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Euronews
15 hours ago
- Health
- Euronews
Stalking linked to increased heart disease risk in women, study finds
Women who have been stalked or obtained restraining orders face significantly higher risks of heart disease and stroke over the long term, new research has found. Published in the journal Circulation, the study followed more than 66,000 women over 20 years and found that those who reported being stalked by a current or former partner – or other people – were 41 per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who did not report stalking. The risk was even higher for women who had obtained a restraining order, with a 70 per cent greater likelihood of heart disease or stroke. 'To many people, stalking doesn't seem to be such a serious experience, as it often does not involve physical contact. But stalking has profound psychological consequences that can have physical implications,' said Karestan Koenen, the study's senior author and a professor of psychiatric epidemiology at Harvard University in the US. The findings underscore that "common, non-contact forms of violence against women are health hazards and need to be considered as such, just like we consider smoking or poor diet," Koenen added. Stalking affects roughly one in three women and one in six men over the course of their lives, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the European Union, that figure is 18.5 per cent, with rates ranging from 8.5 per cent in Lithuania to 32.4 per cent in Slovakia, EU data shows. Stalking involves repeated unwanted behaviours, such as following, spying, uninvited visits, or online harassment. Yet the study highlights that stalking is rarely addressed in medical research, despite the profound psychological trauma it can cause and its potential physical health impacts The study analysed data from a long-running survey of female nurses in the United States, collecting information on their stalking history in 2001 and following participants through 2021. At the beginning of the study, none of the women had cardiovascular disease. Nearly 12 per cent reported having been stalked, and almost 6 per cent said they had obtained a restraining order at some point. Heart disease and stroke were self-reported and verified through medical records. Over the next two decades, about 3 per cent of women developed cardiovascular disease, with significantly higher risks for those who had been stalked or obtained restraining orders. Calls for improved screening and support in healthcare The study authors suggest that psychological distress from stalking may disrupt the nervous system, impair blood vessel function, and alter other biological mechanisms – potential pathways linking violence with cardiovascular harm. However, additional studies would be needed to better understand the link. Notably, most participants in this study were non-Hispanic white nurses, meaning the findings may not fully capture the experiences of women overall. Previous studies have shown that stalking and violence disproportionately impact women from minority ethnic groups and lower-income communities. Despite these limitations, the study authors said their findings indicate more needs be done to address violence against women. "In health care settings, we need to improve screening for stalking and other forms of violence and provide resources for women to protect themselves," Koenen said. "And zooming out further, on a broad public health level, we need to do better in addressing and preventing the root causes of violence against women," she added.
Health Line
25-07-2025
- Health
- Health Line
What Conditions Can Be Misdiagnosed as Psoriasis?
Key takeaways Psoriasis can be difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are similar to those of other skin conditions, and it may present differently on different skin tones. If you suspect you've been misdiagnosed with a different skin condition, a dermatologist can perform a thorough skin exam, possibly including a biopsy, to accurately diagnose psoriasis. While there is no cure for psoriasis, an accurate diagnosis allows for the creation of an appropriate treatment plan to manage symptoms and monitor for related health conditions. Understanding the basics Getting the correct diagnosis as soon as possible is key when you have ongoing skin irritation. Psoriasis is a lifelong condition but can be managed with the right treatment plan. Because psoriasis shares characteristics with other skin conditions, a doctor might not always identify it when they first perform an examination. Here's more about psoriasis, its symptoms, and what to do if you think you've been misdiagnosed. What is psoriasis? Psoriasis is a common autoimmune disease in the United States. Approximately 7.5 million adults age 20 years or older have psoriasis — a 3% prevalence rate (occurrence of a condition). By race and ethnicity, the prevalence rates are: 3.6 percent of white people 3.1 percent of non-Hispanic, including multiracial people 2.5 percent of Asian people 