Tag: health newsletters

All of us can lower the odds of unintentional shootings.

Guns hurt and kill; it’s a simple fact. And while most gun injuries and deaths are the result of an assault or suicide, unintentional injuries happen all the time, including to children and between them. In the six-year span between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2020, there were at least 2,070 unintentional shootings by children under 18 years old, resulting in 765 deaths and 1,366 injuries, according to Everytown Research and Policy.

If you’re a parent — or even if you’re not — you can help reduce the odds of an accidental shooting in several ways.

Why is it important to talk about gun safety with children?

Children are naturally curious, and guns are ubiquitous in the media and video games that children see all the time. Many don’t really understand how dangerous guns can be, and most don’t know how to tell if a gun is loaded.

According to the Pew Research Center, three in 10 in Americans own a gun, and four in 10 live in a household with one. So it’s not surprising that 34% of children in the US live in a home with at least one firearm. While it is recommended that guns be stored locked, with ammunition locked separately, less than half of US families with both children and guns actually do this.

What steps can parents take around gun safety?

If you have a gun and you have a child in your home, please lock up the gun, and lock up the ammunition separately. And make sure that your child doesn’t know how to unlock either or both. Children know more than most adults realize.

If your child plays at the homes of other children, you need to think — and ask — about gun safety. Many people feel uncomfortable asking; they worry that asking could be seen as an invasion of privacy, or as being judgmental. But it’s not either one. It’s simple safety.

The best way to do it is to make it routine, and make it part of other questions you should ask before sending your child to someone else’s home. You might say: “Hey, I have some questions I always ask before sending my child somewhere, just being safe.” Then, you could ask things like:

• “Who will be home with them, and how do you handle supervision?”
• “Do you have a pool?” (If yes, more questions about safety and supervision are important.)
• “Does anybody smoke?” (This is particularly important if your child has asthma or other breathing issues.)
• “Do you have pets?” (This is important for allergies, if your child is afraid of animals, and to find out if there are any animals that might be aggressive.)
• “Does anyone have allergies?” (So that your child doesn’t bring any foods that might cause problems.)

There may be other questions you ask based on your situation. As for guns, the question you should ask is:

• “Do you have an unlocked gun in your home?”

If the answer is yes, you have options. You can either ask them to please lock it up (and ask more questions about supervision), or if you’re not sure the family can or will lock it up, say, “I am so sorry, but I won’t be able to send my child to your home.” Be matter-of-fact and pleasant. If it’s a playdate, you can offer to have it at your home, or to take the children somewhere else like a local park.

They may be surprised or offended, sure. But that’s a risk worth taking to protect your child’s safety, and maybe even their life.

An ad for a new eczema drug leaves some questions unanswered.

Dry, itchy, reddened skin is the hallmark of eczema. If you have eczema and have seen this ad, you may be wondering about Dupixent (dupilumab). Does this new medicine work as well as it seems to in the ad? Where does the ad hit the mark, and where could it do better?

The medicine only treats one type of eczema

While the ad uses “eczema” and “atopic dermatitis” interchangeably, these conditions aren’t exactly the same. Eczema is an umbrella term that includes:

• atopic dermatitis, which develops in people prone to asthma and environmental allergies, such as hay fever
• contact dermatitis, which is an allergic reaction to a substance touching the skin, such as soaps, scented products, or poison ivy
• skin inflammation that accompanies leg swelling.

Atopic dermatitis is the only skin condition for which Dupixent is approved.

The pitch

Every ad is a sales pitch, whether it uses real people or paid actors. Here we see real people banging on drums in a band, playing piano or trombone, and baking in the kitchen. A voiceover says “With less eczema, you can show more skin. So, roll up those sleeves and help heal your skin from within with Dupixent.” The pitch? People with eczema may be embarrassed by it and try to hide it — and effective treatment means you need not keep your skin covered.

We next hear this is “the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate to severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare-ups.” The viewer sees an outstretched arm with a red rash that clears up over a second or two. Of course, that’s not what happens in real life; it can take weeks to see improvement.

More perplexingly, the voiceover tells us that the drug “…is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid.” Perhaps you’re wondering what a “biologic” medicine is. Hold that question for further explanation below. “Many people taking Dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin and had significantly less itch. That’s a difference you can feel.“

Side effects, warnings, and a tagline

The warnings may raise eyebrows. “Don’t use if you’re allergic to Dupixent. Serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes, or parasitic infection. If you take asthma medicines, don’t change or stop them without talking to your doctor.“

Quickly, though, the ad moves on to a glowing tagline: “So help heal your skin from within” and recommends talking to “your eczema specialist” about Dupixent. That may be difficult: most people with eczema see their primary care physician for it, not a dermatologist.

What the ad gets right

It’s true that people with eczema may try to hide it and that effective therapy may be liberating, allowing them to worry less about others seeing their skin. Dupixent is, indeed, neither a cream nor a steroid, which are older, common treatments for eczema. And, yes, Dupixent is the first treatment of its kind for eczema. It blocks a chemical called interleukin 4 (IL-4), which is thought to play an important role in this skin disease.

What else should you consider if you have atopic dermatitis?

