health and wellness – Page 35

Climate Change: Flesh Eating Bacteria

Posted on 2022/10/192022/10/19 by admin

The side effects of climate change are far reaching. Lee County, Florida is where hurricane Ian made landfall. Storm surges and subsequent flooding led to a spike in the potentially deadly infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus. The flesh eating species of bacteria is found in warm, brackish water.

One species, Vibrio vulnificus, can cause life-threatening wound infections. Many people with Vibrio vulnificus infection require intensive care or limb amputations, and about 1 in 5 people with this infection die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill.

Some Vibrio vulnificus infections lead to necrotizing fasciitis, a severe infection in which the flesh around an open wound dies. Some media reports call this kind of infection “flesh-eating bacteria,” said the CDC.

At least 29 cases and four deaths have been confirmed in Lee County this year as a result of such infections.

“The Florida Department of Health in Lee County is observing an abnormal increase in cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections as a result of exposure to the flood waters and standing waters following Hurricane Ian,” a spokesperson at the county health department said in a statement to CBS News on Monday, which noted that community members should “always be aware of the potential risks associated when exposing open wounds, cuts, or scratches on the skin to warm, brackish, or salt water.”

“Sewage spills, like those caused from Hurricane Ian, may increase bacteria levels,” the statement continued. “As the post storm situation evolves, individuals should take precautions against and infection and illness caused by Vibrio vulnificus.”

More articles on Climate Change and Health, Extreme Weather Events and Global Warming.

Long-COVID: 4 Out of 5 Experiencing Limitations in Daily Activities

Posted on 2022/10/172022/10/18 by admin

The CDC Panel Report Long COVID Panel Survey found:

* 81% of adults with ongoing symptoms of COVID lasting three months or longer — or four out of five adults — are experiencing limitations in their daily activities compared to before they had the virus. (Economic implications include work force participation and long-term health care costs.)

* Young adults between ages 18 and 29 had the highest share of people currently with long COVID who have trouble performing daily tasks, at 86.3%. What will the long-term costs and quality of life be when these people are in their 50’s,60’s, and if they get to live into their 70’s?

COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 / Novel Coronavirus

Rapidly Increasing Disasters, Costs, and Frequency

Posted on 2022/10/16 by admin

The rapid increase in disaster costs and frequency in the USA is the focus of the report by Climate Central Billion-Dollar Disasters in 2022.

The report states:
* As of this month, the U.S. has experienced 15 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters so far in 2022—already well above the historical average of seven events per year.

* This year’s mounting extreme weather costs reflect an increasing trend in U.S. billion-dollar disasters since 1980.

* The frequency of billion-dollar disasters has also increased. In the last five years (2017-2021), there were just 18 days on average between billion-dollar disasters—compared to 82 days in the 1980s.

* Less time between disasters can mean less time and resources available to respond, recover and prepare for future events.

* The full toll of such events—including the impacts on health—can’t be captured in any one statistic. Without rapid cuts in heat-trapping emissions, this toll is likely to keep rising.

Billion-dollar disasters in 2022

The devastation wrought by Hurricanes Fiona and Ian in Puerto Rico, Florida, and beyond has once again thrust weather and climate disasters to the forefront of the nation’s attention.

According to NOAA, the U.S. has experienced 15 weather and climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each in 2022 (as of September 30). The total cost of these disasters through the end of September was $29.3 billion. Adding up the final costs will take months after the end of the year to complete.

The costly and deadly billion-dollar disasters of 2022 so far have included:

* an April tornado outbreak in the Southeast that spawned 88 tornadoes, including several intense, long tracked tornadoes in Georgia and South Carolina

* a May hail storm that left large swaths of golf-ball sized hail across Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota

* a destructive derecho that produced widespread 70+ mph wind gusts across the lower Midwest

* The costs of Hurricane Fiona and Hurricane Ian are still being accounted for as ongoing recovery continues. Historically, hurricanes and tropical cyclones are the most costly disasters by far, averaging $21 billion per event—more than double the average toll of the next most costly event type (drought).

More Disasters

This year’s mounting extreme weather costs reflect an increasing trend in billion-dollar disasters across the U.S. Each decade since the 1980s has experienced more billion-dollar disasters and higher costs than the decade before.

