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Tag: Surgery

  • Lindsey Vonn Says Surgery Saved Her From Having Her Left Leg Amputated Following Olympic Crash

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    Vonn revealed in an Instagram post on Monday that her injuries went far beyond the complex tibia fracture in the leg she initially hurt after clipping a gate and sailing off course just 13 seconds into her run on Feb. 8.

    The 41-year-old Vonn said the trauma from the crash led to compartment syndrome in her leg. Compartment syndrome involves excessive pressure building up inside a muscle, either from bleeding or swelling. High pressure restricts blood flow and can lead to permanent injury if not treated quickly.

    “When you have so much trauma to one area of your body so that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck and it basically crushes everything,” Vonn said.

    Vonn credited Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon who works for Vonn and Team USA, for conducting a fasciotomy to salvage her leg.

    “He filleted it open (and) let it breathe, and he saved me,” she said.

    Vonn noted that Hackett was only in Cortina because she was competing after tearing the ACL in her left knee shortly before the Olympics.

    “If I hadn’t had done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there (and he) wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she said.

    Vonn, who said she has been discharged from the hospital, also broke her right ankle in the crash.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Former ‘Jersey Shore’ star Snooki says she has cervical cancer

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    FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi said Friday that she has cervical cancer.

    The former “Jersey Shore” star said in a video posted to TikTok that a biopsy had revealed the stage one cancer.

    “Obviously not the news that I was hoping for,” she said, sitting in her car between medical appointments. “But also not the worst news, just because they caught it so early, thank freaking God.”

    She urged her followers to get Pap smears, and said she is likely to have a hysterectomy after her initial treatment.

    “So 2026 is not panning out how I wanted it to,” she said.

    Polizzi became one of the breakout stars of “Jersey Shore” from its debut on MTV in 2009. She was on the reality show for six seasons and appeared in the later spinoffs “Snooki & JWoww” and “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.”

    Now 38, she still lives in New Jersey, has been married for 11 years and has three children.

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  • From Gastric Balloons to Fake Knee Surgeries: When the Fix Is an Illusion | NutritionFacts.org

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    Sham surgery trials have shown that some of our most popular surgeries are themselves shams.

    Intragastric balloons “arrived with much fanfare in the 1980s,” since they could be implanted into the stomach and inflated with air or water to fill much of the space. Unfortunately, surgical devices are often brought to the market before there is adequate evidence of effectiveness and safety, and the balloons were no exception.

    The “gastric bubble” had its bubble burst when a study at the Mayo Clinic found that 8 out of 10 balloons “spontaneously deflated,” which is potentially dangerous because they could pass into the intestines and cause an obstruction, as you can see below and at 0:40 in my video Is Gastric Balloon Surgery Safe and Effective for Weight Loss?.

    Before balloons deflated, however, they apparently caused gastric erosions in half the patients, damaging their stomach lining. The kicker is that, in terms of inducing weight loss, they didn’t even work when compared to diet and other behavior modification strategies. Eventually, intragastric balloons were pulled from the market. But now, balloons are back.

    After a 33-year hiatus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration started approving a new slew of intragastric balloons in 2015, which immediately resulted in the placement of more than 5,000 devices. By then, the Sunshine Act had passed. It forced drug companies and the surgical and medical device industry to disclose any payments made to physicians, shining a disinfecting light on industry enticements. By now, most people know about the overly cozy financial relationships doctors can have with Big Pharma, but fewer may realize that surgeons can also get payments from the companies for the devices they use. The 100 top physician recipients of industry payments received an unbelievable $12 million from device companies in a single year. Yet outrageously, when they published papers, only a minority disclosed the blatant conflict of interest.

    The benefit of balloons over most types of bariatric surgery is that they’re reversible, but that doesn’t mean they’re benign. The FDA has released a series of advisories about the risks, which include death. But how could someone suffer a stomach perforation with a smooth, rounded object? By that smooth, rounded object causing the patient to vomit so much that they rupture their stomach and die. Nausea and vomiting are unsurprisingly “very common side effects,” affecting the majority of those who have balloons placed inside of them. Persistent vomiting likely also explains cases of life-threatening nutrient deficiencies after balloon implantation.

    Some complications, such as bowel obstruction, are due to the balloons deflating, but others, oddly enough, are due to the balloons suddenly overinflating, causing pain, vomiting, and abdominal distention, as you can see below and at 2:45 in my video.

    This issue was first noticed in breast implants, as documented in reports such as “The Phenomenon of the Spontaneously Autoinflating Breast Implant.” Out of nowhere, the implants can just start growing, increasing breast volume by an average of more than 50%. “It remains an underreported and poorly understood phenomenon,” one review noted. (Interestingly, breast implants were actually used as some of the first failed experimental intragastric balloons.)

    As with any medical decision, though, it’s all about risks versus benefits. Industry-funded trials display “notable weight loss,” but it’s hard to tease out the effect of the balloon on its own from the accompanying “supervised diet and lifestyle changes” prescribed in the studies. In drug trials, you can randomize study participants to sugar pills, but how do you eliminate the placebo effect of undergoing a procedure? Perform sham surgery.

    In 2002, a courageous study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The most common orthopedic surgery—arthroscopic surgery of the knee—was put to the test. Billions of dollars are spent on sticking scopes into knee joints and cutting away damaged tissue in osteoarthritis and knee injuries, but does that actually work? People suffering from knee pain were randomized to get the actual surgery versus a sham surgery, in which surgeons sliced into people’s knees and pretended to perform the procedure—even splashing saline—without actually treating the joint.

    The trial caused an uproar. How could anyone randomize people to get cut open for fake surgery? Professional medical associations questioned the ethics of the surgeons as well as “the sanity” of the patients who agreed to be part of the trial. Guess what happened? The surgical patients got better, but so did the placebo patients, as you can see below and at 4:42 in my video.

    The surgeries had no actual effect. Currently, rotator cuff shoulder surgery is facing the same crisis of confidence.

    When intragastric balloons were put to the test, sham-controlled trials showed that both older and newer devices sometimes fail to offer any weight-loss benefit. Even when they do work, the weight loss may be temporary because balloons are only allowed to stay in for six months (at which point the deflation risk gets too great). Why can’t you keep putting new ones in? That’s been tried; it failed to improve long-term weight outcomes. A sham-controlled trial showed that any effects of the balloon on appetite and satiety may vanish with time, perhaps as your body gets used to the new normal.

    What sham surgery trials have shown us is that some of our most popular surgeries are themselves shams. Doctors like to pride themselves on being men and women of science. For example, we rightly rail against the anti-vaccination movement. Many of us in medicine have been troubled by the political trend in which people “choose their own facts.” But when I read that some of these still-popular surgeries are not only useless but may actually make matters worse (for example, increasing the risk of progression to a total knee replacement), I can’t help but think we are hardly immune to our own versions of fake news and alternative facts.

    Doctor’s Note

    Next in this two-part series is Extreme Weight-Loss Devices.

    For more on bariatric surgery, check out related posts below.

    My book How Not to Diet is focused exclusively on sustainable weight loss. Borrow it from your local library or pick up a copy from your favorite bookseller. (All proceeds from my books are donated to charity.)

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • History Happenings: Feb. 16, 2026

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    On this day in 1912, readers learned that the Rayo Lamp, the best lamp for reading and sewing on the market, cost a mere $1.49. Made by Standard Oil, it came with a chimney and 10-inch white dome shade for…

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  • Lindsey Vonn Says Her Latest Surgery After Olympic Crash ‘Went Well’ and She Can Return to US

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    CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn’s latest surgery on her left leg that she broke in the Olympic downhill “went well” and now she “will be able to finally go back to the U.S.,” the American skiing standout said Saturday.

    The 41-year-old Vonn is being treated at a hospital in Treviso.

    She said on Wednesday that she had a “successful” third surgery.

    Nine days before Sunday’s crash, Vonn ruptured the ACL in her left knee in another crash. Even before then, all eyes had been on her as the feel-good story heading into the Olympics for her comeback after nearly six years of retirement.

