Latest news with #UniversityofUtah
New York Post
3 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
New tool can remove nearly all of a cancer-causing ‘forever chemical' from water — in just 5 minutes
Your tap water's dirty little secret might have just met its match. Scientists have engineered a high-tech filter that strips toxic 'forever chemicals' from drinking water in a matter of minutes. Better yet, the new tool glows on contact with contamination, serving as both a purifier and an real-time monitoring system. 4 Research suggests the majority of Americans have 'forever chemicals' in their drinking water. sebra – Forever chemicals — officially known as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — are tiny, man-made compounds that break down very slowly and accumulate in people, animals and the environment over time. They've been used since the 1940s in everything from non-stick cookware and grease-resistant food packaging to waterproof fabrics and personal care products. But concerns are mounting over the potential health effects of PFAS, with some experts likening them to 'slow poison.' One of the most widely used forever chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has been linked to higher risks of certain cancers, liver damage, immune system issues, high cholesterol and even developmental delays in fetuses and children. It has been detected across a range of environments and products — from soil and rainfall to seafood, human blood and drinking water. 4 While PFOA was previously used in the manufacturing of non-stock cookware, it has largely been phased out due to concerns about potential health and environmental risks. Dina – In fact, a 2020 study estimated that more than 200 million Americans are drinking water contaminated with PFOA or PFOS, another notorious forever chemical formally known as perfluorooctane sulfonate. Now, researchers at the University of Utah may have found a way to help reduce that exposure. The scientists recently developed a lab-engineered, crystalline substance known as a metal-organic framework (MOF) that functions like a molecular sieve. When water flows through the material, it snags and traps PFOA molecules, effectively removing the forever chemical. 4 The work builds on past research from the team that created a porous material that fluoresces in the presence of PFAS. THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH In lab tests, the MOF cleared out more than 99% of the toxic substance in just five minutes. 'This sort of rapid treatment is crucial for real-world applications,' the study authors wrote in their report. The material also worked in the presence of other PFAS compounds, salts, and natural organic matter found in drinking water supplies, suggesting it could perform well in a variety of real-world environmental conditions. Better yet, the MOF can be reused, with researchers finding it retained 93% of its adsorption efficiency after five wash cycles. That's a big deal, since current methods for removing PFAS are often slow, costly, inefficient and don't hold up well after repeated use. 4 PFAS in drinking water are estimated to contribute to more than 6,800 cancer cases each year. WESTOCK – An added bonus: when PFOA molecules bind to the material, it glows fluorescent — providing instant, on-the-spot confirmation of contamination. 'This MOF represents a major leap forward for PFAS remediation,' Rana Dalapati, the study's lead author, said in a statement. 'Its ability to both selectively capture and sensitively detect PFOA in real time makes it a versatile and practical solution for water treatment and environmental monitoring,' she added. Looking ahead, the team believes this material could one day be adapted to capture other PFAS chemicals, not just PFOA. Wondering if you should be concerned about forever chemicals in your drinking water? The Environmental Working Group's Tap Water Database is a good place to start — just enter your ZIP code to see what's in your local supply. While the newly developed MOF may one day offer a powerful solution, it will likely be a while before it's available for public use. In the meantime, if you live in an area with known PFAS contamination, consider getting a water filter. Look for one certified by the National Sanitation Foundation to reduce levels of PFOA and PFOS to help limit your exposure.
Axios
4 days ago
- Business
- Axios
Salt Lake City named USDA hub in federal reshuffling
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving most of its employees from Washington, D.C., to five hubs, including Salt Lake City. Why it matters: Shifting operations to Utah's capital could give the state's farmers and ranchers more access to federal officials — and potentially shape policies that better serve the Mountain West. The big picture: The move, announced Thursday by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, will close nearly all USDA offices in D.C. It is part of the Trump administration's effort to cut costs and consolidate the federal government. The other agriculture hubs include: Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis; and Fort Collins, Colorado. Despite the relocation, USDA has maintained that its critical functions "will continue uninterrupted," according to a news release. Reality check: While Utah's cost of living is lower than D.C.'s, it still has one of the nation's most expensive housing markets. Salt Lake City's federal salary locality rate is about 17%. Zoom in: Utah's farmland totaled about 10.5 million acres in 2023 — one-fifth of the state's total land area, according to the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Utah ranks 25th among U.S. states for total farmland. What they're saying: Utah Republican leaders, including Gov. Spencer Cox and U.S. Sen. John Curtis, celebrated Rollins' Thursday announcement. "The USDA's decision to refocus on its core mission, supporting farmers, families, and rural communities, is long overdue," Curtis posted on X. "Utahns are the best at advocating for and advancing American agriculture." The other side: U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) called the decision a "half-baked proposal," warning it could affect the USDA's "ability to provide critical services for Americans" and farmers.
