Lung damage found in COVID dead may shed light on 'long COVID': A study of the lungs of people who have died from COVID-19 has found persistent and extensive lung damage in most cases and may help doctors understand what is behind ‘long COVID’, in which patients suffer ongoing symptoms for months

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Covid-19: Delhi records 6,725 cases, daily infection tally crosses 6,000-mark for first time

Covid-19: Delhi records 6,725 cases, daily infection tally crosses 6,000-mark for first time Delhi recorded over 6,700 fresh Covid-19 cases for the first time on Tuesday taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 4 lakh, even as the positivity rate stood at 11.29 per cent amid festive season and rising pollution in the city. https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Election—And a Coming Supreme Court Decision—Will Decide the Future of American Health Care

It’s safe to say that COVID-19, the country’s worst public health crisis in a generation, was the single most important issue in the 2020 Presidential race. It warped the campaign, sickened a candidate, and shaped not only voters’ opinions, but how they cast their ballots.

But amidst this unprecedented crisis, the topic of American health care—the single most important issue in the 2018 midterm race—got relatively little attention once the primary was over. The candidates rarely gave speeches about insurance premiums or co-pays, and most Americans remain unclear about what, exactly, BidenCare is, or whether Donald Trump’s long-promised “brand new, beautiful health care” even exists.

In the closing days of the election, former Vice President Joe Biden tried to change that. In stump speeches across the country, he repeatedly hammered on the point that he and President Donald Trump have two divergent visions of American health care. “Donald Trump thinks healthcare is a privilege,” he told a crowd in Michigan on Oct. 31. “Barack [Obama] and I think it’s a right.”

Implicit in Biden’s stump speech was a broader truth: the future of American health care really does hang in the balance.

The results of the presidential election, combined with a hugely consequential U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could not only shape the American health care landscape for decades, but also determine whether millions of Americans immediately lose their health care coverage. In exactly one week, the Supreme Court, which now includes Justice Amy Coney Barrett, will hear oral arguments in California v. Texas, in which a group of conservative state attorneys general, backed by the Trump Administration’s Justice Department, is seeking to invalidate the entirety of the ACA.

If the Supreme Court strikes down the ACA, chaos would likely ensue: the federal funding for Medicaid expansion would evaporate, leaving more than 12 million people who rely on the program to likely lose coverage; the subsidies for those who buy insurance through the ACA’s private insurance marketplaces would also disappear, leaving the majority of those 11.4 million people without insurance; and all insurance providers would suddenly be allowed to discriminate against people who had pre-existing health conditions, including COVID-19, by charging them higher premiums or denying them coverage outright.

“If no part of the political process responds to the Supreme Court holding, the results would be immediate and calamitous,” says Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor.

But that outcome is hardly guaranteed. It depends on what happens next—both what the Supreme Court decides and who wins the Presidential election.

Here are three possibilities. The first is that the Supreme Court upholds the ACA, leaving the fate of the law to a newly elected Congress. Another option is that Trump wins the election, a scenario that creates the most uncertainty around the future of American health care, as neither Republicans nor the Trump Administration have produced anything resembling a coherent replacement for the ACA. The third option is that Biden—and enough down-ticket Democrats—win the election and secure majorities in both the House and Senate, setting themselves up to either improve the ACA or pass a new health care law in 2021.

The Supreme Court Might Not Strike Down the ACA

Legal scholars from both sides of the aisle have said they don’t expect the Supreme Court justices to buy the Republicans’ argument that the ACA, stripped of its tax penalty, is unconstitutional.

“The legal arguments themselves are astoundingly weak,” says Katie Keith, a health law professor at Georgetown University. “But the law is in front of the court again 10 years after it was passed. And you can’t really take anything for granted especially with the Affordable Care Act and the political nature of the litigation that we’ve seen against the law.”

Chief Justice John Roberts has ruled in favor of the ACA in its past two Supreme Court cases, and he is expected to side with the liberal bloc again this time. But that means the decision may come down to how Barrett, Trump’s newest appointee, and his two previous judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh vote. The court is likely to make a decision sometime this spring, and if it does strike down all or most of Obamacare, changes would start right away.