    “I have been reading a lot of messages and comments saying that what has happened to me makes them sad,” Vonn said on Instagram. “Please, don’t be sad. Empathy, love and support I welcome with an open heart, but please not sadness or sympathy. I hope instead it gives you strength to keep fighting, because that is what I am doing and that is what I will continue to do. Always.

    “When I think back on my crash, I didn’t stand in the starting gate unaware of the potential consequences. I knew what I was doing. I chose to take a risk.”

    But Vonn concluded her latest message by saying she is “still looking forward to the moment when I can stand on the top of the mountain once more. And I will.”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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  • Kings’ Zach LaVine set for season-ending hand surgery

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    (Photo credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images)

    The Sacramento Kings, leading a tight race to finish with the worst record in the NBA, reportedly will be without their leading scorer for the rest of the season.

    Zach LaVine will have right hand surgery following this weekend’s All-Star break, veteran NBA writer Chris Haynes reported on Friday.

    LaVine missed the Kings’ past three games due to what was described as a tendon injury to his right pinkie.

    The 30-year-old veteran has appeared in 39 games (37 starts) for Sacramento this season, averaging 19.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists. All of those figures are his lowest in the past eight seasons.

    The Kings acquired LaVine from the Chicago Bulls as part of a three-team deal at the February 2025 trade deadline. Sacramento picked up three first-round picks and three second-rounders in that transaction, which saw De’Aaron Fox go from the Kings to the San Antonio Spurs.

    Over 12 NBA seasons, LaVine has averages of 20.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 693 games (602 starts) with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago and Sacramento. He was an All-Star for the Bulls in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

    The Kings (12-44) are battling with the Washington Wizards (14-39), New Orleans Pelicans (15-41), Indiana Pacers (15-40), Brooklyn Nets (15-38) and Utah Jazz (18-37) at the bottom of the league standings. The Pacers and Jazz were fined by the NBA on Thursday for holding players out of games in an apparent attempt to tank.

    Teams reportedly are keen to be in the draft lottery this year with a highly rated class set to enter the NBA.

    Sacramento returns from the All-Star break on Thursday with a home game against the Orlando Magic.

    –Field Level Media

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  • Rangers lose top prospect, infielder Sebastian Walcott, to UCL injury and surgery

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    FILE – This is a 2025 photo of Sebastian Walcott of the Texas Rangers baseball team. This image reflects the Texas Rangers’ active roster as of Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, when this image was taken in Surprise, Ariz. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

    The Associated Press

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  • Lindsey Vonn crashes early in Olympic downhill as she competes on torn ACL at age 41

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    Lindsey Vonn, racing on a badly injured left knee, crashed early in the Olympic downhill Sunday and was taken off the course in a helicopter after receiving medical attention for several minutes.Previous coverage above: When athletes push through injuries Vonn lost control over the opening traverse after cutting the line too tight and was spun around in the air. She was heard screaming out after the crash as she was surrounded by medical personnel before she was strapped to a gurney and flown away by a helicopter, possibly ending the skier’s storied career. Her condition was not immediately known, with the U.S. Ski Team saying simply she would be evaluated.Video below: Lindsey Vonn talks torn ACL, skiing in CortinaBreezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, won gold and became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for Team USA.Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated. Others in the crowd, including Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course where she had so many fond memories.Video below: U.S. skiers talk about Lindsey Vonn competing in Italy Olympics despite torn ACLVonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”All eyes were on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years, a remarkable decision at any time, but especially so given her age and that she had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee. Many wondered how she would fare.She stunned everyone by being a contender almost immediately. She came to the Olympics as the leader in the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland nine days ago, when she suffered her latest knee injury. In addition to a ruptured ACL, she also had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.Still, no one counted her out even then. She has skied through injuries for three decades at the top of the sport. In 2006, ahead of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a bad fall during downhill training and went to the hospital. She competed less than 48 hours later, racing in all four events she’d planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G.“It’s definitely weird,” she said then, “going from the hospital bed to the start gate.”Cortina has always had many treasured memories for Vonn beyond the record wins. She is called the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofana is a course that had always suited Vonn. She tested out the knee twice in downhill training runs over the past three days before the crash on Sunday in clear, sunny conditions.“This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”After the crash, the celebration for the medalists was held and fellow skiers thought about Vonn’s legacy.“She has been my idol since I started watching ski racing,” said Kajsa Vickhoff Lie of Norway. “We still have a World Cup to do after Olympics … I wouldn’t be surprised if she suddenly shows up on the start gate, but the crash didn’t look good.”

    CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy —

    Lindsey Vonn, racing on a badly injured left knee, crashed early in the Olympic downhill Sunday and was taken off the course in a helicopter after receiving medical attention for several minutes.

    Previous coverage above: When athletes push through injuries

    Vonn lost control over the opening traverse after cutting the line too tight and was spun around in the air. She was heard screaming out after the crash as she was surrounded by medical personnel before she was strapped to a gurney and flown away by a helicopter, possibly ending the skier’s storied career. Her condition was not immediately known, with the U.S. Ski Team saying simply she would be evaluated.

    Video below: Lindsey Vonn talks torn ACL, skiing in Cortina

    Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, won gold and became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for Team USA.

    Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated. Others in the crowd, including Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course where she had so many fond memories.

    Video below: U.S. skiers talk about Lindsey Vonn competing in Italy Olympics despite torn ACL

    Vonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.

    “I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”

    All eyes were on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years, a remarkable decision at any time, but especially so given her age and that she had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee. Many wondered how she would fare.

    She stunned everyone by being a contender almost immediately. She came to the Olympics as the leader in the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland nine days ago, when she suffered her latest knee injury. In addition to a ruptured ACL, she also had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.

    Still, no one counted her out even then. She has skied through injuries for three decades at the top of the sport. In 2006, ahead of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a bad fall during downhill training and went to the hospital. She competed less than 48 hours later, racing in all four events she’d planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G.

    “It’s definitely weird,” she said then, “going from the hospital bed to the start gate.”

    Cortina has always had many treasured memories for Vonn beyond the record wins. She is called the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofana is a course that had always suited Vonn. She tested out the knee twice in downhill training runs over the past three days before the crash on Sunday in clear, sunny conditions.

    “This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”

    After the crash, the celebration for the medalists was held and fellow skiers thought about Vonn’s legacy.

    “She has been my idol since I started watching ski racing,” said Kajsa Vickhoff Lie of Norway. “We still have a World Cup to do after Olympics … I wouldn’t be surprised if she suddenly shows up on the start gate, but the crash didn’t look good.”

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  • How Lindsey Vonn can compete with a ruptured ACL