Jordan News
16-07-2025
- Health
- Jordan News
New and Unexpected Benefits of Turmeric - Jordan News
New and Unexpected Benefits of Turmeric Wastewater can become a true breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant bacteria—but natural compounds like curcumin from turmeric and emodin from rhubarb may help combat them. اضافة اعلان According to the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, the use of antibiotics can have unexpected consequences—not only for the human body but also for the environment. As is well known, some medications are excreted through urine and feces and end up in sewage systems, where they create ideal conditions for the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A scientific team led by Dr. Liwen Hao from the University of Utah discovered multiple strains of bacteria resistant to various antibiotics in wastewater treatment plants in the state. While these microbes rarely cause illness in healthy individuals, they can transfer resistance genes to more dangerous pathogens such as E. coli (Escherichia coli). Moreover, researchers found strains resistant even to colistin, an antibiotic considered a last-resort treatment for severe infections. One particular strain, labeled U2, had the highest number of resistance genes and did not respond to any of the antibiotics tested. To fight these superbugs, scientists tested 11 natural compounds known for their antimicrobial properties. Curcumin (from turmeric) and emodin (from rhubarb) showed the most promising results—inhibiting cell growth, preventing biofilm formation, and reducing bacterial activity. Dr. Hao stated: 'These substances could be integrated into environmentally friendly wastewater treatment methods.' However, researchers stressed that further testing is essential before these compounds can be applied in real-world wastewater facilities. Additional studies are needed to evaluate interactions with other substances and to assess their impact on microbial communities. —
Scientific American
14-07-2025
- Health
- Scientific American
Bariatric Surgery Does Not Resolve Weight Stigma for Everyone
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American 's Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman. While the use of weight-loss drugs is on the rise, they join a suite of already-common interventions known as bariatric surgeries. The procedures used vary, but generally, bariatric surgeries involve removing, restricting or rerouting parts of the gastrointestinal tract to change the amount of food the stomach can digest or absorb. More than half a million people undergo bariatric surgery globally each year. The reasons for pursuing surgery are complex. But a quick Google search makes one thing clear: these procedures are most often framed—and marketed—as tools for weight loss. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. That framing matters because in the U.S. research suggests that more than 40 percent of adults report experiencing weight stigma, or discriminatory attitudes or behavior based on body size, at some point. Such discrimination can obviously impact a person psychologically, but it can also make it harder for them to access good health care. You might assume that weight loss would reduce that stigma—or even make it disappear entirely. And while that's true for some people who undergo bariatric surgery, a significant number don't have that experience. Our guest today is Larissa McGarrity, a clinical associate professor for the School of Medicine at the University of Utah. She followed people after surgery to get a better understanding of how weight stigma impacted their lives. Thanks so much for coming on to chat today. Larissa McGarrity: Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Feltman: So how did this study come about? What led you to research the question of how weight stigma intersects with recovery from bariatric surgery? McGarrity: Sure. Really, it was inspired by my clinical work. I'm the lead psychologist at the University of Utah's comprehensive Weight Management Program, and after seeing hundreds of patients with severe obesity for assessments and therapy it's just so clear to me that the way these patients are treated in the world and the resulting way that they see themselves is a key factor in their overall mental and physical health. And this research really helps to support that growing body of literature that suggests the same thing. Feltman: Yeah, so can you walk us through how the study works and what your findings were? McGarrity: Sure, so we studied 148 patients who had had surgery at the University of Utah, and we repeated some psychological and social measures on these patients before surgery and then one and a half to three years after they underwent bariatric surgery in our program. And what we looked at for this study was the amount of weight stigma that they reported experiencing. And by weight stigma, I mean experiences of being devalued socially—experiencing judgment, discrimination and other mistreatment—as well as challenges physically and emotionally with being able to fit into public spaces and feeling like they belong in the world. And we looked at the difference from before surgery to after surgery and saw that there was an improvement for patients in the amount of weight stigma that they experienced, which is a good thing, and that that improvement was associated with some of the mental health outcomes we're really interested in: so depression, anxiety, binge eating, disordered eating—also, actually, lower weight in this case. But what we also saw on the flip side is that a significant proportion of patients, about 42 percent of them, still reported experiencing weight stigma at this [roughly] two- to three-year time point post-surgery. And for patients who did, they were at elevated risk for these mental health concerns, so stigma continues to be important in the years after bariatric