How do I tell a friend I've evolved past them ?
I think I've outgrown this friend?
I have this friend that I've known since I was 19 years old and she was 28 going on 29.. there's a nine year age gap between us. Now I'm 40 years old going on 41 and she is newly 50. We are both in very different places in our lives from each other now and also from our former selves back then. My life has gotten a lot harder, while hers has stayed relatively the same. When she met me I was just a young girl practically a kid with hope for the future I was in this cult like Christian non denominational church that told me I needed to reach out to people and convert them and lay my life down for them.
So I did everything for her . I was a nurturing friend and I think in her mind that's what our friendship was based on. I left the church at age 21 because I got tired of them controlling me and telling me that I could only date men in the church and I left because I met a guy that I liked. Well he ended up dumping me 2 months later and then I got into a relationship that was my rebound but I ended up being with him and having a baby with him. That baby is now a 15 year old girl.
it has been a lot of ups and downs for me, and life in my twenties was no picnic. Nor was life in my 30s as a single mom. I spent a lot of hard years and hardships. My parents divorced when my daughter was two years old due to my mom's infidelity for 3 years and then 3 years later my dad had died of sepsis when I was 29 going on 30 and I was absolutely devastated for a long time and was bitter towards my mom. Her parents are still together and still the same as they were except her dad now has dementia but he hes 85 years old now. And her mom has run of the mill health issues.
My mom now has s Parkinson's and I don't live with her the guy that she chose over my dad is still living with her and I've gotten over my hatred of him but it's just awkward and doesn't feel like my childhood home. She has that childhood home to still go to. That parental unit. Until she loses one of them she'll never really understand what I went through. And even then it still won't be the same because first I lost them as a unit when they divorced and lost what I thought they were in love. it was very hard to watch my dad get destroyed by that divorce and infidelity.
Flash Forward my daughter's dad and I split up in 2015 and I lived on my own for 5 years. I had a lot of trouble with diagnosed OCD social anxiety falling behind on bills etc. I even had to move in with my mom for a couple of months because I just couldn't manage my finances and n being a single mom anymore. My daughter's dad had a mental breakdown and wasn't able to help me and I didn't hit him up for child support either I never filed because I was too nice. Long story short during the pandemic in 2020 everything got turned upside down
Backtracking , in 2019 I found this really cute place a couple months after moving back in w my mom and for once in my life I started to feel like I had reached self-actualization. I had a little Chihuahua that I loved and my cat and my daughter and were all doing great and thriving in our social lives and work and nl school lives. I even had a girls group that I hung out with but that dispersed due to a disagreement that me and a friend had over something stupid.
anyways, to make a long story short my friend has had a lot of good things happen to her that I have not. My friend still has is both her parents. she's already been through three marriages whereas I've never married . she signed away her parental rights to her son who was four at the time when she and her husband divorced and she moved in with her parents and they took her under their wing again.
Her parents have always bailed her out they've always had really good jobs, she grew up with privilege and luxury. I grew up with some privilege and luxury too but not quite like her but all of that got snipped away from me when my parents divorced. my parents were just nurses so they made pretty good money but we lived in the Bay area where it's very expensive. So does she.
Anyways she's now married to a guy that she met off the internet and I'm back with my daughter's dad and I'm unhappy but I don't know how to leave because I have horrible credit and I have no way of getting out of here and I don't make enough at my current job and I'm actively looking but honestly the pandemic really did a number on both me and my daughter and I don't mean just the virus itself but I mean socially and emotionally. It really set both of us back and caused my daughter to regress and it caused me to get knocked off of whatever progress I was making in my personal life towards becoming a better version of myself. Anyways this friend I feel like hasn't been through as much as me and she's been sheltered from a lot of heartache even at the age of 50. I feel like she dodged a bullet with raising her son and now her son is turning out to be great and doing really well in life at the age of 25 but that's to no credit of hers, it's through his paternal grandparents who did an excellent job raising him into the young man that he is today, but she tries to take credit .
my daughter has had a lot of struggles emotionally and was diagnosed with autism spectrum a couple of years ago. So basically I feel like I've had it much harder than her I know it's not fair to compare my sorrow to others and we all have our share of problems but I just feel like it's the honest objective truth. She hasn't been through what I've been through and it shows because she's still pretty much the same as when we met her whereas me I'm a totally different person than I was at 19. and I feel like she has this fixed image of me in her head as being this young, wholesome 19-year-old girl who is going to church and reaching out to her and always wearing nice church clothes and we're always going on camping trips with our church and congregation and doing all these fun things and I was just this wholesome young sweet girl who hadn't yet been through anything in life. I feel like that version of me is long gone and dead or at least buried somewhere inside of me somewhere and she's not coming back and yet my friend I feel like still sees me as that. Anytime something goes wrong or good in her life she wants to call me. Anytime she wants to brag she wants to call me. It's like I'm always the first person she wants to tell things to and I really don't understand why, especially since she has a husband that she's been married to for 3 years . I feel like that should be the person she goes to she claims she's in love with him and happy with him so shouldn't that be her best friend and not me?
I don't really tell her anything about my life , but she also doesn't really ask. I don't feel like telling her and I don't feel like confiding in her. Besides every time I try to she's kind of mentally slow and it takes her forever to process every little detail of what I'm telling her and she can't even keep up and it's honestly exhausting talking to her.
Anyways this friend of mine also doesn't respect my need for space. She'll call me and if I don't answer she'll text and ask if I can talk I'll say I can't right now I'm busy and she'll ask when can I talk or what am I up to she'll try to find a way to squeeze herself into my day and have a conversation with me it almost feels for us. If I don't text her back, she'll then message me on Facebook and go on a like bench on all of my status and photos it's kind of creepy and annoying to be honest with you and it really feels like an invasion of my personal space and like she's not taking the social cue that I do not want to talk to her right now.
She also is insensitive and tone deaf to my financial situation she knows that I want to go on vacation and feel like I'm missing out on life and that I don't often get to do much of anything because of my finances. And yet when she goes on vacation she continues to brag about how much fun she had and everything that she did.
Recently she went to Vegas and I saw the post about it on her Facebook and I like the status even. but she still seemed to want validation for me because she texted me the day she got back and was telling me all about it in a text after she called and I didn't answer. I said oh I forgot you went there that sounds fun. She then asked if I could talk and I said I was busy making dinner I was hoping she'd take the hint that I didn't want to hear about her Vegas trip. I've tried telling her how I feel when she does bring them up I explain to her sometimes it's hard for me to be happy for you or other people because I'm going through a difficult time in my own life. I'm happy for that you can take vacations but I was also like these things for myself and right now my personal circumstances and finances are not allowing for me to have that in my life. And she got kind of butt hurt and whined at me and "so why can't you just be happy for me." And I told her I just was not there yet and that I'm not in a good headspace and to not take it personally and if we could just talk about more neutral topics like Netflix or anything else but bragging about her vacations and yet she hasn't gotten a hint or considered my feelings.
It's to the point now where I resent her and I am ultra critical of her in every single way. But mostly it is manifested to where I'm critical of how she looks. She's not the most attractive woman in the world, she's actually borderline obese and she only gets bigger and bigger as the years go by. A few years ago when she was not as old as she is now people even random multiple people would assume she was pregnant because she's very apple-shaped and though she's heavy all over, her stomach in particular is very round and swollen and big and it honestly does look like a pregnant woman. But now she's too old so people know that she's just fat and apple-shaped. And I find myself being critical of her like why don't you ever try to improve yourself? Why don't you ever go to a gym or eat cleaner or go for walks? I brought up the gym and said how I have gone there for free that down their guest pass. Because she asked what I did that day, and not because I was trying to tell her to go to one. And she voluntarily said how she doesn't go to gyms and doesn't exercise that much because she broke her foot while falling when she was sick with covid 2 years ago. But that was 2 years ago! And she says how she can't really go for walks or do much exercise. And in my mind I was thinking "but yet you can go out to eat, you can go to movies, and you can walk along the strip in Vegas with your husband but you can't walk around your own neighborhood"?
And I find myself being critical of everything she does but especially things like that. And I find that I think it is because I'm jealous so I have to focus on her very obvious flaws which is that she is overweight and apple-shaped and all these other flaws about her like her character flaws, like how she sleeps late because she stays up all night and has bipolar disorder and takes bipolar meds and she works part-time a few hours a day and is collecting disability and this has been going on for 20 plus years this is her life. And I know those meds can cause weight gain as a side effect but she just gets bigger and bigger and I guess I feel like she's not ashamed of it and she's not even really aware doesn't care and I guess I find myself critical of that as well? I've never had a problem with my weight I've actually been underweight most of my life and now I'm finally at a normal BMI of 107 pounds and I'm 5'2. I don't know her weight and I've never asked it wouldn't be appropriate but I do find myself being critical and I think that her being overweight is a manifestation of her character. She's entitled, she's self-absorbed, she's lazy, and she's lazy because everything has been handed to her she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and everything has been made easy for her.
She's always gotten off Scot free of things her parents have always bailed her out she got to dodge motherhood and now take credit for her well-adjusted grown up son it just doesn't seem fair to me , and yes I'm bitter and I'm jealous at home my life turned out and how her's turned out.
And I admit there's a part of me that even thinks my life should be better than hers I'm better looking than her I'm slimmer than her why is her life easier and better than mine? Why has she been married many times and I've never even been married once? I admit when I was living alone it was hard for me to date because my daughter was little than a night and feel comfortable bringing strange men over my house where me and my daughter lived or going to their place a lot of the times I would meet men on dating apps and they would take me out to eat and do nice things but then they turned out to be jerks who just wanted sex. I've had more than my share of disappointment and heartache and then they're also times where I should have given nice guys chances and I didn't because for some reason I was afraid to and I didn't want to take the relationship any further because I was jealous that my daughter's dad would hear and get jealous. And yes I do regret that. I didn't really give myself a chance to get married or have those good things.
Why does she get to have parents and a loving family and a support system and I don't? She doesn't even do anything to improve her own life or do anything to be healthy or lose weight or do anything and I guess I feel like nobody has ever been mean to her or put her in her place or humbled her in any way and it shows because she's sheltered and yet she's not ashamed of being so big . and most consider her unattractive she's not just a big pretty woman she actually has really thin hair and a big nose and there's nothing really pretty or attractive about her face either and yet she somehow still comes across as kind of entitled and snobby sometimes because of her upbringing. Her parents are skinny and healthy and they were vegan so it is kind of ironic considering those are her parents. So I know that her weight problem is not genetic either.
And I know that this is mean of me and it's probably going to get a lot of people ticked off on me and saying bad things to me but I just have to lay it all out here. My question is should I end this friendship and how do I do it? It's gotten to the point now where I can't stand to be around her or hear anything about her life and all I can think of is very mean thoughts about her

