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Time Magazine
18-06-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
7 Surprising Symptoms of Lyme Disease
Nearly 500,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the U.S. For about 75% of them, the first sign will be a skin lesion that appears one to four weeks after being bitten by an infected deer tick. But it might not look how you'd imagine: Only 20% of these lesions take on the classic bull's-eye appearance commonly associated with Lyme. Other early symptoms of Lyme disease mimic what you might experience with the flu: a fever, chills, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes. Within the first five to 10 days of Lyme disease infection, most people will only experience these relatively ordinary symptoms. If they're promptly diagnosed with and treated for Lyme—which generally means two to three weeks of the antibiotic doxycycline—the story often ends there. But for up to 10% of people, most of whom aren't diagnosed or treated promptly, the disease triggers lingering, serious symptoms. Researchers aren't sure exactly what causes chronic Lyme disease, but speculate it could be the result of factors like persistent bacteria or genetic predispositions. When someone has it, 'there's almost nothing it can't do,' says Dr. Amy Edwards, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine who specializes in infectious diseases. The complex symptoms often stump doctors, but 'once it's caught you off guard a few times, you're kind of looking for it everywhere. Every time someone comes in with weird symptoms in the summer, you're like, 'Could it be Lyme disease?'' Here's a look at some of the surprising symptoms that Lyme disease can cause, especially as it progresses. Heart problems When Lyme isn't treated effectively early on, it can end up impacting the cardiac, neurologic, and rheumatologic systems, says Dr. Amy Duckro, an infectious disease specialist with Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. In 1 out of every 100 patients, for example, Lyme bacteria enters the heart tissues, which is called Lyme carditis. This kind of heart inflammation can lead to light-headedness, fainting, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, or chest pain. In some cases, people develop atrioventricular block, which is a blockage that prevents electrical signals from moving from the upper to the lower chambers of the heart. When the blockage gets particularly bad, patients often need a temporary pacemaker paired with IV antibiotics, says Dr. Sunjya K. Schweig, who's on the scientific advisory board of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, a non-profit that aims to accelerate medical breakthroughs for Lyme disease. He wants people to be aware that this can happen, and to take symptoms like new heart palpitations seriously. 'It's treatable, it's curable, and it can also kill you if it's not caught,' he says. 'It's a really big deal.' Brain fog It took Kirsten Stein more than two years—and 15 doctor's appointments—to be diagnosed with Lyme disease. During that time, she struggled with an array of mental and physical symptoms. The most alarming was the brain fog and short-term memory loss that clouded her every day: She recalls running into a close friend, for example, and not being able to summon the names of the woman's kids, despite seeing them multiple times a week. 'I remember thinking, 'That's not good,'' she says. During a conversation with her husband, she couldn't conjure the word 'glass' and started pointing at things; while playing a game with friends, she excused herself to the restroom because she couldn't think clearly enough to participate. Another time, she dropped her son off at school—and five minutes later, asked her daughter where he was. 'It was terrifying,' she says. Many patients report similar experiences with brain fog, Schweig says. It's likely caused by Lyme-induced inflammation in the central nervous system. 'We see a huge amount of brain effects: difficulty focusing, difficulty thinking, difficulty reading and absorbing information,' he says. 'It can be extremely disruptive to people's lives, because they can't function. They can't go about their normal learning and working and paying attention and doing projects and following through with their tasks.' Bell's palsy There are 12 nerves—called the cranial nerves—that originate in the brain and play an important role in sense and movement for different parts of the head, face, neck, and torso. Lyme disease can affect those nerves, triggering Bell's palsy, which causes sudden weakness or paralysis on one side of the face. It's especially common in adults, she says, and typically appears several weeks to months after infection. Eye problems In the early stages of Lyme disease, people sometimes experience eye irritation and conjunctivitis. As the condition progresses, 'you can get cranial nerve inflammation or infections, and this can cause double vision called diplopia,' Schweig says. Research suggests Lyme can cause sudden vision loss, damage to the optic nerve, and neurotrophic keratitis (decreased corneal sensation). It's also possible to experience blurry vision, eye floaters, tearing, extreme sensitivity to light, and inflammation of the retina. Hearing problems The inflammation that Lyme causes can affect the inner ear, leading to a variety of symptoms, including hearing loss and tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, Schweig says. Ear issues can also trigger dizziness and balance problems. In one study that included 216 people with a tickborne disease, 162 experienced otolaryngological symptoms—making them a 'frequent manifestation,' according to the study authors. The most common complaint was tinnitus (77% of participants), followed by vertigo and dizziness (54%), a headache (39%), and unilateral sensorineural hearing loss, or hearing loss in one ear (17%). Arthritis One of the most common symptoms of Lyme that Edwards sees in young people is arthritis. It often happens the same way: Kids show up in the emergency room in the late fall with a big, swollen knee and, perhaps, a low-grade fever. Sometimes they also have a limp or are unable to put weight on their leg. 