Welcome to the Stars Hollow Gazette‘s Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.
You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.
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Trahana is a wheat product that is eaten throughout Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is usually added to soups and stews, and is also eaten as a porridge. Traditionally it was a way to preserve milk for the winter, when production was always lower, by mixing it with wheat and drying it.
There are many versions of trahana, some made with only milk (this type is called sweet trahana and usually uses goat’s or sheep’s milk) and some with milk and yogurt (called sour trahana). In Greece there is even a lenten version made with vegetable pulp. The liquid is combined with wheat – bulgur or cracked wheat, flour, semolina flour or a mix of semolina and flour – and either kneaded into a dry dough (if flour is used) or simmered until it is a thick porridge. Then it is spread out on netting and dried in the sun. The Greeks usually make it during the hot, dry month of August. Once thoroughly dry it is broken up into granules that can range in size from bulgurlike morsels to small pellets You can find imported trahana in Greek markets and in some Mediterranean markets.
~Martha Rose Shulman~
Easy to make yourself, the trahana may become a new pantry staple.
Simple Trahana Soup With Lemon and Olive Oil
A simple trahana dish that is both satisfying and refreshing.
Stewed Green Beans and Tomatoes With Trahana
A delicious main dish stew that can be served hot or at room temperature.
Puréed Trahana and Vegetable Soup
A thick, comforting soup with sweet and tart flavors.
A savory, comforting dish with a delicious thick broth.
New York and New Jersey Tighten Ebola Screenings at Airports
The governors of New York and New Jersey announced Friday afternoon that they were ordering all people entering the country through two area airports who had direct contact with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to be quarantined.
The announcement comes one day after an American doctor, who had worked in Guinea and returned to New York City earlier in October, tested positive for Ebola and became the first New York patient of the deadly virus.
“A voluntary Ebola quarantine is not enough,” said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. “This is too serious a public health situation.”
Outlined in a late afternoon news conference, the new protocols raised a host of questions about how, exactly, the screening process would work and who, exactly, it would target. The two airports in question are Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.
As Ebola Spreads, So Have Several Fallacies
ven as American hospitals prepare for new cases of Ebola, they must brace for a more familiar invader. The flu season will arrive soon – although exactly when, scientists cannot say.
Unlike Ebola, the influenza virus is truly airborne. And if recent history is any guide, it will kill thousands in the coming months.
Flu viruses and Ebola viruses take different routes to the same biological goal: to get into new hosts and replicate. Scientists have learned a great deal about the devious ways in which they manage to do it.
Yet misconceptions about how they travel continue to circulate, including the persistent notion that Ebola, like influenza, is airborne. The uncertainty only grows when possible new cases are identified, as happened on Thursday in New York.
Dangerous Dietary Supplements Return to Store Shelves
The Food and Drug Administration frequently recalls dietary supplements that are found to contain banned substances. But a new study suggests that many of these products return to store shelves months later with the same dangerous ingredients.
The findings suggest that health authorities may be fighting an uphill battle against a small number of supplement companies that repeatedly sell contaminated products. The new study, published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that out of more than two dozen supplements that were pulled from shelves after they were found to contain anabolic steroids or powerful prescription drugs, roughly two-thirds were back on the market a year later with the same illicit ingredients.
‘Dead’ hearts transplanted into living patients in world first
Breakthrough by Australian surgeons at St Vincent’s hospital could save the lives of 30% more heart transplant patients
Australian surgeons have successfully transplanted “dead” hearts into patients for the first time – a groundbreaking procedure with the potential to significantly boost the supply of donor organs.
The number of donor hearts has been limited in the past by the fact that they have had to be taken from brain-dead patients while the organ is still beating. But a team at St Vincent’s hospital heart lung transplant unit in Sydney announced on Friday that they had performed three transplants with donor hearts that had stopped beating for 20 minutes. Two of the patients who received the transplant have recovered well, while the third, who only undertook the procedure recently, remains in intensive care.
