#how coronavirus causes heart problems

[kghospital]

Not long ago, heart attacks were primarily a problem faced by the elderly. Heart attacks are rare in people under the age of 40. Now 1 in 5 heart attack patients are under the age of 40. Many people in their 30s and 40s are at increased risk of life-threatening heart disease and sudden heart attacks. It is important to understand the cause of heart attacks in young adults. When sudden death occurs in adolescents and young adults, it is sometimes caused by undiagnosed heart disease, such as genetic heart disease. An undiagnosed heart problem can cause sudden death in a young person during physical exertion. However, sometimes sudden cardiac death can occur without exertion. Coronavirus, now the leading cause of heart problems, can directly affect and damage the muscle tissue of the heart, as can other viral infections, including some strains of influenza. The heart can be damaged and indirectly inflamed by the reaction of the body's own immune system. Dr.Nitthiyan MD, DNB Interventional Cardiologist, KG Hospital, Coimbatore, explains heart attack at a young age: how to avoid it, common risk factors, how coronavirus causes heart problems, and how to prevent it.

[c19library]

Known COVID-19 Health Complications

Last Updated September 8, 2023

Repeat Infections

Summary: Repeat infections, even if mild during the acute phase, cause cumulative damage to the body and increase your risk of developing health complications or Long COVID. You should aim to limit the number of times you are infected as much as possible, even if you are not currently high risk (Note: Health complications post-COVID-19 infection can make you high risk) and have been vaccinated.

Published Research

Acute and postacute sequelae associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection | Nature Medicine Bowe, B., Xie, Y, & Al-Aly, Z. (2022).

Articles & Reports

Repeat COVID-19 infections increase risk of organ failure, death – Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (wustl.edu) Sauerwein, K. (2022).

Why Getting COVID-19 Multiple Times Is Risky For Your Health | Time Park, A. (2022).

Heart & Cardiovascular Damage

Summary: COVID-19 increases your risk of heart failure, heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolism, palpitations, arrhythmia, myocarditis, blood clots (thrombosis), etc. post-infection. Inflammation during the acute phase of a COVID-19 infection can damage the heart and blood vessels.

“Risks and 12-month burdens of incident post-acute COVID-19 cardiovascular outcomes in participants without any history of cardiovascular outcomes prior to COVID-19 exposure compared to the contemporary control cohort.” (Xie et al., 2022)

Published Research

Core mitochondrial genes are down-regulated during SARS-CoV-2 infection of rodent and human hosts | Science Translational Medicine Guarnieri, J. W., Dybas, J. M., ... Wallace, D. C. (2023).

Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19 - PMC (nih.gov) Xie, Y., Xu, E., Bowe, B., & Al-Aly, Z. (2022).

Articles & Reports

Blood Clotting Proteins Might Help Predict Long COVID Brain Fog - Scientific American Reardon, S. (2023, September 1).

SARS-CoV-2 can damage mitochondrion in heart, other organs, study finds | CIDRAP (umn.edu) Van Beusekom, M. (2023, August 9).

Your vascular system and COVID | Heart and Stroke Foundation Heart and Stroke Foundation. (2023).

COVID, heart disease and stroke | Heart and Stroke Foundation Heart and Stroke Foundation. (2023, April 17).

How does coronavirus affect your heart? - BHF British Heart Foundation. (2023, March 21).

COVID-19 and Heart Damage: What You Should Know (clevelandclinic.org) Cleveland Clinic. (2022, May 10).

Heart Problems after COVID-19 | Johns Hopkins Medicine Post, W. S., & Gilotra, N. A. (2022).

COVID and the Heart: It Spares No One | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health (jhu.edu) Desmon, S., & Al-Aly, Z. (2022, March 14).

COVID-19 takes serious toll on heart health—a full year after recovery | Science | AAAS Wadman, M. (2022, February 9).

Brain & Neurological Damage

Summary: COVID-19 infection increases your risk of developing cognitive impairments, mental health issues, poor memory, early onset dementia, and permanent loss of smell due to brain damage and the atrophy of brain matter. "Brain fog" and problems concentrating are common complaints post-infection that have also been linked to brain damage. Damage to blood vessels due to inflammation during the infection may be responsible for this by restricting oxygen flow to the brain. COVID-19 may also directly infect the brain.

Published Research

Biology | Free Full-Text | Vascular Dysfunctions Contribute to the Long-Term Cognitive Deficits Following COVID-19 (mdpi.com) Shabani, Z., Liu, J., & Su, H. (2023).

Frontiers | COVCOG 2: Cognitive and Memory Deficits in Long COVID: A Second Publication From the COVID and Cognition Study (frontiersin.org) Guo, P., Ballesteros, B. A., Yeung, S. P., Liu, R., Saha, A., Curtis, L., Kaser, M., Haggard, M. P., & Cheke, L. G. (2022).

COVID-19 and cognitive impairment: neuroinvasive and blood‒brain barrier dysfunction - PMC (nih.gov) Chen, Y., Yang, W., Chen, F., & Cui, L. (2022).

Comparison of post-COVID depression and major depressive disorder | medRxiv Perlis, R. H., Santillana, M., Ognyanova, K., Green, J., Druckman, J., Lazer, D., & Baum, M. A. (2021).

Articles & Reports

Long COVID May Impair Memory, Cognition for Months (healthline.com) Rossiaky, D. (2022).

COVID Variants Can Affect the Brain in Different Ways - Neuroscience News (2023).

The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID-19 - Harvard Health Budson, A. E. (2021). Harvard Medical School.

Long Covid: Even mild Covid is linked to damage to the brain months after infection (nbcnews.com) Ryan, B. (2022). NBC News.

COVID-19 Can Affect the Brain Even Long After an Infection | Time Ducharme, J. (2023). Time.

Lung Damage

Summary: COVID-19 infections can cause lung damage or scarring, and can trigger pneumonia, bronchitis, ARDS, and sepsis. Additionally, some people experience shortness of breath (dyspnea) and difficulty exercising as a post-acute sequela after infection, or multiple infections.

Published Research

At a crossroads: COVID-19 recovery and the risk of pulmonary vascular disease - PMC (nih.gov) Cascino, T. M., Desai, A. A., & Kanthi, Y. (2021).

[Pulmonary manifestations in long COVID] - PubMed (nih.gov) Sommer, N., & Schmeck, B. (2022).

Residual Lung Abnormalities after COVID-19 Hospitalization: Interim Analysis of the UKILD Post-COVID-19 Study - PubMed (nih.gov) Stewart, I., Jacob, J., George, P. M., Molyneaux, P. L., Porter, J. C., Allen, R. J., Aslani, S., Baillie, J. K., Barratt, S. L., Beirne, P., Bianchi, S. M., Blaikley, J. F., ...Jenkins, G. R. (2023).

Articles & Reports

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may cause long-term lung damage - UPI.com HealthDay News. (2022). United Press International.

COVID-19 Lung Damage | Johns Hopkins Medicine Galiatsatos, P. (2022).

Immune System & Autoimmune Diseases

Summary: COVID-19 infection can impair the functioning of your immune system. This means that those who have previously been infected are potentially immunocompromised (higher risk). For some people, the way COVID-19 impairs their immune system results in the onset of autoimmune diseases.

“Elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines that persist more than 8 months following convalescence.” (Phetsouphanh et al., 2022)

“Crude incidence of each autoimmune disease by COVID-19 and non-COVID groups.” (Peng et al., 2023)

Published Research

Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection | Nature Immunology Phetsouphanh, C., Darley, D. R., Wilson, D. B., Howe, A., Munier, M. L., Patel, S. K., Juno, J. A., Burrell, L. M., Kent, S. J., Dore, G. J., ... & Matthews, G. V. (2022).

Long-term perturbation of the peripheral immune system months after SARS-CoV-2 infection | BMC Medicine | Full Text (biomedcentral.com) Ryan, F. J., Hope, C. M., Masavuli, M. G., Lynn, M. A., Mekonnen, Z. A., Yeow, A. E. L., Garcia-Valtanen, P., Al-Delfi, Z., Gummow, J., Furguson, C., ... Lynn, D. J. (2022).

Risk of autoimmune diseases following COVID-19 and the potential protective effect from vaccination: a population-based cohort study - eClinicalMedicine (thelancet.com) Peng, K., Li, X., Yang, D., Chan, S. C. W., Zhou, J., & Wan, E. Y. F. (2023).

Long-term perturbation of the peripheral immune system months after SARS-CoV-2 infection | BMC Medicine | Full Text (biomedcentral.com) Winheim, E., Rinke, L., Lutz, K., Reischer, A., Leutbecher, A., Wolfram, L., Rausch, L., Kranich, J., Wratil, P. R., Huber, J. E., Baumjohann, D., ... Krug, A. B. (2021).

Articles & Reports

How COVID-19 Changes the Immune System | Time Park, A. (2023, August 18).

How COVID-19 alters the immune system -- ScienceDaily ScienceDaily. (2021, October 28).

Impacts of COVID on the immune system (medicalxpress.com) Herrero, L. (2022, September 19).

COVID-19's impact on the immune system, and how this may affect subsequent infections - ABC News Smith, B. (2022, December 1).

COVID-19 can derange immune system; survivors have autoimmune diseases (usatoday.com) Szabo, L. (2021, March 2).

Long COVID & PASC

Summary: Long COVID is an umbrella term that refers to the onset of disabling symptoms/conditions resulting from any of the previously mentioned organ, immune system, and vascular damage sustained during infection. These conditions are also referred to as "post-acute sequelae of COVID-19" (PASC). Vaccination can reduce the damage experienced by decreasing inflammation during an infection, but Long COVID/PASC can affect anyone. This is especially true in the case of multiple infections. Your risk of developing Long COVID, or worse/new symptoms, increases with each additional infection.

“Cumulative incidence and DALYs of postacute sequelae overall and by organ system at 2 years after infection.” (Bowe et al., 2023)

Published Research

T cell apoptosis characterizes severe Covid-19 disease - PubMed (nih.gov) André, S., Picard, M., Cezar, R., Roux-Dalvai, F., Alleaume-Butaux, A., Soundaramourty, C., Cruz, A. S., Mendes-Frias, A., Gotti, C., … Estaquier, J. (2022).

SARS-CoV-2 reservoir in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) | Nature Immunology Proal, A. D., VanElzakker, M. B., Aleman, S., Bach, K., Boribong, B. P., Buggert, M., Cherry, S., Chertow, D. S., Davies, H. E., Dupont, C. L., ... Wherry, E. J. (2023).

The immunology of long COVID | Nature Reviews Immunology Altmann, D. M., Whettlock, E. M., Liu, S., Arachchillage, D. J., & Boyton, R. J. (2023).

Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations | Nature Reviews Microbiology Davis, H. E., McCorkell, L., Vogel, J. M., & Topol, E. J. (2023).

Long COVID prevalence and impact on quality of life 2 years after acute COVID-19 | Scientific Reports (nature.com) Kim, Y., Bae, S., Chang, H., & Kim, S. (2023).

Postacute sequelae of COVID-19 at 2 years | Nature Medicine Bowe, B., Xie, Y., & Al-Aly, Z. (2023).

Articles & Reports

Long COVID | NIH COVID-19 Research National Institutes of Health. (2023, June 8).

Long COVID or Post-COVID Conditions | CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, July 20).

The Most Important Question About Long COVID | Harvard Medical School Pesheva, K. (2023, August 9).

Nearly One in Five American Adults Who Have Had COVID-19 Still Have "Long COVID" (cdc.gov) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, June 22).

[beardedmrbean]

Ilta-Sanomat writes (siirryt toiseen palveluun) that Turkey's change of heart concerning Finland's application to join the western alliance is the result of a tough behind-the-scenes game in which the United States has offered both a carrot and a stick.

Finland's President Sauli Niinistö begins a two-day visit to Turkey on Thursday. It is widely expected that on Friday Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will announce the country's approval of Finland's Nato membership bid.

Risto E. J. Penttilä, the director of the think tank Nordic West Office, told Ilta-Sanomat that he believes that the US has been the driving force in recent developments concerning Finnish Nato membership, having made it clear to Turkey that the delay must end.

Penttilä says that US President Joe Biden and his administration have worked behind the scenes to promote the membership of both Finland and Sweden.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we hear news about F-16 fighter jet purchases [by Turkey] soon," he told Ilta-Sanomat.

President Niinistö visited the US last week where he met President Biden in Washington, even though the original programme did not include talks between the two. Penttilä took this as a sign that matters had moved forward significantly.

According to Penttilä, Turkey is ultimately dependent on the United States. It needs both military and economic cooperation with the US.

He noted, though, that Finland itself has done well in handling negotiations with Ankara. At no point, he said, has Turkey been able to say that Finland is a problem.

Just three years ago

Although it may already seem like the distant past, it was only three years ago as of Thursday that a state of emergency was declared in Finland in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Iltalehti reminds readers (siirryt toiseen palveluun).

Because of the Covid pandemic, Finland was in state of emergency from 16 March to 16 June 2020, and again from 1 March to 27 April 2021.

The paper recalls how initially people rushed to stockpile dairy products and toilet paper.

As the state of emergency was announced, Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) and Minister of Family Affairs and Social Services Krista Kiuru (SDP) held a press conference to reassure people that they could still safely go outdoors.

The capital and surrounding province of Uusimaa were cordoned off from the rest of the country on 28 March of 2020. The police and defense forces cut off all major roads, restricting travel in and out of the province.

Face masks caused public debate from the very beginning. At first, stocks were distributed only to healthcare staff. It was not until August 2020, that the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL issued a recommendation on the use of masks by the general public.

The paper notes that in the early stages the Covid pandemic also sparked measures that now seem excessive, such as an order for all people over the age of 70 to quarantine.

Cleaners' strike

Most papers, including Hufvudstadsbladet (siirryt toiseen palveluun), report the Thursday start of a strike by cleaning and real estate maintenance personal after the service union PAM rejected a mediation offer in a contract dispute Wednesday.

The strike includes 2,500 employees who work in cleaning services at around a hundred companies. These include VR's trains, Helsinki's Olympic and Katajanokka terminals, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, several hotels and a long list of industrial properties around the country, all of which will be without cleaning services for three days.

This strike ends on 18 March, but the union has issued warnings of two more strike actions if no settlement is reached. Up to 25,000 union members could walk off the job later this month.

Cold keeping birds at bay

Very few spring migratory birds have returned to Finland over the past few weeks, according to the group BirdLife Finland.

The farmers' union paper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus (siirryt toiseen palveluun) points out that freezing temperatures and cold northerly winds have largely delayed migrations.

However, the forest soundscape already does include the songs of titmice, Eurasian treecreepers and greenfinches, as well as the drumming of woodpeckers.

According to BirdLife Finland, there are a few early returnees. More than 20 skylarks were seen in Turku last week, and in the past couple of weeks more than 70 skylark sightings were reported in the coastal municipalities between Pori and Porvoo.

The most unusual sighting of March so far was made on Monday of last week, when two little auk (Alle alle) were seen in Imatra.

[baylonjuliana]

Advertisement Journals

Globe: Sama-sama sa Distansiya

Globe’s 2020 released advertisement fantastically portrays the situation of people’s relationships with their special ones, be it their friends, family, or spouses in the time of the pandemic. “Lumayo ka sa’kin, kasi malapit ka sa’kin” (get away from me because you’re close to me) is a line that probably hits most of our hearts. We understand how it feels to stay away or quarantine ourselves, especially from close people, not just to protect ourselves but also to protect them. 

The only way we could communicate or merely get in touch with each other was through online social media platforms. Dinner hangouts became group video calls, professional and educational meetings were held on online platforms, and even romantic dates became late-night calls.

Now Globe, being one of the top telecommunication services providers in the Philippines, has not done this without a reason. It was called an advertisement, after all. It shows a situation close to our hearts, but it also benefits their company by implying that they are with all of us who are struggling at these challenging times. 

However, the service advertised is actually beneficial for most of us. All online services using the internet are inaccessible without Globe and its close competitors, which sometimes fail and have much room for improvement but work fine enough most of the time to supply our necessities. 

In my view, this commercial has not used any sort of media manipulation, at least within the small number of manipulation kinds in my knowledge. Even without apparently using inappropriate techniques, Globe has still managed to capture our attention throughout the whole almost-3-minute-video. They did so by portraying a situation all familiar to each of us. According to B2B Partners (2014), relatable content increases customers’ attention spans. Moreover, it was interesting since it might have served as a means of comfort.

CIMB Bank PH: Breadwinner

A Philippine bank, CIMB, which stands for Commerce International Merchant Bankers Berhad, published this advertisement during the most challenging time of the pandemic in 2020. It was when the newly-found virus shocked everyone mentally, physically, and financially. The emergence of the pandemic (COVID-19) has brought an international financial, social, and general health concern that has resulted in the loss of 90 trillion USD to worldwide economies (Frontiers, 2020). 

The commercial's content showed a breadwinner child's situation in a communication with his mother. They seem to have made plans for the upcoming Christmas celebration, but a problem ruined everything. Due to the unemployment issues brought upon by the virus, he has been fired from his previous job, causing them to be short on funds.

In the next scene, however, the mother showed her bank application that contains savings from CIMB Bank PH. This commercial targets every Filipino that has been affected by the pandemic to help them in terms of finances. The mentioned bank provides storage for your income or savings and increases the rate over time. It is helpful for people who need extra income in complicated situations like this. 

Just like the previous advertisement from Globe, I do think that this does not include any sort of media manipulation. It captured our attention by showing a pure but heartbreaking scene. It emphasizes how Filipino breadwinners do their best to feed and make their families happy. Many Filipinos may sympathize with the commercial since it has content that practically touches the viewer's feelings. It shows how Filipinos care about those who are around them. Overall, the company did an excellent job on this one. It can be seen that it was done with quality and purpose. Hopefully, we could all get through everything the coronavirus inflicted on us.

References:

B2B Partners. (2014). Make Your Content Relatable and Actionable. https://b2bpartners.nz/make-content-relatable-actionable/

CIMB Bank PH. (2020). Breadwinner | CIMB Bank PH. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtgpUjHg0-s&t=7s

globeph. (2020). Sama-sama sa Distansya | #SafeAtHome. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZNnrEKbyJ4&t=1s

Wang, C., Wang, D., Abbas, J., Duan, K., & Riaqa M. (2021). Global Financial Crisis, Smart Lockdown Strategies, and the COVID-19 Spillover Impacts: A Global Perspective Implications From Southeast Asia. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.643783

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[azeez-unv]

Mathematics Homework Can End Up Doing More Harm Than Good

Giving pupils math homework can sometimes do more harm than good, according to a new study – particularly when the tasks involved in the work are too complex for kids to complete even with the help of their parents.

The researchers, from the University of South Australia and St Francis Xavier University in Canada, interviewed eight Canadian families, asking questions about their experiences with mathematics homework and its effects on the family.

All the families had a child in grade 3, typically aged 8 or 9, the age at which the first standardized math tests are introduced in the area where the survey was conducted. Overall, math was talked about as a subject that wasn't liked, and that involved too much extra work.

"Homework has long been accepted as a practice that reinforces children's learning and improves academic success," says Lisa O'Keeffe, a senior lecturer in mathematics education at the University of South Australia.

"But when it is too complex for a student to complete even with parent support, it raises the question as to why it was set as a homework task in the first place."

The issues identified by the study included homework being too difficult – even with parental help – as well as the work pushing back bedtimes, crossing over into family time, and causing feelings of inadequacy and frustration.

As with many subjects, approaches to teaching and learning mathematics can change over time. Parents who, as children, had been taught how to tackle problems in a different way to their kids was another frustration noted by the researchers.

"Like many things, mathematics teaching has evolved over time," says O'Keeffe. "But when parents realize that their tried-and-true methods are different to those which their children are learning, it can be hard to adapt, and this can add undue pressure."

This can lead to "negativity across generations", the researchers say. Mothers in the study tended to be mostly responsible for helping with the homework – and when they also find the assignments tough, that can reinforce negative stereotypes about mathematics not being a subject in which girls "naturally excel", according to the study authors.

These negative stereotypes can have lasting impacts on their grades and career aspirations, other studies show.

Of course, the coronavirus pandemic is still fresh in everyone's minds – a time when children were often asked to study at home, and parents often had to help out when it came to completing assignments.

While this study uses a small sample of participants, the researchers say its findings match common narratives in education. They want to see more done to make sure math homework is set in an appropriate way, and that it doesn't end up putting youngsters off the subject at an early age.

"The last thing teachers want to do is disadvantage girls in developing potentially strong mathematical identities," says study author Sarah McDonald, an education lecturer at the University of South Australia. So "we need a greater understanding of homework policies and expectations."

Homework is often thought to have non-academic benefits, such as fostering independence and developing organisational skills and self-discipline, McDonald adds, although the family experiences captured in their study don't necessarily back that up.

The research has been published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education.

The best teachers teach from the heart and not from the book. Ensure you update you skills and knowledge through research work and workshops.Training session without workshop for teachers is all round failure and setback as far as innovative education is concerned.

[gsuniversityofficial]

Why are heart attacks more common after Covid-19?

Did you know that heart attacks have been on high rise after COVID-19? Yes, it's true! Many celebrities right from Siddarth Shukla to Sushmita Sen have suffered from heart attacks post-covid. Some have lost their lives while some have battled it out. Here, it is important to understand the reasons behind the spike in heart attack cases after COVID-19 and treat the problem for a better solution.

GS Hospital, the best heart care center in Ghaziabad aims to spread awareness about post-covid heart attacks which are on high rise. Being the best hospital in Hapur, the hospital has taken the initiative to promote cardiac well-being post covid after the continuing rise of heart attack cases in young adults. GS Hospital, thetop heart care hospital in Ghaziabad, has witnessed many cases of heart attacks post-covid in the emergency which has raised concern. In this context, the hospital has come to the forefront to bring about awareness about cardiac well-being. 

In this blog, we shall explore the main causes, symptoms, treatment, and solutions for heart attacks which are more common after COVID-19.

Covid-19 and Heart attack

COVID-19 has been a triggering factor for heart attack cases which have been on high rise in 2023-2024. The cardiac health statistics have changed drastically after the pandemic of covid-19. Now, you may be wondering why COVID cases are related to lung issues and why heart attack or cardiac cases are on high rise.

In this article, we shall tell you the in-depth connection between the coronavirus and heart attack problems.

A heart attack is medically termed a myocardial infarction which means a reduced supply of oxygen to the heart. This reduces the inability of the heart to function properly causing defects in the supply of oxygen and blood to the heart causing heart damage.

Covid-19 and cardiac problems of heart attacks are connected with reduced oxygen supply to the heart due to post-covid damage to the lungs or the respiratory system. Moreover, if you have been suffering from comorbidities such as hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes, positive COVID-19 cases are at higher risk of heart attacks.

Let us know why heart attacks are more common after COVID-19? in the next part of the article.

 

Why are heart attacks more common after Covid-19?

Covid-19 has been a difficult time for everyone. Moreover, the after-effects of the Covid-19 have been long-lasting. Right from mental health issues to respiratory issues, post-covid effects have affected every system of the body. One such issue is cardiac-related problems leading to heart attack post-covid which have been on high rise in the year 2022-2023. The reasons behind post-covid heart attacks are as follows-

Reduced blood supply and oxygen supply to the heart

Increased post-inflammatory changes

Increased stress levels

Multi-system inflammatory syndrome

Elevated levels of troponin after being covid positive

Pre-existing respiratory or cardiac problems

Symptoms of heart attack

It is time to consult your doctor on an immediate basis if you are experiencing any of the signs and symptoms mentioned below-

Rapid heartbeat or palpitations

Temporary increase in heart rate with sudden onset

Irregular heartbeat, heart rate, and rhythm

Pain or uneasiness in left arm, neck, jaw, and back

Feeling lightheadedness

Dizziness and vertigo especially on standing from a sitting position

Chest congestion, discomfort, or chest pain

Shortness of breath

Profuse sweating

Numbness of extremities

Bluish and cyanosed lips

Ankle swelling or bilateral leg swelling

Sudden weakness or tiredness with a sinking sensation

Nausea and vomiting

How can I improve my cardiac health post-covid-19?

Prevention is better than cure! It is important to take preventive measures to keep heart issues at bay. Management of cardiac health is very important. Get connected with one of our best cardiologists at GS Hospital, the best hospital in Meerut, who will craft a preventive plan for your heart health. Here are some preventive measures that you can take for a healthy heart post-covid.

Maintain a healthy diet with fruits and vegetables

Maintain a healthy BMI to stay fit

Exercise regularly to burn calories

Drink water and stay hydrated

Avoid oily and spicy food

Ensure to visit your doctor regularly

Quit smoking and alcohol

Practice yoga and medication to keep stress at bay

Practice breathing exercises for healthy lungs to maintain oxygen flow

Maintain a healthy sleep cycle for sound sleep

Lower the salt content

Get plenty of rest

Remember, a heart attack can occur at any age. It is important to monitor your symptoms and get your routine blood tests done to ensure you maintain a healthy heart. Along with this, consult your physician regularly who will guide you towards your medication management in the right way for good cardiac health.

 

Conclusion

GS Hospital, the top heart care hospital in Ghaziabad, aims to provide excellent cardiac care to all to prevent heart attacks. The team of cardiologists at GS Hospital is dedicated to providing exceptional solutions to patients battling post-covid effects for heart-related issues. This makes GS Hospital the top heart care hospital in Hapur to provide high-end cardiac solutions.

GS Hospital aims to bring about awareness about heart attacks cropping up post covid. So, if you have seen an exacerbation of heart issues such as hypertension, diabetes, or cholesterol issues post-covid, it's time to get connected with one of our cardiac specialists who will help prevent any cardiac complications in the future.

Still, having some questions cropping up in your mind about covid-19 and heart attacks? Let us resolve it for you!

[comfymommy]

Can Pragnant Women Wear Mask ? - COMFY MOMMY – ComfyMommyShop

Pregnant women with COVID-19, who have pre-existing medical conditions, like diabetes or chronic high vital sign, or those that are older or overweight, also are more likely to suffer severe health complications thanks to COVID-19. The research says all people, including pregnant women, can wear masks once they are public to slow the spread of COVID-19. Wearing of the mask is recommended because studies have shown that folks can spread the virus before showing any symptoms.

ARE FACE MASKS SAFE DURING PREGNANCY?

Worldwide, many pregnant women wear masks at work, including the widely used N95 respirator with a filtering mask. The N95 respirator restricts normal airflow, so a lady may need to breathe harder while wearing it. A question that arises in our mind, does an N95 filtering mask put more physical stress on a pregnant woman who wears it?

But the research says whether pregnant women who wear an N95 respirator have different health effects than women who are not pregnant. Researchers took steps to make sure that the tests did not themselves create a risk for harm. They monitored 16 pregnant and 16 non-pregnant voluntary participants for pulse rate, pressure level, fetal pulse, and other indicators of heart and lung function. The research includes an hour of alternating sitting, standing, and moderate exercise on a stationary bicycle, both with and without a filtering mask.

However, both pregnant and non-pregnant women wearing the respirator mask had a mild—but significant—increase within the heart resting or pressure. The provisional increase did not affect heart and lung function, so it is unlikely to cause health problems in healthy women.

HOW CAN PREGNANT WOMEN SAVE THEMSELVES FROM GETTING COVID-19?

Pregnant women should do similar things in the general public to avoid infection. You will help stop the spread of COVID-19 by taking these actions-

Cover your cough (using your elbow may be a useful technique).

Avoid people that are sick.

Clean your hands often using alcohol-based hand sanitizer or soap and water.

Stay at home or a minimum of six feet faraway from people who do not sleep in your home.

Avoid public gatherings and individuals with symptoms.

Maintain an appropriate social distance (6 feet) and wear a mask if you will not maintain distance.

What if I am a pregnant health care worker exposed to Coronavirus?

Ans- At present, pregnant patients should observe similar precautions and procedures. All other healthcare workers are instructed to look after their employee health or infection prevention and control departments for guidance on PPE.

CAN COVID-19 CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR A PREGNANCY?

Ans- We do not know at this point if COVID-19 would cause problems during pregnancy or affect the health of the baby after birth. It is essential to possess an idea in place and brace oneself for you and your family's best health. Do not panic, but know enough and stay informed to understand when the time is right, if necessary, to take proper action.

[dramantedrinks]

Alcohol Awareness Week 3-9 July 2023

Alcohol Awareness

Hey and welcome to another blog post from Dramante, in this edition we take a closer look at how alcohol affects our everyday lives and where to get support. 

Alcohol Awareness Week  

This year alcohol awareness week takes place from 3-9th July in the UK which is a week of raising awareness, campaigning for change and more. It is a chance for people in the UK to get thinking about drinking. This year’s theme is ‘Alcohol and Cost’. 

The harm caused by alcohol affects millions of people every year in the form of health problems, financial worries, relationship breakdown and family difficulties. It brings with it huge social costs too with the significant pressure it places on the NHS, the emergency services, police and workplaces.

The total social cost of alcohol to society is estimated to be at least £21 billion each year. We as individuals also spend tens of thousands of pounds on average on alcohol over the course of a lifetime. But the personal costs are much starker with alcohol death rates increasing to the highest rate since records began since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and millions more people suffering from worsened mental and physical health every day as a result of harmful drinking.

The cost of living crisis has also played a key role in causing some people to drink more than they’d like in order to cope with worries around the financial crisis. However the cost of alcohol to individuals, our relationships, our families, and our stretched vital public services doesn’t have to be so high.

The effects of alcohol 

The short and long-term effects of alcohol can affect your body, lifestyle and mental health.

Increased blood pressure - Alcohol consumption is an entirely preventable cause of severe hypertension (the medical name for sustained high blood pressure) in both men and women. Untreated high blood pressure greatly increases your risk of stroke and heart attack.

Weight gain - Drinking alcohol will add to the overall calories we consume each day. Calories from alcohol are 'empty calories', meaning they have little nutritional benefit. So consuming extra calories through drinking can lead to weight gain.

Chemical imbalance in the brain - A healthy brain relies on a delicate balance of chemicals and processes. Alcohol is a depressant, which means it disrupts that balance.

Affects sleep patterns - The alcohol in your system will mean you spend less time in the important Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep, with the end result that you wake up feeling less refreshed.

Summary 

Alcohol affects so many lives, sometimes for better in most parts but sometimes for worse. We can all take steps to make a change, with improved support and prevention, we can save money and save lives.

In England there are an estimated 602,391 dependent drinkers. Only 18% are receiving treatment. Always remember if you are worried about yourself or someone you care about you can get help from www.drinkaware.co.uk 

We are big advocates for drinking responsibly, so when drinking remember to only consume within your limits and enjoy yourselves. Government guidance says that men and women shouldn’t regularly drink more than 14 units a week. It's worth noting that you can have a nice tasting non-alcoholic alternative for most drink types and something Dramante will look to add to our range in the future. 

After all, no one enjoys a hangover!

Don’t forget to follow us on social media:

@dramantedrinks

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[covid-safer-hotties]

Beyond breathing: How COVID-19 affects your heart, brain and other organs - Published Jan 16, 2024

It's easy to be complacent about COVID-19. Most people experience only mild issues – fever and coughing, maybe congestion and shortness of breath.

But the coronavirus is capable of causing much more than a simple respiratory illness, affecting organs throughout the body, experts say.

"We see people have symptoms from almost head to toe in terms of how they feel, how they function and what they can do," said Dr. Adrian Hernandez, a cardiologist who is director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina.

The new year started with an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S., prompting Hernandez and other experts to advise caution, especially for those at high risk.

While the short-term effects of COVID-19 can be flu-like, even mild cases can lead to long COVID – a constellation of problems that can persist for weeks or months. More than 200 symptoms have been linked to long COVID, said Hernandez, who has overseen many COVID-19 studies.

Because COVID-19 typically affects breathing and can lead to problems such as pneumonia, many people may think it's primarily a lung disease. It's not that simple, said Dr. Nisha Viswanathan, director of the long COVID program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"I would argue that COVID-19 is not a disease of the lungs at all," she said. "It seems most likely that it is what we call a vascular and neurologic infection, affecting both nerve endings and our cardiovascular system."

It's no surprise that experts say SARS-CoV-2 – the name of the virus that causes COVID-19 – is complex, with many of its pathways just beginning to be understood. But some things are becoming clear. One of the best reviews of long COVID symptoms, Viswanathan said, appeared last January in Nature Reviews Microbiology. It detailed the disease's effects throughout the body, including the pancreas, blood vessels and reproductive system.

"SARS-CoV-2 is excellent at triggering your immune system to go from zero to 100," said Dr. Lindsay McAlpine, a neurologist who is director of the Yale NeuroCovid Clinic in New Haven, Connecticut. That revving of the immune response leads to both a "wide swath of inflammation" and excessive blood clotting, she said.

"Perhaps the viral replication is going on in the lungs and nasopharynx (the area at the top of the throat that connects the nose to the respiratory system). But the inflammation that the virus triggers is systemic," McAlpine said.

Here are some parts of the body significantly affected by COVID-19...

Full text, Spanish translation, and more avaliable at our archive

[lilhawkeye3]

It's also good to remember that a person can find scientific evidence to back up any belief they have about the world. After all, science once told us it would be a good idea to spray DDT directly on the skin of people - including children. Science told us Vioxx (a drug for arthritis) was safe and it ended up causing 140,000 heart attacks and killing about 50,000 people. Science is meant to be questioned, not blindly believed in. Pressuring and guilt-tripping people into vaccination is wrong.

Alright.

First I get a question about Candace Owens, a known ultra conservative, and then I get a bunch of asks including vaccine propaganda and now information that’s been pushed by another conservative magazine? Smells a little fishy to me.

Science of course is not perfect. I am not saying it is. I did not say it is.

I said the specific information you are trying to spread about the coronavirus vaccine, during a pandemic, is false and dangerous. You are more likely to get a blood clot and die from birth control than from the J&J vaccine. And yet we don’t hear panic over that.

DDT is a carcinogen. When the problem was found, they banned it (at least in the western white world). DDT is also not anywhere near vaccine related science so I would not equate the two. Also if you think science now is at the same level of understanding as it was in the 1940s when it went onto the market, then idk what to tell you about how far technology has advanced.

TLDR on the Vioxx thing: those numbers are not necessarily accurate and the drug was tested internally by the company and they paid favorable people to write up the findings of the trials. The science wasn’t wrong, it was the capitalistic drug company Merck. They literally bribed people to alter the results and get it onto the market. (Source: NCBI, “What have we learnt from Vioxx?” Krumholz et al, 2007)

The problem currently is coronavirus and you are more likely to die from it (the actual virus) than from a vaccine. I am not pressuring you. You are the one coming onto my blog to repeatedly try and spread false information. If it was “pressuring and guilt tripping” then I would need to be doing this in your space (blog or dms) and I’m not. Partly because doing this on anon! So you’re hiding because you don’t want to be called out for being in the wrong.

So: you’re ignoring the facts of the accounts you brought up and of what I’m offering as sources, you’re hiding on anon, you’re coming onto MY blog and harassing me on topics I literally study, and saying I’m pressuring you? Lmao that’s pathetic.

[snowgraybeautywhite]

About BJD Recasts (2020 Version)

What is a recast?

A recast is when a recaster steals, buys, or is given one doll, and they make multiple copies of that doll and sell them. It’s like buying a piece of artwork from an artist at a con for $30, then going to Kinko’s and making 50 copies of the artwork, then standing outside the Artist Alley selling the copies for $5 each. Synonyms are: counterfeit, knockoff, bootleg.

What is “pro-artist”?

Pro-artist BJD collectors do not buy recasts. Most pro-artist BJD collectors do not interact with collectors who own or support recasting.

Why are recasts a problem?

Money made from recasts does not reach the original doll sculptor. Most BJD ‘companies’ are just one or a few sculptors and some support staff. They are small companies. When a person buys a recast, that money goes to the recaster instead of to the actual artist. This causes legit artists/companies to lose money, so they may not be able to make as many new dolls in the future.

Purchasing any recast hurts all sculptors, not just the main companies. If you buy a recast of a “big company” (and even the largest BJD company is small compared to toy companies like Mattel), the recaster can turn around and use the profits from that purchase to buy and copy the dolls of other, smaller BJD companies.

Recasts hurt the secondhand market. BJDs are “durable goods,” like a car or a house. They should maintain some value over time, though not necessarily exactly what they were purchased for. Many hobbyists buy dolls, then sell them as their tastes change. This allows people with smaller budgets to find budget legitimate dolls affordably. It also allows established collectors to reasonably expect their dolls to have some value. If collectors have to assume that they’ll never make back the money that they put into a purchase, they’re likely to buy fewer dolls. This hurts legitimate doll artists.

Isn’t it classist/elitist to insist that people buy legit dolls?

It is not. Encouraging people to buy legit dolls, even if they are more expensive than knockoffs, puts value on the labor of the original doll artisans. The sculptors who make BJDs deserve to be paid for their labor. Inventing a doll takes much more labor than recasting. When pro-recast people insist that they should be able to buy recasts at a low price, they are basically saying that their ability to obtain cheap goods is more important than the artist making a fair, living wage.

How can I avoid buying a recast? Check out this post.

What should I do if I bought a recast accidentally?

First, if you paid with a credit card, bank transfer, or PayPal, immediately report that you received a counterfeit item. Most cards and PP will respond with a “chargeback,” where they refund your money and sometimes try to get the money back from the fake vendor. If you bought the recast from a site like eBay or Amazon, report the seller to eBay/Amazon as selling fake goods. If you bought the recast from another hobbyist, contact them so that the issue can be resolved. Finally, post publicly about your experience, so you can warn others about the problem.

What should I do if I knowingly bought a recast, but I want to go legit?

Stop buying recasts. Post about your change of heart, and your reasoning. Put your recasts away and stop posting them (selling or donating them can be problematic). Save up for a legit doll if you don’t already have one. Then, celebrate your legit dolls and be happy that your actions are now supporting the artists who make these beautiful dolls possible!

I’m broke, but I want a doll.

There are tons of dolls available for under $300.

All the cheap dolls are ugly.

You have not looked at these dolls! You can also consider…

buying secondhand

buying an expensive head and putting it on a less expensive body (this creates a hybrid doll)

saving up for your grail doll (check out this thread on earning and saving)

posting a photo of your grail doll and asking for lookalikes at your price point

I can’t participate in the hobby with my one cheap doll.

Of course you can! Your love for your doll is what brings you into the hobby. To enjoy your doll without spending more/much more money, try: taking photographs, crafting a wig, sewing clothes, knitting clothes, writing stories, taking photos for a photo story, RPing with your doll character, creating a diorama or scale props, making eyes, doing your doll’s faceup…

If I don’t have the most popular Minifee, no one will ever notice me on social media.

It can be super difficult to get noticed online, especially when you’re just starting out. This is true for everything, not just the BJD hobby. But starting your collection with a fake doll is not worth it. Instead, try: commenting on other people’s dolls, joining Den of Angels, sharing/reblogging others’ doll posts with encouraging notes, posting your doll photos/ideas/plans, going to a local meetup (after coronavirus is over)… You will eventually build up some true friends in the hobby, which is more fulfilling than just gaining likes or followers.

All the collectors I see have 10+ dolls, and I don’t have any. I’ll never have enough money.

BJDs have been around for over 15 years! Most ‘big’ collectors have been in the hobby for ages, and have put their ‘fun money’ for all that time into dolls. Additionally, many hobbyists are adults with full-time jobs. Your collection when you are first getting started isn’t going to look the same as the collection of someone who has been into BJDs for a long time. More importantly, your dolls are about *you,* not anybody else. Instead of comparing yourself to others, spend time working on your doll story, crafting, photography, etc. You’ll feel much happier!

More about the problems of recasts...

BJD sculptor FreakStyle talking about why recasts are problematic and more about how recasts hurt sculptors.

Infographic: BJD sculptor Creature's Dolls explanation of how artists work harder than recasters.

Volks' statement, published after a recaster tried to copyright the name of one of Volks' sculptors.

Repost of Fairyland's statement against recasts.

Repost of sculptor Fifth Motif's statement against recasts.

Explanation of the costs of producing a doll (as a response to complaint about doll prices).

Video: Adam Savage from Mythbusters explaining the problem of recasts (he talks about garage kits but the concepts apply to BJDs).

Video: Why replica Lolita dresses are a problem (concepts apply to BJDs).

Another hobbyist explaining recasts.

Author Maggie Stiefvater explaining how book piracy hurts authors (reblog).

Author Seanan McGuire explaining why secondhand book sales aren't a problem.

Why secondhand BJD sales are a not a problem.

Why music piracy is a problem (concepts apply to BJDs).

[allgoodurlsarealreadytaken]

to scare able-bodied people into still wearing masks even though you are not at risk of dying - there has been several studies that show that even healthy young people have post-covid issues and many become disabled. this is no joke, older people, the very young people and people with autoimune diseases can still die even vaccinated and healthy people can suffer long term medical problems with kidneys, heart, lungs and even neurological issues. and we still don't know how and what else can be compromised by coronavirus.

like obviously you should care about protecting the most vulnerable people but i know some people don't and you should then mask for your own protection.

more information:

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

Covid-19 conspiracy theories debunked

1. THE VIRUS WAS ENGINEERED IN A LABORATORY IN CHINA

Why It’s False: U.S. intelligence agencies have categorically denied the possibility that the virus was engineered in a lab, stating that “the Intelligence Community concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.” Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli—who studies bat coronaviruses and whose lab Trump and others have suggested was the source of COVID-19—compared the pathogen’s sequence with those of other coronaviruses her team had sampled from bat caves and found that it did not match any of them. In response to calls for an independent, international investigation into how the virus originated, China has invited researchers from the World Health Organization to discuss the scope of such a mission. 

2. COVID-19 IS NO WORSE THAN THE FLU

Why It’s False: The precise infection fatality rate of COVID-19 is hard to measure, but epidemiologists suspect that it is far higher than that of the flu—somewhere between 0.5 and 1 percent, compared with 0.1 percent for influenza. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the latter causes roughly 12,000 to 61,000 deaths per year in the U.S. In contrast, COVID-19 had caused 200,000 deaths in the country as of mid-September. Many people also have partial immunity to the flu because of vaccination or prior infection, whereas most of the world has not yet encountered COVID-19. So no, coronavirus is not “just the flu.”

3. YOU DON’T NEED TO WEAR A MASK

Why It’s False: Masks have long been known to be an effective means of what epidemiologists call source control (preventing a sick patient from spreading a disease to others). A recent analysis published in the Lancet looked at more than 170 studies and found that face masks can prevent COVID-19 infection. It has also been widely established that people can be infected with and spread COVID-19 without ever developing symptoms, which is why everyone should wear a mask to prevent asymptomatic people from spreading the virus.

4. WEALTHY ELITES ARE USING THE VIRUS TO PROFIT FROM VACCINES

Why It’s False: There is no evidence that Fauci or Gates has benefited from the pandemic or profited from a vaccine. In fact, Fauci has sounded alarms throughout the pandemic about the risks of the virus, and Gates has a long history of philanthropy geared toward eliminating communicable diseases. Mikovits’s claims about the virus’s origin and the efficacy of masks also have no scientific support.

5. HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE IS AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT

Why it’s False: Several studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine does not protect against COVID-19 in those who are exposed. The Food and Drug Administration initially issued an emergency use authorization for the drug, but the agency later warned against its use because of the risk of heart problems and ultimately revoked its authorization. And in June the National Institutes of Health halted its clinical trial of the medication, stating that although it was not harmful to patients, it did not provide any benefit.

6. INCREASES IN CASES ARE THE RESULT OF INCREASED TESTING

Why It’s False: If this scenario were true, one would expect the percentage of positive tests to decrease over time. But numerous analyses have shown the opposite. The rate of positive tests rose in many states (such as Arizona, Texas and Florida) that had big outbreaks this past summer, and it decreased in states (such as New York) that controlled their outbreaks. In addition, hospitalizations and deaths increased along with cases, providing more evidence that the national increase in positive tests reflected a true increase in cases.

7. HERD IMMUNITY WILL PROTECT US IF WE LET THE VIRUS SPREAD THROUGH THE POPULATION

Why It’s False: There is a fundamental flaw with this approach: experts estimate that roughly 60 to 70 percent of people would need to get COVID-19 for herd immunity to be possible. Given the high mortality rate of the disease, letting it infect that many people could lead to millions of deaths. That tragedy is what happened during the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which at least 50 million people are thought to have perished. The U.K.’s COVID-19 death rate is among the world’s highest. Sweden, for its part, has had significantly more deaths than neighbouring countries, and its economy has suffered despite the lack of a shutdown.

8. A COVID-19 VACCINE WILL BE UNSAFE

Why It’s False: Vaccines save millions of lives every year. Before a vaccine is approved in the U.S. for example, it must generally undergo three phases of clinical testing to show that it is safe and effective in a large number of people. 

source: xx

[missnight0wl]

What’s happening in Poland?

Hey. I might stop my regular posting for a day or so because frankly, I’m quite overwhelmed with what’s happening in Poland. And I actually want to talk about it. You don’t have to read it, but I’ll be grateful if you do. I don’t have a big reach, but it’s always one person more knowing what we’re going through, and I guess that getting attention is the most we can do now, at least outside our country.

