MLB Weekly Digest September 3rd Edition - NGSC Sports
Treatment Of Depression
"The grey drizzle of horror," author William Styron memorably called depression. The mood disorder may descend seemingly out of the blue, or it may come on the heels of a defeat or personal loss, producing persistent feelings of sadness, worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness, pessimism, or guilt. Depression also interferes with concentration, motivation, and other aspects of everyday functioning.
According to the World Health Organization, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Globally, more than 300 million people of all ages suffer from the disorder. And the incidence of the disorder is increasing everywhere. Americans are highly concerned with happiness, yet they are increasingly depressed: Some 15 million Americans battle the disorder, and increasing numbers of them are young people.
Depression comes in forms ranging from major depression to dysthymia and seasonal affective disorder. Depressive episodes are also a feature of bipolar disorder.
Depression is a complex condition, involving many systems of the body, including the immune system, either as cause or effect. It disrupts sleep and it interferes with appetite; in some cases, it causes weight loss; in others, it contributes to weight gain. Depression is also often accompanied by anxiety. Research indicates that not only do the two conditions co-occur but that they overlap in vulnerability patterns.
Because of its complexity, a full understanding of depression has been elusive. There is mounting evidence that depression may actually be a necessary defense strategy of the body, a kind of shutdown or immobilization in response to danger or defeat, that is actually meant to preserve your energy and help you survive.
Researchers have some evidence that depression susceptibility is related to diet, both directly—through inadequate consumption of nutrients such as omega-3 fats—and indirectly, through the variety of bacteria that populate the gut. But depression involves mood and thoughts as well as the body, and it causes pain for both those living with the disorder and those who care about them. Depression is also increasingly common in children.
Even in the most severe cases, depression is highly treatable. The condition is often cyclical, and early treatment may prevent or forestall recurrent episodes. Many studies show that the most effective treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy, which addresses problematic thought patterns, with or without the use of antidepressant drugs. In addition, evidence is quickly accumulating that regular mindfulness meditation, on its own or combined with cognitive therapy, can stop depression before it starts by diminishing reactivity to distressing experiences, effectively enabling disengagement of attention from the repetitive negative thoughts that often set the downward spiral of mood in motion.
For more on causes, symptoms, and treatments of depressive disorders, see our Diagnosis Dictionary.
Hypertension News
July 31, 2023 — An analysis of data from seven studies involving more than 19,000 adults in the United States, Korea and Japan found a clear association between increases in systolic (top-number) blood pressure and ...
July 13, 2023 — Expanding home blood pressure monitoring among US adults with hypertension could substantially reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and save healthcare costs in the long term, according to a ...
June 26, 2023 — Novel research found that apparent resistant hypertension (aRH) prevalence was lower in a real-world sample than previously reported, but still relatively frequent -- affecting nearly 1 in 10 ...
Apr. 24, 2023 — Arterial stiffness may be a novel risk factor for metabolic syndrome in ...
Apr. 7, 2023 — High blood pressure in early adulthood is associated with worse brain health in late life, according to a new study. Men, compared to women, may be more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of high ...
Mar. 23, 2023 — High fitness levels may reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease in men with high blood pressure, according to a 29-year ...
Mar. 22, 2023 — If you live near a busy road you might feel like the constant sound of roaring engines, honking horns and wailing sirens makes your blood pressure rise. Now a new study confirms it can do exactly ...
Mar. 14, 2023 — Scientists have found that inhibiting a gene essential to making DNA can significantly reduce the destructive cell proliferation and disease progression in pulmonary ...
Mar. 1, 2023 — High blood pressure disorders during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of thinking problems later in life, according to a study. Researchers found that those with these disorders had a ...
Feb. 28, 2023 — A new device that calms overactive kidney nerves with ultrasound consistently lowered blood pressure in patients with uncontrolled hypertension, researchers have ...
Feb. 8, 2023 — In a new analysis involving adolescents living in London, exposure to higher levels of the pollutant nitrogen dioxide was associated with lower systolic blood pressure, while exposure to higher ...
Feb. 8, 2023 — Certain complications during pregnancy bring an increased risk of heart disease later on. However, there is still much to learn about how arteriosclerosis develops between pregnancy and heart disease ...
