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1/3 of former NFL players believe they have CTE

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Justin Madubuike, Chris Jones, NFL, CTE


A 3rd of former NFL players surveyed said so they believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathyor CTE.

According to NPR, Harvard University conducted a survey of 1,980 former NFL players who played between 1960 and 2020, and 681 of them said they believed they had developed a brain disease. More than 230 players said they had experienced suicidal thoughts, and one other 176 reported being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or one other form of dementia.

Even after researchers controlled for predictors of suicidal thoughts or ideations, retired players who believed they had CTE were still twice as likely as others to report that they had experienced frequent suicidal thoughts or self-harm. Currently, nonetheless, the one sure solution to diagnose the disease is post-mortem brain testing, which is problematic since it is difficult to find out what symptoms are brought on by the event of CTE in living former NFL players.

According to Rachel Grashow, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and lead writer of the study, the secret is to discover and treat any symptoms before players begin to believe they have CTE, which may result in depression or thoughts of self-harm.

“The key finding from this study is that many of the conditions common to former NFL players, such as sleep apnea, low testosterone, high blood pressure and chronic pain, can cause problems with thinking, memory and concentration,” Grashow said.

Grashow continued: “While we wait for advances in CTE research to better explore the experiences of living gamers, it is imperative that we identify conditions that can be treated. These efforts may reduce the risk of players prematurely attributing symptoms to CTE, which can lead to feelings of hopelessness and thoughts of self-harm.”

More than 300 former NFL players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, and lots of of them allegedly developed symptoms of cognitive decline akin to memory loss and mood swings.

Junior Seau, a former University of Southern California and San Diego Chargers Hall of Famer who shot himself within the chest and committed suicide in 2012, was declared he had CTE after a brain scan by the National Institutes of Health.

According to ABC 10, Seau spoke with The Athletic’s Jim Trotter while still working for ESPN, and Seau warned that football needs a greater deal with player safety. Trotter now believes Seau’s comments about former players were actually about him.

“Those who say the game has changed for the worst; they don’t have a father who wouldn’t remember his name because of the game. If everyone had to wake up to a dad who didn’t know his name, didn’t know his child’s name, and wasn’t able to function normally. I mean, they will understand that the game has to change,” Seau told Trotter in an interview.

While the link between CTE and suicidal thoughts continues to be unclear, Dr. Ross Zafonte, one of the study’s authors and a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, told NPR that suicidal thoughts experienced by gamers could also be resulting from: other symptoms and never necessarily CTE.

“It could also be related to aspects akin to isolation, chronic pain, depression, cognitive impairment, even heart problems – all of these aspects are related to former players, and all of these can contribute to the worsening of any pathology, and all this may actually cause problems, Zafonte said.

Zafonte continued: “The assumption that everybody will understand that is the issue. People are, rightly, obsessive about their concerns about CTE. We should not attempting to invalidate this in any way. But treating people for extraordinary things that may only worsen this pathology can alleviate the symptoms.

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This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Health and Wellness

The best street style looks from Day 3 of PFW SS25 – Essence

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Courtesy of Seleen Salih for ESSENCE

On the approach to Paris Fashion Week shows, all invitees have the chance to present a typical look. Despite the rain that has not stopped for 3 days, there are also beautiful views that we noticed along the best way. On the third day we saw, for instance red lips in Vaquera, Cardi B’s powdered eyes in Balmain and of course stunning beauty on every street corner.

Several off-duty models were spotted outside with fresh faces: laminated eyebrows and clean skin paired with short afros. Meanwhile, one showgoer arrived in braided Bantu knots, false eyelashes, round blush and etched pencil-thin eyebrows – much like last week’s Marni look.

Another had blonde waves on her toes that reached right down to a mid-length bow-tied rat tail, which she connected to a nude lip. Next, Goku-style spikes were probably the most experimental look we caught, bringing the Parisian punk scene to the forefront of the season.

Below, take a take a look at the highest 10 street style looks from Day 3 of PFW SS25.

The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
The best street style looks from PFW SS25, Day 3
(*3*)

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Health and Wellness

Access to a GP can make a huge difference in curing lung cancer – and that’s a Māori problem

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Surviving lung cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand may rely upon whether you’ve access to a GP, raising questions on equity in the country’s healthcare system.

Our latest research examines the outcomes of patients diagnosed with lung cancer by their family doctor compared with patients diagnosed with lung cancer in the emergency department (ED).