'It's actually not crazy painful—it hurts, but it's not debilitating,' she says. 'Everybody's like, 'Did you injure it?'' But it turns out they're experiencing arthritis caused by a tick bite they might not have even been aware of during the summer. 'It's actually the most common way that Lyme presents in children,' Edwards says. Kids typically get better once they start a four-week regimen of doxycycline. The problem, she adds, is that not all clinicians make the connection, which can delay diagnosis and proper treatment. Debilitating fatigue Research suggests that Lyme disease can cause persistent fatigue, even when it's diagnosed and treated early. In one study, participants with a history of Lyme were 8 to 15 times more likely to report moderate or severe fatigue than those who had never had the disease. That resonates with Caitlin Durcan, 27, who developed Lyme disease after being bitten by a tick while working at a summer camp in upstate New York. She experienced a range of symptoms—migraines, puberty-like emotional instability, brain fog, puffy eyes—for months before finding a doctor who prescribed an aggressive treatment regimen that has mostly alleviated her symptoms. At the time, Durcan was in college, and one of the worst manifestations of the disease was overwhelming fatigue. 'I was very sluggish and tired all the time,' she recalls. 'I'd go to class, I'd come home, and I'd sleep for three hours. I'd wake up, I'd go to my classes, and I'd come back home and sleep. I couldn't stay awake for a day, and my friends were just like, 'Clearly something is really wrong.'' Durcan—who never developed more traditional symptoms like a rash or fever—says her experience recovering from Lyme changed her entire perspective on life. She was so relieved to feel like herself again that she started venturing outside her comfort zone, seizing social opportunities and signing up for her first-ever half marathon. She urges other people struggling with Lyme-related symptoms to continue advocating for themselves. 'It's a really tricky, weird illness, and it presents itself so differently in everyone' she says. 'Finding a doctor who believes you and understands that what you're telling them is the truth, and who wants to help you, is huge.'
Time of India
16-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Evolutionary model for antibiotic resistance reveals dose timing critical to care
Ohio: Researchers are working to improve the way we use evolutionary modeling to understand drug resistance. The study uses a "fitness seascape" evolutionary model to predict whether an infection will develop antibiotic resistance . It found that inconsistent timing and missing early doses can lead to treatment failure. Using a form of evolutionary modelling, Cleveland Clinic researchers can predict what happens if you miss a dose of antibiotics. .A team led by Jacob Scott, MD, DPhil., including study first author Eshan King, an MD/PhD student at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is refining models that determine recommended antibiotic doses by incorporating bacterial evolutionary dynamics. "With the rise of ' superbugs ,' or antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, the world is reaching a crisis point," says Dr. Scott, the study's senior author. "We've already seen from MRSA what can happen if a bacterium becomes antibiotic-resistant. We need to address the problem before it impacts our ability to use antibiotics in more routine aspects of medical care, like surgery or childbirth." Doctors typically use guidelines from drug companies to decide medication dosages for their patients. These guidelines rely on equations that describe how antibiotics are absorbed in the body to calculate the smallest effective dose that treats the disease, without letting the diseased area evolve a drug-resistant mutation. Under Dr. Scott's mentorship, King has been expanding some of these models to better reflect how changes in a medication's concentration in our bloodstream affect treatment resistance. "Many models assume the environment around a diseased area doesn't change, but the environment of an infection is our own bodies. That's never truly constant," King says. "Our manuscript builds on previous work to account for changes in drug concentration over time within our bodies." Seascape models are equations that include variables that change over time or space , like drug concentration. This allows investigators like King to study new aspects of antibiotic resistance, like how the timing between doses influences medication levels in diseased areas. King used seascape modeling to simulate the outcomes of hundreds of virtual patients being treated for bacterial infections with IV and oral antibiotics. "Other models have drug concentration as an input, and evolutionary outcome (treatment resistance) as an output. Instead of testing different drug concentrations in separate patients, our model lets us kind of turn a dial to change concentrations in one patient over time to better reflect how our bodies process drug doses ," Dr. Scott explains. Before this study, missing a dose or stopping antibiotics treatment early was emphasized as a main contributor to treatment resistance. King was surprised to find simulated patients who developed treatment resistance were taking roughly the same amount of medication as those who successfully eliminated their infection. Instead of the presence or absence of medication at all, it was the timing of the medication doses that differed between these two groups. The team found that missing or being late with early doses played a bigger role in developing antibiotic resistance than missing or being late with a later dose. The team tested these findings in the lab by treating bacteria with different antibiotic regimens. The bacteria that received all the recommended dose at the recommended time were unlikely to develop treatment resistance. Similarly, bacteria that were appropriately received the early doses but missed later doses did not develop resistance. In contrast, the bacteria that missed early doses but were appropriately treated later evolved treatment resistance, highlighting a potential mechanism of treatment failure in a patient. "These results are shaping how I will counsel my patients," King says. "I will emphasize that they really need to be on top of taking their antibiotics at the recommended time intervals, especially at the beginning. If they take the first dose and then miss the second dose and then take the third dose, that might not work out so well. There is a higher likelihood that this treatment will fail, and we will have to try something else."
Time Magazine
27-05-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
Should You Take Amino Acid Supplements?
Amino acid supplements have soared in popularity in recent years. Social-media influencers peddle them with promises that they'll build muscle, enhance athletic performance, promote weight loss, boost metabolism, and improve mental focus. But they're not right for everyone. Here's what to know about the trendy supplements. What are amino acids? Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and there are a total of 20. Nine essential amino acids—histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine—are available only through foods or supplements. 'You can't store amino acids in your body, so if you have a diet that's unhealthy, you're not going to get all the amino acids your body needs,' says Joan Salge Blake, a clinical professor of nutrition at Boston University and host of the nutrition and health podcast Spot On! There are also 11 non-essential amino acids—alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine, and tyrosine—that can be produced by your body. While each amino acid plays a specific role in the body, as a group, they're involved in nearly every biological process, including building and maintaining muscle, helping with wound healing, regulating hormones and immune function, and producing energy. Because they do so many different things, 'you need a good circulating pool of these floating around in your body,' says Wendy Bazilian, a nutrition and wellness expert based in San Diego and host of the 1,000 Waking Minutes podcast. 'You want them in your system so they're available when you need them.' Who might benefit from a supplement? If you consume a healthy, balanced diet and don't do a lot of intense exercise, you may get enough amino acids from food. But other people may benefit from taking supplements. These include older adults who want to preserve muscle mass and function and prevent sarcopenia, an age-related condition characterized by a loss of muscle mass and strength, says Leslie Bonci, a sports dietitian and owner of Active Eating Advice in Pittsburgh. Research has found that taking an amino acid supplement enriched with leucine for eight weeks led to increased muscle mass, strength, and function in older adults with sarcopenia. Athletes and other people who are very physically active may also benefit from taking amino acid supplements to promote muscle maintenance and recovery after exercise. This category includes what Lindsay Malone, a registered dietitian at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, calls 'invisible athletes': people with physically demanding jobs like delivery drivers, construction workers, utility workers, and camera operators. 'Taking essential amino acids regularly helps your body replace old or damaged muscles so your muscles keep working well,' she says. Research has found that taking supplements of branched-chain amino acids [BCAAs]—namely leucine, isoleucine, and valine—can ease muscle damage and soreness after resistance training in athletes. BCAAs have also been shown to reduce people's ratings of their perceived exertion (how hard it feels like they're exercising), which can help people exercise longer and harder. People who are consuming limited calories (because they're trying to lose weight, for example) or who are following a vegan or vegetarian diet also may benefit from taking amino acid supplements, Bonci says. They may not be consuming enough protein, which means taking a supplement with essential amino acids could protect their muscles. Regardless of dietary habits or age, there's also some evidence that amino acid supplements could help people who are recovering from surgery or an injury, Bazilian says. In these instances, she explains, 'you need more of the building blocks [of protein] to help you recover.' Research has found that people who took amino acid supplements after surgery for bone fractures had fewer medical complications during recovery, including surgical-site infections, than those who didn't take these supplements. The best way to take them If you're interested in taking an amino acid supplement, it's always a good idea to talk to your doctor about it first to make sure it's safe for you. 