Jan. 16, 2023 — Doctors have used a new type of CT scan to light up tiny nodules in a hormone gland and cure high blood pressure by their removal. The nodules are discovered in one-in-twenty people with high blood ...
Dec. 21, 2022 — Drinking two or more cups of coffee a day was associated with twice the risk of death from cardiovascular disease among people with severe hypertension compared to non-coffee drinkers, in a study of ...
Dec. 13, 2022 — A new study suggests lipoprotein(a) cholesterol may affect relationship between hypertension and cardiovascular disease ...
Dec. 8, 2022 — A three-month pilot study of patients with hypertension demonstrates that adding yoga to a regular exercise training regimen supports cardiovascular health and wellbeing and is more effective than ...
Dec. 6, 2022 — Teens with Type 1 diabetes who took bromocriptine, a medication usually prescribed to treat Parkinson's disease, had lower blood pressure after one month of treatment compared to those who did ...
Dec. 5, 2022 — Engineers have designed a system to remotely measure blood pressure by filming a person's forehead and extracting cardiac signals using artificial intelligence ...
Nov. 15, 2022 — An analysis of more than 2,400 women who did not have high blood pressure while pregnant found that about 1 in 10 were diagnosed with high blood pressure in the year after childbirth. Almost a ...
Nov. 7, 2022 — A new drug called Baxdrostat has been shown to significantly reduce high blood pressure (hypertension) in patients who may not respond to current treatments for the condition, according to results ...
Monday, July 31, 2023
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Monday, June 26, 2023
Monday, April 24, 2023
Friday, April 7, 2023
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Monday, January 16, 2023
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Monday, December 5, 2022
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Monday, November 7, 2022
Friday, November 4, 2022
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Monday, October 3, 2022
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Friday, September 23, 2022
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Friday, September 2, 2022
Monday, August 29, 2022
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Monday, July 25, 2022
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Friday, July 15, 2022
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Monday, July 11, 2022
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Monday, June 13, 2022
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Friday, June 3, 2022
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Monday, May 23, 2022
Monday, May 16, 2022
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Monday, May 9, 2022
Friday, May 6, 2022
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Monday, April 25, 2022
Friday, April 22, 2022
Monday, April 4, 2022
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Monday, March 28, 2022
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Monday, February 14, 2022
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Monday, December 6, 2021
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Monday, October 4, 2021
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Monday, September 27, 2021
Monday, September 20, 2021
Monday, September 13, 2021
Monday, August 30, 2021
Thursday, August 19, 2021
Thursday, August 12, 2021
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Monday, July 26, 2021
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Monday, June 21, 2021
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Monday, June 14, 2021
The GOP Is Back To Attacking Obamacare
Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley (left) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis participate in the NewsNation Republican Presidential Primary Debate at the University of Alabama Moody Music Hall in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Agence France-Presse
Michael Hiltzik, Tribune News Service
Here's a pair of handy rules of thumb to know we're heading into a major election cycle: (1) Republican candidates start talking about the need to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and (2) none of them bothers to say how that will make American health care better. Sure enough, in just the last couple of weeks, Donald Trump has said he's "seriously looking at alternatives" to the ACA, asserting that "the cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it's not good Healthcare." Ron DeSantis, running for second place behind Trump in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, said Sunday on "Meet the Press" that he advocated having a plan that will "supersede Obamacare, that will lower prices for people so that they can afford health care while also making sure that people with preexisting conditions are protected." He called it "a totally different health care plan."
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, running to supplant DeSantis as an also-ran in the GOP race, has been getting plenty of questions about the ACA on the campaign trail. She has managed to dodge them with word salads about how she wants to "open up all of health care, from the insurance companies to the hospitals to the doctors' offices to the pharmaceutical companies and make sure we look at all of their warts." That might be worthwhile, if it were not just blather. The truth, of course, is that Haley's Republican colleagues have had all the opportunities they needed to do exactly what she claimed to advocate, and did exactly none of it. To take just one example, in August 2022, legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate the prices of its most-prescribed drugs with their manufacturers came before the Senate and House. How many Republican senators and representatives voted for it? Exactly zero. It was passed with Democratic votes and signed by President Joe Biden, and is now the law of the land.
