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Tag: bone fractures

  • Does Marijuana Affect Weight Gain or Bone Density?  | NutritionFacts.org

    Does Marijuana Affect Weight Gain or Bone Density?  | NutritionFacts.org

    Are the apparent adverse effects of heavy cannabis use on the bone just due to users being thinner? 

    It’s been recognized for decades that cigarette smoking can have “a major effect” on bone health, “increasing the lifetime risk of hip fracture by about half.” It also appears to impair bone healing, so much so that surgeons ask if they should discriminate against smokers because their bone and wound-healing complication rates are so high. What about smoking marijuana?

    As I discuss in my video Effects of Marijuana on Weight Gain and Bone Density, “There is accumulating evidence to suggest that cannabinoids [cannabis compounds] and their receptors play important roles in bone metabolism by regulating bone mass, bone loss, and bone cell function.” Okay, but are they “friend or foe?” 

    “Results from research on cannabinoids and bone mineral density in rodent models have been inconsistent. Some studies show increased bone formation, others have demonstrated accelerated bone loss, and yet others have shown no association. This variation in results may be due [in part] to differences in the mouse strain, sex, age…” If you can’t even extrapolate from one mouse to another, how can you extrapolate from mice to human beings?

    What if you just measure cannabis use and bone mineral density in people? Researchers tested thousands of adults and asked them about their cannabis use. There did not appear to be any link between the two, which is a relief. However, in this study, “heavy” cannabis use was defined as just five or more days of use in the previous 30 days. The researchers didn’t ask beyond that, so, theoretically, someone who smoked just five joints in their entire life could be categorized as a “heavy user” if they happened to use it five times in the last four weeks.

    How about cannabis use on 5,000 separate occasions over a lifetime? Now that’s a heavy user—decades of regular use. In that case, heavy use was “associated with low bone mineral density and an increased risk of fractures”—about double the fracture rate presumably due to lower bone density in the hip and spine, although heavy cannabis users were also thinner on average, and thinner people have lighter bones.

    Hip fracture risk goes down as our weight goes up. Nearly half of underweight women have osteoporosis, but less than 1 percent of obese women do, which makes total sense. Being obese forces our body to make our bones stronger to carry around all of that extra weight. That’s why weight-bearing exercise is so important to constantly put stress on our skeleton. When it comes to our bones, it’s use it or lose it. That’s why astronauts can lose a percent of their bone mass every month in “long-duration spaceflight.” Their bodies aren’t stupid. Why waste all that energy making a strong skeleton if you aren’t going to put any weight on it? 

    So, maybe the reason heavy cannabis users have frailer bones is because they tend to be about 15 pounds lighter. Wait a second. Marijuana users are slimmer? What about the munchies? “The lower BMI that was observed in heavy cannabis users at first sight seems counterintuitive,” given marijuana’s appetite stimulation, but this isn’t the first time this has been noted. 

    “Popular culture commonly depicts marijuana users as a sluggish, lethargic, and unproductive subculture of compulsive snackers,” and marijuana has indeed been found to increase food intake. A single hit can increase appetite, so you’d expect obesity rates to rise in states that legalized it. But, if anything, the rise in obesity appeared to slow after medical marijuana laws were passed, whereas it appeared to just keep rising in other states, as you can see in the graph below and at 3:45 in my video. 

    The reason pot smokers may be slimmer is because of the effect of smoked marijuana on metabolism. We’ve known for more than nearly 40 years that within 15 minutes of lighting up, our metabolic rate goes up by about 25 percent and stays there for at least an hour, as you can see below and at 4:04 in my video. So, that may be playing a role. 

    Is that why heavy cannabis use is associated with lower bone mineral density and increased risk of fractures? Because users just aren’t as overweight? No. Even when taking BMI into account, heavy cannabis use appears to be “an independent predictor” of weaker bones.

    I originally released a series of marijuana videos in a webinar and downloadable digital DVD. There are still a few videos coming out over the next year, but if you missed any of the already published ones, see the related posts below. 

    For more on bone health, check out the related posts below. 

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Any Pitfalls with Restricting Calories?  | NutritionFacts.org

    Any Pitfalls with Restricting Calories?  | NutritionFacts.org

    How may we preserve bone and mass on a low-calorie diet? 
     
    One of the most consistent benefits of calorie restriction is that blood pressure improves in as little as one or two weeks. Blood pressure may even be normalized in a matter of weeks and blood pressure pills discontinued. Unfortunately, this can work a little too well and cause orthostatic intolerance, which can manifest as lightheadedness or dizziness upon standing and, in severe cases, may cause fainting, though staying hydrated can help. 
     