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    Lindsey Vonn wiped out in a downhill race on Jan. 30. She got up limping, then was airlifted from the course. The diagnosis: a ruptured ACL — a season-ending injury for most.But the three-time Olympic medalist announced on Tuesday she would go on to compete in her fifth Games.On Friday, she completed her downhill training run without issue at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre ahead of Sunday’s medal event in Cortina d’Ampezzo.Video above: U.S. Skiers talk about Lindsey Vonn competing in Italy Olympics despite torn ACLFor anyone who’s hobbled off the field, it’s hard not to ask: How?“It is a big deal to tear your ACL,” said Lindsey Lepley, an associate professor of athletic training at the University of Michigan. “And doing anything while being ACL-deficient is a big deal.”Vonn, 41, who is set to be the oldest Alpine skier to race at a Winter Olympics, has an extensive history of knee injuries and surgeries, including two prior ACL injuries. Dr. Martin Roche, a surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery, says Vonn’s first injuries date back to the beginning of her professional career in the 2000s.She’s had problems with both knees, but her left was the “stronger” one, according to Roche, who performed a partial knee replacement on the Olympian’s right knee in 2024. After Friday’s crash, her left knee is now injured — a new turn in Vonn’s long injury saga.What is the ACL and why is it important?The ACL — also known as the anterior cruciate ligament — is a ligament that connects the bones of the knee, stabilizing the joint and preventing one bone from sliding in front of the other.“The knee is not a joint that is completely stable,” Dr. Anthony Petrosini, an orthopedic surgeon at Hackensack Meridian Health, said. “The ligaments play a great role in keeping the knee in position.”Petrosini, who has torn his own ACL, says the structure is easily injured because it has a hefty responsibility in controlling the knee’s rotational stability. It’s the most common knee injury, affecting more than 200,000 people per year in the United States.Weight-bearing and high-speed activities, particularly those involving sudden twists and stops, place the greatest burden on the ACL.And skiing fits that bill. It’s among the highest-risk sports for ACL injuries. Vonn’s sex and prior injuries further increase that risk.When injured, the ACL can be partially torn, also known as a tear, or fully separated, referred to as a rupture. The terms are frequently used interchangeably, as Vonn did on Tuesday.What happens when the ACL is injured?A jolt of pain is felt when the ACL is first injured. Some people also feel a pop or instability in the knee. Fluid then accumulates in the joint, causing swelling and stiffness. The inflammatory response can also cause a locking sensation and reduced range of motion.For many, that means trouble standing on the injured knee and continued pain.The structures above the knee also feel the pain. Lepley studies how muscles of the upper leg shut down after a knee injury — a process called muscle inhibition.“It’s sort of this unique forgetfulness that happens between the brain and the muscle,” Lepley said.The injury also travels up to the brain, triggering a fear response. “People are going to have fear of re‑injury,” Lepley explained, noting the psychological component can cause someone to change movement patterns.That’s why, Lepley says, Vonn was likely performing box jumps after the injury. “They’re sort of testing that fear,” Lepley said, noting the exercises can also help fight off muscle inhibition. “If you can’t jump and stabilize yourself on solid ground, that’s a good indication that somebody has too much hesitation.”In a video posted on Instagram on Thursday, a day before her completed training run, Vonn squats with weights, lunges from side to side and does fast kicks against a ball.How to treat an injured ACLOnce the ACL is torn, it doesn’t regenerate in the same way that bone does. “Unfortunately, we’re not like lizards,” Lepley said.Most people undergo surgery to reconstruct the ligament, and nearly all athletes get the procedure after the injury, according to Roche.While a surgical approach doesn’t speed up recovery time, it can stabilize the knee, reduce the risk of further injury and allow for return to high-demanding activities like skiing. Some data suggests surgery can also reduce the risk of osteoarthritis — a common long-term concern after ACL injury — though the evidence is conflicting.Regardless of whether someone has surgery, months of rehab are standard. Those who don’t opt for surgery stick to pain control and rehab, learning to live without a functioning ACL.Vonn said on Tuesday that surgery “hasn’t been discussed.”“It’s not really on my radar screen right now. The Olympics are the only thing that I’m thinking about,” she said. “We’re doing everything to make sure I am making smart and safe decisions.”Has anyone ever skied on an injured ACL?Yes, some of Vonn’s teammates said they’ve done it. Other skiers, like Slovakian Veronika Velez-Zuzulová have done it, too. And Vonn says she’s done it before.“It’s possible,” Roche said. But other parts of the leg need to compensate.“When that ligament is gone, your muscles have to step up to help stabilize the joint,” Lepley said.All the experts CNN spoke with emphasized that an immediate return to competition is far from the norm — and not recommended. Far more often, athletes do the opposite. Hitting the slopes would expose Vonn to substantial risk of further injury.Plus, there was more to her injury. She also reported bone bruising and meniscal damage, both common companions to ACL injuries. These additional injuries raise the risk further, making her return to racing even more dangerous. The good news, though, is that Vonn didn’t report any significant bone fractures, Roche said.Roche, who knows Vonn’s medical history well, says it comes down to the athlete.“She knows her body better than anyone,” Roche said. “She’ll be able to determine if she can overcome any injury to her knee quickly or if it’s going to set her back.”What to watch for when Vonn returns for fresh powderVonn is set to begin racing on Sunday.“I don’t think she’s going to be able to perform at 100%,” Lepley said. “But I think she’s going to be able to make the best of a bad situation.”Parts of the course that put more stress on one knee could be especially risky. Lepley says the Olympian might lack symmetry as she compensates.The biggest concern is Vonn’s meniscus, which acts as a shock absorber and helps the knee move smoothly. Without a functioning ACL, the structure is more vulnerable and, if injured, it’s notoriously difficult to heal.At the finish line, three things will matter most, Lepley says: a medical exam to check for any additional damage, close monitoring of pain and swelling and a renewed focus on restoring normal motion and walking. And if her knees are on her side, a medal.“She’s in good hands,” Petrosini said. “To be able to pull off what she’s attempting is really remarkable.”

    Lindsey Vonn wiped out in a downhill race on Jan. 30. She got up limping, then was airlifted from the course. The diagnosis: a ruptured ACL — a season-ending injury for most.

    But the three-time Olympic medalist announced on Tuesday she would go on to compete in her fifth Games.

    On Friday, she completed her downhill training run without issue at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre ahead of Sunday’s medal event in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

    Video above: U.S. Skiers talk about Lindsey Vonn competing in Italy Olympics despite torn ACL

    For anyone who’s hobbled off the field, it’s hard not to ask: How?

    “It is a big deal to tear your ACL,” said Lindsey Lepley, an associate professor of athletic training at the University of Michigan. “And doing anything while being ACL-deficient is a big deal.”

    Vonn, 41, who is set to be the oldest Alpine skier to race at a Winter Olympics, has an extensive history of knee injuries and surgeries, including two prior ACL injuries. Dr. Martin Roche, a surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery, says Vonn’s first injuries date back to the beginning of her professional career in the 2000s.

    She’s had problems with both knees, but her left was the “stronger” one, according to Roche, who performed a partial knee replacement on the Olympian’s right knee in 2024. After Friday’s crash, her left knee is now injured — a new turn in Vonn’s long injury saga.

    What is the ACL and why is it important?

    The ACL — also known as the anterior cruciate ligament — is a ligament that connects the bones of the knee, stabilizing the joint and preventing one bone from sliding in front of the other.

    “The knee is not a joint that is completely stable,” Dr. Anthony Petrosini, an orthopedic surgeon at Hackensack Meridian Health, said. “The ligaments play a great role in keeping the knee in position.”

    Petrosini, who has torn his own ACL, says the structure is easily injured because it has a hefty responsibility in controlling the knee’s rotational stability. It’s the most common knee injury, affecting more than 200,000 people per year in the United States.

    Weight-bearing and high-speed activities, particularly those involving sudden twists and stops, place the greatest burden on the ACL.

    And skiing fits that bill. It’s among the highest-risk sports for ACL injuries. Vonn’s sex and prior injuries further increase that risk.

    When injured, the ACL can be partially torn, also known as a tear, or fully separated, referred to as a rupture. The terms are frequently used interchangeably, as Vonn did on Tuesday.

    What happens when the ACL is injured?

    A jolt of pain is felt when the ACL is first injured. Some people also feel a pop or instability in the knee. Fluid then accumulates in the joint, causing swelling and stiffness. The inflammatory response can also cause a locking sensation and reduced range of motion.

    For many, that means trouble standing on the injured knee and continued pain.

    The structures above the knee also feel the pain. Lepley studies how muscles of the upper leg shut down after a knee injury — a process called muscle inhibition.

    “It’s sort of this unique forgetfulness that happens between the brain and the muscle,” Lepley said.

    The injury also travels up to the brain, triggering a fear response. “People are going to have fear of re‑injury,” Lepley explained, noting the psychological component can cause someone to change movement patterns.

    That’s why, Lepley says, Vonn was likely performing box jumps after the injury. “They’re sort of testing that fear,” Lepley said, noting the exercises can also help fight off muscle inhibition. “If you can’t jump and stabilize yourself on solid ground, that’s a good indication that somebody has too much hesitation.”

    In a video posted on Instagram on Thursday, a day before her completed training run, Vonn squats with weights, lunges from side to side and does fast kicks against a ball.

    How to treat an injured ACL

    Once the ACL is torn, it doesn’t regenerate in the same way that bone does. “Unfortunately, we’re not like lizards,” Lepley said.

    Most people undergo surgery to reconstruct the ligament, and nearly all athletes get the procedure after the injury, according to Roche.