A couple of things are clear about this emerging Republican position on the Affordable Care Act and on US health care more generally: They don't have a clue about what to do with it. That doesn't matter, because they have no intention about doing anything. They're just gaslighting the public. As it happens, the emerging Republican campaign against the Affordable Care Act faces more head winds today than in 2017, when a GOP repeal effort was derailed by a famous thumbs-down vote by the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Since its enactment, the program has built up a sizable head of steam in popularity. Adult Americans had a favorable view of Obamacare by a 59%-40% margin, according to a May tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).
The program has consistently gained in popularity since December 2016, the poll showed; 89% of Democrats and 62% of independent voters favored the program, while only 26% of Republicans viewed it favorably — a clue to why GOP candidates have dusted off their attacks. As is all too often the case, the positions of DeSantis and Haley raise an enduring question about Republican politicians: Who do they think they represent? It couldn't be their constituents. We know this because the rates of participation in ACA marketplace plans in Florida and South Carolina are among the highest in the nation. Florida's marketplace enrollment of 3.1 million residents (14.5% of its population) is the largest of any state — it's nearly double that of California even though it has about half as many residents. South Carolina's enrollment of 379,000 (about 7.2% of its residents) is tied with two other states in the country.
Moreover, both states are among the national leaders in the percentage of their marketplace enrollees receiving federal premium subsidies — Florida ranks second with 97%, behind only Mississippi, and South Carolina is tied in 13th place at 94%. Both states also are among the national leaders in the share of their marketplace enrollees eligible for additional savings on deductibles and cost-sharing because of their low incomes: Florida ranks fourth, with 62%, and South Carolina is tied with California and Indiana in 19th place. That means that the consequences of any effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act would fall heavily on their own voters, more than those in most other states. But the carnage would extend nationwide.
The Affordable Care Act has been linked to a historic decline in the national uninsured rate, falling to 8% in early 2022. The ACA also is associated with a slowdown in the growth rate of health care spending as measured in 2021. Some 35 million Americans are enrolled in ACA health plans, including 21 million covered by the ACA's Medicaid expansion in the 40 states that have accepted it. Without a replacement health care programme — which the Republicans have never proposed — the old system in which health plans in the individual market were empowered to reject coverage for people with preexisting conditions or charge them inflated premiums would return.
More than 135 million Americans with preexisting conditions would be in this fix, with more than 54 million possibly becoming uninsurable at any price. A reminder, in case you've forgotten the pre-Obamacare hell facing those with medical conditions: the rejection guidelines from Blue Cross of California ran to 25 pages. In 2001, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Georgetown University ran a test by applying for coverage from 19 insurers in eight local markets, on behalf of seven hypothetical applicants with health issues. The test conditions were hay fever, a knee injury, asthma, a previous cancer diagnosis, depression, hypertension and HIV.
Each putative enrollee made 60 applications. Not a single applicant received 60 "clean" offers — acceptances without premium surcharges or coverage exclusions. In that era, it was legal for insurers to impose annual or lifetime caps on benefits. Women, especially those of childbearing age, were routinely charged more than men. Pregnancy coverage was almost unattainable. If Obamacare were repealed, those 21 million Americans covered by the Medicaid expansion would lose their coverage. As many as 2.3 million people younger than 26 might be thrown off their parents' health plans. To be fair, DeSantis' and Haley's approach to the ACA does dovetail with their documented commitment to the health of their state residents, which is essentially nonexistent. Neither state has expanded Medicaid, as they could have done under the ACA, with the federal government picking up almost all the tab.
That makes health care appreciably more expensive for their lowest-income constituents, and probably accounts for the greater rate of enrollment in marketplace plans in Florida relative to California, which did expand Medicaid. Yet DeSantis' record is especially shameful. His handpicked state surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, is one of the nation's leading purveyors of dangerous health care balderdash. Ladapo has promoted the useless COVID-19 "treatments" ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. He has counseled younger Floridians against COVID-19 vaccination, basing his advice on fabricated data.
The prospect that a President DeSantis could give this man a federal platform to inject his disinformation into the American health care bloodstream is nothing short of terrifying. We can see the potential impact in the COVID-19 death rates in Florida, which thanks to DeSantis' policies are close to the worst in the nation.
Comments
Post a Comment