    What about loss of muscle mass? In the CALERIE trial, which I profile in my video Potential Pitfalls of Calorie Restriction, 70 percent of the body weight the subjects lost was fat and 30 percent was lean body mass. So, they ended up with an improved body composition of about 72 percent lean mass compared to 66 percent in the control group, as you can see at 0:51 in my video. And, even though leg muscle mass and strength declined in absolute terms, relative to their new body size, they generally got stronger. 

    Is there any way to preserve even more lean mass, particularly among older individuals who naturally tend to lose muscle mass with age? Increased protein intakes are commonly suggested, but most studies fail to find a beneficial effect on preserving muscle strength or function whether you’re young or old, active or sedentary. For example, during a 25 percent calorie restriction, researchers randomized overweight older men and women to either a normal-protein diet with 4 grams for every ten pounds of body weight or a high-protein diet with about 8 grams per ten pounds. That doubling of protein intake had no discernible effect on lean body mass, muscle strength, or physical performance. As you can see below and at 1:48 in my video, most such studies found the same lack of benefit, but when they’re all put together, one can tease out a small advantage of about one or two pounds of lean mass over an average of six months. 

    Unfortunately, high protein intake during weight loss has also been found to have “profound” negative metabolic effects, including undermining the benefits of weight loss on insulin sensitivity. As you can see in the graph below and at 2:14 in my video, if you lose 20 pounds, you can dramatically improve your body’s ability to handle blood sugars, compared to subjects in a control group who maintained their weight. But, if you lose the exact same amount of weight on a high-protein diet, getting about an extra 30 grams a day, it’s like you never lost any weight at all. 


    Though you can always bulk back up after weight loss, the best way to preserve muscle mass during weight loss is to exercise. The CALERIE study had no structured exercise component, and, similar to bariatric surgery, about 30 percent of the weight loss was lean mass. In contrast, that proportion was only about 16 percent of The Biggest Loser contestants, chalked up to their “vigorous exercise program.” Resistance training even just three times a week can prevent more than 90 percent of lean body mass loss during calorie restriction. 
     
    The same may be true of bone loss. Lose weight through calorie restriction alone, and you experience a decline in bone mineral density in fracture risk sites, such as the hip and spine. In the same study, though, those randomized to lose weight with exercise did not suffer any bone loss. The researchers concluded: “Our results suggest that regular EX [exercise] should be included as part of a comprehensive weight loss program to offset the adverse effects of CR [caloric restriction] on bone.” 
     
    It’s hard to argue with calls for increased physical activity, but even without an exercise regimen, the “very small” drop in bone mineral density in the CALERIE trial might only increase a ten-year risk of osteoporotic fracture by about 0.2 percent. The benefits of calorie restriction revealed by the study included improvements in blood pressure and cholesterol, as you can see in the graph below and at 3:54 in my video, as well as improved mood, libido, and sleep. These would seem to far outweigh any potential risks. The fact that a reduction in calories seemed to have such wide-ranging benefits on quality of life led commentators in the AMA’s internal medicine journal to write: “The findings of this well-designed study suggest that intake of excess calories is not only a burden to our physical homeostasis [or equilibrium], but also on our psychological well-being.” 
     


    Check out my other videos on calorie restriction, fasting, intermittent fasting, and time-restricted eating in the related videos below. 

     

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Muscle Shrinkage and Bone Loss on Keto Diets?  | NutritionFacts.org

    Muscle Shrinkage and Bone Loss on Keto Diets?  | NutritionFacts.org

    Ketogenic diets have been found to undermine exercise efforts and lead to muscle shrinkage and bone loss. 
     
    An official International Society of Sports Nutrition position paper covering keto diets notes the “ergolytic effect” of keto diets on both high- and low-intensity workouts. Ergolytic is the opposite of ergogenic. Ergogenic means performance-boosting, whereas ergolytic means performance-impairing. 
     
    For nonathletes, ketosis may also undermine exercise efforts. Ketosis was correlated with increased feelings of “perceived exercise effort” and “also significantly correlated to feelings of ‘fatigue’ and to ‘total mood disturbance,’” during physical activity. “Together, these data suggest that the ability and desire to maintain sustained exercise might be adversely impacted in individuals adhering to ketogenic diets for weight loss.” 
     