I think I've outgrown this friend?
I have this friend that I've known since I was 19 years old and she was 28 going on 29.. there's a nine year age gap between us. Now I'm 40 years old going on 41 and she is newly 50. We are both in very different places in our lives from each other now and also from our former selves back then. My life has gotten a lot harder, while hers has stayed relatively the same. When she met me I was just a young girl practically a kid with hope for the future I was in this cult like Christian non denominational church that told me I needed to reach out to people and convert them and lay my life down for them.
So I did everything for her . I was a nurturing friend and I think in her mind that's what our friendship was based on. I left the church at age 21 because I got tired of them controlling me and telling me that I could only date men in the church and I left because I met a guy that I liked. Well he ended up dumping me 2 months later and then I got into a relationship that was my rebound but I ended up being with him and having a baby with him. That baby is now a 15 year old girl.
it has been a lot of ups and downs for me, and life in my twenties was no picnic. Nor was life in my 30s as a single mom. I spent a lot of hard years and hardships. My parents divorced when my daughter was two years old due to my mom's infidelity for 3 years and then 3 years later my dad had died of sepsis when I was 29 going on 30 and I was absolutely devastated for a long time and was bitter towards my mom. Her parents are still together and still the same as they were except her dad now has dementia but he hes 85 years old now. And her mom has run of the mill health issues.
My mom now has s Parkinson's and I don't live with her the guy that she chose over my dad is still living with her and I've gotten over my hatred of him but it's just awkward and doesn't feel like my childhood home. She has that childhood home to still go to. That parental unit. Until she loses one of them she'll never really understand what I went through. And even then it still won't be the same because first I lost them as a unit when they divorced and lost what I thought they were in love. it was very hard to watch my dad get destroyed by that divorce and infidelity.
Flash Forward my daughter's dad and I split up in 2015 and I lived on my own for 5 years. I had a lot of trouble with diagnosed OCD social anxiety falling behind on bills etc. I even had to move in with my mom for a couple of months because I just couldn't manage my finances and n being a single mom anymore. My daughter's dad had a mental breakdown and wasn't able to help me and I didn't hit him up for child support either I never filed because I was too nice. Long story short during the pandemic in 2020 everything got turned upside down
Backtracking , in 2019 I found this really cute place a couple months after moving back in w my mom and for once in my life I started to feel like I had reached self-actualization. I had a little Chihuahua that I loved and my cat and my daughter and were all doing great and thriving in our social lives and work and nl school lives. I even had a girls group that I hung out with but that dispersed due to a disagreement that me and a friend had over something stupid.
anyways, to make a long story short my friend has had a lot of good things happen to her that I have not. My friend still has is both her parents. she's already been through three marriages whereas I've never married . she signed away her parental rights to her son who was four at the time when she and her husband divorced and she moved in with her parents and they took her under their wing again.
Her parents have always bailed her out they've always had really good jobs, she grew up with privilege and luxury. I grew up with some privilege and luxury too but not quite like her but all of that got snipped away from me when my parents divorced. my parents were just nurses so they made pretty good money but we lived in the Bay area where it's very expensive. So does she.
Anyways she's now married to a guy that she met off the internet and I'm back with my daughter's dad and I'm unhappy but I don't know how to leave because I have horrible credit and I have no way of getting out of here and I don't make enough at my current job and I'm actively looking but honestly the pandemic really did a number on both me and my daughter and I don't mean just the virus itself but I mean socially and emotionally. It really set both of us back and caused my daughter to regress and it caused me to get knocked off of whatever progress I was making in my personal life towards becoming a better version of myself. Anyways this friend I feel like hasn't been through as much as me and she's been sheltered from a lot of heartache even at the age of 50. I feel like she dodged a bullet with raising her son and now her son is turning out to be great and doing really well in life at the age of 25 but that's to no credit of hers, it's through his paternal grandparents who did an excellent job raising him into the young man that he is today, but she tries to take credit .
my daughter has had a lot of struggles emotionally and was diagnosed with autism spectrum a couple of years ago. So basically I feel like I've had it much harder than her I know it's not fair to compare my sorrow to others and we all have our share of problems but I just feel like it's the honest objective truth. She hasn't been through what I've been through and it shows because she's still pretty much the same as when we met her whereas me I'm a totally different person than I was at 19. and I feel like she has this fixed image of me in her head as being this young, wholesome 19-year-old girl who is going to church and reaching out to her and always wearing nice church clothes and we're always going on camping trips with our church and congregation and doing all these fun things and I was just this wholesome young sweet girl who hadn't yet been through anything in life. I feel like that version of me is long gone and dead or at least buried somewhere inside of me somewhere and she's not coming back and yet my friend I feel like still sees me as that. Anytime something goes wrong or good in her life she wants to call me. Anytime she wants to brag she wants to call me. It's like I'm always the first person she wants to tell things to and I really don't understand why, especially since she has a husband that she's been married to for 3 years . I feel like that should be the person she goes to she claims she's in love with him and happy with him so shouldn't that be her best friend and not me?
I don't really tell her anything about my life , but she also doesn't really ask. I don't feel like telling her and I don't feel like confiding in her. Besides every time I try to she's kind of mentally slow and it takes her forever to process every little detail of what I'm telling her and she can't even keep up and it's honestly exhausting talking to her.
Anyways this friend of mine also doesn't respect my need for space. She'll call me and if I don't answer she'll text and ask if I can talk I'll say I can't right now I'm busy and she'll ask when can I talk or what am I up to she'll try to find a way to squeeze herself into my day and have a conversation with me it almost feels for us. If I don't text her back, she'll then message me on Facebook and go on a like bench on all of my status and photos it's kind of creepy and annoying to be honest with you and it really feels like an invasion of my personal space and like she's not taking the social cue that I do not want to talk to her right now.
She also is insensitive and tone deaf to my financial situation she knows that I want to go on vacation and feel like I'm missing out on life and that I don't often get to do much of anything because of my finances. And yet when she goes on vacation she continues to brag about how much fun she had and everything that she did.
Recently she went to Vegas and I saw the post about it on her Facebook and I like the status even. but she still seemed to want validation for me because she texted me the day she got back and was telling me all about it in a text after she called and I didn't answer. I said oh I forgot you went there that sounds fun. She then asked if I could talk and I said I was busy making dinner I was hoping she'd take the hint that I didn't want to hear about her Vegas trip. I've tried telling her how I feel when she does bring them up I explain to her sometimes it's hard for me to be happy for you or other people because I'm going through a difficult time in my own life. I'm happy for that you can take vacations but I was also like these things for myself and right now my personal circumstances and finances are not allowing for me to have that in my life. And she got kind of butt hurt and whined at me and "so why can't you just be happy for me." And I told her I just was not there yet and that I'm not in a good headspace and to not take it personally and if we could just talk about more neutral topics like Netflix or anything else but bragging about her vacations and yet she hasn't gotten a hint or considered my feelings.
It's to the point now where I resent her and I am ultra critical of her in every single way. But mostly it is manifested to where I'm critical of how she looks. She's not the most attractive woman in the world, she's actually borderline obese and she only gets bigger and bigger as the years go by. A few years ago when she was not as old as she is now people even random multiple people would assume she was pregnant because she's very apple-shaped and though she's heavy all over, her stomach in particular is very round and swollen and big and it honestly does look like a pregnant woman. But now she's too old so people know that she's just fat and apple-shaped. And I find myself being critical of her like why don't you ever try to improve yourself? Why don't you ever go to a gym or eat cleaner or go for walks? I brought up the gym and said how I have gone there for free that down their guest pass. Because she asked what I did that day, and not because I was trying to tell her to go to one. And she voluntarily said how she doesn't go to gyms and doesn't exercise that much because she broke her foot while falling when she was sick with covid 2 years ago. But that was 2 years ago! And she says how she can't really go for walks or do much exercise. And in my mind I was thinking "but yet you can go out to eat, you can go to movies, and you can walk along the strip in Vegas with your husband but you can't walk around your own neighborhood"?
And I find myself being critical of everything she does but especially things like that. And I find that I think it is because I'm jealous so I have to focus on her very obvious flaws which is that she is overweight and apple-shaped and all these other flaws about her like her character flaws, like how she sleeps late because she stays up all night and has bipolar disorder and takes bipolar meds and she works part-time a few hours a day and is collecting disability and this has been going on for 20 plus years this is her life. And I know those meds can cause weight gain as a side effect but she just gets bigger and bigger and I guess I feel like she's not ashamed of it and she's not even really aware doesn't care and I guess I find myself critical of that as well? I've never had a problem with my weight I've actually been underweight most of my life and now I'm finally at a normal BMI of 107 pounds and I'm 5'2. I don't know her weight and I've never asked it wouldn't be appropriate but I do find myself being critical and I think that her being overweight is a manifestation of her character. She's entitled, she's self-absorbed, she's lazy, and she's lazy because everything has been handed to her she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and everything has been made easy for her.
She's always gotten off Scot free of things her parents have always bailed her out she got to dodge motherhood and now take credit for her well-adjusted grown up son it just doesn't seem fair to me , and yes I'm bitter and I'm jealous at home my life turned out and how her's turned out.
And I admit there's a part of me that even thinks my life should be better than hers I'm better looking than her I'm slimmer than her why is her life easier and better than mine? Why has she been married many times and I've never even been married once? I admit when I was living alone it was hard for me to date because my daughter was little than a night and feel comfortable bringing strange men over my house where me and my daughter lived or going to their place a lot of the times I would meet men on dating apps and they would take me out to eat and do nice things but then they turned out to be jerks who just wanted sex. I've had more than my share of disappointment and heartache and then they're also times where I should have given nice guys chances and I didn't because for some reason I was afraid to and I didn't want to take the relationship any further because I was jealous that my daughter's dad would hear and get jealous. And yes I do regret that. I didn't really give myself a chance to get married or have those good things.
Why does she get to have parents and a loving family and a support system and I don't? She doesn't even do anything to improve her own life or do anything to be healthy or lose weight or do anything and I guess I feel like nobody has ever been mean to her or put her in her place or humbled her in any way and it shows because she's sheltered and yet she's not ashamed of being so big . and most consider her unattractive she's not just a big pretty woman she actually has really thin hair and a big nose and there's nothing really pretty or attractive about her face either and yet she somehow still comes across as kind of entitled and snobby sometimes because of her upbringing. Her parents are skinny and healthy and they were vegan so it is kind of ironic considering those are her parents. So I know that her weight problem is not genetic either.
And I know that this is mean of me and it's probably going to get a lot of people ticked off on me and saying bad things to me but I just have to lay it all out here. My question is should I end this friendship and how do I do it? It's gotten to the point now where I can't stand to be around her or hear anything about her life and all I can think of is very mean thoughts about her

I have this friend that I've known since I was 19 years old and she was 28 going on 29.. there's a nine year age gap between us. Now I'm 40 years old going on 41 and she is newly 50. We are both in very different places in our lives from each other now and also from our former selves back then. My life has gotten a lot harder, while hers has stayed relatively the same. When she met me I was just a young girl practically a kid with hope for the future I was in this cult like Christian non denominational church that told me I needed to reach out to people and convert them and lay my life down for them.
So I did everything for her . I was a nurturing friend and I think in her mind that's what our friendship was based on. I left the church at age 21 because I got tired of them controlling me and telling me that I could only date men in the church and I left because I met a guy that I liked. Well he ended up dumping me 2 months later and then I got into a relationship that was my rebound but I ended up being with him and having a baby with him. That baby is now a 15 year old girl.
it has been a lot of ups and downs for me, and life in my twenties was no picnic. Nor was life in my 30s as a single mom. I spent a lot of hard years and hardships. My parents divorced when my daughter was two years old due to my mom's infidelity for 3 years and then 3 years later my dad had died of sepsis when I was 29 going on 30 and I was absolutely devastated for a long time and was bitter towards my mom. Her parents are still together and still the same as they were except her dad now has dementia but he hes 85 years old now. And her mom has run of the mill health issues.
My mom now has s Parkinson's and I don't live with her the guy that she chose over my dad is still living with her and I've gotten over my hatred of him but it's just awkward and doesn't feel like my childhood home. She has that childhood home to still go to. That parental unit. Until she loses one of them she'll never really understand what I went through. And even then it still won't be the same because first I lost them as a unit when they divorced and lost what I thought they were in love. it was very hard to watch my dad get destroyed by that divorce and infidelity.
Flash Forward my daughter's dad and I split up in 2015 and I lived on my own for 5 years. I had a lot of trouble with diagnosed OCD social anxiety falling behind on bills etc. I even had to move in with my mom for a couple of months because I just couldn't manage my finances and n being a single mom anymore. My daughter's dad had a mental breakdown and wasn't able to help me and I didn't hit him up for child support either I never filed because I was too nice. Long story short during the pandemic in 2020 everything got turned upside down
Backtracking , in 2019 I found this really cute place a couple months after moving back in w my mom and for once in my life I started to feel like I had reached self-actualization. I had a little Chihuahua that I loved and my cat and my daughter and were all doing great and thriving in our social lives and work and nl school lives. I even had a girls group that I hung out with but that dispersed due to a disagreement that me and a friend had over something stupid.
anyways, to make a long story short my friend has had a lot of good things happen to her that I have not. My friend still has is both her parents. she's already been through three marriages whereas I've never married . she signed away her parental rights to her son who was four at the time when she and her husband divorced and she moved in with her parents and they took her under their wing again.
Her parents have always bailed her out they've always had really good jobs, she grew up with privilege and luxury. I grew up with some privilege and luxury too but not quite like her but all of that got snipped away from me when my parents divorced. my parents were just nurses so they made pretty good money but we lived in the Bay area where it's very expensive. So does she.
Anyways she's now married to a guy that she met off the internet and I'm back with my daughter's dad and I'm unhappy but I don't know how to leave because I have horrible credit and I have no way of getting out of here and I don't make enough at my current job and I'm actively looking but honestly the pandemic really did a number on both me and my daughter and I don't mean just the virus itself but I mean socially and emotionally. It really set both of us back and caused my daughter to regress and it caused me to get knocked off of whatever progress I was making in my personal life towards becoming a better version of myself. Anyways this friend I feel like hasn't been through as much as me and she's been sheltered from a lot of heartache even at the age of 50. I feel like she dodged a bullet with raising her son and now her son is turning out to be great and doing really well in life at the age of 25 but that's to no credit of hers, it's through his paternal grandparents who did an excellent job raising him into the young man that he is today, but she tries to take credit .
my daughter has had a lot of struggles emotionally and was diagnosed with autism spectrum a couple of years ago. So basically I feel like I've had it much harder than her I know it's not fair to compare my sorrow to others and we all have our share of problems but I just feel like it's the honest objective truth. She hasn't been through what I've been through and it shows because she's still pretty much the same as when we met her whereas me I'm a totally different person than I was at 19. and I feel like she has this fixed image of me in her head as being this young, wholesome 19-year-old girl who is going to church and reaching out to her and always wearing nice church clothes and we're always going on camping trips with our church and congregation and doing all these fun things and I was just this wholesome young sweet girl who hadn't yet been through anything in life. I feel like that version of me is long gone and dead or at least buried somewhere inside of me somewhere and she's not coming back and yet my friend I feel like still sees me as that. Anytime something goes wrong or good in her life she wants to call me. Anytime she wants to brag she wants to call me. It's like I'm always the first person she wants to tell things to and I really don't understand why, especially since she has a husband that she's been married to for 3 years . I feel like that should be the person she goes to she claims she's in love with him and happy with him so shouldn't that be her best friend and not me?
I don't really tell her anything about my life , but she also doesn't really ask. I don't feel like telling her and I don't feel like confiding in her. Besides every time I try to she's kind of mentally slow and it takes her forever to process every little detail of what I'm telling her and she can't even keep up and it's honestly exhausting talking to her.
Anyways this friend of mine also doesn't respect my need for space. She'll call me and if I don't answer she'll text and ask if I can talk I'll say I can't right now I'm busy and she'll ask when can I talk or what am I up to she'll try to find a way to squeeze herself into my day and have a conversation with me it almost feels for us. If I don't text her back, she'll then message me on Facebook and go on a like bench on all of my status and photos it's kind of creepy and annoying to be honest with you and it really feels like an invasion of my personal space and like she's not taking the social cue that I do not want to talk to her right now.
She also is insensitive and tone deaf to my financial situation she knows that I want to go on vacation and feel like I'm missing out on life and that I don't often get to do much of anything because of my finances. And yet when she goes on vacation she continues to brag about how much fun she had and everything that she did.
Recently she went to Vegas and I saw the post about it on her Facebook and I like the status even. but she still seemed to want validation for me because she texted me the day she got back and was telling me all about it in a text after she called and I didn't answer. I said oh I forgot you went there that sounds fun. She then asked if I could talk and I said I was busy making dinner I was hoping she'd take the hint that I didn't want to hear about her Vegas trip. I've tried telling her how I feel when she does bring them up I explain to her sometimes it's hard for me to be happy for you or other people because I'm going through a difficult time in my own life. I'm happy for that you can take vacations but I was also like these things for myself and right now my personal circumstances and finances are not allowing for me to have that in my life. And she got kind of butt hurt and whined at me and "so why can't you just be happy for me." And I told her I just was not there yet and that I'm not in a good headspace and to not take it personally and if we could just talk about more neutral topics like Netflix or anything else but bragging about her vacations and yet she hasn't gotten a hint or considered my feelings.
It's to the point now where I resent her and I am ultra critical of her in every single way. But mostly it is manifested to where I'm critical of how she looks. She's not the most attractive woman in the world, she's actually borderline obese and she only gets bigger and bigger as the years go by. A few years ago when she was not as old as she is now people even random multiple people would assume she was pregnant because she's very apple-shaped and though she's heavy all over, her stomach in particular is very round and swollen and big and it honestly does look like a pregnant woman. But now she's too old so people know that she's just fat and apple-shaped. And I find myself being critical of her like why don't you ever try to improve yourself? Why don't you ever go to a gym or eat cleaner or go for walks? I brought up the gym and said how I have gone there for free that down their guest pass. Because she asked what I did that day, and not because I was trying to tell her to go to one. And she voluntarily said how she doesn't go to gyms and doesn't exercise that much because she broke her foot while falling when she was sick with covid 2 years ago. But that was 2 years ago! And she says how she can't really go for walks or do much exercise. And in my mind I was thinking "but yet you can go out to eat, you can go to movies, and you can walk along the strip in Vegas with your husband but you can't walk around your own neighborhood"?
And I find myself being critical of everything she does but especially things like that. And I find that I think it is because I'm jealous so I have to focus on her very obvious flaws which is that she is overweight and apple-shaped and all these other flaws about her like her character flaws, like how she sleeps late because she stays up all night and has bipolar disorder and takes bipolar meds and she works part-time a few hours a day and is collecting disability and this has been going on for 20 plus years this is her life. And I know those meds can cause weight gain as a side effect but she just gets bigger and bigger and I guess I feel like she's not ashamed of it and she's not even really aware doesn't care and I guess I find myself critical of that as well? I've never had a problem with my weight I've actually been underweight most of my life and now I'm finally at a normal BMI of 107 pounds and I'm 5'2. I don't know her weight and I've never asked it wouldn't be appropriate but I do find myself being critical and I think that her being overweight is a manifestation of her character. She's entitled, she's self-absorbed, she's lazy, and she's lazy because everything has been handed to her she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and everything has been made easy for her.
She's always gotten off Scot free of things her parents have always bailed her out she got to dodge motherhood and now take credit for her well-adjusted grown up son it just doesn't seem fair to me , and yes I'm bitter and I'm jealous at home my life turned out and how her's turned out.
And I admit there's a part of me that even thinks my life should be better than hers I'm better looking than her I'm slimmer than her why is her life easier and better than mine? Why has she been married many times and I've never even been married once? I admit when I was living alone it was hard for me to date because my daughter was little than a night and feel comfortable bringing strange men over my house where me and my daughter lived or going to their place a lot of the times I would meet men on dating apps and they would take me out to eat and do nice things but then they turned out to be jerks who just wanted sex. I've had more than my share of disappointment and heartache and then they're also times where I should have given nice guys chances and I didn't because for some reason I was afraid to and I didn't want to take the relationship any further because I was worried that my daughter's dad would hear and get jealous. And yes I do regret that. I didn't really give myself a chance to get married or have those good things.
Why does she get to have parents and a loving family and a support system and I don't? She doesn't even do anything to improve her own life or do anything to be healthy or lose weight or do anything and I guess I feel like nobody has ever been mean to her or put her in her place or humbled her in any way and it shows because she's sheltered and yet she's not ashamed of being so big . and most consider her unattractive she's not just a big pretty woman she actually has really thin hair and a big nose and there's nothing really pretty or attractive about her face either and yet she somehow still comes across as kind of entitled and snobby sometimes because of her upbringing. Her parents are skinny and healthy and they were vegan so it is kind of ironic considering those are her parents. So I know that her weight problem is not genetic either.
And I know that this is mean of me and it's probably going to get a lot of people ticked off on me and saying bad things to me but I just have to lay it all out here. My question is should I end this friendship and how do I do it? It's gotten to the point now where I can't stand to be around her or anything about her life and all I can think of is very mean thoughts about her

I’m (14F) just tired. I’m tired of life, of myself, of everything. I haven’t even gone through much but my mental health is shit. I self harm, but I can’t get myself to go deep enough even if I crave it so desperately (it’s not that I’m scared of going deep, I just can’t do it for some reason). I hate myself and I hate everyone around me. I used to vent a lot and in general just be very social with my online friends but now I’m too tired and numb to even do that.
I have “good” days but still I end up crying, sick with anxiety, numb, self harming or some other negative emotion. I rarely feel genuinely happy and if I do laugh or smile it doesn’t last more than 5 minutes and I can’t feel it. I just want help. I want a hug and I want to get better. But I don’t want to put effort in getting better. I’m tired and I can’t do this anymore. I can barely even take care of myself.
I barely have any energy or motivation. I might have Binge Eating Disorder (I’m not diagnosed but I have a lot of symptoms) and that paired with the fact that I can’t get myself to workout leaves me overweight/obese. I know it’s unhealthy and I know I should lose weight but I mentally just can’t get myself to. And if I do feel like mom’s just gonna ruin it all by saying stupid shit, teasing me or something along the lines of that.
My mom neglects my mental health and she’s emotionally/verbally abusive. She also gaslights and manipulates me and lies to me saying how she’d never do or say the things she does when I bring it up so I’ve learned not to bring it up. Also, I vividly remember her physically abusing me - not bad but still doing it, but she denies it ever happening. My dad’s sweet but he doesn’t understand mental health issues, he also always takes mom’s side. He doesn’t live with us either due to laws.
I’ve attempted before but it didn’t work (overdosing apparently doesn’t work). And I guess I’m glad, but I’m tired. I’m tired of lying about how I am. I’m tired of living in a word that doesn’t let me take a break when I need to and just keeps on going. I know it’s pathetic, I’m still young, I have my whole life ahead of me. I’m not traumatized, mom’s abuse isn’t that bad. I’m also just a shitty daughter in general.
I’ll admit, I’m selfish. I’m not a very good person, friend, sister, daughter, and so on. I do stupid shit and I hurt people, sometimes on purpose with no guilt. But it’s mostly because my mental health sucks. I know it’s not an excuse to hurt innocent people but I just want help. I vent a lot on Reddit because I can’t get myself to vent to friends anymore and I hate it. I used to vent a lot and be really social as I’ve mentioned before but now I’m losing that part of me too.
This is all over the place but I’m not expecting anyone to read it, it’s honestly just for me lol. Oh yeah and I used to get easily attached to people but now I can’t. I just wanna love and be happy and be normal like I always did. The worst part is I haven’t gone through anything significantly traumatic to make me like this. It’s just me against my brain.
Nothing entertains me, I don’t have motivation, I spend my day laying in bed, eating and scrolling on social media. I know it’s unhealthy and I know I should just suck it up and get my shit together but I can’t. I’m weak and I’m a coward. I know I’m the only one who can help me but I don’t know how and I don’t have the energy to. I wanna just sleep and never wake up. I don’t wanna fear hell.
On the topic of hell, I’m losing my belief in my religion. That might not seem bad to people who don’t believe but it is for me. I grew up having someone to believe in, reach out to for support and just… a reason, a meaning of life, but now I can’t believe in Him anymore. I fear hell, yes, but that’s about it. Hell is probably the only thing keeping me from slitting my wrists and even then it’s barely stopping me.
I can’t look at my wrists without touching the artery (idk if it’s normal but it’s super prominent and visible on one of my wrists) and imagining slitting across it. Actually, a few days ago we were outside in PE and I felt sick because I kept looking at my wrist so I sat down on a bench and my teacher looked at me and was like ‘you’re very smart, I really really hope you become an author’ with the biggest smile on his face.
I feel like I failed him. He believes in me and hopes I become something big but I can’t. At least not while he’s alive (he’s pretty old). And I know if anyone even bothers reading all this they’re gonna say ‘get therapy’ ‘tell your parents’ ‘tell your teachers’ and so on. I can’t tell anyone. My mom wouldn’t understand, I know she wouldn’t - I’ve tried. Same with dad, and with him I can’t even tell him I’m sad - it’s just not our dynamic.
I can’t tell my teachers either. I tried with one and she didn’t even bring it up again. I tried school counselor. School nurse (she’s a fucking bitch). But no one helped me and I’ve just spiraled and gotten worse. The adults around me failed me. And I know they did. I feel guilty about calling my mom abusive, but one thing I don’t feel guilty about is knowing that the adults around me failed me.
I don’t want any advice, I just want to let this out somewhere. I’m probably gonna die young. If it’s not suicide (accidentally during self harm or purposeful), it’s health complications from being overweight. I’m gonna lie to my friends and tell them I’m okay and stuff because there’s no point in venting to them when it won’t get better anyway.
I could keep going but I’m just gonna end this rant here.

DAY: June 3 2024
6-3-2024

AIRPLANE NOISE EXPOSURE MAY INCREASE RISK OF CHRONIC DISEASE

Locations of 90 study airports in the United States symbolized by quartiles of participants pooled from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and NHSII living around each airport. Increasing point sizes are proportional to the increasing quartiles of study participants from the pooled sample of NHS and NHSII living within 22.2 miles (35.7 km) of each study airport at baseline. States are outlined and colors indicate each of four U.S. Census regions. The 100th meridian west of the Prime Meridian denotes the boundary between arid and humid areas.
6-3-2024

NEW MACHINE LEARNING METHOD CAN BETTER PREDICT SPINE SURGERY OUTCOMES

Researchers who had been using Fitbit data to help predict surgical outcomes have a new method to more accurately gauge how patients may recover from spine surgery. Using machine learning techniques developed at the AI for Health Institute at Washington University in St. Louis, Chenyang Lu, the Fullgraf Professor in the university’s McKelvey School of Engineering, collaborated with Jacob Greenberg, MD, assistant professor of neurosurgery at the School of Medicine, to develop a way to predict recovery more accurately from lumbar spine surgery. The results published in the journal Proceedings
6-3-2024

PEDIATRICIAN SUGGESTS FIVE QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE A PLAYDATE

Playdates are a fun way for children to develop friendships and learn important social skills. Visiting another family’s home will also expose your child to a new environment. Before the playdate, it’s a good idea to talk with the other parent about household habits, rules and expectations. It’s also a great opportunity to share any important details about your child? like a food allergy, pet allergy or other health issues. Here are a few important questions to ask: 1. Who will be watching the children? Will a parent be home,
6-3-2024

UNDERSTANDING HOW THE BRAIN CONTROLS SOCIAL GAZE

For animals such as primates, the act of gazing plays a key role in social interaction, used to both send and gather information. In a new study, Yale scientists uncover two brain regions that contribute to this type of social attention. The findings yield important insight into how this dynamic behavior arises and might be used to boost social behavior in disorders like autism in which engaging in social attention can be challenging, researchers say. The findings were published May 31 in the journal Neuron.
6-3-2024

WHY YOU MAY NOT BE GETTING THE BENEFITS YOU EXPECTED FROM MINDFULNESS

You’ve probably seen the word mindfulness everywhere these days, from the news, to magazines, to social media. Mindfulness is sometimes packaged as a mental health cure-all, and studies do suggest that mindfulness-based therapies support mental health. Your friends or family may even have told you that mindfulness has changed their lives. But if you have tried mindfulness and feel like it isn’t working for you, our developmental psychology research might explain why. In our recent study, we have found that being highly mindful may not be beneficial for all. Instead,
6-3-2024

MOST SLEEP TIPS SHARED ON TIKTOK ARE SUPPORTED BY SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

A new study found that most sleep tips shared on TikTok are supported by empirical evidence. The research findings show that of 35 unique sleep tips shared in popular videos, there was empirical support for 29. Only six sleep tips were unsupported by scientific evidence. “These results suggest that the sleep research and sleep medicine communities have done a good job of promoting appropriate tips for sleep hygiene,” said lead
6-3-2024

DOES SLEEP CLEAR MORE TOXINS FROM THE BRAIN THAN WHEN WE’RE AWAKE? LATEST RESEARCH CASTS DOUBT ON THEORY

There’s no doubt sleep is good for the brain. It allows different parts to regenerate and helps memories stabilize. When we don’t get enough sleep, this can increase stress levels and exacerbate mental health issues. Evidence also supports the notion that the brain gets rid of more toxic waste when we’re asleep than when we’re awake. This process is believed to be crucial in getting rid of potentially harmful things such as amyloid, a protein whose build-up in the brain is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. However, a recent study in
6-3-2024

‘PLACEBO’ OR ‘SHAM’ SURGERY IS NOT A CRUEL TRICK—IT CAN BE VERY EFFECTIVE

Ten years ago, a scan showed that I had torn the meniscus in my knee. The pain was bad and I was limping a lot of the time. My doctor recommended arthroscopic knee surgery to fix it. Being scared of scalpels, I asked whether there were other options. He said I could try physiotherapy, but that it was unlikely to work. I tried the physio and did the recommended exercises diligently, and my knee pain and function returned to almost normal. I even ran my first (and only) marathon a
6-3-2024

WHY, FOR SOME, PSYCHOTHERAPY MIGHT BE A BETTER TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION THAN DRUGS

During a psychotherapy session, one of my patients reported to me that the antidepressants he’d been prescribed by his GP had “killed his desire.” He felt “dead inside,” he told me. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated case. I’ve heard similar descriptions of the effects of antidepressants from many patients. Many say they feel like “zombies.” However, some patients report that these drugs are helpful—even essential—in the management of their mental health. Antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and popular anti-anxiety medication benzodiazepines can offer
6-3-2024

INTOXICATION WITHOUT ALCOHOL: AUTO-BREWERY SYNDROME

How can someone have alcohol intoxication without consuming alcohol? Auto-brewery syndrome, a rare condition in which gut fungi create alcohol through fermentation, is described in a case study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “Auto-brewery syndrome carries substantial social, legal, and medical consequences for patients and their loved ones,” writes Dr. Rahel Zewude, University of Toronto, with co-authors. “Our patient had several [emergency department] visits, was assessed by internists and psychiatrists, and was certified under the Mental Health Act before receiving a diagnosis of auto-brewery syndrome, reinforcing how awareness of
6-3-2024

WHAT ARE MINDFULNESS POTENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS?

Can mindfulness meditation be good medicine for both mental and physical ills? Yes, says one expert who explains the practice and what conditions it might help. A particular form of mindfulness that focuses on pleasure has been shown to work as well as a starting dose of a narcotic for pain and better than traditional psychotherapy for substance abuse, said Eric Garland, director of the University of Utah’s Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development. But the meditation style may work for more than just chronic pain and addiction.
6-3-2024

CRACKING THE AGING CODE: INSIGHTS INTO LIPID CHANGES

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) have discovered numerous age-related changes in the lipid metabolism of mice, across both organs and sexes. Among these changes was the selective accumulation, throughout the body, of certain lipids produced by gut bacteria as the mice aged. They also discovered a sex difference in the kidneys and a gene responsible for it. Published in Nature Aging, this study could lead to better understanding of
6-3-2024

THE FDA WILL SOON WEIGH IN PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS

Lori Tipton is among the growing number of people who say that MDMA, also known as ecstasy, saved their lives. Raised in New Orleans by a mother with untreated bipolar disorder who later killed herself and two others, Tipton said she endured layers of trauma that eventually forced her to seek treatment for crippling anxiety and hypervigilance. For 10 years nothing helped, and she began to wonder if she was “unfixable.” Then she answered an ad for a clinical trial for MDMA-assisted therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Tipton said
6-3-2024

ZYN IS FOLLOWING BIG TOBACCO’S PLAYBOOK FOR TEENS

Zyn’s synthetic nicotine offers the kick of a cigarette or dip without the cancer-causing smoke and chemicals of tobacco, packaged in a pouch that can be discreetly tucked into the upper lip. But that doesn’t mean they’re risk-free. Very little is known about how nicotine pouches could affect health or addiction trends in the U.S. Moreover, tobacco companies are selling the products in dosages and flavors that seem very clearly designed to appeal to younger users, even though buyers are supposed to be at least 21. Even without a ton
6-3-2024

EARLY MENOPAUSE LINKED TO GREATER RISK FOR BREAST, AND POSSIBLY OVARIAN CANCER

Some women who experience menopause early—before age 40—have an increased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, according to research being presented at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “There is also higher risk of breast, prostate and colon cancer in relatives of these women,” said Corrine Welt, M.D., chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at the University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City, Utah. Welt and colleagues began the study with the hypothesis that some women with primary ovarian insufficiency and
6-3-2024

BE READY FOR STORM SEASON

by Tia R. Ford, Mayo Clinic News Network Each hurricane season, it is critical to take proactive steps to protect yourself, your family and your property. Hurricanes and other severe storm events can be devastating, but with proper preparation, you can minimize risks and stay safe. This year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service forecasters predict an 85% chance for above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic throughout the season beginning June 1 and ending Nov. 30. Taking time to prepare in advance of severe weather can help
6-3-2024

TYPE OF WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY WOMEN UNDERGO BEFORE PREGNANCY MAY INFLUENCE CHILDREN’S WEIGHT GAIN

The type of weight loss surgery women undergo before becoming pregnant may affect how much weight their children gain in the first three years of life, suggests a study presented at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Researchers found children born to women who underwent the bariatric procedure known as sleeve gastrectomy before they became pregnant gain more weight per month on average in the first three years of life compared with children born to women who had the less common Roux-en-Y gastric bypass weight loss
6-3-2024

WHAT IS BLADED BEEF? MECHANICALLY TENDERIZED STEAKS SHOULDN’T BE EATEN RARE, FOOD POLICY EXPERT EXPLAINS

For many steak lovers, nothing says summer like a tender slice of beef seared to a dark gloss on the outside while remaining juicy red on the inside. But when it comes to steaks and roasts labeled “blade tenderized” or “mechanically tenderized,” rare is not the best option, says Northeastern food policy expert Darin Detwiler. People who consume mechanically tenderized steaks rare are more susceptible to developing food-borne illness from E. coli or salmonella contamination, he says. Consumers can’t tell by looking at beef products whether they are blade or
6-3-2024

STUDY FINDS TIMING OF BRAIN WAVES SHAPES THE WORDS WE HEAR

The timing of our brain waves shapes how we perceive our environment. We are more likely to perceive events when their timing coincides with the timing of relevant brain waves. Lead scientist Sanne ten Oever and her co-authors set out to determine whether neural timing also shapes speech perception. Is the probability of speech sounds or words encoded in our brain waves and is this information used to recognize words? The team first created
6-3-2024

BENEFITS OF AN ACTIVE WORKSTATION

For the millions of people who sit at a desk for long hours at a time, day after day, you may want to stand up for this. Mayo Clinic research shows that using an active workstation can help you move more and think better at work — without affecting your job. Sitting too much at work or home can increase your risk of certain diseases, says Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and senior author of a study on the topic. “Sitting for eight hours or more a day
6-3-2024

NICOTINE MARKETING STILL TARGETS ADOLESCENTS JUST AS IT DID DECADES AGO, SAYS RESEARCHER

About 37 million children ages 13 to 15 around the world use tobacco, according to a 2024 report from the World Health Organization. In 2023, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product in the U.S., with 7.7% of middle school and high school students reporting e-cigarette use. Cigarettes were the next most common, with 1.6% of middle- and high school students saying they had consumed them in the past month. Research shows that most people who use tobacco start in childhood. I am a public health researcher who studies
6-3-2024

LOW-DOSE ASPIRIN REDUCES INFLAMMATION CAUSED BY SLEEP LOSS

A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting, held in Houston, Texas, June 1–5, found that low-dose acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin, can reduce inflammatory responses to sleep restriction. Results show that compared with placebo, preemptive administration of low-dose aspirin during sleep restriction reduced pro-inflammatory responses. Specifically, aspirin reduced interleukin-6 expression and COX-1/COX-2 double positive cells in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated monocytes, as well as C-reactive protein serum levels. “The novelty of this study is that it investigated whether we can pharmacologically reduce the inflammatory consequences of sleep
6-3-2024

NEW STUDY SHEDS LIGHT ON THE EFFECTS OF HUMOR IN MEDICAL PRACTICES

A humorous remark at just the right time can go a long way. Benevolent humor helps medical assistants (MAs) cope positively with their stressful working day, according to a new study published in BMC Primary Care by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). The researchers surveyed more than 600 MAs to find out how they experience their work and what
6-3-2024

FDA WARNS OF BACTERIAL AND OTHER DANGERS FROM RECALLED INFANT FORMULA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning parents about a goat milk infant formula potentially tainted with a bacterium that’s very dangerous to babies. Crecelac brand formula, already under recall since May 24, could contain Cronobacter, which “can cause bloodstream and central nervous system infections, such as sepsis and meningitis” in infants, the FDA warned in a statement issued Friday. Two other Farmalac brands are also being recalled because they failed to meet FDA safety regulations. The three recalled brands are: CRECELAC INFANT Powdered Goat Milk Infant Formula with
6-3-2024

SCIENTISTS DEVELOP AI TOOL TO PREDICT HOW CANCER PATIENTS WILL RESPOND TO IMMUNOTHERAPY

In a proof-of-concept study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that uses routine clinical data, such as that from a simple blood test, to predict whether someone’s cancer will respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of immunotherapy drug that helps immune cells kill cancer cells. The machine-learning model may help doctors determine if immunotherapy drugs are effective for treating a patient’s cancer. The study, published June 3, 2024, in Nature
6-3-2024

A DARK SIDE TO DARK CHOCOLATE? NEW STUDY FINDS VERY MINIMAL RISK FOR KIDS FROM METALS IN CHOCOLATES

Chocolate lovers may have been alarmed by a 2023 Consumer Reports finding that some dark chocolate brands could contain harmful levels of lead and cadmium. However, a new study by Tulane University published in Food Research International has found that dark chocolate poses no adverse risk for adults and contains nutritionally beneficial levels of essential minerals. The study sampled 155 dark and milk chocolates from various global brands sold in the United States and tested for the presence of 16 heavy metals ranging from the toxic (lead and cadmium) to
6-3-2024

LACK OF INSURANCE KEEPS MANY AMERICANS FROM BEST CANCER MEDS

A cutting-edge class of drugs is saving and extending the lives of cancer patients. But the drugs, called immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), are so expensive that some uninsured Americans can’t access them, a new report finds. New policies are needed “to improve health insurance coverage options and to make new treatments more affordable,” the American Cancer Society (ACS) said in a news release outlining the findings. The study was led by ACS researcher Dr. Jingxuan Zhao. Her team presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of
6-3-2024

UNDERSTANDING RISKS AND NEED FOR URGENT TREATMENT

It’s always important to prioritize health by participating in stroke risk screenings. These assessments offer invaluable insights into personal health profiles, enabling you to address potential risk factors head-on. Through simple measures such as monitoring blood pressure, measuring cholesterol levels, and adopting healthier lifestyle choices, you have the opportunity to dramatically reduce your susceptibility to stroke. Whether accessed online, in public programs, or through primary care providers, these screenings can provide proactive steps towards a healthier future. As we delve deeper into stroke awareness, it’s imperative to familiarize yourself with
6-3-2024

STUDY FINDS THAT OLDER ADULTS WITH SLEEP APNEA HAVE HIGHER ODDS OF HOSPITALIZATION

A new study found that sleep apnea is associated with increased odds of future utilization of health care services including hospitalization among older adults. Results show that participants aged 50 years and older with sleep apnea had a 21% higher odds of reporting future use of any health service compared with those without sleep apnea. Specifically, individuals with sleep apnea had 21% higher odds
6-3-2024

STUDY FINDS MORE WOMEN IN OIL-RICH GULF COUNTRIES BATTLE WITH BREAST CANCER

Breast cancer incidence has surged in the oil-rich Gulf (GCC) states, with the disease developing its own localized clinical and pathological features, setting them apart from those found in women with breast cancer in western countries, a study published in the journal Frontiers in Oncology finds. The study attributes the hike to the nature of menstrual cycle of women in these countries, hereditary factors, weaning children earlier than expected, prevalence of hormonal treatment, obesity, and use of contraceptives. The research is authored by a panel of nine oncologists from four
6-3-2024

HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS WANT THIS INFORMATION BEFORE PRESCRIBING THE HIV PREVENTION, PREP, TO ADOLESCENTS, STUDY FINDS

HIV infections among adolescents and young adults continue to be at high levels, with Americans between the ages of 13 and 24 accounting for approximately 20% of all new HIV infections in 2019. However, uptake of a preventive regimen known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in this group remains low. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2012, PrEP is highly effective for preventing HIV when taken as directed and reduces the risk of HIV from sex by 99% and from injection drug use by 74%. A new
6-3-2024

EXPENSIVE, DANGEROUS AND VERY ‘EN VOGUE’

When Los Angeles County medical examiners worked last year to determine how Matthew Perry died, they discovered something startling. The amount of ketamine in Perry’s bloodstream was about the same as what would be used during general anesthesia, his autopsy showed. Perry’s death—now the subject of an investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration—is putting a spotlight on the growing use of ketamine. There are more prescriptions, dedicated clinics and a burgeoning black market that
6-3-2024

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BALANCE BETWEEN TELEMEDICINE AND IN-PERSON CARE

A patient sits in the living room of her apartment in the Brooklyn borough of New York during a telemedicine video conference with a physician on Jan. 14, 2019. Patients can now see an array of doctors without leaving their recliner thanks to telemedicine. But that doesn’t mean trips to the office should end. Finding the right balance between virtual and in-person visits can be a key to getting good care.
6-3-2024

MANY PFAS FOREVER CHEMICALS ARE TOXIC—HERE’S HOW TO AVOID THEM

From non-stick frying pans to stain-resistant sofas, some of the most innovative everyday products are made using chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These “forever chemicals”—so-called because they don’t degrade—have been used in a variety of consumer and commercial applications since the 1950s. They can repel water and oil, resist high temperatures and act as “surfactants” by helping different types of liquids mix. There are around 15,000 different PFAS chemicals. Each one has a slightly different chemical composition, but they all have at least two carbon-fluorine bonds.

• 6-3-2024POLLUTANTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE CONTRIBUTE TO MILLIONS OF DEATHS FROM CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE EACH YEAR, WARN SCIENTISTS
• 6-3-2024LOW SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS RAISES PREGNANT WOMEN’S RISK OF EXPOSURE TO THYROID-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS, STUDY FINDS
• 6-3-2024MEDITATING WITH HEADBAND THAT TRACKS BRAIN ACTIVITY MAY IMPROVE SURGICAL RECOVERY IN PATIENTS WITH CUSHING’S SYNDROME
• 6-3-2024US WILL MAKE MILLIONS OF BIRD FLU VACCINES THIS SUMMER
• 6-3-2024NEW STUDY SHOWS VITAMIN C BOOSTS DNA DAMAGE AND CELL DEATH IN MELANOMA CELLS
• 6-3-2024NOVEL TARGETED CANCER THERAPIES DEMONSTRATE ACTIVITY AND SAFETY IN METASTATIC SOLID TUMORS
• 6-3-2024TOP US GOVERNMENT SCIENTIST GRILLED ON COVID
• 6-3-2024TEAM PRESENTS PROMISING RESULTS FROM FIRST CLINICAL TRIAL OF NEXT-GEN ANTIBODY IN PATIENTS WITH ADVANCED SOLID TUMORS
• 6-3-2024WHITE BLOOD CELL ‘NETS’ COULD BE EARLY WARNING SIGN OF MAJOR IMMUNOTHERAPY COMPLICATION
• 6-3-2024MENTAL HEALTH, LACK OF WORKPLACE SUPPORT ARE LEADING FACTORS DRIVING NURSES FROM JOBS: STUDY
• 6-3-2024SKIN MODELS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO ANIMAL TESTING
• 6-3-2024STUDIES SHOW NARCOLEPSY IS A RISK FACTOR FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE AND ADVERSE CARDIAC EVENTS
• 6-3-2024NEW PATHWAYS FOR TREATING NEVER-SMOKER LUNG CANCER REVEALED
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• 6-3-2024HOW SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT ADVANCES HEALTH CARE FOR WOMEN IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
• 6-3-2024NO DECLINE IN CARDIOVASCULAR EVENTS SEEN WITH COVID-19 VACCINE AFTER ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROMES
• 6-3-2024CHROMATIN OPENNESS SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON PROSTATE CANCER PLASTICITY
• 6-3-2024THE FUTURE OF DRUG TESTING: VASCULARIZED ORGAN-ON-A-CHIP TECHNOLOGIES
• 6-3-2024AI-DRIVEN TOOL CAN DETECT LEWY BODY DEMENTIA VIA CHANGES IN VOCAL EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION
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• 6-3-2024A NOVEL APPROACH TO OVERCOMING LEUKEMIA RECURRENCE
• 6-3-2024STUDY FINDS COGNITIVE DECLINES PRECEDING ALZHEIMER’S DIAGNOSIS LEAD TO CREDIT CARD, MORTGAGE DELINQUENCY
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• 6-3-2024TRIAL REVEALS BENEFITS OF ‘STEPPED’ PALLIATIVE CARE FOR PATIENTS WITH ADVANCED LUNG CANCER
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• 6-3-2024MOSQUITOES CARRYING WEST NILE VIRUS FOUND IN LA COUNTY
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• 6-3-2024STUDY FINDS PEOPLE OF COLOR DISPROPORTIONATELY DROPPED FROM MEDICAID
• 6-3-2024NEW DRUG SHOWS PROMISE IN EASING CHRONIC PAIN, STUDY FINDS
• 6-3-2024RESEARCHERS DETERMINE THAT A SUBCLASS OF STEM CELLS REPLENISH PLATELETS MORE RAPIDLY
• 6-3-2024NEW ANALYTICAL TOOL CAN IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF HERITABLE HUMAN TRAITS AND DISEASES
• 6-3-2024STUDY FINDS SEMAGLUTIDE ASSOCIATED WITH REDUCTION IN INCIDENCE AND RECURRENCE OF ALCOHOL-USE DISORDER
• 6-3-2024HIGH INSULIN LEVELS CONTRIBUTE TO WORSE OUTCOMES FOR BLACK WOMEN WITH AGGRESSIVE FORM OF BREAST CANCER, RESEARCH FINDS
• 6-3-2024MOBILE APP AIMS TO HELP IDENTIFY GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST DISEASE EARLIER
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Hi guys, Just wanted to thank you for all the good advice on this subreddit!
I'm doing an internship as a nursing student at this moment and today, I have used one, namely: don't risk hurting your back.
I took that to heart and,today,insisted on getting a third person to lift s.o up who is not morbidly obese but incapable of following even simple orders (like, you tell them to stand up and they bend their knees all of a sudden because reasons).
A collegue asked me to "lift him up" (by myself) so she could transfer him from the chair into a wheelchair). I said "sorry, he is not cooperative" and got a third person to help.
I will keep it that way, don't care if it's an "unpopular" stance. And I am always willing to help out collegues with transfers of patients. (And seriously, with a mounting number of heavy patience I am hoping robotics will step in to assist us asap).

Just saw a post on daddit from a dad who went fishing for the day and left his wife with their 3 kids, including newborn. He was praising his wife for holding down the fort all day and mentioned that when he came home she was BFing and drinking a (well deserved) glass of wine.
Cue the comments section where multiple dads - who have not and will never BF - start judging her for drinking while nursing. Are you effing kidding me? Poor lady had a hell of a day in order to give her husband some kid-free time and all she gets is judgement from a bunch of dudes online who probably drank all through their wives' pregnancies and nursing phases, and have no idea what it is like to sacrifice your body and creature comforts for such a long time. Ugh.
ETA: The point of this was not to debate whether having a glass of wine while BFing is acceptable. The point was that a bunch of men are commenting on what a woman does with her body when they will never be in a position to fully understand.
Childhood obesity is a much, much huger (and more directly proven) problem than potential effects of alcohol while nursing. It would be "best" if kids weren't given added sugars ever, and have a nutritious diet with no overly processed foods ever, right? That's not realistic for 99.9% of parents, so rightfully we don't suggest parents take that approach. Parents would be pissed off if non-parents were acting like it was completely unacceptable for parents to give their kid French fries occasionally, because those non-parents have no clue what it's like to prep a meal for a picky toddler at the end of a stressful work week and get to bedtime on time. Public health is a spectrum, not all-or-none (source: I work in public health). There are a lot of things everyone could do better, healthwise, but nobody is going to do everything perfectly, and judgement from those who will never be in that position isn't warranted.

I've had interactions with patients at times when they ask about what it is I'm doing. Now, I always try to be respectful or my patients but then I get the questions asking why I'm doing what I'm doing. So, for example, had a patient who the nurse before me tried a condom catheter then a male pure wick. The patient did not have the body habitus for either. He had an inverted penis and argued that the pure wick device was sufficient despite sitting in a puddle of urine. Why can't you put that back on? I said well, you have an inverted penis and the equipment does't support that and I go back "Are you saying I have a small penis?" and I said I have no judgment in the matter but the devices will not work effectively given your inverted penis. It became far more of a conversation than I intended. Also, had a morbidly obese patient who was incontinent of stool and I said "I'm going to grab some assistance to clean you" and I got "Well, why do you need assistance" and I said because I cannot safely turn you to clean you and I got "I'll be fine" and I said I need to also make sure I'm safe when turning you and cannot do so safely without risking injury to myself. I then got "Are you saying I'm fat". I said, yes you are obese based on your height and weight and I make no judgements on your weight but I cannot turn you safely without risk of injury and I need to do this job for many more years. I got a sigh and a "fine". Please don't ask the question if you don't want the truth.

How the hell do you guys do this job for years?
I worked in sub-acute. And shadowed another CNA. We had 3 obese patients we had to wash, and clean and change.
The most notable one was a resident who was closer to 300 pounds and was like close to 6 foot. And he had soiled himself horrible and there was blood from his privates. So much blood. Emergency medical services had to be called.
I literally froze up when I saw all the blood. But what really got me was his size and the poop everywhere. I actually gagged and for a second I think I panicked and thought about leaving the nurse and CNA right there and quitting bc I just couldn't handle it. But I managed and stuck around even though I wasn't much help I feel like. Ngl. That shit rocked me. Like whew. Damn. And some of you do this for years. Idk how.
But I feel bad bc they were shorter and smaller and we're struggling with such a big patient. And I was struggling too..I think I hurt my lower back more, tbh.
But yea..this job is insane..you deserve to paid 30+ an hour more and I can see why there is such a shortage. Not to mention the CNA to residents ratio.
Today she had 10 which wasn't bad. But if the other CNA hadnt come in it would have been 15.
I'm only part time and don't know how people do this job for years. I don't know how my mom did this job for years. It makes me appreciate her a whole lot more and all the other CNAs and nurses. It's crazy to think you guys do this for 10+ years.
But love and thanks. Its such a humbling experience doing this job.

This isn't a diagnosis question. Just me venting about something triggering that happened today.
I'm panicking. So yesterday I had bad vertigo and my hand was tingling. I decided to not take any chances and go to the ER to get checked out. My mom drove me and so when I get there I'm in the room where they take you vitals. The one nurse was coughing and sniffling. Her voice sounded like she was sick. Now I was wearing a mask and she was wearing a mask though later I noticed she lowered the mask to speak to someone. I started worrying because I'm currently morbidly obese. Now I did get the first vaccine 2 years ago but then afterwards I got covid. My doctor said I didn't have to get any second shot for a while. I didn't realize so much time has passed though and so it's been two years since I had a vaccine or covid. I want to stress I AM NOT AN ANTIVAXER. I just have terrible time perception and with my OCD, anxiety and autism I tend to zone out a lot and assume not much time has passed. I did get this weird sickness in January I think where I had no symptoms except I lost my voice but I took like 4 at home tests all were negative so I'm not sure if it was covid or not. I'm panicking because I don't know if that one shit and infection from 2 years ago would be enough for my body to remember how to fight the virus 😭😭 my mom even asked the nurse while I was being checked by the doctor if she had covid and she said no so I want to believe her and assume she probably has a cold or the flu or allergies but my anxiety keeps telling me any day now I'll get sick and end up hospitalized 😭😭

This isn't a diagnosis question. Just me venting about something triggering that happened today.
I'm panicking. So yesterday I had bad vertigo and my hand was tingling. I decided to not take any chances and go to the ER to get checked out. My mom drove me and so when I get there I'm in the room where they take you vitals. The one nurse was coughing and sniffling. Her voice sounded like she was sick. Now I was wearing a mask and she was wearing a mask though later I noticed she lowered the mask to speak to someone. I started worrying because I'm currently morbidly obese. Now I did get the first vaccine 2 years ago but then afterwards I got covid. My doctor said I didn't have to get any second shot for a while. I didn't realize so much time has passed though as I was homeless at the time and was so focused on finding a place and just fixing my crumbling mental health. and so it's been two years since I had a vaccine or covid. I want to stress I AM NOT AN ANTIVAXER. I just have terrible time perception and with my OCD, anxiety and autism I tend to zone out a lot and assume not much time has passed. I say this because when I tried to explain to the doctor, he was very rude to me and treated me like I was some right wing conspiracy theorist nutjob. I did get this weird sickness in January I think where I had no symptoms except I lost my voice but I took like 4 at home tests all were negative so I'm not sure if it was covid or not. I'm panicking because I don't know if that one shit and infection from 2 years ago would be enough for my body to remember how to fight the virus 😭😭 my mom even asked the nurse while I was being checked by the doctor if she had covid and she said no so I want to believe her and assume she probably has a cold or the flu or allergies but my anxiety keeps telling me any day now I'll get sick and end up hospitalized 😭😭

This isn't a diagnosis question. Just me venting about something triggering that happened today.
I'm panicking. So yesterday I had bad vertigo and my hand was tingling. I decided to not take any chances and go to the ER to get checked out. My mom drove me and so when I get there I'm in the room where they take you vitals. The one nurse was coughing and sniffling. Her voice sounded like she was sick. Now I was wearing a mask and she was wearing a mask though later I noticed she lowered the mask to speak to someone. I started worrying because I'm currently morbidly obese. Now I did get the first vaccine 2 years ago but then afterwards I got covid. My doctor said I didn't have to get any second shot for a while. I didn't realize so much time has passed though and so it's been two years since I had a vaccine or covid. I want to stress I AM NOT AN ANTIVAXER. I just have terrible time perception and with my OCD, anxiety and autism I tend to zone out a lot and assume not much time has passed. I did get this weird sickness in January I think where I had no symptoms except I lost my voice but I took like 4 at home tests all were negative so I'm not sure if it was covid or not. I'm panicking because I don't know if that one shit and infection from 2 years ago would be enough for my body to remember how to fight the virus 😭😭 my mom even asked the nurse while I was being checked by the doctor if she had covid and she said no so I want to believe her and assume she probably has a cold or the flu or allergies but my anxiety keeps telling me any day now I'll get sick and end up hospitalized 😭😭

This isn't a diagnosis question. Just me venting about something triggering that happened today.
I'm panicking. So yesterday I had bad vertigo and my hand was tingling. I decided to not take any chances and go to the ER to get checked out. My mom drove me and so when I get there I'm in the room where they take you vitals. The one nurse was coughing and sniffling. Her voice sounded like she was sick. Now I was wearing a mask and she was wearing a mask though later I noticed she lowered the mask to speak to someone. I started worrying because I'm currently morbidly obese. Now I did get the first vaccine 2 years ago but then afterwards I got covid. My doctor said I didn't have to get any second shot for a while. I didn't realize so much time has passed though and so it's been two years since I had a vaccine or covid. I want to stress I AM NOT AN ANTIVAXER. I just have terrible time perception and with my OCD, anxiety and autism I tend to zone out a lot and assume not much time has passed. I did get this weird sickness in January I think where I had no symptoms except I lost my voice but I took like 4 at home tests all were negative so I'm not sure if it was covid or not. I'm panicking because I don't know if that one shit and infection from 2 years ago would be enough for my body to remember how to fight the virus 😭😭 my mom even asked the nurse while I was being checked by the doctor if she had covid and she said no so I want to believe her and assume she probably has a cold or the flu or allergies but my anxiety keeps telling me any day now I'll get sick and end up hospitalized 😭😭

[REPOST]Can someone Suggest some colleges based on My stats?I genuinely don’t know where my stands in terms of T20😭💀 maybe Rice?
Can someone suggest some colleges based on my stats/ECs? Like I’m actually lost. Please give me some reach, Match or safeties. Thanks!
Demographics

• Gender: Male
  
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian (Bengali)
  
• Residence: Texas
  
• Income Bracket: $35,000
  
• Type of School: Rural Public
  
• Hooks:- Low-Income, Immigrant, First-Gen, Quest-Bridge Scholar ( My parents did go to College In Bangladesh though so Idk if I’ll be considered First Gen or not)
  

STATS (1st semester Junior Year)

• GPA:- 4.5 Weighted and 3.98Unweighted (1 B+ :- 89 in 9th grade)
  
• Rank:- Top 2%, 20/589 (1st semester Junior)
  
• SAT/ACT:- 1400-1500 (Based on practice SATs, taking SAT in August)
  
• Major:- Neuroscience/Biology (Pre-Med Track)
  
• AP/DE courses:- 11 AP courses, 3 Dual Credit, 2 On-Ramps, Rest Honors
  
• Senior year Course load:- AP CHEM, AP BIO, AP CALC, AP MACRO, AP GOV, AP LIT, On-Ramps COMP SCI, MATH 1314
  
• Additional Info:- I immigrated to the USA right before 8th grade and that's when we went to lock down for COVID-19 so, 9th grade is basically my first year in an American High School. I didn't know any English at that time so my priority was to learn English freshman year- I learned it through playing video games online💀😭. Due to my late immigration, I wasn’t aware of AP/Honors courses during Freshman year and my school never informed me of such courses and the benefits of it. So, I had to take 2 on-level classes in 9th grade, (Eng-1 and World Geo). I learned about AP/Honors at the end of Freshman year but it was already too late. That is a reason why my rank is behind as well since people who took those classes Freshman year are ahead despite having lower grades and Unweighted GPA.
  

Awards/Honors (Up until April 2024)
Quest-Bridge College Prep Scholar (National -2024)
2024 PATHS UP YOUNG SCHOLAR (National)
Barbara James Service Award (National -2024) Given to people who provided 100+ hours worth of community service in the healthcare sector specifically. For me, it was Hospice & Nursing home volunteering
National EKG technician (National - 2023)
State Certified Nursing Aid (State -2024 )
2024 Food Bank Student Heroes** (State)
AP Scholar EMT Certification (Future) AP CAPSTONE DIPLOMA (Future)
Activities

1. Health-Bridge - Non-Profit, In process… (Founder & Board Member); Holiday Project Initiative (Nov 2023 - Ongoing)
2. Health-Bridge has delivered 300+ gifts and Letters to residents across 7 clinical facilities in the Kingwood area - Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities, and Hospice care - during Thanksgiving and Christmas to provide comfort to these residents.

• Collaborated with As-Salam clinic ( A nonprofit clinic that provides FREE healthcare to immigrants and Low-income families ) Currently the health bridge team is organizing fundraising events for As-Salam and aims to sponsor 100 patients to get FREE healthcare, $35/patient
  
• In the future, Health-Bridge aims to collaborate with other nonprofits to make healthcare more accessible and affordable for people
  

1. Shadowing Medical Professionals (December 2023 - Ongoing) Gained valuable knowledge about the profession and practical insights into different medical fields, enhancing academic knowledge and providing a foundation for a future career in medicine. Shadowed both the clinical and procedures of the mentioned doctors.

• Gastroenterologist: 8 Hours
  
• Internal Medicine: 10.5 hours
  
• Physical Therapist: 14 Hours
  
• Emergency Physician (Summer 2024) - Scheduled
  
• Ophthalmologist (Summer 2024) - Scheduled
  
• Neurosurgeon ( Still cold calling/Emailing)
  

1. Internship as a CNA at Heights At Valley Ranch (50hrs, January 2024 - April 2024)

• Completed a 50-hour internship at a local nursing home as a Certified Nurse Aide. Gained valuable patient care skills and was exposed to clinical settings. Worked alongside Nurse and Physical Therapist to provide patient care to the residents. Some performed skills are: Vital signs, changing patients, parental care, catheter care, mouth care, hand/foot care, direct and indirect patient care

1. Student Volunteer at Gentiva Hospice (2hweek, January - Ongoing)

• I do weekly patient visits with Gentiva Hospice. Consistently volunteered 2-4 hours per week since January, providing compassionate care and support to hospice patients, enhancing their comfort and quality of life. Offering crucial emotional support to both patients and their families during difficult times.

1. Research Analyst Intern at RICE UNIVERSITY office of STEM ENGAGEMENT (July 8, 2024 - July 25. 2024)

• Was selected as a Young Scholar for a research internship with Rice University. [Students will work with and combine instruments such as pulse oximeters, accelerometers, GPS devices, speakers, and microphones to understand a major tenet of the research theme and construct an introductory device that mirrors the type of technology being created at the engineering research center.] - copied from the Rice STEM website since I haven't done it yet

1. Independent Research on Thermoregulation (Unpublished…working on to get in Published) (August 2023 - Ongoing)

• Currently researching Thermoregulation -Sleep Temperature- and how can it be utilized to minimize health risks such as Diabetes, obesity, and Other metabolic syndromes from night shift workers. Conducted a cross-sectional survey of 167 Night shift workers from various industries and evaluated the correlation between sleep temperature and their health complaints.

1. Food Bank Student Heroes (May 2024 - August 2024) 50-100 hours commitment

• Train and oversee volunteers in various projects ensuring that volunteers have a meaningful experience. Coordinate and market a Food/School Supply Drive to help those in need in our community. Attend leadership and professional development workshops to develop skills. Understand food insecurity as a southeast Texas issue and learn to measure the impact of their work. [copied from Foodbank Student Heroes website] - still waiting on finishing the program

1. Community service with Kingwood Islamic Center (9,10,11,12)

• During Ramadan served Iftar ( the meal Muslim uses to break fast) to 30-50 people for 3 consecutive years around 2-3 times during the month of Ramadan. Helped to distribute food, make the food, cleaning the mosque afterward ( 1 month/yr 5hweek )
  
• Also cleaned up the mosque for Jummah praye Special Friday prayer during school break to create a better experience for people during prayer.
  

1. Social Media Business (10th grade Summer)

• Gained 12 Million+ views and gained across 57K Followers across 2 different accounts earning $2000 in revenue in 1 month.
  
• Gained 9K subscribers and 2M view on YouTube Shorts within 2 months
  
• Created entertainment video and Education videos on TikTok and YouTube through the usage of AI to automate the process of content creation. Tik-Tok:- u/HistoricalLore (other Entertainment TikTok account got banned💀💀💀💀)
  

1. Part-Time Jobs (10,11,12)

• Job 1:- Dave’s Hot Chicken -CashieTeam member ( January 2023 - May 2023 ( 6hweek) (May-August - 16 hweek) ( Sept- November 6hweek)
  
• Job 2:- Shell Time-Wise - Associate (May - Ongoing) - 16hweek
  

1. SCHOOL CLUB INVOLVEMENT

• Culture Club (11,12) - Event Planner. Actively involved in planning and organizing cultural events that celebrate diversity and foster an inclusive community environment at school. For example, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, etc.
  
• DECA (10,11) - Secretary. Kept record of every meeting and Notified DECA members on upcoming meeting/ competitions. Participated in DECA state competition in Entrepreneurship.
  
• National Honor Society (10,11,12) - Historian. Actively participated in various community service events such as field cleanup, food drive, book drive, etc. Despite my leadership role, I also created community service opportunities for members through my nonprofit, initiative and Hospice connection.
  
• HOSA (11) - Got recognized for outstanding community service at the International Leadership Conference 2024. Participated in various blood drive events at school and conducted a fundraiser for the school's HOSA chapter
  

1. I will intern at a Hospital Senior year for my EMT class. But I don't wanna include it just yet.

College:- maybe Rice???💀

What a day. What a year. I need a friend today. And I feel like I have no one who wants to listen. Like really listen. There was my mom until recently. She died in February. She had weighed more than 400 pounds and probably close to 500 pounds for at least 40 years. In the end, her health played a role in her death. She was bedridden and couldn't do much because of her weight. In her last months, she lost more than 150 pounds. But she still swore she couldn't walk. She died from septic shock because she chose to leave a nursing home and had a bed sore that just grew worse every week.
Today, I learned that my nephew was making fun of my weight and my wife's weight during my mom's service. It just devastated me. Not much leaves me speechless, but that did it. I was in the car with my wife and just stopped talking for a long time. I had no response.
Last spring, I dropped a little weight and kept most of it off. It was about 45 pounds. I've gained back about 5-7, and I was planning to hit the guy this summer to drop another 20-30. I'm currently at 395.
My entire family is obese. My wife is about 330. My son must be about the same. My daughter is about the same. It's embarrassing to go out in public.
But after hearing about my nephew, I am just here on the sofa, and I just want to eat pizza and cry.

DAY: MAY 29 2024
5-29-2024

NOT A GYM RAT? HERE’S HOW TO GET STARTED ON AN OUTDOOR EXERCISE ROUTINE

Between the sweat smell, fluorescent lights and omnipresent television screens, April Herring has never connected with going to the gym. Instead, she runs, bikes, hikes, plays tennis, pickleball and football—anything to get her exercise outside as often as possible. “Fresh air, sunshine, the variety of the trees as the seasons change,” said Herring, an administrator at Carroll Community College in North Maryland. “There’s something about the energetic healing
5-29-2024

TOO MUCH EXERCISE COULD ACTUALLY TRIGGER A HOT FLASH

Hot flashes affect roughly 80% of women during the years around menopause. Despite how common they are and how much research has been conducted relative to what causes them, much remains unknown. A new study suggests that acute changes in physical activity, temperature, and humidity may play a role in the hot flash experience. Results of the survey are published online today in the journal Menopause. As one of the most frequently experienced menopause symptoms, hot flashes are sudden heat dissipation events that often involve an increase in heat transfer
5-29-2024

ADEQUATE SLEEP IMPORTANT FOR YOUR HEART HEALTH, SAYS PHYSICIAN

Does how much you sleep affect your heart? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults who sleep fewer than seven hours each night are more likely to experience health problems. Dr. Juan Cardenas Rosales, an internal medicine physician at Mayo Clinic, stresses that adequate sleep is crucial for your overall well-being, including your heart health. Getting a good night’s sleep can give you the energy to jump-start your day and your health. “Sleeping is very important to try to prevent other chronic
5-29-2024

STUDY SHOWS DISRUPTED SLEEP INCREASES RISK FOR SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE

An analysis by researchers in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine—Tucson showed that risks for death by suicide and homicide peak at night, with nocturnal wakefulness, age, alcohol use and relationship conflicts being especially prevalent as contributing factors. Nearly 19% of suicides and 36% of homicides occur at night. Suicide and homicide share little in common, but their highly concordant overnight risk patterns suggest a common feature: nocturnal wakefulness. “Disrupted sleep may acutely impair rational thought, which can drive impulsive behaviors in vulnerable individuals,”
5-29-2024

RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY THE INITIAL STEPS IN COLORECTAL CANCER FORMATION

Research provides new evidence that most colorectal cancers begin with the loss of intestinal stem cells, even before cancer-causing genetic alterations appear. The results, published on May 29 in Developmental Cell, overturn the prevailing theory for colorectal
5-29-2024

CAN PSYCHEDELICS HELP STUTTERERS?

Synesthesia, hallucinations, euphoria. The documented effects of classic psychedelic substances such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms) or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) are vast. With their usage common and their effects profound, a team of speech and psychology researchers explored the impact of psychedelics on people who stutter, finding evidence that users see some benefits. “Given the positive effects of psychedelics on conditions like anxiety and PTSD, which share symptoms with stuttering, we think that investigating the potential impact of psychedelics on stuttering can be a fruitful area of research,” says lead
5-29-2024

SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND DOOMSCROLLING? THE PROBLEM MIGHT BE FOMO

For as long as we have used the internet to communicate and connect with each other, it has influenced how we think, feel and behave. During the COVID pandemic, many of us were “cut off” from our social worlds through restrictions, lockdowns and mandates. Understandably, many of us tried to find ways to connect online. Now, as pandemic restrictions have lifted, some of the ways we use the internet have become concerning. Part of what drives problematic internet use may be something most of us
5-29-2024

TIPS FOR PROTECTING BABIES FROM HARMFUL UV RAYS

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S., and it only takes one blistering sunburn during childhood or adolescence to nearly double a person’s chance of developing melanoma later in life, according to the American Academy of Dermatology Association. Since babies are much more prone to sunburn than older kids, it’s especially important to protect them from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. May is Melanoma and Skin Cancer Awareness Month.
5-29-2024

AUTHORITIES URGE PROPER COOKING OF WILD GAME AFTER 6 RELATIVES FALL ILL FROM PARASITE IN BEAR MEAT

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reaffirmed the importance of properly cooking wild game after six people became sick from a parasite traced to undercooked bear meat that was served at a family reunion in South Dakota. The six—one in South Dakota, four in Minnesota and one in Arizona—became infected when bear meat that was served rare turned out to be contaminated with roundworms that cause trichinellosis, also known as trichinosis. Two of the people ate only the vegetables that were grilled with
5-29-2024

FIGHT AGAINST OBESITY GOES FAR BEYOND INDIVIDUAL STRUGGLE TO CHANGE LIFESTYLE, SCIENTISTS SAY

Overweight and obesity rates are rising worldwide, with several Latin American countries in the forefront. Estimates for 2020 pointed to a global obesity rate of 14%, and experts predicted 24% by 2035, including both adults and children. “Nutritional and pharmacological strategies are important to mitigate the problem, but is this enough? We know socioeconomic and environmental factors influence the occurrence
5-29-2024

POTENTIAL THERAPY FOR ADDICTION, DEPRESSION AND OCD

A model image of the targeted deep brain zone, the striatum, a key player in reward and reinforcement mechanisms. Neurological disorders, such as addiction, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), affect millions of people worldwide and are often characterized by complex pathologies involving multiple brain regions and circuits. These conditions are notoriously difficult to treat due to the intricate and poorly understood nature of brain functions and the challenge of delivering therapies to deep brain structures without invasive procedures. In the rapidly evolving field of neuroscience, non-invasive brain stimulation
5-29-2024