'If you have diabetes or liver disease, you shouldn't be taking them,' Salge Blake says. If you decide to move forward, Bazilian recommends looking for a formula that contains all the essential amino acids or at least the BCAAs. Choose products that have undergone third-party testing and certification by an organization such as NSF, Informed Choice, or BSCG, Bonci adds. 'That means it's been tested in a facility to make sure it doesn't contain impurities,' and that it contains the ingredients and potency it claims to. Amino acid supplements come in lots of different forms, including powders, capsules, liquids, and gummies. Before choosing one, think about which form is likely to agree with your digestive system, Bazilian says, and 'skip those with artificial sweeteners or other unnecessary ingredients.' Take it with food—ideally, something with protein, carbs, and fat—to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal distress. Be sure to maintain the right perspective about how these supplements might fit into your life. 'It's important for people to understand that these are not a replacement for protein,' says Bonci. 'They can offer a false sense of security if you think you can eat like crap as long as you're taking an amino acid supplement.' Amino acid supplements are meant to complement a healthy diet—not replace one.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Pregnant Women in Prison Aren't Getting Care, and No One Is Keeping Track
Early in her second trimester, Linda Acoff was taken into custody for failing to complete court-ordered mental health treatment. After three weeks in the Cuyahoga County Jail in Columbus, Ohio, she began experiencing intensifying pressure, cramping, and bleeding. But despite her pleas for help, the nurse on duty offered only sanitary napkins and Tylenol. After banging on her cell door for hours, Acoff was eventually taken out of the jail's pregnancy pod on a stretcher—leaving behind the remains of her 17-week-old fetus. A recent exposé from The Marshall Project revealed that Acoff had contracted chorioamnionitis, an infection of the fluid and tissues inside the uterus. Although considered a serious pregnancy complication that can threaten both the fetus and the mother, there was hope that Acoff's 17-week pregnancy could have been saved. "If there's early appropriate diagnosis and intervention, that baby can absolutely survive if the patient is treated promptly," Michael Baldonieri, an OB-GYN and assistant professor of reproductive biology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, told The Marshall Project. In the end, Acoff lost her baby, and while the nurse on duty was ultimately fired, the tragedy has not inspired change in the way that Ohio handles incarcerated pregnancies or collects data on them. Unfortunately for Acoff, and the estimated 55,000 pregnant women who enter the nation's jails every year, little data exists on the impact incarceration has on pregnancy outcomes. A 2024 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that "comprehensive data on pregnant women incarcerated in state prisons and local jails do not exist" even though the U.S. has "one of the highest maternal mortality rates" and "incarcerates women at the highest rate in the world." This number is trending upward: between 1980 and 2022, the female prison population in the U.S. grew by more than 585 percent, more than twice the growth rate of the male prison population. Much of this increase has been attributed to more expansive policing, post-conviction barriers, and stiffer drug sentencing laws. Women have seen drug-related arrests increase by 317 percent since 1980, while men have seen a 69 percent jump. Today, more than half of the incarcerated women are serving time for drug and property offenses. Sentencing for these offenses, which considers the nature of the crime and criminal histories, can disproportionately put pregnant women inmates in harm's way. The Prison Policy Initiative estimates that in 2024, about 189,600 women and girls were held in state custody, and 93,000 were held in local jails across the country. Of this number, more than half of the women were held in jail while awaiting trial. Even after a conviction, women were more likely to be sentenced to jail, rather than to prison, compared to convicted men. This distribution can be problematic, particularly for pregnant women, because jails are poorly positioned to provide proper health care and often offer fewer services than prisons. This discrepancy, plus negligent care, is ultimately what cost Acoff her pregnancy. Given these grim statistics, tracking pregnancy outcomes in jails is essential, Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, board member of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care and fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told The Marshall Project. Otherwise, Sufrin believes, it's impossible to know whether the nation's 3,000 jails are failing pregnant women. Sufrin is right to demand better data on how incarceration impacts pregnancies, but data alone will not stop the mass incarceration of Americans or reform policies that created the problem. The post Pregnant Women in Prison Aren't Getting Care, and No One Is Keeping Track appeared first on
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Does Joe Biden's Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Have You Concerned About Your Own Health?