• How is it usually treated? Mild cases of atopic dermatitis may respond to skin moisturizers or medicated creams, gels, or ointments, some of which contain steroids. But this may not be effective for more severe eczema.
• What’s a biologic? These medicines are made in a living system such as a microorganism, human or animal cells, or plant cells. They are often antibodies that block a substance in the body thought to cause or contribute to a disease. Because biologics are usually large molecules that would be destroyed during digestion if taken in pill form, they are generally available only by injection. Dupixent is injected every two weeks.
• Why are eye problems, parasites, and asthma mentioned in the warnings? Eye inflammation was a side effect of the medicine in studies leading to approval. IL-4 is considered a key part of our immune defense against parasitic infections, and a few study participants developed parasitic infections. As for asthma, Dupixent is an approved asthma treatment when combined with other medicines. So, if you had asthma and it improved while you treated your atopic dermatitis, you might be tempted to cut back on your other medicines — but that’s not safe without medical supervision.
• What about cost? Biologics are expensive. This yearly price tag for this medicine is about $40,000 a year. Even when covered by health insurance, copays and deductibles can make it a costly treatment.
• Does it work? Text appearing on the screen says 37% of adults and 24% of teenagers saw major improvement after four months of treatment, compared with less than 10% of people not taking Dupixent. That may seem great if you’re in the minority of people who dramatically improved. Or it might seem like modest success for a systemic treatment with significant risk of side effects and a large price tag.

The bottom line

Drug ads exist to sell a product. They should never be your primary source of health and treatment information. For that, look to your own health care providers and other reliable sources of information like the FDA or NIH. Their primary interest is providing accurate information and promoting public health and medication safety, not convincing you to use a particular drug.

Busy people may find it hard to take heart-healthy steps. These simple swaps can help.

Busy days make it hard to put heart health on the front burner. It just feels like you don’t have time for habits that keep the ticker in top shape — like exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and eating a healthy diet. So maybe you take the stairs when you can, or you park farther away from a store to rack up a few extra steps each day. But what else can you do? Here are three things that might fit in your schedule.

Swap electronic communication for an in-person meeting

It’s fine if texting, emailing, social media, or Zoom calls are your primary means of communicating with others. But it’s not okay if those methods leave you feeling lonely or isolated — two problems linked to higher risks for heart disease, heart attack, or stroke, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

To combat loneliness and isolation, try to replace some of your electronic back-and-forth with people with in-person meetings. Maybe you can find room in your schedule for a quick walk, cup of coffee, or brief lunch with a friend or colleague.

“Time spent face-to-face helps connect you to others and may make you feel less isolated,” explains Matthew Lee, a sociologist and research associate at Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program. “Being physically co-present can help you feel more engaged with others, more valued, and more likely to feel a sense of shared identity — all things that may help ease loneliness. This is why some doctors are starting to engage in ‘social prescribing,’ including suggesting that people get involved in volunteering and other activities that build in-person social relationships.”

A recent study published in the International Journal of Public Health by Lee and a team of Harvard-led researchers suggests that better social connectedness may reduce the risk of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety. Both are associated with heart disease or making existing heart conditions worse.

Swap an unhealthy breakfast for a healthier one

Is your typical breakfast something quick and full of refined (not whole) grains, processed meat, saturated fat, or added sugar? Eating that kind of food regularly may drive up calories, weight, blood sugar, or cholesterol levels — and that’s not good for your heart.

Instead, chose breakfast foods rich in fiber, a type of carbohydrate that either passes through the body undigested (insoluble fiber) or dissolves into a gel (soluble fiber) that coats the gut.

Not only does fiber help digestion, it also

• traps, mops up, and lowers bad [LDL] cholesterol that can lead to clogged arteries
• controls blood sugar and lowers the risk for diabetes, which is strongly associated with heart attacks and strokes
• may help fight chronic inflammation, which plays a role in clogging arteries and causing heart attacks.

Fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains (oats, barley, quinoa) and many other foods are rich in fiber. Try these fiber-rich breakfast ideas:

• microwaved oatmeal (heat a 1/2 cup of oatmeal with almost a cup of low-fat milk for about two minutes)
• a serving of cooked quinoa (cold, if you have it in your fridge) with a dollop of nonfat Greek yogurt, berries, and granola
• whole-grain cereal with milk (go for cereals with the highest amounts of whole grains and lowest amounts of added sugars)
• a slice of whole-grain toast with two tablespoons of nut butter (like almond or peanut butter)
• one or two handfuls of homemade trail mix (use your favorite unsalted nuts, sunflower seeds, and dried fruit such as raisins or apricots).

Swap a few minutes of scroll time for meditation time

If you ever take a break from your busy day to scroll through news on your phone or computer, chances are you can also find a little time to meditate, which is important for heart health. Research indicates that people who meditate have lower rates of high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and coronary artery disease compared with people who don’t meditate.

What’s the connection? Meditating triggers the body’s relaxation response, a well-studied physiological change that appears to help lower your blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen consumption, adrenaline levels, and levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

The great news: it doesn’t take much time to reap the heart-healthy benefits of meditating — just about 10 to 20 minutes per day.

Ideas for quick ways to meditate in a busy day include sitting quietly, closing your eyes, and

• focusing on your breathing, without judging sounds you hear or thoughts that pop into your head
• listening to a guided meditation, which uses mental images to help you relax
• listening to a recording of calming sounds such as waves, a bubbling brook, or gentle rain.

Just try to calm your brain for a few minutes a day. Soon, you may find you’ve become better at meditating and better at practicing other heart-healthy habits, no matter how busy you are.