    While a surgical approach doesn’t speed up recovery time, it can stabilize the knee, reduce the risk of further injury and allow for return to high-demanding activities like skiing. Some data suggests surgery can also reduce the risk of osteoarthritis — a common long-term concern after ACL injury — though the evidence is conflicting.

    Regardless of whether someone has surgery, months of rehab are standard. Those who don’t opt for surgery stick to pain control and rehab, learning to live without a functioning ACL.

    Vonn said on Tuesday that surgery “hasn’t been discussed.”

    “It’s not really on my radar screen right now. The Olympics are the only thing that I’m thinking about,” she said. “We’re doing everything to make sure I am making smart and safe decisions.”

    Has anyone ever skied on an injured ACL?

    Yes, some of Vonn’s teammates said they’ve done it. Other skiers, like Slovakian Veronika Velez-Zuzulová have done it, too. And Vonn says she’s done it before.

    “It’s possible,” Roche said. But other parts of the leg need to compensate.

    “When that ligament is gone, your muscles have to step up to help stabilize the joint,” Lepley said.

    All the experts CNN spoke with emphasized that an immediate return to competition is far from the norm — and not recommended. Far more often, athletes do the opposite. Hitting the slopes would expose Vonn to substantial risk of further injury.

    Plus, there was more to her injury. She also reported bone bruising and meniscal damage, both common companions to ACL injuries. These additional injuries raise the risk further, making her return to racing even more dangerous. The good news, though, is that Vonn didn’t report any significant bone fractures, Roche said.

    Roche, who knows Vonn’s medical history well, says it comes down to the athlete.

    “She knows her body better than anyone,” Roche said. “She’ll be able to determine if she can overcome any injury to her knee quickly or if it’s going to set her back.”

    What to watch for when Vonn returns for fresh powder

    Vonn is set to begin racing on Sunday.

    “I don’t think she’s going to be able to perform at 100%,” Lepley said. “But I think she’s going to be able to make the best of a bad situation.”

    Parts of the course that put more stress on one knee could be especially risky. Lepley says the Olympian might lack symmetry as she compensates.

    The biggest concern is Vonn’s meniscus, which acts as a shock absorber and helps the knee move smoothly. Without a functioning ACL, the structure is more vulnerable and, if injured, it’s notoriously difficult to heal.

    At the finish line, three things will matter most, Lepley says: a medical exam to check for any additional damage, close monitoring of pain and swelling and a renewed focus on restoring normal motion and walking. And if her knees are on her side, a medal.

    “She’s in good hands,” Petrosini said. “To be able to pull off what she’s attempting is really remarkable.”

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  • Ohtani Won’t Pitch in World Baseball Classic, Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts Says

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani won’t pitch for Japan in the World Baseball Classic in March, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday.

    Roberts said it was Ohtani’s decision to focus solely on being the designated hitter for his native country.

    He said the team “absolutely” would have supported Ohtani if he had wanted to also pitch. Ohtani’s teammate and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto will pitch for Japan in the WBC despite his heavy workload with the Dodgers last season.

    “Yoshi feels he wants to take it on and feels good, and we support him,” Roberts said at the team’s fan fest.

    Ohtani made two starts for Japan in the 2023 WBC and then came out of the bullpen in the ninth inning to clinch the championship by striking out then-Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout for the final out against the United States.

    Ohtani tore his ulnar collateral ligament in August that year and later underwent elbow surgery, which kept him from pitching during his first season with the Dodgers in 2024, when he was their full-time designated hitter.

    He gradually returned to pitching last year and made four postseason starts during the Dodgers’ run to their second straight World Series championship.

    Ohtani didn’t confirm his decision not to pitch in the WBC when speaking with reporters before Roberts. The four-time MVP said through a translator that he had to “see how my body feels, feel the progression and see what happens.”

    The 31-year-old Ohtani said he’s had a normal offseason because he hasn’t been rehabbing from injury.

    “I’m very healthy,” he said. “Glad that I am.”

    Roberts said he won’t manage Ohtani any differently now that he’s going to pitch a full season. He said there will be ample rest days in between starts and Ohtani won’t be scheduled for any more two or three-inning starts.

    Ohtani, Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki were teammates on Japan’s WBC title team in 2023. But Sasaki won’t be pitching this time, coming off a rookie season filled with ups and downs that ended with him pitching out of the bullpen for the Dodgers.

    The WBC runs from March 5-17.

    Roberts is pondering his starting lineup ahead of the team reporting for spring training in Arizona on Feb. 13.

    “I do feel great about having Shohei lead off. I do feel great about having Will (Smith) in the 5 (spot) and then after that, I’m going to kind of read and react,” he said. “You certainly see Mookie (Betts) in the 3 (spot).”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Another strike sends 31,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers to picket lines

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    OAKLAND, Calif. — An estimated 31,000 registered nurses and other front-line Kaiser Permanente health care workers launched an open-ended strike this week in California and Hawaii to demand better wages and staffing from the health care giant.

    The picketing that began Monday marked the second major walkout in recent months by employees represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. A five-day strike in October ended with negotiations resuming, but talks broke down in December.

    This week the union accused Kaiser of refusing to return to national bargaining discussions.

    “We will continue to push Kaiser to stop their egregious unfair labor practices against the frontline workers who deliver the best care for their patients and billions in profit to do the right thing, and come back to the table to bargain in good faith,” the union bargaining committee said in a statement.

    Kaiser said Sunday that the union had agreed to return to local bargaining, even as workers moved forward with the strike. The company said it paused national bargaining last month after what it described as a threatening incident involving a union official.

    “Illegal threats are a line that cannot be crossed,” Greg Holmes, Kaiser’s chief human resources officer, said in a statement. “This union official’s actions have compromised the national bargaining process and undermined both parties’ ability to continue good-faith bargaining.”

    Those on strike, including pharmacists, midwives and rehab therapists, say wages have not kept pace with inflation and there is not enough staffing to keep up with patient demand.

    They are asking for a 25% wage increase over four years to make up for wages they say are at least 7% behind their peers.

    Kaiser Permanente had countered with a 21.5% increase over four years. The company says that represented employees earn, on average, 16% more than their peers, and it would have to charge customers more to meet strikers’ pay demand.

    Arezou Mansourian, a physician assistant on the bargaining team, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Kaiser has been unable to retain and recruit providers, which is impacting patient care. Medical staff have been leaving Kaiser for higher-paying jobs at other local hospitals, Mansourian said.

    She said the union’s fight for better working conditions will ultimately help patients as well.

    “We know it’s a pain right now, but it’s so that we can take care of you better in the future,” Mansourian told the Chronicle.

    The company said health clinics and hospitals will remain open during the strike, with some in-person appointments shifted to virtual appointments, and some elective surgeries and procedures being rescheduled.

    Kaiser Permanente is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plans, serving 12.6 million members at 600 medical offices and 40 hospitals in largely western U.S. states. It is based in Oakland, California.

    In New York City, about 15,000 nurses who walked off the job headed back to the bargaining table earlier this month. The New York State Nurses Association said contract negotiations resumed with officials at the three private hospital systems impacted by the strike: Montefiore, Mount Sinai and New York-Presbyterian.

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  • Sean Payton says Broncos QB Bo Nix has an ankle condition that made break inevitable

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    ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Sean Payton said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday that Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix had a preexisting ankle condition that make a fracture inevitable.

    Nix broke a bone in his right ankle on Denver’s game-winning drive in the Broncos’ 33-30 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round of the playoffs.

    Nix flew to Birmingham, Alabama, last week for an operation performed by Dr. Norman E. Waldrop III, a renowned foot and ankle specialist at the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center.

    Nix watched from a suite Sunday as backup Jarrett Stidham took his place in Denver’s 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.

    On Tuesday, the Broncos’ brass provided the fullest accounting yet of Nix’s injury, with Payton saying a preexisting issue made the fracture “a matter of when.”

    “What was found was a condition that was predisposed — they always find a little more when they go in,” Payton said. “It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when. When you look at the play and you’re trying to evaluate it — the operating surgeon said that this was going to happen sooner than later. Now, you go about the rehab, proper orthotics, all those things.”

    Payton said he has no concerns about Nix’s health going forward even though Nix has had several ankle operations going back to high school.