Trump, Who Has So Far Failed To Deliver a Health Care Plan, Wins the Election

While the President has talked and tweeted about a “beautiful” or “far better” health care plan than what Democrats are offering, his policies thus far have included a series of effectively meaningless and legally unenforceable executive orders.

Trump has said repeatedly, for example, that he wants to protect people with pre-existing health conditions, which is one of the most popular provisions of the ACA, but his only move on this so far has been to ask voters to trust him. In September, he announced an executive order declaring that it is “the policy of the United States” to “ensure that Americans with pre-existing conditions can obtain the insurance of their choice at affordable rates.” Such an order is legally unenforceable.

Meanwhile, his Administration has spent the better part of the last four years specifically unwinding precisely those protections. The current case before the Supreme Court, which is backed by the Trump Administration, would eliminate all shields for those with pre-existing conditions. Trump has also promoted short-term health insurance plans that do not have to comply with ACA rules such as covering people with pre-existing conditions, encouraged states to limit access to Medicaid, and cut the budget for outreach and enrollment efforts to help people sign up for insurance.

“This is the rhetorical problem that Republicans have gotten themselves into. Republicans wasted a decade arguing repeal and replace,” says Joel White, a Republican strategist who specializes in health policy. Republicans need to present voters with more choice and lower costs, but so far the GOP health care platform is mostly blank.

Joe Biden, Who Promised a ‘Public Option,’ Wins the Election

Biden’s detailed health care plan centers on building on and improving the Affordable Care Act and creating a government-run public health insurance plan that anyone could choose.

The idea in part is that a so-called public option would allow the federal government to negotiate and pay less to medical providers the way that private insurers do for their enrollees. And while it’s not clear how well this would work, experts say, the public option would be significant in who it covers. Biden would automatically enroll the 4.7 million adults who are eligible for Medicaid but remain uninsured because their states haven’t expanded the program, and he would allow any American who has employer-based insurance to leave their plan and join—a major step toward the long term progressive goal of eliminating private insurance. About 12 million of these people who currently get insurance through their job could find the public option to be cheaper, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Biden would also lower the Medicare eligibility age to 60, allow the federal government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over prescription drug prices, and spend $775 billion on caregiving, which will continue to be a significant issue as COVID-19 adds to the ranks of Americans who need long-term medical care and support. “This is the biggest disability boom since AIDS and HIV in the 80s. And beyond that Polio,” says Rebecca Cokley, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress. “The social safety net is not prepared for this.”

Of course, Biden’s plans hinge on what the next Congress looks like. If Republicans retain a Senate majority, hopes for sweeping new health legislation dwindle. But even if Democrats seize both houses, Biden will need to negotiate with progressive lawmakers from his own party, who have long pushed for more comprehensive universal health care, like Medicare for All.

Any new legislation would also have to survive what most experts expect would be multiple challenges from states and the insurance industry—case that would land before an even more conservative judiciary. “There are lots of states where you’re going to see intense resistance,” says Jacob Hacker, a political scientist at Yale University who has studied shifts in policy attitudes after economic crises. “That will matter because I think that it will push political leaders towards approaches that do not rely as heavily as the Affordable Care Act does on the states.”

Biden’s campaign estimates that about 97% of Americans would have coverage under his new plan, which would cost about $750 billion over 10 years. “What we’re going to do is going to cost some money,” he admitted during the final presidential debate in October.

But his appeal to voters was clear: with the ACA hanging in the balance, Americans are not only selecting the next President this election, they are, conceivably, choosing the future of American health care.

Keto and Primal Snacks for Busy Mom Life

Before I had kids, I thought I’d be that mom who cooks and bakes endlessly with her kids. After all, I enjoy being in the kitchen, so why wouldn’t I want my sweet offspring by my side as I lovingly prepare meals for the family.

Ah, to be that young and idealistic again. Every year we get busier and more pressed for time, and—in my experience, at least—cooking with your kids makes everything take three to eleven times longer. Gone are my ideas of being Betty-Crocker-meets-Mary-Poppins in the kitchen. I have new priorities now:

• I need to be time-efficient.
• I want to feed myself and my kids nutritious foods.
• I refuse to prepare separate meals or snacks for kids and adults.
• My kids should learn their way around the kitchen, which means giving them age-appropriate tasks.