1.9 percent of Hispanic, including Mexican American people 1.5 percent of Black people But this data may not tell the entire story. Patients of color may be disproportionately undertreated and misdiagnosed. This is because psoriasis isn't always recognized on darker skin tones as it is for those who have lighter skin tones. Psoriasis typically begins to appear in people between ages 15 and 35, but it can start at any age. Many people may carry the genetic predisposition to develop psoriasis, but it does not always express itself. Instead, different triggers can unexpectedly cause the symptoms to surface. The triggers can include: stress injuries medications infections illnesses diet What are the symptoms of psoriasis? Psoriasis can manifest in different ways and varying severities. It can also affect different parts of your body. The primary symptoms can include: patches of inflamed or discolored skin gray or silvery scales on the skin dry skin cracked skin bleeding skin itching soreness pitted nails thick nails stiff joints inflamed joints Psoriasis rashes can present differently based on skin types: on light or fair skin tones, psoriasis tends to be pink or red with a silvery-white scale on medium skin tones, psoriasis appears as salmon-colored with a silvery-white scale on dark skin tones, psoriasis can be violet with a gray scale, or it can appear dark brown and be difficult to see Types of psoriasis Beyond basic symptoms, there are many types of psoriasis: Plaque psoriasis Plaque psoriasis is the most common of all types. You could experience the general symptoms on different parts of your body. You may even notice patches inside your mouth and nose. Nail psoriasis Nail psoriasis affects the fingernails and toenails. They may become loose or even fall off with time. Scalp psoriasis Scalp psoriasis is also localized. The scales reach beyond your hairline. You may notice flaky skin after scratching your scalp. Guttate psoriasis Guttate psoriasis can happen after bacterial illnesses, such as strep throat, and it usually affects children and young adults. The sores you'll find with this type are shaped like water drops and are concentrated on the following: arms legs scalp trunk Inverse psoriasis Inverse psoriasis creates areas of smooth, colored rash in skin folds, especially: under the armpits around the breasts around the groin on the genitals Pustular psoriasis Pustular psoriasis is uncommon, but it may give you more than just skin symptoms. You'll typically get a fever, chills, and diarrhea with the red rash. Blisters filled with pus accompany the patches or irritation. Erythrodermic psoriasis Erythrodermic psoriasis is the least common type of psoriasis. It causes large areas of your skin to peel, itch, and burn. How is psoriasis diagnosed? A primary care doctor may refer you to a dermatologist for a diagnosis of psoriasis. They'll likely ask whether you have a family history of the disease and ask about different triggers that may have set off your symptoms. From there, they will perform a physical examination that includes a complete skin exam. They will look at your skin for signs of psoriasis. In some cases, you may need to undergo a skin biopsy. Your doctor will use a general anesthetic and obtain a small sample of your skin to study under a microscope. If the sample exhibits characteristics of psoriasis histologically, this is often enough information to make the diagnosis. There is limited research and information about managing and diagnosing psoriasis in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). This means thatpatients of color may be disproportionately misdiagnosed. What else could this skin condition be? Several skin conditions share characteristics with psoriasis. Knowing their symptoms, causes, and other characteristics may help you identify your own skin issues. Seborrheic dermatitis If your rash is concentrated on oily parts of your skin, it might be seborrheic dermatitis. With this condition, you may experience itchy and scaly skin on your upper chest and face. You can also develop dandruff on your scalp. Lichen planus The immune system can trigger lichen planus. The lesions you'll see are violaceous and flat. These can often form rows on your arms and legs. You may also experience itching or burning. White lines may appear over the irritated areas. Ringworm Rashes that have a ring shape might be caused by ringworm or dermatophytosis. This fungal infection affects the top layer of your skin. You can contract the infection through soil carrying the fungi or close contact with people who have ringworm. Pityriasis rosea If you have pityriasis rosea, you'll likely get a single spot in the first stage. This skin condition is common and may eventually take on the appearance of pine branches. You'll typically notice the rash on your stomach, chest, or back before it spreads. Other skin conditions Psoriasis can also be confused with: Do you think you've been misdiagnosed? If you're concerned about being misdiagnosed, consider seeing a dermatologist. You may even want to request a