    “So listen, he’ll rehab his tail off and get ready and get back to being healthy,” Payton said. “I think for someone who runs with the ball, I think he’s done a pretty good job of protecting himself, not all the time, but for the most part, he’s done a pretty good job of sliding and understanding playing for another day.”

    General manager George Paton said Nix is tracking to return in May when the Broncos begin organized team activities.

    Just before going to the lectern for his wrapup news conference, Payton said he saw Nix cruising around team headquarters on his medical scooter, which he’ll use until he graduates to crutches and then a walking boot.

    “He was just up above us here,” Payton said from the atrium of the Broncos’ suburban headquarters. “I said, ‘What are you doing? Getting your scooter laps in?’

    “You have to know him. He’s fidgety to begin with,” Payton said. “He might have just been getting his scooter laps. He was up there, like, in an area he’d never be in department-wise. He’s handling it like a pro. Man, I’m sure there’s disappointment for him to have to watch” on Sunday.

    Nix led the Broncos (15-4) to a franchise record-tying 14 wins in the regular season and their first playoff triumph since Super Bowl 50 a decade ago. He’s won 25 games in two seasons and has an NFL-best 11 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime during that span.

    “It’s difficult to get as far as he brought us, and then also to see one of his contemporaries, someone in his draft class who he would have loved to have competed against, advance,” Payton said of Patriots QB Drake Maye, who was Nix’s predraft training partner.

    “It’s a tough deal.”

    ___

    AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

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  • Sean Payton Says Broncos QB Bo Nix Has an Ankle Condition That Made Break Inevitable

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    ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Sean Payton said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday that Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix had a preexisting ankle condition that make a fracture inevitable.

    Nix broke a bone in his right ankle on Denver’s game-winning drive in the Broncos’ 33-30 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round of the playoffs.

    Nix flew to Birmingham, Alabama, last week for an operation performed by Dr. Norman E. Waldrop III, a renowned foot and ankle specialist at the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center.

    Nix watched from a suite Sunday as backup Jarrett Stidham took his place in Denver’s 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game.

    On Tuesday, the Broncos’ brass provided the fullest accounting yet of Nix’s injury, with Payton saying a preexisting issue made the fracture “a matter of when.”

    “What was found was a condition that was predisposed — they always find a little more when they go in,” Payton said. “It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when. When you look at the play and you’re trying to evaluate it — the operating surgeon said that this was going to happen sooner than later. Now, you go about the rehab, proper orthotics, all those things.”

    Payton said he has no concerns about Nix’s health going forward even though Nix has had several ankle operations going back to high school.

    “So listen, he’ll rehab his tail off and get ready and get back to being healthy,” Payton said. “I think for someone who runs with the ball, I think he’s done a pretty good job of protecting himself, not all the time, but for the most part, he’s done a pretty good job of sliding and understanding playing for another day.”

    General manager George Paton said Nix is tracking to return in May when the Broncos begin organized team activities.

    Just before going to the lectern for his wrapup news conference, Payton said he saw Nix cruising around team headquarters on his medical scooter, which he’ll use until he graduates to crutches and then a walking boot.

    “He was just up above us here,” Payton said from the atrium of the Broncos’ suburban headquarters. “I said, ‘What are you doing? Getting your scooter laps in?’

    “You have to know him. He’s fidgety to begin with,” Payton said. “He might have just been getting his scooter laps. He was up there, like, in an area he’d never be in department-wise. He’s handling it like a pro. Man, I’m sure there’s disappointment for him to have to watch” on Sunday.

    Nix led the Broncos (15-4) to a franchise record-tying 14 wins in the regular season and their first playoff triumph since Super Bowl 50 a decade ago. He’s won 25 games in two seasons and has an NFL-best 11 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime during that span.

    “It’s difficult to get as far as he brought us, and then also to see one of his contemporaries, someone in his draft class who he would have loved to have competed against, advance,” Payton said of Patriots QB Drake Maye, who was Nix’s predraft training partner.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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  • Illinois surgeon charged in Ohio couple’s killings due in court Friday

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    COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Illinois doctor indicted on murder charges in the December slayings of his ex-wife and her dentist husband in their Columbus home is due in an Ohio courtroom on Friday.

    Michael David McKee, 39, is scheduled to be arraigned in Franklin County on four aggravated murder counts and one count of aggravated burglary while using a firearm suppressor in connection with the Dec. 30 shooting deaths of Monique Tepe, 39, and Dr. Spencer Tepe, 37.

    The mystery that first surrounded the case — which featured no forced entry, no weapon and no obvious signs of theft, additional violence or a motive — drew national attention. McKee, of Chicago, was arrested 11 days later near his workplace in Rockford, Illinois. He was returned to Ohio on Tuesday to face the charges against him.

    McKee attended Catholic high school in Zanesville, a historic Ohio city about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) east of the capital, according to the Diocese of Columbus. He enrolled at Ohio State University in September 2005 — the same semester that his future wife, then Monique Sabaturski, enrolled, university records show. Both graduated with bachelor’s degrees in June 2009. Sabaturski earned a master of education degree from Ohio State in 2011 and McKee earned his medical degree there in 2014.

    Sabaturski and McKee married in Columbus in August 2015 but were living apart by the time Monique filed to end in the marriage in May 2017, court records show. Their divorce was granted that June. McKee was living in Virginia at the time, court and address records show. He completed a two-year fellowship in vascular surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in October 2022, according to the school.

    McKee also lived in and was licensed to practice medicine in both California and in Nevada, where he was among doctors named in a personal injury lawsuit in a Las Vegas court in 2023. OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, Illinois, where McKee was working at the time of his arrest, declined to provide specific information on the dates of his employment. His Illinois medical license became active in October 2024.

    An Ohio grand jury indicted McKee in the double homicide last week.

    McKee is accused of illegally entering the Tepes’ home with a firearm equipped with a silencer, shooting the Tepes — whose bodies were found in a second-floor bedroom — and leaving the property along a dark alley alongside the house.

    Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant has said that McKee was the person seen walking down that alley in video footage captured the night of the murders. She also said a gun found in his Chicago apartment was a ballistic match to evidence at the scene and that his vehicle’s movements were tracked from Columbus back to Illinois.

    A message seeking comment was left with McKee’s attorney.

    McKee is charged with two aggravated murder counts for each homicide, one for prior calculation and design and one for committing the crime, as well as facing the aggravated burglary count. If convicted, he faces a minimum of life in prison with parole eligibility after 32 years and a maximum term of life in prison without parole.

    Columbus police conducted a wellness check on Spencer Tepe at around 10 a.m. on Dec. 30, after his manager at a dental practice in Athens, Ohio, reported that he had not shown up to work on that day, saying tardiness was very worrying and “out of character” for Tepe, according to a 911 call.

    Someone else called to request a wellness check before a distraught man who described himself as a friend of Spencer Tepe called police and said, “Oh, there’s a body. There’s a body. Oh my God.” He said he could see Spencer Tepe’s body was off the side of a bed in a pool of blood.

    The Franklin County Coroner’s Office deemed the killings an “apparent homicide by gunshot wounds.”

    Family members said the Tepes were “extraordinary people whose lives were filled with love, joy and deep connection to others.”

    They have described Monique as a “joyful mother,” avid baker and “thoughtful planner.” According to their obituaries, which were issued jointly, the pair were married in 2020.

    Spencer Tepe got his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University in 2012 and earned his doctor of dental surgery degree in 2017, according to school records. He was a member of the American Dental Association and had been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.

    They had two young children. Both were home at the time of the killings and left unharmed, as was the family dog.

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  • Is Fasting an Effective Treatment for Diabetes? | NutritionFacts.org

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    By losing 15% of their body weight, nearly 90% of those who have had type 2 diabetes for less than four years may achieve remission.

    Currently, more than half a billion adults have diabetes, and about a 50% increase is expected in another generation. I’ve got tons of videos on the best diets for diabetes, but what about no diet at all?