Over the last five years (2017 to 2021) alone, a total of 89 events caused an estimated 4,557 deaths and over $788 billion dollars in damage. That’s about 35% of the $2.27 trillion in total costs of U.S. billion-dollar disasters from 1980-2021.

2022 is the eighth consecutive year with 10 or more billion-dollar weather and climate-related disasters. The long-term (1980–2021) annual average is about seven billion-dollar disasters per year. And 2022 follows the record-shattering annual totals of 22 and 20 billion-dollar disasters in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

More Often

It’s not just the total number of disasters—but how often they occur—that strains the resources available for communities to manage risks and recover quickly.

Between 1980-2021, the time between billion-dollar disasters in a calendar year has dropped steadily, according to an analysis by Climate Central.

* The average time between billion-dollar disasters has dropped from 82 days in the 1980s to 26 days in the 2010s.

* In the last five years (2017-2021), there have been just 18 days on average between billion-dollar disasters.

* During 2020, there were as little as two weeks on average between the record 22 billion-dollar disasters that year.

Less time between disasters can mean less time and resources available to respond, recover and prepare for future events.

The highest costs have resulted when multiple disasters occur in the same region and season, straining local resources—as during the Atlantic hurricane seasons of 2005 and 2017. According to NOAA, multiple billion-dollar tropical cyclones during these two seasons resulted in more than 5,000 lives lost and over $520 billion in combined damages.
The full toll of disasters

These staggering figures primarily reflect direct impacts on assets (including damage to homes, crops, and critical infrastructure), and therefore don’t reflect the full toll of disasters, including on public health—and especially mental health. According to the American Public Health Association, up to 54% of adults and 45% of children suffer depression after a disaster.

Weather and climate-related disasters can also result in widespread power outages (as occurred in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona), displacement, and limited or unsafe food and water supplies, as well as loss of cultural heritage, biodiversity and habitats.

These figures also don’t convey the disproportionate impacts of disasters on people in poverty or the need for equitable allocation of federal disaster assistance in accordance with social vulnerability.
Disasters in a warming world

According to the latest IPCC reports, it is an “established fact” that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions have “led to an increased frequency and/or intensity of some weather and climate extremes since pre-industrial times.” And these trends are projected to continue with additional warming.

The ambition of the Paris Agreement—to limit warming to 2.7°F (1.5 °C) by 2100—is very likely to be exceeded by the mid-2040s at the latest without rapid emissions cuts. In November, nearly 200 nations will convene at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) to accelerate climate action. Without such progress, we can expect even more frequent and intense billion-dollar disasters in the future.

More articles on Extreme Weather Events and Global Warming.

Long-COVID: reduced exercise capacity and muscle cell death

Posted on 2022/10/132024/01/06 by admin

A symptom of long COVID may be the reason you feel exhausted after a workout — “long COVID may reduce exercise capacity, measured by how much oxygen your body can use and how your heart and lungs function during exercise.”

In January of 2024, a study found long-COVID patients have muscle abnormalities that resulted in cell death after exercise. “It’s really confirming that there is something inside the body going wrong with the disease,” said Dr Rob Wüst, an author of the study at Vrije Universiteit (Free University) Amsterdam.

In the report Cardiopulmonary Long COVID-19 Symptoms found “exercise capacity was reduced by 4.9 mL/kg/min among individuals with symptoms consistent with LC compared with individuals without symptoms more than 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Findings among individuals with exertional intolerance suggest that deconditioning, dysfunctional breathing, chronotropic incompetence, and abnormal peripheral oxygen extraction and/or use may contribute to reduced exercise capacity.”

“This decline in oxygen peak rate would roughly translate to a 40-year-old woman with an expected exercise capacity of 9.5 METs, dropping to 8.1 METs, the approximate expected exercise capacity for a 50-year-old woman,” says Dr. Matt Durstenfeld, an author on the study and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

The press release “Feeling winded after your workout? Long COVID may claim another symptom” states:
The findings suggest that the long COVID cohort in this subgroup may have reduced oxygen extraction in the muscles, irregular breathing patterns, and a lesser ability to increase heart rate during exercise to match cardiac output. In addition, there was evidence of deconditioning, which occurs to some extent after most physical illnesses that result in inactivity, the researchers noted. Importantly, not all the findings could be attributed to deconditioning.