skin biopsy to get a more definitive diagnosis. Also, you might try to think of information that may help with identification, such as: Do I have a family history of psoriasis? How long have I noticed symptoms? Where is the affected area located? Are there any triggers that might have produced my symptoms? If so, what are they? Do I have signs that align with any of the look-alike conditions? Are there any other symptoms, like swollen joints, bothering me? If you still aren't satisfied after your appointment, seek a second opinion. You can ask a primary care doctor for a referral to a dermatologist. A dermatologist is usually your best bet for getting the most accurate skin condition diagnosis. Treatment and complications Treating psoriasis involves healing the areas of discomfort and slowing skin growth. Depending on your symptoms and the type of psoriasis, your doctor may try different topical therapies, like topical vitamin D or corticosteroids. Phototherapy, also known as ultraviolet light therapy, can also be effective in certain cases. More advanced flare-ups may be treated with medications like methotrexate, cyclosporine or tacrolimus, biologics, acitretin, or apremilast. Before prescribing anything, your doctor will consider the severity of your condition, your medical history, and potential drug interactions. There isn't a cure for psoriasis, but knowing you have it may help a doctor diagnose other health issues. People with psoriasis are at a higher risk of developing other conditions such as psoriatic arthritis, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-07-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Daniel Lurie's approval rating may be sky high, but new poll reveals vulnerabilities
Despite the resounding approval San Francisco voters gave Mayor Daniel Lurie this month in the Chronicle's first poll of his tenure, the survey also suggested he has some vulnerabilities. Lurie's remarkable 73% overall favorability rating was not matched when the poll dug into specific areas of his job performance. Asked how well the mayor was doing at providing enough reasonably-priced housing, for instance, just 36% of respondents approved of his handling of the issue, versus 47% who disapproved. On providing shelter to homeless people and managing the overdose crisis, Lurie's approval was below 50%. But those ratings still represented pluralities of respondents due to the number who said they didn't know. The mayor performed strongest on his efforts to revive downtown, keep neighborhoods clean and keep residents and businesses safe from crime — all subjects that were central to his campaign and his messaging in his early months in office. Taken together, the poll results show that Lurie is enjoying a robust honeymoon a half-year into his term, even as voters harbor concerns about his ability to solve some of San Francisco's most entrenched problems. 'Mayor Lurie is delivering results on the issues San Franciscans care about,' mayoral spokesperson Charles Lutvak said in a statement to the Chronicle. 'Our administration will continue to deliver on what we've been working on relentlessly since day one: tackling the fentanyl crisis and providing safe and clean streets for everyone in our city.' Still, the mismatch between voters' sentiment about Lurie broadly and their feelings about his work on key issues suggests his rapport with the electorate could deteriorate over time if he is blamed for not making enough progress. 'I would certainly say that the challenge for the mayor and his team is to demonstrate real improvement on housing and the number of visible homeless (people),' said Jonathan Brown, president of Sextant Strategies & Research, which conducted the poll for the Chronicle. The survey respondents did not perfectly align with San Francisco's demographics. Notably, 53% of the respondents were non-Hispanic white, 16 points higher than the city's population. But Brown noted that Asian voters, who were underrepresented in the survey, gave Lurie even higher marks than the broader electorate. Corey Cook, a political scientist at Cal Poly's Solano County campus, said the fact that Lurie's approval is not as strong on the issues as it is overall is 'absolutely expected' at this point in the mayor's tenure. 'People are really anxious about these issues, but they understand the complexity of them, and it's more than just their sense of how the mayor is doing,' Cook said. 'The opportunity is that the support for the mayor can bring those numbers up. The risk is that the concern about those issues can bring the mayor's numbers down.' Over time, voters could begin to blame Lurie if they feel continued discontent around homelessness, housing and drug overdoses, Cook said. 'Or they could start to say, 'Actually, the mayor is fighting for us and doing what we want from him and there are other reasons for this, and that's who I'm mad at,'' Cook said. 