    More than a century ago, fasting was said to cure diabetes, quickly halting its progression and eliminating all signs of the disease within days or weeks. Even so, starvation is guaranteed to lead to the complete disappearance of you if kept up long enough. What’s the point of fasting away the pounds if they’re just going to return as soon as you restart the diet that created them in the first place? Might it be useful to kickstart a healthier diet? Let’s see what the science says.

    Type 2 diabetes has long been recognized as a disease of excess, once thought to afflict only “the idle rich…anyone whose environment and self-support does not require of him some sustained vigorous bodily exertion every day, and whose earnings or income permit him, and whose inclination tempts him, to eat regularly more than he needs.” Diabetes is preventable, so might it also be treatable? If we’re dying from overeating, maybe we can be saved by undereating. Remarkably, this idea was proposed about 2,000 years ago in an Ayurvedic text:

    “Poor diabetic people’s medicine
    He should live like a saint (Munni);
    He should walk for 800–900 miles.
    Or he shall dig a pond;
    Or he shall live only on cow dung and cow urine.”

    That reminds me of the Rollo diet for diabetes proposed in 1797, which was composed of rancid meat. That was on top of the ipecac-like drugs he used to induce severe sickness and vomiting. Anything that makes people sick has only “a temporary effect in relieving diabetes” because it reduces the amount of food eaten. His diet plan—which included congealed blood for lunch and spoiled meat for dinner—certainly had that effect.

    Similar benefits were seen in people with diabetes during the siege of Paris in the Franco‐Prussian War, leading to the advice to mangez le moins possible, which translates to “eat as little as possible.” This was formalized into the Allen starvation treatment, considered to be “the greatest advance in the treatment of diabetes prior to the discovery of insulin.” Before insulin, there was “The Allen Era.”

    Dr. Allen noted that there are clinical reports of even severe diabetes cases clearing up after the onset of a “wasting condition” like tuberculosis or cancer, so he decided to put it to the test. He found that even in the most severe type of diabetes, he could clear sugar from people’s urine within ten days. Of course, that’s the easy part; it’s harder to maintain once they start eating again. To manage patients’ diabetes, he stuck to two principles: Keep them underweight and restrict the fat in their diet. A person with severe diabetes can be symptom-free for days or weeks, but eating butter or olive oil can make the disease come raging back.

    As I’ve said before, diabetes is a disease of fat toxicity. Infuse fat into people’s veins through an IV, and, by using a high-tech type of MRI scanner, you can show in real time the buildup of fat in muscle cells within hours, accompanied by an increase in insulin resistance. The same thing happens when you put people on a high-fat diet for three days. It can even happen in just one day. Even a single meal can increase insulin resistance within six hours. Acute dietary fat intake rapidly increases insulin resistance. Why do we care? Insulin resistance in our muscles, in the context of too many calories, can lead to a buildup of liver fat, followed by fat accumulation in the pancreas, and eventually full-blown diabetes. “Type 2 diabetes can now be understood as a state of excess fat in the liver and pancreas, and remains reversible for at least 10 years in most individuals.”

    When people are put on a very low-calorie diet—700 calories a day—fat can get pulled out of their muscle cells, accompanied by a corresponding boost in insulin sensitivity, as shown below and at 4:43 in my video Fasting to Reverse Diabetes.

    The fat buildup in the liver has then been shown to decrease substantially, and if the diet is continued, the excess fat in the pancreas also reduces. If caught early enough, reversing type 2 diabetes is possible, which would mean sustained healthy blood sugar levels on a healthy diet.

    With the loss of 15% of body weight, nearly 90% of individuals who have had type 2 diabetes for less than four years can achieve non-diabetic blood sugar levels, whereas it may only be reversible in 50% of those who’ve lived with the disease for longer than eight years. That’s better than bariatric surgery, where those losing even more weight had lower remission rates of 62% and 26%, respectively. Your forks are better than surgeons’ knives. Indeed, most people who have had their type 2 diabetes diagnosis for an average of three years can reverse their disease after losing about 30 pounds, as you can see below and at 5:37 in my video.

    Of course, an extended bout of physician-supervised, water-only fasting could also get you there, but you would have to maintain that weight loss. One of the things that has been said with “certainty” is that if you regain the weight, you regain your diabetes.

    To bring it full circle, “the initial euphoria about ‘medicine’s greatest miracle’”—the discovery of insulin in 1921—“soon gave way to the realisation” that, while it was literally life-saving for people with type 1 diabetes, insulin alone wasn’t enough to prevent such complications as blindness, kidney failure, stroke, and amputations in people with type 2 diabetes. That’s why one of the most renowned pioneers in diabetes care, Elliott Joslin, “argued that self-discipline on diet and exercise, as it was in the days prior to the availability of the drug [insulin], should be central to the management of diabetes….”

    Doctor’s Note

    Check out Diabetes as a Disease of Fat Toxicity for more on the underlying cause of the disease.

    For more on fasting for disease reversal, see:

    Fasting is not the best way to lose weight. To learn more, see related posts below.

    What is the best way to lose weight? See Friday Favorites: The Best Diet for Weight Loss and Disease Prevention.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Aloka the Peace Dog reunites with Walk for Peace following surgery

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    Aloka the Peace Dog was reunited with the Walk for Peace monks for the first time since undergoing leg surgery following an injury during the 2,300-mile Walk for Peace in early January. The reunion happened in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Aloka briefly appeared in front of supporters during the group’s lunch stop. He appeared to be in good spirits. The monks say his spirits remain high and he is healing well. “We are happy to share that Aloka is recovering very well from his surgery,” the group wrote on a Facebook post after his surgery.Video below: More about the Walk for Peace and the monks’ stop in North CarolinaA team at the Charleston Veterinary Referral Center in Charleston, South Carolina, performed the surgery and assisted Aloka through the early stages of his recovery.The monks say Aloka received a professional therapy massage and red-light therapy. He will not be walking with the group for now so he can continue healing.Find a map of the monks’ path on sister statin WXII’s website.

    Aloka the Peace Dog was reunited with the Walk for Peace monks for the first time since undergoing leg surgery following an injury during the 2,300-mile Walk for Peace in early January.

    The reunion happened in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Aloka briefly appeared in front of supporters during the group’s lunch stop. He appeared to be in good spirits.

    The monks say his spirits remain high and he is healing well. “We are happy to share that Aloka is recovering very well from his surgery,” the group wrote on a Facebook post after his surgery.

    Video below: More about the Walk for Peace and the monks’ stop in North Carolina

    A team at the Charleston Veterinary Referral Center in Charleston, South Carolina, performed the surgery and assisted Aloka through the early stages of his recovery.

    The monks say Aloka received a professional therapy massage and red-light therapy. He will not be walking with the group for now so he can continue healing.

    Find a map of the monks’ path on sister statin WXII’s website.

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  • Can Olive Oil Compete with Arthritis Drugs? | NutritionFacts.org

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    What happened when topical olive oil was pitted against an ibuprofen-type drug for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis?

    Fifty million Americans suffer from arthritis, and osteoarthritis of the knee is the most common form, making it a leading cause of disability. There are several inflammatory pathways that underlie the disease’s onset and progression, so various anti-inflammatory foods have been put to the test. Strawberries can decrease circulating blood levels of an inflammatory mediator known as tumor necrosis factor, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into clinical improvement. For example, drinking cherry juice may lower a marker of inflammation known as C-reactive protein, but it failed to help treat pain and other symptoms of knee osteoarthritis. However, researchers claimed it “provided symptom relief.” Yes, it did when comparing symptoms before and after six weeks of drinking cherry juice, but not any better than a placebo, meaning drinking it was essentially no better than doing nothing. Cherries may help with another kind of arthritis called gout, but they failed when it came to osteoarthritis.

    However, strawberries did decrease inflammation. In fact, in a randomized, double-blind, crossover trial, dietary strawberries were indeed found to have a significant analgesic effect, causing a significant decrease in pain. There are tumor necrosis factor inhibitor drugs on the market now available for the low, low cost of only about $40,000 a year. For that kind of money, you’d want some really juicy side effects, and they do not disappoint—like an especially fatal lymphoma. I think I’ll stick with the strawberries.