Exercise tests were conducted at least three months following SARS-CoV-2 infection and involved cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), in which oxygen and carbon dioxide were measured, together with other indices of heart and lung function, while the participant used a treadmill or stationary bike.

Doubles Tennis, Lap Swims May Be Too Strenuous for Those With Long COVID

In comparing exercise tolerance, the researchers found the long COVID group’s peak rate of oxygen was 4.9 ml/kg/min lower than the recovered group. According to first author Matthew S. Durstenfeld, MD, MAS, of the UCSF Department of Medicine and of the Division of Cardiology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, this difference is equivalent to 1.4 metabolic equivalent of tasks (METs), a measure of energy consumed during physical activities. “This decline in oxygen peak rate would roughly translate to a 40-year-old woman with an expected exercise capacity of 9.5 METs, dropping to 8.1 METs, the approximate expected exercise capacity for a 50-year-old woman,” he said.

Another way of looking at it, Durstenfeld said, is that a doubles tennis player might need to transition to playing golf with a cart or stretching exercises, and those who swim laps may find that low-impact aerobics is a better match.

The study Muscle abnormalities worsen after post-exertional malaise in long COVID found exercise causes the destruction of muscle cells.

A distinctive symptom of patients with long COVID is post-exertional malaise (malaise is a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify), which is associated with a worsening of fatigue and pain-related symptoms after acute mental or physical exercise, but its underlying pathophysiology is unclear. We show that skeletal muscle structure is associated with a lower exercise capacity in patients, and local and systemic metabolic disturbances, severe exercise-induced myopathy and tissue infiltration of amyloid-containing deposits in skeletal muscles of patients with long COVID worsen after induction of post-exertional malaise.

Patients with long COVID displayed a markedly lower exercise capacity, which related to skeletal muscle metabolic alterations and a shift towards more fast-fatigable fibers. The pathophysiology of post-exertional malaise includes an acute exercise-induced reduction in skeletal muscle mitochondrial enzyme activity, an increased accumulation of amyloid-containing deposits in skeletal muscle, signs of severe muscle tissue damage, together with a blunted exercise-induced T-cell response in skeletal muscle. Collectively, these findings help to decipher the underlying physiology of fatigue and a limited exercise capacity from the development of post-exertional malaise in patients with long COVID.

Viral infections can alter mitochondrial function, and multiple studies have shown that residual SARS-CoV-2 protein presence is associated with long COVID. It is unknown if the full virus is present, or only protein remnants. Because the spike protein is located on the exterior of the virus, this protein may have different proinflammatory/coagulatory effects compared with the nucleocapsid protein. The higher skeletal muscle infiltration of CD68+ macrophages and CD3+ T-cells suggests a locally disturbed immune response in patients with long COVID.

In conclusion, this study reveals that local and systemic metabolic disturbances, severe exercise-induced myopathy, infiltration of amyloid-containing deposits, and immune cells in skeletal muscles of long COVID are key characteristics of post-exertional malaise. While these explain the symptomatology of post-exertional malaise in long COVID, the molecular pathways underlying these alterations in patients suffering from post-exertional malaise remain to be determined.

COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 / Novel Coronavirus

Heat Waves Make Regions Uninhabitable Within Decades

Posted on 2022/10/102022/10/11 by admin

The U.N. humanitarian aid agency OCHA and the International Federation of Red Cross report Extreme heat: Preparing for the heatwaves of the future (October 2022) says large parts of the earth will become uninhabitable in the near future.

“We don’t want to dramatize it, but clearly the data shows that it does lead towards a very bleak future,” said IFRC secretary-general Jagan Chapagain.

There are clear limits beyond which people exposed to extreme heat and humidity cannot survive. There are also likely to be levels of extreme heat beyond which societies may find it practically impossible to deliver effective adaptation for all. On current trajectories, heat waves could meet and exceed these physiological and social limits in the coming decades, including in regions such as the Sahel and south and southwest Asia.