    You may recall that I’ve previously discussed that shrinkage of measured muscle mass among CrossFit trainees has been reported. So, a ketogenic diet may not just blunt the performance of endurance athletes, but their strength training as well. As I discuss in my video Keto Diets: Muscle Growth and Bone Density, study participants performed eight weeks of the battery of standard upper and lower body training protocols, like bench presses, pull-ups, squats, and deadlifts, and there was no surprise. You boost muscle mass—unless you’re on a keto diet, in which case there was no significant change in muscle mass after all that effort. Those randomized to a non-ketogenic diet added about three pounds of muscle mass, whereas the same amount of weight lifting on the keto diet tended to subtract muscle mass by about 3.5 ounces on average. How else could you do eight weeks of weight training and not gain a single ounce of muscle on a ketogenic diet? Even keto diet advocates call bodybuilding on a ketogenic diet an “oxymoron.” 
     
    What about bone loss? Sadly, bone fractures are one of the side effects that disproportionately plague children placed on ketogenic diets, along with slowed growth and kidney stones. Ketogenic diets may cause a steady rate of bone loss as measured in the spine, presumed to be because ketones are acidic, so keto diets can put people in what’s called a “chronic acidotic state.” 
     
    Some of the case reports of children on keto diets are truly heart-wrenching. One nine-year-old girl seemed to get it all, including osteoporosis, bone fractures, and kidney stones, then she got pancreatitis and died. Pancreatitis can be triggered by having too much fat in your blood. As you can see in the graph below and at 2:48 in my video, a single high-fat meal can cause a quintupling of the spike in triglycerides in your bloodstream within hours of consumption, which can put you at risk for inflammation of the pancreas.  

    The young girl had a rare genetic disorder called glucose transporter deficiency syndrome. She was born with a defect in ferrying blood sugar into her brain. That can result in daily seizures starting in infancy, but a ketogenic diet can be used as a way to sneak fuel into the brain, which makes a keto diet a godsend for the 1 in 90,000 families stricken with this disorder.

    As with anything in medicine, it’s all about risks versus benefits. As many as 30 percent of patients with epilepsy don’t respond to anti-seizure drugs. Unfortunately, the alternatives aren’t pretty and can include brain surgery that implants deep electrodes through the skull or even removes a lobe of your brain. This can obviously lead to serious side effects, but so can having seizures every day. If a ketogenic diet can help with seizures, the pros can far outweigh the cons. For those just choosing a diet to lose weight, though, the cost-benefit analysis would really seem to go the other way. Thankfully, you don’t need to mortgage your long-term health for short-term weight loss. We can get the best of both worlds by choosing a healthy diet, as I discussed in my video Flashback Friday: The Weight Loss Program That Got Better with Time.
     
    Remember the study that showed the weight loss was nearly identical in those who had been told to eat the low-carb Atkins diet for a year and those told to eat the low-fat Ornish diet, as seen below and at 4:18 in my video? The authors concluded, “This supports the practice of recommending any diet that a patient will adhere to in order to lose weight.” That seems like terrible advice. 

    There are regimens out there like “The Last Chance Diet which consisted of a low-calorie liquid formula made from leftover byproducts from a slaughterhouse [that] was linked to approximately 60 deaths from cardiovascular-related events.” An ensuing failed lawsuit from one widower laid the precedent for the First Amendment protection for those who produce deadly diet books. 

    It’s possible to construct a healthy low-carb diet or an unhealthy low-fat one—a diet of cotton candy would be zero fat—but the health effects of a typical low-carb ketogenic diet like Atkins are vastly different from a low-fat plant-based diet like Ornish’s. As you can see in the graph below and at 5:26 in my video, they would have diametrically opposed effects on cardiovascular risk factors in theory, based on the fiber, saturated fat, and cholesterol contents of their representative meal plans. 

    And when actually put to the test, low-carb diets were found to impair artery function. Over time, blood flow to the heart muscle itself is improved on an Ornish-style diet and diminished on a low-carb one, as shown below and at 5:44 in my video. Heart disease tends to progress on typical weight-loss diets and actively worsens on low-carb diets, but it may be reversed by an Ornish-style diet. Given that heart disease is the number one killer of men and women, “recommending any diet that a patient will adhere to in order to lose weight” seems irresponsible. Why not tell people to smoke? Cigarettes can cause weight loss, too, as can tuberculosis and a meth habit. The goal of weight loss is not to lighten the load for your pallbearers. 

     
    For more on keto diets, see my videos on the topic. Interested in enhancing athletic performance? Check out the related videos below. 