surgery. Feltman: Mm, obviously, these results might sound counterintuitive to some people. What do you think is behind the continued stigma people are facing and the impacts that that seems to have on their health? McGarrity: Well, stigma doesn't just go away with weight loss, and I think there's a couple pieces to this. One piece is that bariatric surgery does not typically result in patients suddenly being in what we'd consider to be the typical BMI range. It results in significant weight loss. It's the leading evidence-based treatment for severe obesity. But really, bariatric surgery is about the metabolic effects and improvements for their function; their quality of life; remission of diabetes, hypertension, other medical issues. And so in our sample for this study we saw that the BMI change was significant but still resulted, on average, in patients still being in a category that's technically considered obesity if we were looking at BMI alone. So the fact that their bodies do not conform still, years after surgery, to what society would deem to be this unrealistically thin ideal makes it so that they are certainly still susceptible to these experiences of weight stigma and discrimination. And then the other piece to it is: a big piece of weight stigma is the way we see ourselves. Feltman: Mm. McGarrity: It's not just the way that we're treated but the way we internalize those messages in ways that are harmful for our mental and physical health, and bariatric surgery does not automatically make that disappear or change someone's body image and perception of themselves. Feltman: Could you unpack some of the ways that stigma could be driving poor health outcomes? McGarrity: Absolutely. Well, we know from the general literature, outside of bariatric surgery specifically, that weight stigma is related to a variety of negative mental and physical health implications. We know that independent of a person's baseline BMI and dependent on where their weight starts, their risk for the development of obesity, the exacerbation of obesity over time is predicted by weight stigma. And this probably happens in a few ways. We know that when people experience stigma it is a chronically stressful experience, and the effect of chronic stress on inflammation in the body and our physical health is significant. Another piece of it is health behaviors. So when you think about the health behaviors most people are trying to encourage when they inadvertently make some of these stigmatizing comments, [people] like health providers, it tends to result in being more demoralized and less likely to be motivated to engage in healthy physical activity or adaptive eating behaviors. And so those health behaviors then impact our weight and our health. And then there's also just aspects of social disconnection. When you experience stigma it often affects your entire social network and the interactions that you have interpersonally with the people around you, and we know social disconnection has a big impact on our overall health. And then the last area I would say is health care avoidance. When we think about having these experiences, especially in health care settings, it doesn't really promote wanting to then go to providers where you know you might be judged before you even speak. So several pathways that I think really influence our over—overall mental and physical health. Feltman: What do you think the takeaway should be here for people who might be considering bariatric surgery or providers who counsel patients on getting this kind of treatment? McGarrity: I think an important component is that the bariatric surgery clinical team can't directly change the amount of stigma that patients face out in the real world or in their personal lives. A little bit of a picture of what the experience is like for patients by the time they present for surgery—I think it can be helpful to sort of imagine this experience, imagine spending your whole life dealing with weight struggles and associated physical health challenges, in many cases. You undergo 10 or more serious attempts to lose weight through various fad diets that feel like starving yourself, exercising consistently, meeting with doctors and dieticians and psychologists, sometimes taking medications to assist. And with each attempt you usually regain all the weight, plus 8 to 10 percent. And you keep hearing the same message: 'Just eat less. Just exercise more. Just try harder.' This leaves you each time feeling more like a failure, blaming yourself for not having enough, quote, 'willpower' and experiencing stigma from your loved ones, your health care providers, strangers alike—just this idea that something's wrong with you or that you're lazy because of a chronic health condition. And it's not hard to imagine under those circumstances that mental health challenges would arise and, for many people, an unfortunate self-fulfilling prophecy: this idea that, actually, we have worse eating and sedentary behaviors when we're stigmatized, sometimes binge eating or other eating disorders, and ultimately risk for further weight gain and the development of comorbid medical problems. I think it's important to know that this cycle's not the exception; it's actually the norm for patients we see. This clinical picture's so common, and by the time a patient comes to surgery they've usually had many years of these negative messages from the people around them and society in general about their bodies and what that means about their value. The stigma's pervasive and harmful, and the key takeaway here is that it doesn't just go away with weight loss, it doesn't just go away after bariatric surgery, and that stigma may actually be a more important component of patient mental health in the years after surgery than weight or weight loss is. But what we can do is not be one more place where that stigma is perpetuated. We can provide accurate information about weight