Projected future death rates from extreme heat are staggeringly high — comparable in magnitude by the end of the century to all cancers or all infectious diseases — and staggeringly unequal.

If emissions of the greenhouse gases which cause climate change are not aggressively reduced, the world will face “previously unimaginable levels of extreme heat”.

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

COVID-19 Significantly Higher Risk of Alzheimer’s

Posted on 2022/09/262022/10/13 by admin

The risk of older people (over 65) developing Alzheimer’s disease over a one-year period nearly doubled following a COVID-19 diagnosis. The same researchers had previously found that individuals with dementia had a greater risk of contracting COVID-19 and being hospitalized and dying from the disease than those without dementia.

“Many people believe that for Alzheimer’s disease there is a combination of factors that work together to give you the cognitive impairment, and we were concerned that the kinds of things that happened during COVID-19 — the intense inflammation, and perhaps the kinds of direct action on the brain of the of the virus — might be a risk factor,” Dr. Davis, the study’s co-author, said. “So we went looking for that in our study.”

“We can say that they are associated, but we cannot infer causality,” she stressed.

“First, the pandemic presented serious delays for individuals seeking out medical diagnoses like Alzheimer’s disease, meaning these results could be driven by those who already had Alzheimer’s disease when they were infected but had not yet sought out a formal diagnosis,” Dr. Snyder, vice president of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer’s Association, explained.

“Alternatively, COVID-19 infection — which is linked to immune changes, including inflammation — may impact the onset of brain changes that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia,” said Dr. Snyder. “However, because this study only showed an association through medical records, we cannot know what the underlying mechanisms driving this association are without more research.”

Association of COVID-19 with New-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease

COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 / Novel Coronavirus

The Cost of Climate Change: USD 178 trillion

Posted on 2022/08/29 by admin

“Time is no longer running out to act on climate change; it’s up,” reports Deloitte. Unchecked climate change could cost the global economy USD 178 trillion over the next 50 years. “The human costs would be far greater: a lack of food and water, a loss of jobs, worsening health and well-being, reduced standard of living.”

Time is no longer running out to act on climate change; it’s up. Download the report.

Time to act—accelerating to zero

With global emissions continuing to rise over the last two decades, we have squandered the chance to decarbonize at our leisure. The global economy needs to execute a rapid, coordinated, sequenced energy and industrial transition that will play out in distinct phases.

* Bold climate plays: Coordination and collaboration set the stage for decarbonization by formulating policies and frameworks for a low-carbon future.
* Accelerating to net zero: Deep investment across systems instigates structural economic adjustments. The decline of emissions-intensive industries would create growing pains for some economies.
* Turning point: Investment in structural economic adjustment is almost complete. Economies would realize the dividend of the transformation and experience net positive growth.
* Low-emission future: Interconnected, low-carbon systems underpin a clean economy that would grow at an increasingly faster rate than its carbon-intensive alternative.

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

Worldwide Droughts

Posted on 2022/08/192022/08/28 by admin

August 2022

There are droughts in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

* UN lists 23 countries that are in severe drought: Afghanistan, Angola, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, the United States and Zambia.

* U.S. officials declared the first-ever water shortage from the Colorado river that serves 40 million people in the West. Water levels at the largest reservoir on the Colorado River — Lake Mead — have fallen to record lows. Along its perimeter, a white “bathtub ring” of minerals outlines where the high water line once stood, underscoring the acute water challenges for a region facing a growing population and a drought that is being worsened by hotter, drier weather brought on by climate change.

* The silvery blue waters of the Great Salt Lake sprawl across the Utah desert, having covered an area nearly the size of Delaware for much of history. For years, though, the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River has been shrinking. And a drought gripping the American West could make this year the worst yet.

* Baby salmon are dying by the thousands in one California river, and an entire run of endangered salmon could be wiped out in another. Fishermen who make their living off adult salmon, once they enter the Pacific Ocean, are sounding the alarm as blistering heat waves and extended drought in the U.S.

* Extreme drought in northern Mexico has left millions of residents without water.

* From the Atacama Desert to Patagonia, a 13-year megadrought is straining Chile’s freshwater resources to breaking point.