FORMER PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. Biden has been diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer, his office announced on Sunday. The cancer has spread to his bones, as it commonly does in more aggressive forms. Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men. About one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, and an estimated 288,300 new cases will emerge this year, according to the American Cancer Society. It's more common in Black men and in all men over 65. It is generally slow-growing, and one of the big challenges with this cancer is that there are really no symptoms, especially early on, according to the American Cancer Society. By the time you do see symptoms, the cancer has likely reached an advanced stage. However, there is a screening test for it. When this is done and prostate cancer is caught early, it is often highly treatable, says Daniel Spratt, M.D., a prostate cancer management expert and a professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Protect yourself against this common disease by getting screened (see the recommendations for when below) and learning to identify the common signs. Here's how. "PROSTATE CANCER IS one of those conditions that could easily be caught early,' says John Lynam, D.O., an osteopathic physician in Florida who specializes in urology. 'Because of screening and testing, it has a high cure rate once caught early.' This is especially important because there are no real early signs of prostate cancer, he says. 'Once prostate cancer causes symptoms, it is usually advanced and is often not curable at that point,' says Jonathan Shoag, M.D., a urologist and member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Population and Cancer Prevention Program at Case Western Reserve University. If there are warning signs of prostate cancer, they can include: Blood in the urine or semen Problems urinating—including feeling like you need to urinate more often or a slow or weak stream Blocked urine Loss of bladder or bowel control Erectile dysfunction Painful ejaculation Pain in hips, back, ribs, or other areas Weakness or numbness in the legs or feet Fatigue Unintentional weight loss 'Prostate cancer tends to spread to the bones, which can be painful, cause fractures, and limit mobility,' Dr. Shoag says. Any time you notice any of these symptoms, visit your primary care doctor as soon as you can to get screened for prostate cancer, Dr. Lynam suggests. Dr. Spratt says many prostate or urinary symptoms often have nothing to do with prostate cancer. So it's important to rule out other potential health issues. INSTEAD OF WATCHING for signs of prostate cancer, which means it's reached an advanced stage, Dr. Lynam suggests getting regular screenings to catch it early. 'The hope is catching the cancer when it is still asymptomatic and relatively easy to treat,' Dr. Shoag explains. Following the American Urological Association guidelines, all men should be screened for prostate cancer once they turn 50, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., a urology professor at the Baylor College of Medicine and Men's Health urology adviser. For men at a higher risk for prostate cancer, screening is recommended between ages 40 and 45. Those groups include Black men, people with a family history of the cancer, and those with a genetic predisposition, such as having the BRCA gene, Dr. Lipshultz says. Screening involves getting a prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, blood test and a prostate exam, he says. You should get re-screened every two to four years, according to AUA. PROSTATE CANCER SCREENING typically involves two tests, Dr. Spratt says. One is a digital rectal exam, where doctors feel the prostate gland for abnormalities. 'It's a quick and painless procedure,' he adds. The other is a PSA blood test, which measures the amount of a protein that's produced by cancerous and noncancerous cells in the prostate. 'Elevated PSA levels can be an indicator of prostate issues, including cancer,' Dr. Spratt. Men without prostate cancer typically have PSA levels of under 4 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), according to the American Cancer Society. PSA levels between 4 and 10 suggest you could have about a 25 percent chance of prostate cancer, and levels over 10 signal that your chance of having the cancer is more than 50 percent. Some have argued that a PSA test alone is enough to diagnose prostate cancer, Dr. Lipshultz says, but both are needed. 'You see somebody who has a normal PSA, and you do a prostate exam, and there's cancer everywhere because it's so undifferentiated that it doesn't make the PSA,' he explains. Undifferentiated cancer cells typically don't look or behave like the normal cells in tissues where they develop and may not produce much PSA. Prostate cancer is one of the most curable diseases when caught early, Dr. Lynam says. In some cases, lower-grade prostate cancers can sometimes be safely monitored by your doctor without needing intervention. 'The most important message I can tell patients is to know your family history and get regular prostate cancer screening and checkups,' he says. 'We are serious when we say early detection can save your life.' You Might Also Like The Best Hair Growth Shampoos for Men to Buy Now 25 Vegetables That Are Surprising Sources of Protein