Most days we manage dinner together, but the rest of the day is a whirlwind. Snacking is something of a contentious topic in the ancestral community. Sincere kudos if your family can stick to set meal times with perhaps one planned snack interlude. Realistically, though, snacking happens here. Rather than fight it, I try to have quick, healthy options that check my four boxes above.

These are some of my top picks. Add yours in the comments section.

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Dips & Spreads

Veggies with ranch dressing. Use raw vegetables like celery, carrots, snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and mini sweet bell peppers, or leftover roasted asparagus or Brussels sprouts. To make a thicker dip, mix the ranch with sour cream to get the consistency you want.

Frozen chicken skewers (I get mine at Costco) dipped in barbecue sauce or a quick peanut sauce. This one uses tahini, or you can use almond butter instead.

Guacamole with raw vegetables or pork rinds. To uplevel the experience, try this recipe for Bacon Guacamole with Cheddar Chips.

Apples, pears, or celery with nut butter.

Hummus with veggies. Classic hummus is easy to make or buy pre-made if you eat chickpeas, but you can also make delicious legume-free versions like this Roasted Cauliflower & Macadamia Nut Hummus.

How kids can help:

• Wash and cut raw vegetables and fruit with supervision and depending on age.
• Pour dipping sauces into ramekins.
• Smash avocados for guacamole.
• Run the food processor for hummus.
• Arrange the food on plates.

Stuff You Can Eat with Toothpicks

Cubed melon wrapped in prosciutto.

Caprese skewers: cherry tomato + pearl mozzarella + basil leaf. Optional Italian or balsamic dressing to dip.

Meatballs, like these kid-approved Teriyaki Meatballs.

Steak “salad” bites. Leftover cubed steak topped with a few leaves of baby spinach and cheddar or blue cheese. Dip in BBQ sauce or dressing of choice. For the grown-ups, add Quick Pickled Onions.

How kids can help:

• Cube melon or steak.
• Wrap prosciutto around melon.
• Assist with cooking meatballs. The steps are easy enough for even young kids, supervised.
• Assemble the skewers.
• Pour dipping sauces into ramekins.

Charcuterie Plates

Charcuterie plates are just meat, crackers, cheese, produce —stuff you eat every day, but it’s the presentation that counts. There’s a reason the charcuterie plates were trending all over social media this year. Artfully piling a bunch of food on a platter or cutting board feels fancy and abundant. The nice thing about charcuterie plates is that you can put them out, and everyone can help themselves to the parts they like. It’s a great way to introduce new foods in a non-pressuring way.

All you need is any combination of the following:

• Crunchy stuff: grain-free crackers, cheese crisps, pork rinds.
• Cheese: any kind, sliced or cubed.
• Meats: cured meats, smoked salmon, sliced leftover steak or chicken.
• Nuts.
• Vegetables: any raw, pickled, or roasted.
• Fruits: olives, berries, cubed melon, grapes, apples, pears, persimmons, figs, dried fruits.
• Dips: guacamole, chutney, etc.

How kids can help:

• Slice/cut cheese.
• Wash and cut vegetables and fruit.
• Spoon dips into ramekins.
• Arrange food on platter.

NOTE: You can also adapt this idea into bento boxes. Have your kids help you fill compartments with these same types of ingredients. Put them in the fridge to grab for snacks or on-the-go mini-meals throughout the week.

Greek Yogurt Parfaits & Smoothie Bowls

These are filling options that older kids can make themselves—really more a small meal than a snack. All you need is Greek yogurt, protein or collagen powder if making smoothies, and toppings. Some of our favorites are:

• Grain-free granola
• Hemp or chia seeds
• Cacao nibs
• Shredded coconut
• Fresh or frozen berries
• Pomegranate seeds

How kids can help:

• Assist with making homemade granola.
• Putting ingredients in the blender and pushing the buttons.
• Adding toppings.

Prepare-ahead Options

With a little bit of work at the beginning of the week, you can stock your fridge with feel-good snacks to which your kids can help themselves.

• Egg muffins, customized with whatever ingredients each family member prefers.
• Hard-boiled eggs.
• Chia pudding.
• Primal-friendly muffins, either sweet like these Keto Blueberry Muffins or savory like these Bacon & Cheddar Keto Muffins.
• Paleo pancakes or waffles can be frozen then heated up in a toaster oven or microwave. Add protein powder to the batter for extra protein.

How kids can help:

• Chop vegetables for egg muffins.
• Assemble and stir chia pudding, and put lids on jars.
• Stir muffin and pancake batter.
• Crack eggs.

Ready in Less Than A Minute

• Sliced meat wrapped around string cheese
• Can of sardines, optionally mashed with avocado. Maybe a hard sell for older kids, but you’d be surprised how younger kids will gobble them up.
• Jerky, pemmican.
• Primal kitchen keto bars.
• Handful of nuts + dark chocolate.
• Half an avocado with Tajín or everything bagel seasoning.
• Pickles.

The post Keto and Primal Snacks for Busy Mom Life appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Paleo Kung Pao Chicken

Paleo Kung Pao Chicken

My love of Chinese food isn’t a new thing nor is my hobby of recreating favorite restaurant Chinese dishes at home. Sweet and sour chicken was one of my first recreation attempts. This kung pao recipe is the most recent, and absolutely delicious. Traditional Kung Pao Chicken Kung pao chicken is a Chinese stir-fry dish of chicken, …

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November 03, 2020 at 10:59PM Wellness Mama® https://ift.tt/2hMTHxr https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Coping With IBS

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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can be painful, annoying, and embarrassing. There is currently no cure for this complex condition, and managing its symptoms and flare-ups is tricky. So, coping mechanisms are a constant need.

What are the symptoms of IBS?

IBS is a gastrointestinal disorder in which your gut becomes more sensitive, and the muscles of your digestive system have abnormal contractions. People with IBS usually have abdominal pain along with frequent changes in bowel habits (diarrhea, constipation, or alternating between both). Other common symptoms include

• bloating and gas
• urge to move the bowels, but being unable to do so
• incomplete bowel movements
• urgent need to move the bowels.

Because no one knows what causes IBS, it is impossible to prevent it. Once you have been diagnosed, the goal is to focus on managing the condition. You can do this by identifying specific triggers of your IBS symptoms and then adopting strategies to make them less severe and frequent.

The most common approaches are dietary changes — eliminating or reducing problem foods — and stress management techniques, such as yoga, meditation, acupuncture, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Certain supplements and over-the-counter and prescription medications also can help. Your doctor can help you implement these strategies and advise what medications to take.

Coping with IBS day-to-day

People often need additional assistance, especially when it comes to coping with the awkwardness and emotional turmoil of living with IBS. Here are some ways to get the extra support you may require.

Join a support group. Talking with others who are dealing with IBS can help you cope with your disorder’s stress and anxiety. The online community Irritable Bowel Syndrome Self Help and Support Group offers moral support and information, including news about recent studies on IBS.

Prepare for public outings. Don’t let IBS keep you from enjoying an active social life. Being mindful about your IBS can help you avoid potential problems. For example, always note the nearest bathroom and try to sit close to it. When eating out, try to review the menu in advance. If there are no agreeable meals, you can eat beforehand. Also, don’t be afraid to call it an early night if your IBS is acting up. People will understand if you say you are simply not feeling well.

Share with someone. Not everyone needs to know about your IBS, but tell a few friends and coworkers so they can cover for you when symptoms appear.

Have an emergency kit on hand. Always keep spare underwear, clothing, toilet paper, wet wipes, and a large plastic bag on hand just in case.

Don’t rush bowel movements. This can help reduce the stress of having to use the bathroom all the time. Set aside a regular time or times each day to have a bowel movement. Give yourself the time you need so you can relax. When you push, be sure to avoid excessive straining. It can help to elevate your feet using a footstool.

The post Coping With IBS appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

India is looking to secure 600 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by leveraging its manufacturing capacity

India is looking to secure 600 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by leveraging its manufacturing capacity The total number of these vaccine doses, if they are approved to be utilised in the course of time, should be enough to vaccine half of the country's over 1.3 billion population given the fact that most of the vaccine candidates against the coronavirus require two doses. https://ift.tt/eA8V8J