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts | CNN

    John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s some background information about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

    November 22, 1963
    – 11:37 a.m. – Air Force One arrives at Dallas’ Love Field with the President and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John B. Connally Jr. and his wife, Idanell Connally. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, arrive in a separate plane. It is a campaign trip for the coming 1964 election, although not officially designated as such.

    During a 10-mile tour of Dallas, the President and Mrs. Kennedy and the governor and Mrs. Connally ride in an open convertible limousine. The motorcade is on the way to the Trade Mart where the President is to speak at a sold-out luncheon.

    – 12:30 p.m. – As the President’s limousine passes the Texas School Book Depository, shots are fired from a sixth-floor window.

    President Kennedy and Governor Connally are both wounded and are rushed to Parkland Hospital.

    Wire services report three shots were fired as the motorcade passed under Stemmons Freeway. Two bullets hit the President and one hit the Governor.

    Emergency efforts by Drs. Malcolm Perry, Kemp Clark and others are unsuccessful at reviving the president. Governor Connally’s injuries are critical but not fatal. From one bullet, he sustains three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken wrist. The bullet finally lodged in his left thigh.

    – 12:36 p.m. – The ABC radio network broadcasts the first nationwide news bulletin reporting that shots have been fired at the Kennedy motorcade.

    – 12:40 p.m. – The CBS television network broadcasts the first nationwide TV news bulletin also reporting on the shooting.

    – 1:00 p.m. – Kennedy is pronounced dead by Parkland Hospital doctors, becoming the fourth US president killed in office.

    – 1:07 p.m. – News of the shooting causes the New York Stock Exchange to halt trading after an $11 million flood of sell orders.

    – 1:15 p.m. – Lee Harvey Oswald kills Dallas Police Patrolman J.D. Tippit approximately 45 minutes after the assassination.

    – 2:00 p.m. – A bronze casket carrying the President’s body, accompanied by Mrs. Kennedy and the Johnsons, leaves Parkland Hospital for Air Force One.

    – 2:15 p.m. – Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, is arrested in the back of a movie theater where he fled after shooting Tippit.

    – 2:39 p.m. – Johnson is sworn in on the runway of Love Field aboard Air Force One. Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes, of the Northern District of Texas, administers the oath of office. Witnesses include Jacqueline Kennedy and Johnson’s wife.

    – 5:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. ET) – Air Force One arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. The coffin bearing the President’s body is taken by ambulance to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an autopsy. The flag-draped coffin is taken to the East Room of the White House early the next morning following the autopsy.

    – 7:15 p.m. – Oswald is arraigned for the murder of Tippit.

    November 22-25, 1963 – Major television and radio networks devote continuous news coverage to ongoing events associated with the President’s assassination, canceling all entertainment and all commercials. Many theaters, stores and businesses, including the stock exchanges and government offices, are closed through November 25.

    November 23, 1963 – Oswald is arraigned for the murder of the president.

    November 23, 1963 – Johnson designates November 25 as a day of national mourning.

    November 24, 1963 – As Oswald is being transferred from the Dallas city jail to the county jail, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shoots and kills him. The shooting is inadvertently shown live on TV. Ruby is immediately arrested.

    November 24-25, 1963 – Kennedy’s flag-draped casket lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

    November 25, 1963 – Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors and representatives from more than 90 countries in attendance.

    November 26, 1963 – Ruby is indicted in Dallas for the murder of Oswald. He is later convicted, has the conviction overturned on appeal, and dies of cancer in 1967 awaiting a new trial.

    November 29, 1963 – Johnson appoints the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Commonly called the Warren Commission, its purpose is to investigate the assassination.

    September 24, 1964 – The Warren Report is released with the following conclusions: “The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository.” And: “The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.”

    October 26,1992 – President George H.W. Bush signs the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act into law. The law directs the National Archives to establish a collection of records consisting of any materials, by any state or federal agency, that were created during the federal inquiry into the assassination.

    October 26, 2017 – The US government releases more than 2,800 records relating to Kennedy’s assassination in an effort to comply with a 1992 law mandating the documents’ release. President Donald Trump keeps roughly 300 files classified out of concern for US national security, law enforcement and foreign relations. In a memo, Trump directs agencies that requested redactions to re-review their reasons for keeping the records secret within 180 days.

    April 26, 2018 – Trump extends to 2021 the deadline for the public release of files related to the assassination. More than 19,000 documents are released by the National Archives, in compliance with the records law and Trump’s 2017 order.