    One reason we suspected berries might be helpful is that when people consumed the equivalent of a cup of blueberries or two cups of strawberries daily, and their blood was then applied to cells in a petri dish, it significantly reduced inflammation compared to blood from those who consumed placebo berries, as you can see below and at 2:02 in my video Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Arthritis.

    Interestingly, the anti-inflammatory effect increased over time, suggesting that the longer you eat berries, the better. Are there any other foods that have been tested in this way?

    Researchers in France collected cartilage from knee replacement surgeries and then exposed it to blood samples from volunteers who had taken a whopping dose of a grapeseed and olive extract. They saw a significant drop in inflammation, as shown below and at 2:30 in my video.

    There haven’t been any human studies putting grapeseeds to the test for arthritis, but an olive extract was shown to decrease pain and improve daily activities in osteoarthritis sufferers. So, does this mean adding olive oil to one’s diet may help? No, because the researchers used freeze-dried olive vegetation water. That’s basically what’s left over after you extract the oil from olives; it’s all the water-soluble components. In other words, it’s all the stuff that’s in an olive that‘s missing from olive oil.

    If you give people actual olives, a dozen large green olives a day, you may see a drop in an inflammatory mediator. But according to a systematic review and meta-analysis, olive oil—on its own—does not appear to offer any anti-inflammatory benefits. What about papers that ascribe “remarkable anti-inflammatory activity” to extra virgin olive oil? Their evidence is from rodents. In people, extra virgin olive oil may be no better than butter when it comes to inflammation and worse than even coconut oil.

    So, should we just stick to olives? Sadly, a dozen olives could take up nearly half your sodium limit for the entire day, as you can see below and at 3:47 in my video.

    When put to the test, extra virgin olive oil did not appear to help with fibromyalgia symptoms either, but it did work better than canola oil in alleviating symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any studies putting olive oil intake to the test for arthritis. But why then is this blog entitled “Can Olive Oil Compete with Arthritis Drugs?” Because—are you ready for this?—it appears to work topically.

    Topical virgin olive oil went up against a gel containing an ibuprofen-type drug for osteoarthritis of the knee in a double-blind, randomized, clinical trial. Just a gram of oil, which is less than a quarter teaspoon, three times a day, costing less than three cents a day, worked! Topical olive oil was significantly better than the drug in reducing pain, as you can see below and at 4:37 in my video.

    The study only lasted a month, so is it possible that the olive oil would have continued to work better and better over time?

    Is olive oil effective in controlling morning inflammatory pain in the fingers and knees among women with rheumatoid arthritis? The researchers went all out, comparing the use of extra virgin olive oil to rubbing on nothing and also to rubbing on that ibuprofen-type gel, and, evidently, the decrease in the disease activity score in the olive oil group beat out the others.

    Doctor’s Note

    For more on joint health, see related posts below.

    What about eating olive oil? See Olive Oil and Artery Function.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Anthony Davis Expected to Miss 6 Weeks in Latest Absence for Mavs but Won’t Need Hand Surgery

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    DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Mavericks big man Anthony Davis will be sidelined about six weeks in his latest injury absence, although the 10-time All-Star won’t need surgery to repair ligament damage in his left hand.

    The determination to skip surgery came after a medical evaluation Tuesday, and Davis’ injury is expected to heal in about six weeks, the team said.

    Davis was injured defending Lauri Markkanen on a drive to the basket late in the Mavericks’ 116-114 loss to the Utah Jazz last week. The 32-year-old went to the bench in obvious pain before going to the locker room.

    It will be the second absence of at least a month this season for Davis, who missed 15 of the 16 games in November with a calf strain. He has also been sidelined by a groin injury and has now missed half of the Mavericks’ 40 games this season.

    Davis had an extensive injury history when since-fired general manager Nico Harrison traded superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers to get him almost a year ago.

    In his Dallas debut last February, Davis re-aggravated an abdominal injury he was nursing when the Lakers traded him. He missed the next 18 games. Davis has missed 40 of 71 Dallas games since that debut, including the two games in last season’s play-in tournament when Davis was on the court.

    Another lengthy absence is a significant development if the Mavericks want to consider trading Davis as a way to move on from the Doncic deal that has ended up being a significant setback for the franchise.

    It also could affect what Dallas decides to do about the return of Kyrie Irving. The nine-time All-Star guard tore the ACL in his left knee early last March, and a rough timeline for Irving’s return was sometime after the first of the year this season.

    While rookie No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg has shown plenty of promise, Dallas is an also-ran in the Western Conference playoff race. The Mavericks are well on their way to missing the postseason for the second consecutive year since reaching the 2024 NBA Finals led by Doncic and Irving.

    The possibility of Davis returning in six weeks could improve the prospects for a trade to a contender. He could return in time to ramp up for the playoffs and try to establish a future with the next organization.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – January 2026

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    Associated Press

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  • The Hidden Costs of Bariatric Surgery | NutritionFacts.org

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    Weight regain after bariatric surgery can have devastating psychological effects.

    How Sustainable Is the Weight Loss After Bariatric Surgery? I explore that issue in my video of the same name. Most gastric bypass patients end up regaining some of the fat they lose by the third year after surgery, but after seven years, 75% of patients followed at 10 U.S. hospitals maintained at least a 20% weight loss.

    The typical trajectory for someone who starts out obese at 285 pounds, for example, would be to drop to an overweight 178 pounds two years after bariatric surgery, but then regain weight up to an obese 207 pounds. This has been chalked up to “grazing” behavior, where compulsive eaters may shift from bingeing (which becomes more difficult post-surgery) to eating smaller amounts constantly throughout the day. In a group of women followed for eight years after gastric bypass surgery, about half continued to describe episodes of disordered eating. As one pediatric obesity specialist described, “I have seen many patients who put chocolate bars into a blender with some cream, just to pass technically installed obstacles [e.g., a gastric band].”

    Bariatric surgery advertising is filled with “happily-ever-after” fairytale narratives of cherry-picked outcomes offering, as one ad analysis put it, “the full Cinderella-romance happy ending.” This may contribute to the finding that patients often overestimate the amount of weight they’ll lose with the procedure and underestimate the difficulty of the recovery process. Surgery forces profound changes in eating habits, requiring slow, small bites that have been thoroughly chewed. Your stomach goes from the volume of two softballs down to the size of half a tennis ball in stomach stapling and half a ping-pong ball in the case of gastric bypass or banding.

    As you can imagine, “weight regain after bariatric surgery can have a devastating effect psychologically as patients feel that they have failed their last option”—their last resort. This may explain why bariatric surgery patients face a high risk of depression. They also have an increased risk of suicide.

    Severe obesity alone may increase the risk of suicidal depression, but even at the same weight, those going through surgery appear to be at a higher risk. At the same BMI (body mass index), age, and gender, bariatric surgery patients have nearly four times the odds of self-harm or attempted suicide compared with those who did not undergo the procedure. Most convincingly, so-called “mirror-image analysis” comparing patients’ pre- and post-surgery events showed the odds of serious self-harm increased after surgery.

    About 1 in 50 bariatric surgery patients end up killing themselves or being hospitalized for self-harm or attempted suicide. And this only includes confirmed suicides, excluding masked attempts such as overdoses classified as having “undetermined intention.” Bariatric surgery patients may also have an elevated risk of accidental death, though some of this could be due to changes in alcohol metabolism. When individuals who have had a gastric bypass were given two shots of vodka, their blood alcohol level surpassed the legal driving limit within minutes due to their altered anatomy. It’s unclear whether this plays a role in the 25% increase in prevalence of alcohol problems noted during the second postoperative year.

    Even those who successfully lose their excess weight and keep it off appear to have a hard time coping. Ten years out, though physical health-related quality of life may improve, general mental health can significantly deteriorate compared to pre-surgical levels, even among those who lost the most weight. Ironically, there’s a common notion that bariatric surgery is for “cheaters” who take the easy way out by choosing the “low-effort” method of weight loss.

    Shedding the weight may not shed the stigma of prior obesity. Studies suggest that “in the eyes of others, knowing that an individual was at one time fat will lead him/her to always be treated like a fat person.” And there can be a strong anti-surgery bias on top of that—those who chose the scalpel to lose weight over diet or exercise were rated more negatively (for example, being considered less physically attractive). One can imagine how remaining a target of prejudice even after joining the “in-group” could potentially undercut psychological well-being.