and how complex it is and that it's not as simple as this 'Just eat less; just exercise more' message that patients get constantly for years by the time they've come to an office to consider bariatric surgery. We can really focus on treating the whole person and their whole health and I think really [focus] on weight stigma as a core piece of that health picture, the same way we would consider any other risk factor for their health. We should have those conversations explicitly with patients. We should acknowledge the experiences that they've had and [that] that's been a piece of their mental and physical health currently and will likely continue to be a piece of it, even in the years after surgery. So I think the emphasis on the kinds of conversations we can have with patients so that they know we see them as a whole person, they know that we see the complexity of what has contributed to weight gain over time and that we wanna work with them on not just their physical health but also their mental health and how they've internalized some of these messages over time to make surgery most successful for their quality of life. Feltman: And what about the implications for health care for higher-weight patients outside of bariatric surgery? McGarrity: I think an important message is: you know, to the extent possible, even though these messages and stigma are everywhere—they're in the media, they're in public health messaging, they're in their doctors' offices—a really important aspect is recognizing that we do have some control over the extent to which we internalize those messages and some control over the conversations that we can have with friends and family members who may be perpetuating some of this. And it shouldn't be on the person who's struggling with their weight to educate everyone around them, but the reality is that sometimes that does fall on the person who has the weight challenges, right? That it's important to have conversations to educate the people around you and also for yourself to know that you have worth and value as a person that has absolutely nothing to do with what your weight or shape or size is. Feltman: Given the really long-term relationship with weight loss that patients tend to have before turning to bariatric surgery and the connection you saw between weight stigma and negative outcomes, what do you think could change about health care to maybe help some of these patients get better health outcomes before getting to the point where they're considering bariatric surgery? McGarrity: Yeah, that's a great question. A lot of researchers have been advocating for a weight-neutral approach to health care, even in weight-management clinic settings. Bariatric surgery is a metabolic surgery; it's much broader than just weight loss and results in improvement in medical conditions, in overall health and function, and so we don't need to focus on the number on the scale. We don't need to focus so much on weight, whether it's in a bariatric surgery setting or primary care or any other health care setting. It's completely possible to work with patients of all shapes and sizes on overall healthy behaviors—and by that I don't mean a fad diet; I mean eating and exercising in a way that makes your body and mind feel good—without weight needing to be the focus. Feltman: Thank you so much for coming on today to chat. McGarrity: Thank you, I appreciate it. Feltman: That's all for today's episode. For more on the topic of weight stigma and health, check out our November 8 interview with Ragen Chastain. We'll be back on Wednesday with something super special: an inside look at the MIT lab where scientists are working to detect gravitational waves. And tune in on Friday for a deep dive on the psychology of Dungeons and Dragons, featuring bona fide D&D celebrity Brennan Lee Mulligan. Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
Scottish Sun
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Who is Marcelo Arevalo's wife Lucia Kovarcikova?
Find out when the met and how they got married MARCELO AREVALO alongside doubles partner Mate Pavic have stormed their way into the semi-finals at the All England Club. As one half of the number one seed at Wimbledon 2025, Arevalo has shone with his wife Lucia Kovarcikova by his side - here's what we know about her. Advertisement 3 Lucia is a former ITF tennis player Arevalo and Pavic booked their place in the semi-finals after defeating the tenth seed team of Hugo Nys and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in a third set tiebreak. They now face the duo of David Pel and Rinky Hijikata on Court 1 on July 10, 2025 for a place in the final. Who is Lucia Kovarcikova? Lucia Kovarcikova is a former ITF tennis player who represented Switzerland. The 34-year-old was born in Slovakia but studied in the US. Advertisement She attended the University of Utah where she also competed for the college tennis team. Lucia is also the owner of Magnolia Beauty Salon in Davie, Florida which specialises in hair and skincare. She has 2,801 Instagram followers as of July 10, 2025. When did they get married? 3 They tied the knot in 2019 in a courthouse Advertisement The pair met in 2017 and became official in 2018 as they frequently posted romantic pictures on social media. Lucia would regularly post snaps of her travelling around the world at tennis tournaments cheering on Arevalo. The couple had a courthouse wedding in 2019 but followed it up with a more formal celebration in December 2020. Hosted at Thalatta Estate in Miami, Florida, the ceremony was only attended by close family and friends due to Covid restrictions. Advertisement Do they have any children? 3 The couple have two children together Marcelo and Lucia welcomed their first baby together on September 10, 2019. Their first son, Marcelito Arevalo, was even able to attend the wedding ceremony in 2020. The pair had their second son Matteo Arevalo on February 29, 2024.