'That could be anybody.' Lurie has introduced policies that seek to address the frustration San Francisco residents feel about these core issues. He released a zoning plan that would allow taller and denser buildings along certain transit corridors, seeking to pave the way for tens of thousands of new homes from the Marina to the Richmond and Sunset districts. He also passed a local law that allows him to speed up contract approvals for projects related to homelessness, mental health and drug addiction. And he increased police enforcement along corridors in the South of Market and Mission neighborhoods in response to worsening public drug scenes, while rolling out more street ambassadors to complement the work of law enforcement. Lurie, though, backed off a signature campaign promise to build 1,500 shelter beds during the first six months of his term. His administration framed the move as a decision to focus on more targeted efforts to get help to people struggling with addiction, mental illness and homelessness. Lurie's homelessness proposals have triggered some political resistance from those to the left of the moderate mayor. Progressive Supervisor Shamann Walton blasted Lurie when he pressed ahead with plans to expand a shelter in Walton's district instead of providing safe parking spots for RV dwellers that were originally planned at the site. The mayor also faced opposition from a handful of progressive supervisors when he successfully sought permission to more easily spend up to $19 million in future proceeds from a business tax that funds homeless services. 'Every dictator states that they just want additional authority once — and then they keep pressing,' Walton said of Lurie's homeless tax proposal at a recent supervisors' meeting. 'Our mayor already has a lot of power in this city … without this body allowing more.' Additionally, Lurie has drawn scrutiny over his approach to President Donald Trump, whose name he carefully avoids uttering as he tries to stay focused on local matters — and as he seeks to keep the president from focusing his vengeful politics on San Francisco. While some have questioned the mayor's Trump strategy, the Chronicle poll found that 50% of respondents thought it was the right one. Just 29% agreed with the statement that Lurie should help lead the opposition to Trump. 'Democrats are struggling with that question nationally,' said Cook, the political scientist. 'I think it's fascinating that's where San Francisco voters are right now.' Brown, the pollster, said that due to the severity of San Francisco's problems and voters' 'desire to see them remedied,' they are 'comfortable that Mayor Lurie is prioritizing local issues as opposed to national issues.'
San Francisco Chronicle
21-07-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
How's Lurie doing as mayor? Our new poll on the state of S.F. had stunning results
Six months into Mayor Daniel Lurie's tenure, San Franciscans are far happier with his performance than they were with former Mayor London Breed's one year ago, according to a new poll commissioned by the Chronicle. The poll also revealed a turnaround in voters' attitudes about the city overall: A majority now rate the quality of life to be good or excellent, and half of respondents believe that conditions will continue to improve. The poll, which surveyed 961 registered voters between July 9 and 13, found that almost three quarters of San Franciscans approved of the job Lurie had done so far. His sky-high approval rating is almost the exact inverse of how likely voters rated Breed's performance last July: At that time, just over one quarter of respondents said they approved of the mayor's performance. The poll reflects a sampling of San Francisco residents, and was not perfectly representative of the city's demographic breakdown. Notably, even after weighting the results to better reflect the city's demographics, respondents were 53% non-Hispanic white, while the city on the whole is just 37% white. Still, the poll found no major difference between white and non-white respondents in their support of the mayor — although Asian respondents were more supportive than Black and Latino respondents. The positive results for Lurie come just six months into his term. Last July's poll on Breed, on the other hand, came six years into Breed's tenure — and months before the election. The political landscape in which the two polls were conducted has notably shifted as well. Last July, San Francisco was still struggling out of its pandemic-induced slump and grappling with a bruised national reputation. Campaigns for the mayoralty, swirling controversies around the state of the city and the presidential election were in full swing. Now, even as much of the nation's attention has shifted to President Donald Trump, his sweeping cuts to the government, his harsh immigration policies and even his feud with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Franciscans seem to prefer that Mayor Lurie stay out of the fray. Half of voters said the mayor should remain focused on local issues, while just 29% said Lurie should help lead the opposition. Not everyone is bullish on the mayor. Men were slightly more supportive than women, and more