* As Europe’s rivers run dry in a devastating drought that scientists say could prove the worst in 500 years, their receding waters are revealing long-hidden artefacts, from Roman camps to ghost villages and second world war shipwrecks. The so-called “hunger stone” at Děčín is one of dozens in central European rivers engraved to mark their levels during historic droughts – and warn future generations of the famine and hardship likely to follow each time they became visible.

* More and more droughts: How both India and the world is getting affected and what it will lead to. The head of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Ibrahim Thiaw, has said that “Humanity is at a crossroads” when it comes to managing drought, and accelerating means of slowing it down must happen “urgently, using every tool we can.

* Pakistan is one of the top 23 countries suffering from a severe drought emergency, a statement issued by the Ministry of Climate Change said. Desertification caused by human and environmental factors has left Pakistan scarred, leading to environmental degradation, loss of soil fertility, loss of biodiversity, and reduction in land productivity, exacerbating the vulnerability of the country’s fragile local communities.

* China issues nationwide drought alert amid extreme heat. A record-breaking 262 weather stations tied or broke their highest temperature on record during the long-running heat wave, which has increased in intensity during the past week. At least 244 cities across China could experience temperatures above 104°F (40°C) on Friday and more than 400 additional cities could see temperatures above 98°F (37°C). The Poyang Lake in central China’s Jiangxi province has shrunk to a quarter of its normal size for this time of year and some 66 rivers in 34 counties in southwestern China have dried up,

* UN food agency scales up assistance for Horn of Africa as millions suffer from drought. Levels of hunger soar in Horn of Africa after back-to-back droughts, threat of famine looms, says World Food Program. Since the start of the year, 9 million more people have slipped into severe food insecurity across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, leaving 22 million people struggling to find enough food to eat, WFP’s regional office in Nairobi said in a statement. “People here have been waiting years for rain – but they cannot wait any longer for life-saving food assistance. The world needs to act now to protect the most vulnerable communities from the threat of widespread famine in the Horn of Africa,” Beasley said.

* In Texas, the heat and lack of rain have uncovered dinosaur tracks from 113 million years ago. “Due to the excessive drought conditions this past summer, the river dried up completely in most locations, allowing for more tracks to be uncovered here in the park,” the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a statement.

* A drought and heat wave in southwestern China have revealed 600-year-old Buddhist statues on a rocky outcrop in the Yangtze River.

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

Colorado River: Catastrophic Collapse

Posted on 2022/08/182022/08/28 by admin

Water wars… coming to a state near you:
“A 23-year drought has been drying up the Colorado River and the effects of climate change, both in terms of extreme heat and low precipitation, are making that more severe.”
“For the second year in a row, the federal government said Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will have to reduce their water consumption.”

90% of the U.S. lettuce is produced in Arizona using water from the Colorado River. In 2021, Arizona had to drastically reduce water consumption. In 2022, Arizona is reducing water consumption from the Colorado by another 21%.

CNBC reports, Feds call for water cutbacks ‘to avoid a catastrophic collapse’ of Colorado River.
“For the second year in a row, the federal government said Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will have to reduce their water consumption.
A 23-year drought has been drying up the Colorado River and the effects of climate change, both in terms of extreme heat and low precipitation, are making that more severe.”

“Every sector in every state has a responsibility to ensure that water is used with maximum efficiency. In order to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the Colorado River System and a future of uncertainty and conflict, water use in the Basin must be reduced,” said Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of Interio.

The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment

Europe Drought: And Yes, All Fish Will Die

Posted on 2022/08/182022/08/28 by admin

Water wars… coming to a town near you:
* Europe hydrogeneration is down 20% in France, down 30% in Italy, and down 50% in Spain. And, did you know solar panels are less efficient in high temperatures? There is more resistance in all power lines, too.
* Germany the Rhine water levels fall to new low making it non-navigable for ships
* France is relocating fish into tanks because the water is too warm. Thousands of other fish die due to lack of O2 — “Without rain, the river “will continue to empty. And yes, all fish will die”

Politico reports, Watts going down? Europe’s scorching summer parches hydropower.
“Record-breaking temperatures are starving hydropower plants and raising questions about how to adapt them for the future.”

The Guardian reports, Europe’s rivers run dry as scientists warn drought could be worst in 500 years.
“Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways”