Author: Lance Garrison
Have you heard that there’s a huge wave of organized shoplifting — coordinated theft by groups effectively looting stores — sweeping the United States? You probably have. A couple of years ago, Walgreens said that organized shoplifting was behind its decision to close several locations in San Francisco. In April, the National Retail Federation issued a dire report claiming that “organized retail crime” was responsible for almost half of the store merchandise that vanished in 2021. The putative shoplifting tsunami has been relentlessly hyped both by the usual suspects, such as Fox News, and by some politicians.But it never happened.My…
HIV treatment (antiretroviral therapy) has changed the face of HIV/AIDS. Successful treatment now allows millions of infected people to keep the virus in check – even undetectable – and lead healthy lives.But as with all medications, it can come with side effects. In some people, weight gain is one of them. Recent studies show that 1 in 6 people who start HIV medications gain at least 10% in body weight in 1-2 years. Why this happens is still somewhat of a mystery. If you’re underweight when you’re diagnosed, the gain can be welcome and a milestone on the road to what’s called…
This case is unusual for Cox’s willingness to wage a legal fight while suffering a medical catastrophe, but not for the cruel bind the state placed her in. The day Cox received the terrible news about her fetus, the Texas Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments in Zurawski v. Texas, a suit brought by two doctors and 20 women who had been denied medically necessary abortions and were seeking to clarify the scope of emergency exemptions to the state’s ban. Among the plaintiffs is Amanda Zurawski, who was 18 weeks pregnant after a year and half of fertility treatments when…
Photo Credit: RealPeopleGroup / Getty ImagesSOURCES:John Koethe, MD, assistant professor, division of infectious disease, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.Lauri Wright, PhD, RDN, LD, chair, University of North Florida Department of Nutrition and Dietetics; spokesperson, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.Kristen Matthews RD, LDN, clinical dietitian, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN.American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine: “Health Benefits of Exercise for People Living With HIV.”AIDS Behavior: “Behavioral weight loss: A promising treatment for obesity in adults with HIV.”HIV AIDS: The effect of aging, nutrition, and exercise during HIV infection.”CDC: “How to Use Fruits & Vegetables to Manage…
We are no strangers to human suffering — to conflict, to natural disasters, to some of the world’s largest and gravest catastrophes. We were there when fighting erupted in Khartoum, Sudan. As bombs rained down on Ukraine. When earthquakes leveled southern Turkey and northern Syria. As the Horn of Africa faced its worst drought in years. The list goes on.But as the leaders of some of the world’s largest global humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the siege of Gaza. In the more than two months since the horrifying attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and…
Most people with HIV gain weight after they start antiretroviral therapy (ART). In fact, it’s usually a good sign that your ART is working. You might hear your doctor call these early extra pounds a “return to health.” But too much treatment-related weight gain can sometimes lead to future health problems.“Three decades ago, when the HIV epidemic was fresh and new, we worried about malnutrition and wasting,” says Onyema Ogbuagu, MBBCh, an infectious disease specialist who treats people with HIV at Yale Medicine. “Now that we’ve done a better job of catching people earlier in the disease and have more…
The world’s central banks are moving briskly, and it would seem inexorably, toward introducing digital forms of cash. But I think they are underestimating the backlash from people who worry that digital currencies issued by central banks will become instruments of government control over their lives.Figures on both the left and right fear that a digital currency would replace paper money, giving the government a way to track people’s spending and even control it — say, by making it impossible to buy certain things with digital currency. In theory, a digital currency could be programmed to lose value — a…
Dec. 11, 2023 – An experimental device containing millions of stem cells significantly reduced the need for insulin shots among people with type 1 diabetes, according to a new study – a treatment researchers say may someday provide a cure for the chronic, life-altering condition.Researchers from the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health used tiny implants filled with lab-grown pancreatic cells known as VC-02. The study, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, involved 10 people who at the start of the study could not produce insulin naturally. After 6 months with the implant, three of them showed significant improvement. Their…
In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, when many people who are now still sick were first infected, the common wisdom was that the coronavirus either sent you to an intensive care unit or, more commonly, caused mild symptoms that resolved after two weeks. But when my sister-in-law got infected in March 2020, she was still burning with fever after three weeks, then six, then more. In this newspaper and elsewhere, young and formerly healthy people shared stories about surviving but not recovering. When I interviewed scientists and clinicians about these lingering symptoms in May, most expressed surprise. “That’s…
By Olga Irwin, as told to Kara Mayer RobinsonI don’t remember the exact date when I found out I was HIV positive, but I remember the first conversation I had with my doctor very well. He diagnosed me with AIDS and said I had only 3 months to live because my T-cell count was under 10. That was in 1999.When I finally found an infectious disease specialist at a new clinic in my area, I was told that with medication I could live a long, full life. I’m 54 now.In 2000, I started treatment. I’ve been on several different regimens since then,…