recent arrivals to San Francisco were more supportive than longtime residents. But the sharpest divide was political: People who identified themselves as progressives were far less likely to approve of Lurie's performance, and to be bearish on the city's future in general. Strikingly, Lurie was less popular on specific issues than he was overall. While most respondents agreed that he was keeping the city clean, keeping residents and businesses safe from crime and revitalizing downtown, he scored less favorably when it came to providing shelter for the homeless, handling the overdose crisis and addressing the cost of housing. The poll also found that San Franciscans still have mixed reviews of the Board of Supervisors: 38% of respondents said they approved of the supervisors' performance, and 46% said they disapproved. Though that's far from the ringing endorsement that Lurie enjoyed, it's much better than a year ago, when just 20% of respondents approved of the board's job, while 70% disapproved. Overall, San Franciscans are more likely now than last year to say that the city is headed in the right direction. Almost 50% of people in the new poll said they believed the quality of life in San Francisco would get better, while 23% said they believed it would get worse. Last July, 40% believed it would get better, while 32% believed it would get worse. In both years, a little over a quarter of people believed that the quality of life would stay the same. Even as a majority agree that things are looking up in the city, it's clear that a certain nostalgia for the past persists. The Chronicle asked whether respondents found the city to be more fun today than it was 10 years ago. Nearly 60% said it was more fun a decade ago. Just 13% found it more fun today.
Black America Web
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Black America Web
Black Women's Equal Pay Day Requires Equity in Policies
Source: Milko / Getty Black Women's Equal Pay Day 2025 takes place amid massive cuts and attacks on programs and policies aimed at closing the economic gap experienced by Black women and their families. Recent reports of Black women's high unemployment rates only further compound the challenges faced by Black women and their families. Each year, Black Women's Equal Pay Day marks the day in which Black women finally catch up to the earnings of white men from the year before. The day in which Black Women's Equal Pay Day is recognized varies each year, but the impact on Black women and their families remains the same. This year, Black women on average earned 66 cents as compared to non-Hispanic white men. In the South, that disparity is even more drastic. Like other commemorative days, Black Women's Equal Pay Day provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the challenges and opportunities for addressing systemic economic disparities. As outlined by the National Black Worker Center, a combination of occupational segregation and historic discrimination rooted in slavery accounts for the extreme inequity experienced by Black women working in the South. Chandra Childers, a senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, recently outlined the impact of Trump's cuts and public sector disinvestment on Black women. 'The public sector includes workers in federal, state, and local government that we all rely on to educate children across the region, care for sick and elderly family members, ensure food and water are safe to consume, provide public transportation and sanitation services, and ensure access to a wide range of other public services,' wrote Childers. 'The decline in public-sector job quality across the South disproportionately harms Black workers, especially Black women, their families, and communities.' It's estimated that over 40 years, Black women lose out on $1 million in earnings. Even if Black women were suddenly paid the same as their white male counterparts, it would take an estimated 200 years before Black women working full-time achieved true economic parity. Achieving equal pay for Black women demands policies and the political will to ensure enforcement over the long haul. Policy agendas like the Black Women Best Framework and the recently introduced Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda by In Our Own Voice provide a blueprint for improving economic and social conditions for Black women. 'Despite historic unemployment rates for Black workers being double the rate of White workers, Black women's persistent labor force participation is not merely admirable — it is a reflection of generational resilience in the face of enduring labor market injustice,' wrote Miriam Van Dyke, research manager at Kindred Futures. 'We must uplift Black women and allow them to thrive as they have continued to raise and sacrifice for the Black community and larger society.' SEE ALSO: Unemployment Rate Remained Stubbornly High For Black Women In June BLD PWR, SisterSong, GBEF Host Houston Juneteenth Event SEE ALSO Black Women's Equal Pay Day Requires Equity in Policies was originally published on