The Catholic Church and its value are extremely important in Poland. Unfortunately, it has little to do with love and mercy, but a lot with hatred: towards women, towards LGBT people… towards anyone different. It happens that the leading party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS; Law and Justice), is proud of their connection to the Church, which basically means to us that while the Church officially doesn’t have power in Poland – it really does. There’s also one person who decides about everything in our country: Jarosław Kaczyński. The sad thing that technically, he’s nobody. I mean, he is the leader of PiS, and he’s been designated as Deputy Prime Minister recently, but… that’s it. Yet, we all know that he controls everyone, and everyone is scared of him. Our president is a wuss who can only sign things which Jarek tells him to sign, our Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, is incapable of independent thinking as well. The government is failing terribly at dealing with the pandemic, and said Prime Minister, claimed in June what coronavirus is in retreat, and that people don’t have to wear masks (sic!). Now we’re having at least 10 thousand new cases daily. And what they’re doing? They sentence all Polish women for hell.

Since 1993, abortion in Poland was allowed in only 3 cases:

if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest,

if the mother's health was at risk,

in case of foetal defects.

On October 22nd 2020, Poland's top court ruled abortion due to foetal defects unconstitutional, basically making abortion illegal.

The law is not valid just yet, but it will also mean hell for doctors. Because it says about things like that anyone who causes the death of an unborn child, will be punished with three years of imprisonment. In other words, a doctor who’d be about to try to save a mother while risking death a child will probably decide to do nothing. Why? Because if a child and/or a mother dies, they’d have to not only live with that fact. They’d have to deal with it while in jail. Also, ectopic pregnancy won’t be able to remove such pregnancy until a woman starts bleeding out, even though he could do it safely BEFORE her life is at risk.

After the decision was announced, women went protesting in front of Kaczyński’s house. The police arrived, and eventually, the pepper spray was used. The next day when more protests were planned, the police showed on the streets in helmets and with shields. It is also said that Kaczyński was moved “somewhere safe”.

Morawiecki decided that starting tomorrow, the army will help the police, which allegedly is connected to coronavirus, but somehow, we all know it’s because of the protests. And we’re scared. I’m personally also scared to join the protests because of covid, and it’s not even just about me getting sick. My roommate is a teacher in kindergarten, and they’re still open. If I get sick, I’d bring it to her, and she’d bring it to her work... Well, the government will probably say that more infection is women’s fault anyway… They want to distract us from how much they’re failing, and they did it in the most harmful way.

And the sad thing is that this decision is not only incredibly cruel – it doesn’t even make sense in their own logic! A lot of those pregnancies might end with mother’s death or complications leading to her not being to get pregnant EVER AGAIN! How does it help in creating your fucking beautiful catholic families? But that’s the problem, they don’t understand that and they don’t want to understand that. They’re really calling it a win for the life because apparently, they think that women get an abortion for own pleasure and ONLY when it’s about a child with Down syndrome. Seriously that’s like the single example they’re using. They can’t comprehend that there are children born without a heart, without a brain, without lungs. Children who WON’T SURVIVE. But it gets better as they also want to ban all prenatal examination. Because you know, you have to give birth anyway, so what’s the difference? You’re just gonna have a surprise whether you’ll have to buy a crib or a coffin.

We’re calling it a war. The government pretends that nothing happens.

The public media (also controlled by PiS) claims that there were a couple of hundreds of protestors. There are THOUSANDS of people in every Polish city. They compared the symbol we’re using (the red bolt) to the symbol used by Schutzstaffel.

They complain that the protests are so vulgar (the most common slogan is “Wypierdalać!” which mean “Piss off!”), but that’s the only language they can understand. One of the far-right activists criticizing the protestors called them “wulgarne kurewki” (“vulgar little bitches”). Besides, we’re just tired. We’re just so fucking tired of this government that no other words can express it. And they’re getting the respect they deserved for.

We’re tired, we’re scared, we’re angry, we’re pissed off. I just feel like crying when I think that there are such people, with no empathy for the others. That they have partners, wives, daughters, granddaughters… and I don’t understand how they can look them in the eyes.

[96thdayofrage]

Rural Americans are dying of Covid at more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts — a divide that health experts say is likely to widen as access to medical care shrinks for a population that tends to be older, sicker, heavier, poorer, and less vaccinated.

While the initial surge of Covid-19 deaths skipped over much of rural America — where roughly 15 percent of Americans live — nonmetropolitan mortality rates quickly started to outpace those of metropolitan areas as the virus spread nationwide before vaccinations became available, according to data from the Rural Policy Research Institute.

Since the pandemic began, about 1 in 434 rural Americans have died of Covid, compared with roughly 1 in 513 urban Americans, the institute’s data show. And though vaccines have reduced overall Covid death rates since the winter peak, rural mortality rates are now more than double urban rates — and accelerating quickly.

In rural northeastern Texas, Titus Regional Medical Center CEO Terry Scoggin is grappling with a 39 percent vaccination rate in his community. Eleven patients died of Covid in the first half of September at his hospital in Mount Pleasant, population 16,000. Typically, three or four non-hospice patients die there in an entire month.

“We don’t see death like that,” Scoggin said. “You usually don’t see your friends and neighbors die.”

Part of the problem is that Covid incidence rates in September were roughly 54 percent higher in rural areas than elsewhere, said Fred Ullrich, a University of Iowa College of Public Health research analyst who coauthored the institute’s report. He said the analysis compared the rates of nonmetropolitan, or rural, areas and metropolitan, or urban, areas. In 39 states, he added, rural counties had higher rates of Covid than their urban counterparts.

“There is a national disconnect between perception and reality when it comes to Covid in rural America,” said Alan Morgan, head of the National Rural Health Association. “We’ve turned many rural communities into kill boxes. And there’s no movement towards addressing what we’re seeing in many of these communities, either among the public or among governing officials.”

Still, the high incidence of cases and low vaccination rates don’t fully capture why mortality rates are so much higher in rural areas than elsewhere. Academics and officials alike describe rural Americans’ greater rates of poor health and their limited options for medical care as a deadly combination. The pressures of the pandemic have compounded the problem by deepening staffing shortages at hospitals, creating a cycle of worsening access to care.

It’s the latest example of the deadly coronavirus wreaking more havoc in some communities than others. Covid has also killed Native American, Black, and Hispanic people at disproportionately high rates.

Vaccinations are the most effective way to prevent Covid infections from turning deadly. Roughly 41 percent of rural America was vaccinated as of Sept. 23, compared with about 53 percent of urban America, according to an analysis by the Daily Yonder, a newsroom covering rural America. Limited supplies and low access made shots hard to get in far-flung regions at first, but officials and academics now blame vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, and politics for the low vaccination rates.

In hard-hit southwestern Missouri, for example, 26 percent of Newton County’s residents were fully vaccinated as of Sept. 27. The health department has held raffles and vaccine clinics, advertised in the local newspaper, and even driven the vaccine to those lacking transportation in remote areas, according to department administrator Larry Bergner. But he said interest in the shots typically increases only after someone dies or gets seriously ill within a hesitant person’s social circle.

Additionally, the overload of Covid patients in hospitals has undermined a basic tenet of rural healthcare infrastructure: the capability to transfer patients out of rural hospitals to higher levels of specialty care at regional or urban health centers.

“We literally have email Listservs of rural chief nursing officers or rural CEOs sending up an SOS to the group, saying, ‘We’ve called 60 or 70 hospitals and can’t get this heart attack or stroke patient or surgical patient out, and they’re going to get septic and die if it goes on much longer,’ ” said John Henderson, president and CEO of the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals.

Morgan said he can’t count how many people have talked to him about the transfer problem. “It’s crazy, just crazy. It’s unacceptable,” he said. “From what I’m seeing, that mortality gap is accelerating.”

Access to medical care has long bedeviled swaths of rural America — since 2005, 181 rural hospitals have closed. A 2020 Kaiser Health News analysis found that more than half of U.S. counties, many of them largely rural, don’t have a hospital with intensive care unit beds.

Pre-pandemic, rural Americans had 20 percent higher overall death rates than those who live in urban areas, due to their lower rates of insurance, higher rates of poverty, and more limited access to healthcare, according to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

In southeastern Missouri’s Ripley County, the local hospital closed in 2018. As of Sept. 27, only 24 percent of residents were fully vaccinated against Covid. Due to a recent crush of cases, Covid patients are getting sent home from emergency rooms in surrounding counties if they’re not “severely bad,” health department director Tammy Cosgrove said.