Analyzing 2,400 lung cancer cases in the Waikato between 2011 and 2021, we found that folks diagnosed with lung cancer after ED visits tended to have later stage disease and worse outcomes compared to people diagnosed after referral to a GP.

We also found that diagnosis after an ED visit was 27% higher for Māori than non-Māori and 22% higher for men than women.

These results raise necessary questions on health inequalities in New Zealand and highlight the necessity to ensure everyone has access to early cancer diagnosis.

Limited access to on a regular basis health care

Currently half of all general practices have closed their books to latest patients, leaving 290,000 patients unregistered and depending on emergency departments for healthcare.

As of 2019, roughly 80% of practices closed their books to latest patients sooner or later.

For people registered for an internship, waiting time for appointments are sometimes such that the one option is to go to the emergency room for help.

This is particularly true in rural areas, where the hospital may grow to be the default route to diagnosis.

Lung cancer is probably the most common explanation for cancer death in New Zealand – there are over 1,800 per 12 months. About 80% of individuals diagnosed with lung cancer have advanced disease and have a very poor likelihood of survival.

It can also be the cancer causing the biggest capital gap. The mortality rate for Māori individuals with lung cancer is three to 4 times higher than for people of European descent.

While much of this disparity is due to differences in smoking rates amongst ethnic groups, it also exists evidence delays in diagnosis and poorer access to surgery even have a major impact on survival.

Identification of lung cancer

Lung cancer often begins in the tissue lining the airways, and symptoms may initially be relatively minor – shortness of breath when exercising, a nasty cough, or sharp pains when respiration.

Patients with some of these symptoms will often go to their GP to see whether it is something that requires further investigation.

However, if someone cannot make an appointment or doesn’t consider the symptoms to be serious, they’re likely to delay taking motion.

Advanced symptoms of lung cancer include coughing up blood or lumps in the neck due to the lymphatic spread of the cancer. People with these disturbing symptoms often go to hospital for treatment.

Our study confirms previous findings that folks diagnosed in the emergency department include:

  • more vulnerable to advanced disease
  • A more aggressive variety of cancer is more common (so-called small cell carcinoma), I
  • they’ve a much lower likelihood of survival.

The median survival for individuals who never presented to the ED was 13.6 months, while the median survival for individuals who had one ED visit was only three months.

That said, there are some advantages to visiting the emergency department. These include seeing a doctor inside hours, quick access to X-rays and, in our major hospitals, access to the last word diagnostic tool for lung cancer – computed tomography (CT).

Our study found that 25% of cases presented to the emergency department two or more times in the 2 weeks before diagnosis. This was particularly true for people going to certainly one of the agricultural hospitals in the Waikato, where it was more likely that a second or third visit was required before a diagnosis could possibly be made.

Barriers to care

It is obvious that there are still several barriers to access to primary healthcare in New Zealand. This has led to an over-reliance on emergency departments to diagnose cancer, despite the lengthy process faster cancer treatment goals.

The situation is unlikely to improve. Access to primary care physicians is deteriorating, in part because increasing fees.

Māori and Pacific patients had lung cancer less likely than other ethnic groups who were enrolled in a primary care organization on the time of diagnosis. They were also less likely to visit their GP in the three months before diagnosis.

Making visiting your loved ones doctor easier

Increasing access to overall care is probably the most effective way to eliminate inequities in our lung cancer statistics.

Currently New Zealand only has 74 general practitioners per 100,000 inhabitants people compared to 110 in Australia.

It is obvious that we want to significantly increase the variety of general practitioners. This is a long-term project, however it have to be a strategic goal for the health sector.

In the meantime, we want to increase the provision of primary care by increasing patient subsidies and reducing the direct costs of doctor visits. At the identical time, we want to higher equip primary care physicians with access to diagnostic facilities, including in our rural hospitals.

This article was originally published on : theconversation.com
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Health and Wellness

Mamas at work: Syleena Johnson on suffering from unbearable insecurity disorder

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Antoni Tyus

Syleena Johnson is in an excellent place right away.

The singer and tv personality has released a brand new album that pays tribute to her journey and the lifetime of her father, late blues legend and Hall of Famer Syl Johnson, which she says can be her last. He is on tour promoting his work and feels good, especially mentally.

However, it takes work. Just a few years ago, like many individuals, Johnson felt the strong impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. She lost her job on a TV One talk show, her ability to go on stage and her confidence that the whole lot can be OK. The anxiety she was accustomed to had reached an awesome peak. And when she finally managed to deal along with her problems with a specialist, they told her that her stress and fear levels were more serious than she thought.