    October 22, 2021 – The White House announces that it will further postpone the release of more documents related to the assassination, pointing to the “significant impact” of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    December 15, 2021 – The National Archives releases almost 1,500 previously classified documents related to the assassination.

    December 15, 2022 – The National Archives releases over 13,000 previously classified documents collected as part of the government review into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

    June 30, 2023 – The White House announces the National Archives has concluded its review of the classified documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy, with 99% of the records having been made publicly available.

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  • Doctors Suddenly Got Way Better at Treating Eczema

    Doctors Suddenly Got Way Better at Treating Eczema

    Up until a few years ago, Heather Sullivan’s 14-year-old son, Sawyer, had struggled with eczema his entire life. When he was just a baby, most of his body would be covered in intensely itchy rashes that bled and oozed when he couldn’t help but scratch. His family tried steroid creams, wet wraps, bleach baths, and all of the lotions. They tore up their carpet and replaced their sheetrock in hopes of eliminating triggers. At 15 months, he went on cyclosporine, a powerful immunosuppressant usually given to organ-transplant patients. It cleared him up, but the drug comes with potentially dangerous side effects over time. Doctors, Sullivan recalls, were “just appalled that my child would be on this amount of medicine at this age”—but his eczema came roaring back as soon as he went off it.

    When a new eczema drug called Dupixent finally became available to Sawyer a few years ago, his turnaround was fast and dramatic. Within a week, his itchiness and redness started calming down. He felt and looked better. The condition that had dominated their lives began to fade into the background.

    Doctors who treat severe eczema now speak of pre- and post-Dupixent eras: “It changed the landscape of having eczema forever,” says Brett King, a dermatologist at Yale. Today, a half dozen novel treatments are available for the skin condition, all of which work by quieting the same biological pathway in eczema; dozens more are in clinical trials. Unlike older drugs, these new ones are precisely targeted and in many cases startlingly effective.

    Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is characterized by red, itchy, and inflamed skin. It’s a very common condition, estimated to affect 10 percent of Americans. Of those, a large minority suffer from moderate to severe eczema that seeps into everyday life. “Just imagine scratching endlessly,” King says. “You wake up from sleep scratching. Your sheets are bloody in the morning.” The most basic eczema advice is to moisturize, and moisturize often, to protect the barrier of the skin. But scientists now know that eczema’s cause is not in the skin alone. Many patients also have “an over-reactive or overzealous immune system,” says Dawn Davis, a dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic. Their immune cells release chemicals that irritate nerves, causing itch, and even degrade the skin itself.

    Topical steroids, such as over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream, can tamp down the immune reaction that flares in eczema. If these fail, doctors have resorted to more powerful oral steroids, such as prednisone, or other oral immunosuppressants, such as the aforementioned cyclosporine. The drugs can calm eczema, but because they suppress the overall immune system, they also do much more. Prednisone, for example, makes you more prone to infections as well as bone fractures, high blood pressure, and glaucoma when taken in the long term. Of course, for many people, eczema is a chronic condition that requires long-term treatment. “Prednisone is kind of like carpet bombing,” says Peter Lio, a dermatologist at Northwestern University. It blasts eczema away, but at a cost.

    In contrast, the newer drugs, Lio says, are more like shotguns that target specific parts of the immune system—with less collateral damage. They fall into two broad classes. Monoclonal antibodies, such as Dupixent, intercept the immune-signaling molecules that trigger itch and skin inflammation. And then JAK inhibitors, which include pills such as Rinvoq and the topical cream Opzelura, scramble the signal after cells have received it. The development of these drugs came after years of research zeroed in on some of the key immune molecules dysregulated in eczema. But serendipity played a role too: The first such drugs were originally developed for other conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis—only to be repurposed when researchers realized that they targeted the very pathways involved in eczema. The breakthroughs in eczema treatment, in fact, are part of a broader revolution in treating inflammatory disorders; both classes of new drugs are now used to tune the immune system in a whole host of different conditions.

    The monoclonal antibodies and oral JAK inhibitors may have their own serious side effects, such as blood clots, which, Lio says, give some doctors unfamiliar with the new drugs—especially the latter type—pause. But the traditional drugs are not great either. “I’m frustrated that a lot of clinicians are very cavalier about prednisone and cyclosporine … They’re like, ‘Oh, they’re our old friends,’” he told me. “Then they get nervous about JAK inhibitors.” In his mind, the new drugs are simply the better option in terms of safety and efficacy.