    There can also be unexpected physical consequences of massive weight loss, like large hanging flaps of excess skin. Beyond being heavy and uncomfortable and interfering with movement, the skin flaps can result in itching, irritation, dermatitis, and skin infections. Getting a panniculectomy (removing the abdominal “apron” of hanging skin) can be expensive, and its complication rate can exceed 50%, with dehiscence (rupturing of the surgical wound) one of the most common complications.

    “Even if surgery proves sustainably effective,” wrote the founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, “the need to rely on the rearrangement of natural gastrointestinal anatomy as an alternative to better use of feet and forks [exercise and diet] seems a societal travesty.”

    In the Middle Ages, starving peasants dreamed of gastronomic utopias where food just rained down from the sky. The English called it the Kingdom of Cockaigne. Little could medieval fabulists predict that many of their descendants would not only take permanent residence there but also cut out parts of their stomachs and intestines to combat the abundance. Critics have pointed out the irony of surgically altering healthy organs to make them dysfunctional—malabsorptive—on purpose, especially when it comes to operating on children. Bariatric surgery for kids and teens has become widespread and is being performed on children as young as five years old. Surgeons defend the practice by arguing that growing up fat can leave “‘emotional scars’ and lifelong social retardation.”

    Promoters of preventive medicine may argue that bariatric surgery is the proverbial “ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.” In response, proponents of pediatric bariatric surgery have written: “It is often pointed out that we should focus on prevention. Of course, I agree. However, if someone is drowning, I don’t tell them, ‘You should learn how to swim’; no, I rescue them.”

    A strong case can be made that the benefits of bariatric surgery far outweigh the risks if the alternative is remaining morbidly obese, which is estimated to shave up to a dozen or more years off one’s life. Although there haven’t been any data from randomized trials yet to back it up, compared to non-operated obese individuals, those getting bariatric surgery would be expected to live significantly longer on average. No wonder surgeons have consistently framed the elective surgery as a life-or-death necessity. This is a false dichotomy, though. The benefits only outweigh the risks if there are no other alternatives. Might there be a way to lose weight healthfully without resorting to the operating table? That’s what my book How Not to Diet is all about.

    Doctor’s Note

    My book How Not to Diet is focused exclusively on sustainable weight loss. Check it out from your library or pick it up from wherever you get your books. (All proceeds from my books are donated to charity.)

    This is the final segment in a four-part series on bariatric surgery, which includes:

    This blog contains information regarding suicide. If you or anyone you know is exhibiting suicide warning signs, please get help. Go to https://988lifeline.org for more information.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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  • Is Surgery Necessary to Reverse Diabetes? | NutritionFacts.org

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    Losing weight without rearranging your gastrointestinal anatomy carries advantages beyond just the lack of surgical risk.

    The surgical community objects to the characterization of bariatric surgery as internal jaw wiring and cutting into healthy organs just to discipline people’s behavior. They’ve even renamed it “metabolic surgery,” suggesting the anatomical rearrangements cause changes in digestive hormones that offer unique physiological benefits. As evidence, they point to the remarkable remission rates for type 2 diabetes.

    After bariatric surgery, about 50% of obese people with diabetes and 75% of “super-obese” diabetics go into remission, meaning they have normal blood sugar levels on a regular diet without any diabetes medication. The normalization of blood sugar can happen within days after the surgery. And 15 years after the surgery, 30% remained free from their diabetes, compared to a 7% remission rate in a nonsurgical control group. Are we sure it was the surgery, though?

    One of the most challenging parts of bariatric surgery is lifting the liver. Since obese individuals tend to have such large, fatty livers, there is a risk of liver injury and bleeding. An enlarged liver is one of the most common reasons a less invasive laparoscopic surgery can turn into a fully invasive open surgery, leaving the patient with a large belly scar, along with an increased risk of wound infections, complications, and recovery time. But lose even just 5% of your body weight, and your fatty liver may shrink by 10%. That’s why those awaiting bariatric surgery are put on a diet. After surgery, patients are typically placed on an extremely low-calorie liquid diet for weeks. Could their improvement in blood sugar levels just be from the caloric restriction, rather than some sort of surgical metabolic magic? Researchers decided to put it to the test.

    At a bariatric surgery clinic at the University of Texas, patients with type 2 diabetes scheduled for a gastric bypass volunteered to stay in the hospital for 10 days to follow the same extremely low-calorie diet—less than 500 calories a day—that they would be placed on before and after surgery, but without undergoing the procedure itself. After a few months, once they had regained the weight, the same patients then had the actual surgery and repeated their diet, matched day to day. This allowed researchers to compare the effects of caloric restriction with and without the surgical procedure—the same patients, the same diet, just with or without the surgery. If there were some sort of metabolic benefit to the anatomical rearrangement, the patients would have done better after the surgery, but, in some ways, they actually did worse.

    The caloric restriction alone resulted in similar improvements in blood sugar levels, pancreatic function, and insulin sensitivity, but several measures of diabetic control improved significantly more without the surgery. The surgery seemed to put them at a metabolic disadvantage.

    Caloric restriction works by first mobilizing fat out of the liver. Type 2 diabetes is thought to be caused by fat building up in the liver and spilling over into the pancreas. Everyone may have a “personal fat threshold” for the safe storage of excess fat. When that limit is exceeded, fat gets deposited in the liver, where it can cause insulin resistance. The liver may then offload some of the fat (in the form of a fat transport molecule called VLDL), which can then accumulate in the pancreas and kill off the cells that produce insulin. By the time diabetes is diagnosed, half of our insulin-producing cells may have been destroyed, as seen below and at 3:36 in my video Bariatric Surgery vs. Diet to Reverse Diabetes. Put people on a low-calorie diet, though, and this entire process can be reversed.

    A large enough calorie deficit can cause a profound drop in liver fat sufficient to resurrect liver insulin sensitivity within seven days. Keep it up, and the calorie deficit can decrease liver fat enough to help normalize pancreatic fat levels and function within just eight weeks. Once you drop below your personal fat threshold, you should then be able to resume normal caloric intake and still keep your diabetes at bay, as seen below and at 4:05 in my video. 

    The bottom line: Type 2 diabetes is reversible with weight loss, if you catch it early enough.

    Lose more than 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms), and nearly 90% of those who have had type 2 diabetes for less than four years can achieve non-diabetic blood sugar levels (suggesting diabetes remission), whereas it may only be reversible in 50% of those who’ve lived with the disease for eight or more years. That’s by losing weight with diet alone, though. For people with diabetes, losing more than twice as much weight with bariatric surgery, diabetes remission may only be around 75% of those who’ve had the disease for up to six years and only about 40% for those who’ve had diabetes longer, as seen below and at 4:41 in my video.

    Losing weight without surgery may offer other benefits as well. Individuals with diabetes who lose weight with diet alone can significantly improve markers of systemic inflammation, such as tumor necrosis factor, whereas levels significantly worsened when about the same amount of weight was lost from a gastric bypass.

    What about diabetic complications? One reason to avoid diabetes is to avoid its associated conditions, like blindness or kidney failure requiring dialysis. Reversing diabetes with bariatric surgery can improve kidney function, but, surprisingly, it may not prevent the occurrence or progression of diabetic vision loss—perhaps because bariatric surgery affects quantity but not necessarily quality when it comes to diet. This reminds me of a famous study published in The New England Journal of Medicine that randomized thousands of people with diabetes to an intensive lifestyle program focused on weight loss. Ten years in, the study was stopped prematurely because the participants weren’t living any longer or having any fewer heart attacks. This may be because they remained on the same heart-clogging diet but just in smaller portions.

    Doctor’s Note

    This is the third blog in a four-part series on bariatric surgery. If you missed the first two, check out The Mortality Rate of Bariatric Weight-Loss Surgery and The Complications of Bariatric Weight-Loss Surgery.

    My book How Not to Diet is focused exclusively on sustainable weight loss. Check it out from your local library, or pick it up from wherever you get your books. (All proceeds from my books are donated to charity.)

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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