Long COVID diagnosis puts extra strain on family caregivers : Shots

February 25, 2023 Dania

Louise Salant (right), 72, and her aunt Eileen Salant (center), 86, both got very sick with COVID-19 in 2020. And as Eileen developed long COVID symptoms, so too did Louise, who struggled with fatigue and shortness of breath while also managing her aunt’s care. Nearly three years later, home health aides like Elfnesh Legesse (left) help Louise take care of her aunt.

Gabriela Bhaskar for NPR

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Gabriela Bhaskar for NPR

For Louise Salant, long COVID has meant new stress, new responsibilities, and multiple medical crises to manage. It’s transformed her life.

But there’s a twist. She’s had to deal with this condition not just as a patient but also as a caregiver for her 86-year-old aunt Eileen Salant, who has coped with long COVID’s disabling symptoms for almost three years.

Eileen and Louise both caught an acute bout of COVID-19 in March of 2020. Eileen had been taking care of her brother, who was admitted to a New York City hospital with heart failure during those dark days of the early pandemic. He got COVID there, and died from his infection with the virus. Both aunt and niece also became very ill.

It was early days of the pandemic in New York, and hospitals were so crowded that Louise was told to stay home and fight out the illness on her own. Meanwhile, Eileen was hospitalized and stayed there all spring, including two months on a ventilator. After that, she spent five months at a rehab hospital. She finally came home to her apartment in Riverdale, the Bronx, the day before Thanksgiving in 2020 — but she was very weak.

Eileen and Louise both got COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic in New York. Eileen ended up on a ventilator for two months and then spent five months in a rehab hospital. Louise fought the illness at home as hospitals started filling up.

Gabriela Bhaskar for NPR

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Gabriela Bhaskar for NPR

“She could barely sit up in bed, couldn’t hold a fork,” says Louise, who lives a 10-minute taxi ride away.

Over the years, Louise, now 72, has worked at various times as an art therapist, taught piano to children and adults and done medical interviewing for a cancer research team. But when COVID hit,

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1,200 pastors will occur to Dallas to deal with psychological health, social justice and extra

July 21, 2022 Dania

Extra than 1,200 pastors and religion leaders will gather in mid-July to share ideas about how they can deal with psychological health, social justice and other concerns affecting the communities they provide.

Concord Church in southern Dallas will host the collecting July 11-13.

Psychological health and fitness has come to be an more and more severe difficulty due to the fact the coronavirus pandemic. Numerous have confined accessibility to assets irrespective of significant rates of really serious suicidal ideation in the earlier 30 days and an maximize in substance abuse in 2020.

“You have a psychological wellness disaster, of course the racial crisis, you have an financial disaster, you have all of these dynamics that carry on to impression and impact the communities in which we serve,” explained Pastor Bryan Carter, chief of Concord’s 10,000-member congregation. “Passionately, we are coming together to really discover and chat about how we share and preach in this context, but also how we do it efficiently.”

“I feel the mental wellness ingredient is an ongoing situation that we’re dealing with, each personally and for the spouse and children,” he explained. “Depression and panic, suicide among the our younger adults and young people, the past year’s grief — the grief of loved kinds missing in the midst of COVID, but also the grief of everyday living changes — is a important part of it.”

Along with mental health and fitness and social justice, workshops will deal with matters these kinds of as navigating a write-up-pandemic church and partaking youthful generations.

According to the Pew Research Center, there has been a reduce in individuals who detect with Christianity, or any specific religion. All those who discover with Christianity dropped from 78% in 2007 to 63% in 2021, the research stated.

Carter reported that though church attendance has improved over the final yr, it is not still at pre-pandemic levels. He claimed that in-person attendance is one way quite a few people can reconnect with their communities.

Carter states that Black churches are some of the richest belongings Dallas has in conditions of neighborhood and impact. Numerous have nonprofit organizations connected to them, this kind of as food pantries and economic empowerment and reentry systems for people coming out of jail.

“Dallas is exceptionally blessed to have this sort of a solid cloth of church buildings that are incredibly fully commited to serving to to dwell out and make the gospel tangible for people,” he mentioned. “And we still have a long way to go… We still have the wealth hole, and the gap between southern Dallas and North Dallas. We have some considerable problems there, but I do imagine that quite a few of the churches are doing work to uncover remedies.”

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With a Vaccine Mandate Looming, Nursing Houses Encounter Extra Staffing Complications

January 31, 2022 Dania

Eric Berger

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Jamie Smith, a staffing company nurse who loves close-of-everyday living treatment, claimed she has been warmly welcomed by staffers and residents at Frontier Overall health & Rehabilitation in this conservative St. Louis suburb.

That’s even although she has not been vaccinated against covid-19.