Cardiologist and unit director Peter MacDonald said the donor hearts were housed in a portable console dubbed a “heart in a box” and submerged in a ground-breaking preservation solution jointly developed by the hospital and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. They were then connected to a sterile circuit where they were kept beating and warm.
Procedure on Paralyzed Man Stirs Hope and Caution
A Polish man who was paralyzed from the chest down after a knife attack several years ago is now able to get around using a walker and has recovered some sensation in his legs after receiving a novel nerve-regeneration treatment, according to a new report that has generated both hope and controversy.
The case, first reported widely by the BBC and other British news outlets, has stirred as much excitement on the Internet as it has extreme caution among many experts.
Milk Choice May Affect Vitamin D Levels
Many children drink rice, almond or soy milk instead of cow’s milk for various reasons – lactose intolerance, allergies, taste preference. But now Canadian researchers have found that children who do not drink cow’s milk may have insufficient levels of vitamin D.
In a study published online in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, scientists tracked vitamin D blood levels in 2,831 children under the age of 6. About 10 percent of them drank only milk from a source other than cows.
How household plastics could ruin your sex life
Phthalates are found in numerous items around the home, and even in food packaging. So it’s a little worrying that they’re being linked to, among other things, a decrease in libido in women
Research into the effects of phthalates on women’s libido has yielded some strange headlines. Witness the Daily Telegraph’s “Rubber ducks can kill your sex drive“. Apparently, plastic shower curtains – the bath theme is coincidental – are also to blame. These, along with countless other household items, contain phthalates (pronounced THALates), a group of chemicals usually introduced to plastics in order to increase their flexibility. The libido problem is best not addressed with a sex toy because lots of those are thought to contain phthalates too. In fact, phthalates – there are around 25 of them – proliferate in daily life to such an extent that they are present even in the enteric coating of some pills. (Last year, the EU published a draft guideline [pdf] on phthalates in medicinal products.)
The latest study, led by Dr Emily Barrett at the University of Rochester in New York State, was presented this week to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine‘s annual conference in Honolulu.
7 Reasons To Be Proud Of Being A Night Owl
It’s been said that early birds get the worm, but night owls also reap a whole lot of benefits just by being who they are. And it’s time they got some praise.
Please don’t get us wrong: We are definitely sleep advocates. And it is very important for you to make sure that you get the right amount of sleep (seven to nine hours for the average adult) every single day in order to stay healthy. This is not permission to stay up late and skimp on sleep. But if your lifestyle can allow for a later wake time, you might feel inclined to stay up a bit later, too.
While there has been a lot of praise for being a morning person (those health benefits are real and very good), there hasn’t been much to tout the perks of being someone who works best at night. Behold — an ode to those who love to burn the midnight oil.
It’s a quintessential spice in curry, a relative of ginger and one of the healthiest ways to add flavor — and color! — to a home-cooked meal.
Turmeric has been used to relieve everything from liver problems to depression to ringworm in folk medicine, but, like many alternative therapies, there’s not always much research to back up the ancient wisdom.
But that doesn’t mean turmeric’s powers are to be discredited altogether. Here, a look at what we do know about this powerful seasoning.
Two doctor visits a year linked to better blood pressure control
People who went to their doctor’s office at least twice a year were more likely to keep their blood pressure under control compared to those who went once a year or not at all, says a new study.
Having health insurance and following treatment for high cholesterol were also linked to better blood pressure control.
“Folks that go to the doctor at least twice a year are more likely to be aware of their blood pressure, more likely to be treated, more likely to be controlled when treated and have significantly better control rates,” Dr. Brent Egan, who led the study, told Reuters Health.
Hospital patients rarely wash their hands, may spread disease
Although healthcare workers are urged to wash their hands often and hand sanitizer dispensers are everywhere in hospitals, patients are less scrupulous and may be contributing to the spread of hospital-acquired infections, say Canadian researchers.
After tracking hundreds of patients in a transplant ward for nearly a year, the study team found that hand washing followed less than a third of bathroom visits, and washing or hand-sanitizer use happened only rarely after patients entered or left a room.
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