The nursing shortage hitting the country is particularly dire in rural areas, which have less money than large hospitals to pay the exorbitant fees travel nursing agencies are demanding. And as nursing temp agencies offer hospital staffers more cash to join their teams, many rural nurses are jumping ship. One of Scoggin’s nurses told him she had to take a travel job — she could pay off all her debt in three months with that kind of money.

And then there’s the burnout of working for over a year and a half through the pandemic. Audrey Snyder, the immediate past president of the Rural Nurse Organization, said she’s lost count of how many nurses have told her they’re quitting. Those resignations feed into a relentless cycle: As travel nurse companies attract more nurses, the nurses left behind shouldering their work become more burned out — and eventually quit. While this is true at hospitals of all types, the effects in hard-to-staff rural hospitals can be especially dire.

Rural health officials fear the staffing shortages could be exacerbated by vaccination mandates promised by President Biden, which they say could cause a wave of resignations the hospitals cannot afford. About half of Scoggin’s staff, for example, is unvaccinated.

Snyder warned that nursing shortages and their high associated costs will become unsustainable for rural hospitals operating on razor-thin margins. She predicted a new wave of rural hospital closures will further drive up the dire mortality numbers.

Staffing shortages already limit how many beds hospitals can use, Scoggin said. He estimated that most hospitals in Texas, including his own, are operating at roughly two-thirds of their bed capacity. His emergency room is so swamped, he’s had to send a few patients home to be monitored daily by an ambulance team.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Long COVID: Lasting effects of COVID-19 - Mayo Clinic - Published Aug 25, 2024

After any coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) illness, no matter how serious, some people report that symptoms stay for months. This lingering illness has often been called long COVID or post-COVID-19 syndrome. You might hear it called long-haul COVID or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC).

There is no universal definition of long COVID right now.

In the U.S., some experts have defined long COVID as a long-lasting, called chronic, condition triggered by the virus that causes COVID-19. (1p31) The medical term for this is an infection-associated chronic condition.

As researchers learn more about long COVID, this definition may change.

What are the most common symptoms of long COVID? In research studies, more than 200 symptoms have been linked to long COVID. Symptoms may stay the same over time, get worse, or go away and come back.

Common symptoms of long COVID include:

Extreme tiredness, especially after activity. Problems with memory, often called brain fog. A feeling of being lightheaded or dizzy. Problems with taste or smell. Other symptoms of long COVID include:

Sleep problems. Shortness of breath. Cough. Headache. Fast or irregular heartbeat. Digestion problems, such as loose stools, constipation or bloating. Some people with long COVID may have other illnesses. Diseases caused or made worse by long COVID include migraine, lung disease, autoimmune disease and chronic kidney disease.

Diseases that people may be diagnosed with due to long COVID include:

Heart disease. Mood disorders. Anxiety. Stroke or blood clots. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, also called POTS. Myalgic encephalomyelitis-chronic fatigue syndrome, also called ME-CFS. Mast cell activation syndrome. Fibromyalgia. Diabetes. Hyperlipidemia. People can get long COVID symptoms after catching the COVID-19 virus even if they never had COVID-19 symptoms. Also, long COVID symptoms can show up weeks or months after a person seems to have recovered.

And while the COVID-19 virus spreads from person to person, long COVID is not contagious and doesn't spread between people.

Why does COVID-19 cause ongoing health problems? Current research has found that long COVID is a chronic condition triggered by the virus that causes COVID-19. The medical term for this is an infection-associated chronic condition.

Researchers don't know exactly how COVID-19 causes long-term illness, but they have some ideas. Theories include:

The virus that causes COVID-19 upsets immune system communication. This could lead immune cells to mistake the body's own cells as a threat and react to them, called an autoimmune reaction. Having COVID-19 awakens viruses that haven't been cleared out of the body. The coronavirus infection upsets the gut's ecosystem. The virus may be able to survive in the gut and spread from there. The virus affects the cells that line blood vessels. The virus damages communication in the brain stem or a nerve that controls automatic functions in the body, called the vagus nerve. Because the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to change, researchers can't say how many people have been affected by long COVID. Some researchers have estimated that 10% to 35% of people who have had COVID-19 went on to have long COVID.

What are the risk factors for long COVID? Risk factors for long COVID are just starting to be known. In general, most research finds that long COVID is diagnosed more often in females of any age than in males. The long COVID risk also may be higher for people who have cardiovascular disease before getting sick.

Some research also shows that getting a COVID-19 vaccine may help prevent long COVID.

Many other factors may raise or lower your risk of long COVID, but research is still ongoing.

What should I do if I have long COVID symptoms? See a healthcare professional if you have long COVID symptoms. Part of long COVID's definition is symptoms that last for three months.

But at this time, no test can say whether you have long COVID. Since you may not have symptoms if you have an infection with the COVID-19 virus, you may not know you had it. Some people have mild symptoms and don't take a COVID-19 test. Others may have had COVID-19 before testing was common.

Long COVID symptoms may come and go or be constant. They also can start any time after you had COVID-19. But symptoms still need to be documented for at least three months in order for a health care professional to diagnose long COVID.

Healthcare professionals may treat your symptoms or conditions before a long COVID-19 diagnosis. And they may work to rule out other conditions over the time you start having symptoms.

Your healthcare team might do lab tests, such as a complete blood count or liver function test. You might have other tests or procedures, such as chest X-rays, based on your symptoms.

The information you give and any test results can help your healthcare professional come up with a treatment plan.

Care for long COVID It can be hard to get care for long COVID. Treatment may be delayed while you work with healthcare professionals. And people with long COVID may have their health problems dismissed by others, including healthcare professionals, family members or employers.

For people with cultural or language barriers, getting a long COVID diagnosis can be even harder. Pulling together information about symptoms and timing can be a challenge too. This is especially true when medical history is fragmented or when someone is managing symptoms related to memory or that affect the thought process.

Underdiagnosis may be more common among people who have less access to healthcare or who have limited financial resources.

If you're having long COVID symptoms, talk with your healthcare professional. It can help to have your medical records available before the appointment if you are starting to get care at a new medical office.

To prepare for your appointment, write down:

When your symptoms started and if they come and go. What makes your symptoms worse. How your symptoms affect your activities. Questions you have about your illness. List medicines and anything else you take, including nutrition supplements and pain medicine that you can get without a prescription. Some people find it helpful to bring a trusted person to the appointment to take notes.

Keep visit summaries and your notes in one place. That can help you track what actions you need to take or what you've already tried to treat your symptoms.

Also, you might find it helpful to connect with others in a support group and share resources.

How long can long COVID last? The conditions linked as part of long COVID may get better over months or may last for years.

What treatment is available for long COVID? Healthcare professionals treat long COVID based on the symptoms. For tiredness, your healthcare professional may suggest that you be active only as long as your symptoms stay stable. If you start to feel worse, rest and don't push through your tiredness.

For symptoms of pain, breathlessness or brain fog, work with your healthcare professional to find a treatment plan that works for you. That may include medicine you can get without a prescription for pain, prescription medicine, supplements and referrals to other healthcare team members.

For loss of taste or smell, a process to retrain the nerves involved in those processes may help some people. The process is called olfactory training. For people with POTS or a fast heartbeat, the healthcare professional may suggest prescription medicine as well as a plan to stay hydrated.

Treatment for other long COVID symptoms may be available so contact your healthcare professional for options.

Next steps for Long COVID Long COVID makes life more difficult for many people. To provide better options for care, research is going on to better understand this illness. In the meantime, adults or children with long COVID may be able to get support for daily activities affected by the illness.