But leaders of the nursing property, where by 22 people died from covid ahead of vaccines were being accessible, probably will not be equipped to use unvaccinated people today like Smith for substantially more time. The U.S. Supreme Courtroom on Jan. 13 upheld a federal mandate necessitating overall health treatment staff at services that get Medicaid or Medicare funding to be absolutely vaccinated. If all staffers — excluding these with accepted spiritual or medical exemptions — aren’t thoroughly vaccinated, the facility will eliminate that income.

Well being care sites in Missouri and other states that challenged the federal need have till March 15 for their staffs to be completely vaccinated, in accordance to the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Products and services, even though services in states that didn’t sue to block the mandate have a Feb. 28 deadline.

That poses a problem for Frontier and its people due to the fact the nursing home by now doesn’t have adequate staffers. And it is in the point out with the most affordable level of completely vaccinated nursing household health treatment staff, 67% as of Jan. 9, in accordance to CMS info. Frontier’s reported staff vaccination rate was just 30% at the start off of the 12 months.

That compares with a countrywide charge of 81%, according to the federal details.

Though the mandate makes certain that unvaccinated personnel users are not caring for some of the men and women most susceptible to the virus, not more than enough staff are eager to acquire the low-spending, demanding positions. If they quit to avoid receiving shots or are fired due to the fact they will not get them, nursing house inhabitants may well not be any safer — since of lack of treatment.

“Obviously we require excellent employees members to just take treatment of inhabitants, but the citizens will need to be safe as perfectly,” claimed Marjorie Moore, who supports the mandate and is govt director of Voyce, a St. Louis nonprofit that advocates for nursing house residents and their households.

“A individual who lives in their individual household has the opportunity to say, ‘I do not want anyone in my home who isn’t vaccinated,’” she included. “In a nursing dwelling, they don’t have the option to say, ‘I don’t want any person who is unvaccinated coming up and feeding me.’”

The trouble of insufficient staffing at nursing properties predates the pandemic, and it’s gotten even worse.

In March 2020, 3.3 million persons were being employed at U.S. nursing properties and residential care amenities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In December 2021, that number had dropped to 2.9 million, a decline of 400,000 workers.

Nursing residence operators can’t obtain enough staffers

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Dental Health: 5 Causes Why Your Enamel Are Extra Sensitive All through Winter season – Specialist Shares

January 22, 2022 Dania

Winter season is at its whole bloom. With the fall in temperatures, quite a few individuals are encountering dental problems. Winters have typically been connected to an boost in tooth sensitivity all all-around the globe. Numerous things can add to this dental situation, including chilly temperature, seasonal snacking, and seasonal sickness. Even though dentin exposure is 1 of the key triggers of tooth sensitivity, underneath are some leads to that can also maximize the possibilities of dealing with tooth sensitivity for the duration of winters.

Also Read through: Salt For Dental Health and fitness: Do Salt Toothpastes Actually Make Your Tooth More robust Or Whiter?

Here’re 5 Factors Why Your Tooth Are More Sensitive Throughout Wintertime:

1. Enhanced sugar use throughout the cold months-

More sugar improves the probability of gum illness and enamel erosion, equally of which can result in tooth sensitivity. It is advised to avoid biting challenging sweets throughout festivals and festivities considering that they might result in the teeth to crack or shatter, exposing the fragile dentin.

2. Excessive brushing results in increased tooth damage-

Brushing as well vigorously may do much more harm than excellent by eradicating the safeguarding enamel and exposing the delicate dentin beneath. It is instructed that you invest high quality time cleaning your teeth flippantly and bit by bit.

3. Cold and flu can worsen tooth sensitivity-

Colds, sinus bacterial infections, and the flu are additional repeated in the winter since of the temperature drop. When the sinuses turn out to be inflamed and irritated as a outcome of nasal congestion or infection, tension is exerted on the dental nerves, causing distress and sensitivity.

4. Beverage-associated dental harm-

Sodas, coffee, tea, and other acidic liquids, these kinds of as juices, can damage your tooth and expose the dentin layer. Other negative oral well being practices, this sort of as smoking or not brushing or flossing appropriately, may lead to the gums to recede and expose the dentin at the gum line. This can guide to temperature-delicate teeth.

5. Other dental problems-

Diseases of the gums, cementum, periodontal ligament, and alveolar bone can all expose the dentin and induce discomfort. The original phase of periodontal illness is gingivitis. Some folks clench or grind their enamel as they sleep. This can hurt tooth enamel and deliver ache. When dental enamel wears away or the gums recede, a layer of the teeth is exposed that is incredibly sensitive to temperature alterations. When this layer will come into touch with just about anything way too very hot or cold, it generates a painful feeling.

Also Go through: Expert Talk: Foods To Steer clear of And Other Dietary Procedures For Good Oral Health

There are, nonetheless, corrective approaches for balancing and handling the enamel sensitivity generated by winters, which are mentioned down below.

Fluoride software- Fluoride is a in a natural way taking place mineral that is applied to treat delicate tooth. This procedure strengthens the enamel, decreasing sensitivity triggered by uncovered dentin.
Seal the roots-

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