    Jonathan Silverberg, a dermatologist at George Washington University who specializes in eczema, says he now rarely uses the old oral steroids and immunosuppressants. When he does revert to them, it’s not for medical reasons: He ends up prescribing older (that is, generic and therefore cheaper) drugs for uninsured patients who can’t afford the new ones, or for patients who have insurance but are nevertheless denied coverage. “Insurance says, ‘Can it be fixed with a $10 medicine? Or does it really need the $1,000 tube?’” King told me. Getting patients these newer drugs can mean a lot of time fighting with insurance.

    For now, these drugs have most dramatically improved the lives of patients with moderate to severe eczema—at least those patients who can access them. But doctors told me that topical JAK inhibitors, which are safer than the oral version, could one day be first-line treatments for mild eczema as well. “In a perfect world, I would love it if I never had to prescribe a topical steroid again,” Silverberg said, citing the side effects that come with long-term use. Topical steroids can thin the skin, causing stretch marks, fragility, and poor healing. But at the moment, steroids are also cheap and easily available. They’re not going anywhere as long as the new treatments still come with hefty price tags.

    Sarah Zhang

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  • Husband recovering after losing new wife in alleged drunken driving accident | CNN

    Husband recovering after losing new wife in alleged drunken driving accident | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Less than two weeks after a car hit a newly married couple leaving their South Carolina wedding, killing the bride, her groom is leaving the hospital to recover from his injuries and mourn his wife.

    Aric Hutchinson and his new wife, Samantha, were hit by a drunken driver as they left their wedding reception in Folly Beach, South Carolina, according to police. Samantha was killed.

    Aric “is physically recovering at home while trying to come to terms with the loss of his beautiful wife,” the groom’s mother, Annette Hutchinson, posted in an update to their GoFundMe post verified by CNN.

    “We are missing Sam more than anything, she instantly fit into our family from the first day Aric and Sam met, she was everything to my son and changed him for the better,” she added.

    “Aric received multiple injuries including two broken legs, one which had to be surgically repaired. Broken bones in his face which also had to be surgically repaired. Broken vertebrates in his back, brain bleeds, and numerous cuts with stitches,” the post said.

    “While our hearts are broken along with the Millers, we never could have imagined how sharing our story would result in the tremendous outpouring of love, support, and overwhelming generosity we have received,” the mother added.

    Samantha’s obituary described her as fearless and compassionate with an ability to light up a room.

    “She had no nerves nor hesitation. Aric was her person. They shared a kind of love that most people will never know,” her obituary said.

    The obituary continues, Aric “is doing the unimaginable of planning Sam’s funeral along with her family.”

    The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, mourners make donations to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, according to an obituary posted online.

    The suspect in Samantha’s death, Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, was charged with one count of reckless homicide and three counts of felony DUI resulting in great bodily harm, online court records show. Her vehicle was traveling 65 mph in a 25 mph zone, according to Chief Andrew Gilreath, the public safety director for Folly Beach.

    Komoroski refused a field sobriety test, according to an affidavit. A warrant was issued for blood to be taken from Komoroski for testing, the document noted.

    “We cannot fathom what the families are going through and offer our deepest sympathies. We simply ask that there not be a rush to judgment. Our court system is founded upon principles of justice and mercy and that is where all facts will come to light,” one of her attorneys, Christopher J. Gramiccioni, told CNN via email.

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  • Sen. Blumenthal will undergo ‘routine surgery’ after fracturing femur during parade | CNN Politics

    Sen. Blumenthal will undergo ‘routine surgery’ after fracturing femur during parade | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal will undergo “routine surgery” on Sunday after he fractured his femur at a University of Connecticut men’s basketball victory parade.

    Connecticut’s senior senator said in a post on Twitter that the fracture happened during the team’s parade Saturday in honor of their NCAA championship win last week.

    “I did indeed fracture my femur after a fellow parade goer tripped & fell on me during the parade today,” Blumenthal said. “Routine surgery tomorrow just to make sure everything heals properly. I expect a full recovery!”

    Blumenthal was replying to Sen. Chris Murphy, a fellow Connecticut Democrat who was also at the parade and tweeted that his colleague “FINISHED THE PARADE” after breaking his femur. “Most Dick Blumenthal thing ever,” Murphy said.

    The 77-year-old Blumenthal won a third Senate term last fall. First elected in 2010, he previously served five terms as Connecticut’s attorney general.

    The Senate is set to reconvene April 17. The Democratic Caucus’s narrow 51-49 advantage in the chamber means any absence could affect key votes. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman was recently discharged from a hospital where he was being treated for depression and expects to return when the Senate reconvenes.

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