of disease activity. Having two or more cardiometabolic comorbidities was associated with a 21% increased rate of any disease activity. When they looked at individual comorbidities, they found that depression and ischemic heart disease seemed to be the biggest driver of those effects. This is really important to think about when you look specifically at relapses. More comorbidities were associated with more relapses. They also found that more comorbidities were associated with faster disability worsening. This really points to the adverse impact of comorbidity on outcomes in MS. This is an example of a longitudinal design, rigorously assessed, so it reduces concerns about the concept of reverse causality — that is, that people with more severe MS may be more likely to accrue comorbidities because they're less physically active, they're not able to eat as well, and so on. The design doesn't fully mitigate that concern. There's another recent study, by Dr Kaarina Kowalec and colleagues, which tried to address this issue by using polygenic scores as an instrumental variable. Polygenic scores are basically weighted averages of all the variants that would be associated with a particular outcome — in this case, depression. The nice thing about using genes is that they are assigned to us at birth. MS couldn't cause those genes to be assigned. If we can show that the polygenic score for depression is associated with relapses and disability progression in the same way that having depression is, then we can remove that concern about reverse causality. In fact, the study findings suggest that's the case. When we put all of these kinds of findings together, they strongly suggest that there is an important role for comorbidities in influencing outcomes and that we really need to intensify our focus on preventing or mitigating those comorbidities as a means of improving outcomes in people with MS. A key question will be, 'What's the best way to do that?' Is it by simply treating these comorbidities the way we normally would, or do we need to treat them more aggressively? Does the type of intervention for those comorbidities matter in terms of achieving that goal of improving outcomes? I think we really need to begin to think about how to integrate these concepts into routine clinical practice. For that, guidelines and tools will be necessary to reach those goals. Thank you so much for your attention today.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
The 1 Thing You Should Never Touch After You've Been In A Hotel Lobby
When you enter a hotel lobby, you're probably focused on checking into your hotel room, juggling all of your luggage and finding the elevators to your floor. But one thing you're likely not thinking about: all the contaminated surfaces you've touched before you even get to your room. 'Think of hotel lobbies the same way as hospital waiting rooms,' said Jason Tetro, a microbiologist and author of 'The Germ Code.' 'They are filled with people who are passing time … [and are] the perfect place for germs to spread.' In fact, a recent study looked at contaminated surfaces and the infection risk in common hotel lobby areas, including the check-in counter, elevator, lounge and bar, office spaces, gym and restroom. 'This study showed that just a couple of heavily used surfaces … can quickly spread germs around a hotel lobby,' said Dr. Kelly Reynolds, an environmental scientist at the University of Arizona's College of Public Health and researcher for the study. 'Because so many people touch the same spots, germs can jump from hand to hand, to face, and even to food.' We talked to experts about which hotel lobby surfaces are the germiest, types of viruses and bacteria that may be lurking, and how likely you are to get sick — plus what precautions you can take to avoid picking up a bug. So what are the germiest spots in a hotel lobby? 'The lobby is filled with all sorts of great hiding spots for germs, but to find the most germs, you need to look … at high-touch environmental surfaces,' Tetro explained. So what is the most-touched site in the hotel lobby? The study found that the elevator button received about a third of all touches, Reynolds said. Elevator buttons are 'a central hub, serving as a super-spreader site … [because they connect] people to other parts of the lobby and [spread] germs easily,' she added. The front desk counter ranked second for the most touches, followed by tabletops, bar tops and buffet countertops in food service areas. 'Because people tend to touch their mouths while eating, germs could easily travel from hands to food,' Reynolds said. Entry door handles, such as from the parking garage into the lobby, are considered risky because germs can enter from the outside. 'Our study actually placed a harmless virus there to track how far it could travel, and it spread widely, impacting about half of all targeted surfaces,' she said. Even though bathroom door handles weren't touched as much as other areas, Reynolds noted they are still important to be aware of. 'People using the bathroom might not wash their hands well, which can spread harmful fecal bacteria,' Reynolds said. Lastly, surfaces that are difficult to clean properly were also contaminated, like upholstered chairs in the lobby. 'Upholstered furniture is often overlooked during cleaning, and even when cleaned, [it] can be difficult to remove germs given the porous, protective nature of woven fabrics,' she pointed out. What kind of germs are lurking in the hotel lobby? 'In any area, you're going to see viruses that cause respiratory infections because people are coughing, wiping their nose with their hands, and touching things,' said Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center. Think bugs like flu, RSV, COVID and the common cold. Related: Bacteria that cause food poisoning (such as salmonella and campylobacter) are more likely to be found in the food service areas or bathroom, she explained. Other gastrointestinal pathogens, like norovirus (commonly referred to as a 'stomach bug'), are also more likely to be lurking in the bathroom. 'If you were to swab and culture … [hotel lobby] surfaces, you would [also] certainly find skin microbes such as Staphylococcus,' Tetro added. This bacteria can cause staph infections that appear as skin boils. But if it enters deeper into your body, like in the bones, joints, bloodstream, heart or lungs, it can lead to severe or life-threatening illness, according to the Mayo Clinic. But how likely are you to get sick? Well, it depends on many factors, such as the type of germ, the hotel's cleaning protocols and your immune system. First of all, to actually get infected, there has to be a high enough amount of the bacteria or virus, which is called the 'minimal infective dose.' For example, 'the amount you need to get sick [from norovirus] is one … E. coli is like 100,000 … flu is about 1,000 and COVID [or a] cold is about 50,' Tetro explained. The hotel's cleaning procedures for the lobby also matter. The study showed that 'using effective disinfectants on high-touch surfaces can reduce infection risk by over 97%,' Reynolds said. Even if you do pick up germs, your immune system may be able to fight them off before you get sick. 'Regular exercise, good sleep, nutritious food [and] stress management' are key for maintaining a healthy immune system, Doron explained. 'People with compromised immune systems, from disease or medications, are [also] at higher risk of becoming sick after being exposed to pathogens.' What can you do to avoid getting sick? 'When I'm in a hotel lobby, I might touch a lot of surfaces … [like] the credit card machine and elevator buttons, but I'm very careful not to touch my face without washing my hands,' Doron said. 'So I consider my risk to be very low.' Tetro recommended bringing a bottle of hand sanitizer with you everywhere. Make sure it contains 62-70% of ethanol, and use enough for your hands to feel wet for about 20 seconds as you're rubbing it in, he advised. Washing your hands with soap and water is also effective, as long as you're doing it properly. You want to make sure you're scrubbing for about 15 seconds to create enough friction, Doron said. 'A lot of people… will forget [to scrub] their fingertips, and that's actually the first thing that contacts surfaces,' she added. 'So, you don't want to miss that … [and] between the fingers.' It's also important to remember to moisturize your hands regularly, especially when you're doing a lot of handwashing, she said. It 'counteract[s] the drying effects of hand hygiene products,' she explained. 'But [also] … having healthy, intact skin is important [to prevent] picking up infections.' The bottom line: Even if you've touched an elevator button that hundreds of people have pressed before you, taking less than a minute to properly wash or sanitize your hands after can make all the difference. Related... This Cleaning Set Handles Stains 'Like Magic' And Left Reviewers' Homes Smelling 'Like A Luxury Hotel' 13 Ways To Make Your Home Feel Like A Fancy Hotel What People Get Wrong About Tipping Hotel Housekeepers