“Not having the means to survive, so to speak, was extremely traumatic,” he tells ESSENCE. “I used to be in therapy sessions and I talked loads about a number of the things that I used to be feeling and going through, but what we didn’t speak about was just that it was because of the pandemic itself. We’ve talked about this from the very starting, from the traumas that I experienced as a baby because of bullying and never only being bullied by kids at school, but additionally being bullied by men, being bullied by relations. Because mental abuse is a type of abuse. Losing money and being within the music industry and the best way you might be treated within the music industry is crazy. That’s a variety of rejection. So the constant thought that you’re going to get something is constant. All this increases the sensation of insecurity in a single’s life.

Unexpectedly, she was diagnosed with: Unacceptable disruption of uncertainty. A 2004 study described it as “the tendency to react negatively at the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral levels to uncertain situations and events.”

Fear of the unknown is common for many individuals, but for Johnson it became debilitating. It would creep into on a regular basis life and even affect her ability to perform.

“I’m really afraid to go outside because I think there will be too many bugs,” she recalls. Such a bit shit. I don’t need to go on stage. They won’t like this show. I just couldn’t stand the uncertainty. And so the whole lot has all the time been on this spirit. Even positive moments have became these sorts of incidents. And this is de facto dangerous since it manifests itself in your life. It is basically a type of negative pondering.”

And they weren’t just thoughts. Her anxiety manifested itself in physical symptoms. The extreme fear became panic attacks, possibly hives, and “sometimes it was tears.” Her fears were even deepened by motherhood.

“My youngest son has autism. This alone puts me in a difficult situation because I don’t know what my child’s quality of life will be like. And there’s nothing I can do about it,’ says Johnson, who has two teenage boys. “And I live in that reality every day.”

She adds: “When you could have a baby with special needs, you are always in fight or flight mode or always worrying if my child goes to be OK. And simply quality of life. So I feel it creates an unbearable uncertainty disorder.

Mamas at work: Syleena Johnson on unbearable insecurity disorder and its impact on her mental health and motherhood
Antoni Tyus

But once Johnson was given a reputation for her behavior, she could begin to work on countering these negative, debilitating thoughts.

Thanks to this, I can control myself,” he says. “It requires positive affirmations and a change in mindset. You must always validate yourself and develop a habit. And it’s worthwhile to have a variety of positive self-talk. You must surround yourself with individuals who understand your diagnosis, take it seriously, and might communicate with you and behave around you in a roundabout way.

These practices had a huge effect on bringing peace to Johnson. It focuses not only on positive pondering, but additionally on realistic pondering. She has learned, within the midst of uncertainty, to take care of things as they arise, one at a time. She calls it doing things with “meticulous precision,” and that features parenting.

Now that I’m in therapy, it’s all about being meticulously precise, which implies narrowing down what is going on on. Don’t look at it as a variety of pressure all at once. You cannot take on the whole lot. It’s unimaginable,” he says. “So with extreme precision: step by step. Day by day, situation by situation, step by step. There is no plan. You just have to slow everything down. When things come fast, you have to slow down and deal with what’s happening. The truth is that we cannot control everything in the world. You just can’t. And you can’t achieve everything when everyone wants you to achieve it. It’s that simple.”

This way of acting also helped her to look deeper into herself. There is not any such thing as pleasing people for those who resolve to take things one at a time.

“That way you put yourself first. These people can handle it. They’ll be fine. You also have to think that on the other side they may also be struggling with unbearable uncertainty and anxiety, which is why they put the burden on you to get something,” he says. “You can only give people what you could have right away. You cannot give them more since you haven’t got it. And once we try to do that on a regular basis, we find yourself feeling empty.

He adds: “But it’s really a really detailed decision. You just must decelerate life. You must decelerate and accept that you just are slowing down.

This practice, together with prioritizing other ways of self-care equivalent to exercising at the gym, attending church and fellowship, spending time together with your circle of friends, taking walks in nature, and sometimes spending the day in your pajamas, catching up on TV, is the whole lot affects her mental health. No more hives. No more panic attacks. No more extreme fear.

“I just try to make those moments happen as often as possible because I still have to deal with a certain level of anxiety,” Johnson notes. “You cannot run away from it. Trials and suffering are all the time present. There’s nothing you’ll be able to do about it, but you’ll be able to create instances in your life where you’ll be able to take care of it, where you’ll be able to have control over it. You cannot let it control you because it should, but it surely’s all about the way you take care of it and who you might be in it.

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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