STUDY FINDS HEART HEALTHY BEHAVIORS MAY HELP REVERSE RAPID CELL AGING

The benefit of better heart health may be associated with the positive impact of heart healthy lifestyle factors on biological aging (the age of the body and its cells), according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. “Our study findings tell us that no matter what your actual age is, better heart-healthy behaviors and managing heart disease risk factors were associated with a younger biological age and a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, death from heart disease and stroke and death from any cause,”
5-29-2024

COMBO THERAPY BOOSTS SURVIVAL FOR ADVANCED COLON CANCER

People battling advanced colon cancers might have a new treatment option that could extend their survival, a new trial finds. The findings were present the at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, and should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. A combination of two experimental immunotherapy drugs plus standard chemotherapy led to a median 19.7 month survival for patients, compared to the median 9.5 months observed among folks who only got a targeted therapy called regorafenib. “These results pave the way
5-29-2024

TICKS AND THE DISEASES THEY CARRY

In many regions of the U.S. and the world, enjoying the great outdoors comes with a hidden risk: ticks and the diseases they carry. Ticks can carry pathogens like Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia mayonii, which can cause Lyme disease in humans. Lyme disease is the most common tickborne illness, but there are also dozens of other diseases that ticks can transmit to humans. Dr. Bobbi Pritt, director of the Clinical Parasitology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, says reported cases of tickborne infections are on the rise, and she offers practical tips
5-29-2024

HIGH PRICE OF POPULAR DIABETES DRUGS DEPRIVES LOW-INCOME PEOPLE OF EFFECTIVE TREATMENT

For the past year and a half, Tandra Cooper Harris and her husband, Marcus, who both have diabetes, have struggled to fill their prescriptions for the medications they need to control their blood sugar. Without Ozempic or a similar drug, Cooper Harris suffers blackouts, becomes too tired to watch her grandchildren, and struggles to earn extra money braiding hair. Marcus Harris, who works as a Waffle House cook, needs Trulicity to keep his legs and feet from swelling and bruising. The couple’s doctor has tried prescribing similar drugs, which mimic
5-29-2024

BREAST CANCER SURGEON RUNS A FARM WHERE THE ONLY CROP IS WELLNESS

Monique Gary, a breast cancer surgeon, is a self-described “Philly girl” who was born in Jefferson Einstein hospital and graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls. Four years ago, she left city life and bought a 40-acre farm in Upper Bucks County, where she runs free, daylong retreats for cancer patients and offers nature walks, aromatherapy, juicing and cooking demonstrations, gardening, and yoga by her fish pond. The farm’s only crop is wellness. “I’m a busy surgeon and when I moved here, I didn’t have any crops, but I knew
5-29-2024

SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY KEY PROTEIN THAT PRESERVES MOTOR ABILITY DURING AGING

scientists show that age-related decline in motor ability can be countered in fruit flies by enhancing the expression of the protein Trio, suggesting potential treatments for age-related movement decline. As we age, we suffer a noticeable decline in motor ability, which affects our quality of life and independence. This can be traced to changes occurring at neuromuscular junctions, the critical points where nerve cells communicate with muscles. The deterioration of motor ability is closely linked to the degeneration of
5-29-2024

LOCAL DISPARITIES MAY PREVENT NATIONAL VACCINATION EFFORTS FOR RUBELLA

When public health officials make policies about when and how vaccination programs are implemented, they must weigh the benefits and risks of how infectious diseases spread throughout the country. However, these analyses are often based on national-level data and, in some countries, may overlook nuances at the local level. A new analysis by an international team, including Penn State researchers, revealed that the resulting recommendations may keep some countries from realizing the benefits of vaccination and globally eradicating diseases, such as rubella—a contagious viral infection that causes mild symptoms in
5-29-2024

INTERMITTENT FASTING SHOWS PROMISE IN IMPROVING GUT HEALTH, WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

The human gut contains trillions of bacterial and other microbes collectively known as the gut microbiome. New research explores how these diverse microorganisms help manage weight. ASU researchers explore the effects of an intermittent fasting diet combined with protein pacing on body weight and overall health. Credit: The Biodesign institute at Arizona State University A new study by researchers from Arizona State University and their colleagues highlights a dietary strategy for significant health improvement and weight management. Participants following an intermittent fasting and protein-pacing regimen, which involves evenly spaced protein
5-29-2024

A NEW PATH FOR CANCER THERAPY

Tumor cells often hijack normal physiological processes to support their growth, exploiting proteins that are in charge of essential cell functions. It is therefore important to block the activity of these proteins only in cancer cells without affecting their crucial roles in healthy tissues. For this reason, classical approaches using small molecules that induce systemic inhibition across all cells in the body can lead to severe side effects. An example of essential proteins hijacked by cancer cells are the cathepsins, a family of
5-29-2024

DO EPILEPSY MEDICATIONS TAKEN DURING PREGNANCY AFFECT A CHILD’S CREATIVITY?

While older drugs for epilepsy, taken while pregnant, have been shown in previous research to affect the creative thinking of children, a new study finds no effects on creativity for children born to those taking newer epilepsy drugs. This study is published in Neurology. Overall, the study found no effects on the children’s creative abilities or their executive function, which is a person’s ability to plan, focus, and manage multiple tasks. However, when researchers looked only at children with higher concentrations of these medications in the mother’s blood during the
5-29-2024

WHY USING DATING APPS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH MESSAGING IS AN ETHICAL DILEMMA

Dating apps are not just about finding love or hooking up. They’re becoming increasingly important in the communication of public health messaging, particularly sexual health. In 2023, Harvard Public Health magazine suggested that dating apps could “become a key component in [sexually infectious diseases] prevention.” And their prediction seems to be spot on. Grindr, a dating app popular among men who have sex with men, for example, has recently partnered with MPOWER in Ireland and The Love Tank in London to allow users to order HIV test kits through the
5-29-2024

HOW EXTREME HEAT CAN AFFECT MENTAL ILLNESSES

During heat waves, hospital admissions for mental health spike. The past 10 years were the hottest on record, and as we prepare for another scorcher of a summer, it’s time to take steps to increase our preparedness for extreme heat. The potential for heat stress, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are well known hazards of extreme heat. Yet, physical health is not the only factor to consider under extreme heat; mental health can also suffer. Many people can relate to the sleepless nights during hot summer months, as well as
5-29-2024

FROM HEALTH TO SPORTS—EARS CAN SAY A LOT ABOUT YOU

An ear is like an iceberg—much of it is out of sight. The only visible part is the auricle—the seashell shaped structure made of bendy cartilage, covered in skin. Its main role is to act as a trumpet, filtering and funneling sound waves down into the middle, then the inner ear, where they are converted into our sense of hearing. A medical ear examination usually involves an inspection of the canal, using an instrument called an otoscope. This is usually to investigate more common ear conditions—an infection, or a clog
5-29-2024

HOW TO KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME TO QUIT THERAPY

Therapy is great. It gives you the space, time and resources to handle the most difficult challenges of life. Therapy can be especially helpful in the often-confusing life period of your 20s and 30s, when so much is changing and many of your peers have wildly different lifestyles. The aim is to help you discover the thoughts, emotions and behavior that are negatively affecting you, determine where these come from, and develop strategies to change them. But then, how do you know when it is the right time to quit
5-29-2024

STUDY FINDS THAT MEMORY COMPLAINTS CAN PREDICT BIOLOGICAL CHANGES IN THE BRAIN

A new study adds further evidence that when a patient or family member notices signs of persistent memory loss, it’s important to speak with a doctor. While there are many reasons why someone’s memory may change, researchers from Mass General Brigham who are studying patients prior to diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease found changes in the brain when patients and their study partners—those who could answer questions about their daily cognitive function—reported a decline in cognition. Using imaging, the researchers found reports of cognitive decline were associated with accumulation of tau
5-29-2024

BLOOD FLOW MAKES WAVES ACROSS THE SURFACE OF THE MOUSE BRAIN

Researchers have, for the first time, visualized the full network of blood vessels across the cortex of awake mice, finding that blood vessels rhythmically expand and contract, leading to “waves” washing across the surface of the brain. These findings improve the understanding of how the brain receives blood, though the function of the waves remains a mystery. The work is published in the journal Neuron. A network of elastic and actively pumping vessels carrying oxygenated blood span the surface of the brain before entering the
5-29-2024

RESEARCH REVEALS WHAT WE SEE ONLINE AFFECTS US MORE THAN LENGTH OF EXPOSURE

It is what we are looking at, rather than how much time we are spending our time online that influences our health and well-being, according to a major new report. The study, published in the journal World Psychiatry, is a comprehensive examination of the latest scientific evidence on screen time and mental health, carried out by an international research team. The authors emphasize the importance of taking an individualized and multi-dimensional approach to how the Internet affects mental health, cognition and social functioning. Content that may be relatively harmless to
5-29-2024

LIFELONG COGNITIVE RESERVE HELPS MAINTAIN LATE-LIFE COGNITIVE HEALTH, 15-YEAR FOLLOW-UP STUDY SUGGESTS

The brain’s flexibility and ability to cope with loss of neurons or other lesions in the brain is called cognitive reserve. In a 15-year follow-up study, researchers at the division of Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet, suggest that lifelong cognitive reserve helps maintain late-life cognitive health by delaying cognitive transition in the preclinical stages of dementia. The results of their findings were recently published in Alzheimers & Dementia. “We found evidence that lifelong greater cognitive reserve was linked with reduced risks of late-life transitions from normal cognition to mild
5-29-2024

YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIVE WITH PELVIC PAIN

Pelvic health is crucial to a woman’s overall well-being but is often misunderstood or overlooked. When symptoms such as urinary incontinence, pain or discomfort, or pain during intercourse occur, they are dismissed as a byproduct of pregnancy and childbirth or just something that comes with age like arthritis. But those symptoms can have a profound effect on a woman’s physical, emotional and social well-being and can lead to more serious complications if untreated. One of the most common conditions is pelvic organ prolapse. This condition occurs when the muscles, ligaments
5-29-2024

RESEARCHERS DEVELOP MICRONEEDLE PATCH THAT CAN DETECT SKIN CANCER EARLY

Researchers have developed a new method for detecting malignant melanoma. A new type of patch equipped with microneedles can identify the biomarker tyrosinase directly in the skin, according to a study published in Advanced Materials. The patch is equipped with microneedles that can detect tyrosinase, an enzyme that is an important biomarker for malignant melanoma. By measuring the enzyme’s
5-29-2024

MORE OUT-OF-STATE PATIENTS SEEK ABORTIONS IN WASHINGTON STATE

Changes in Weekly Number of Abortions and Out-of-State Patients Before and After the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Decision, January 1, 2017, to July 31, 2023. Vertical orange line indicates the Supreme Court Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision (June 24, 2022). The blue line indicates deseasonalized trends, the black line indicates estimated seasonality, the dotted line indicates the counterfactual, and the dots indicate the outcome (eg, weekly number of abortions).
5-29-2024

GAPS BY RACE, ETHNICITY EXIST IN HEALTH CARE QUALITY UNDER TRADITIONAL MEDICARE, MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS

Medicare Advantage (MA) is an increasingly popular source of Medicare coverage for all recipients, including individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups. Certain managed care strategies used in MA—such as prior authorization, gatekeeping for access to certain services or specialists, and narrow provider networks—may pose challenges in accessing care. This means the quality of MA-funded care for minority groups has critical health equity implications. A new study published in Health Affairs and led by Professor Jeah Jung found that MA plans do not equally improve the quality of care across
5-29-2024

STUDY SHOWS MORE THAN JUST SOCIAL MEDIA USE MAY BE CAUSING DEPRESSION IN YOUNG ADULTS

Over the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in the prevalence of depression in adolescents and young adults—and a simultaneous uptick in the inclusion of technology and social media in everyday life. However, it is unclear how exactly social media use and depression are associated and relate to other behaviors, such as physical activity, green space exposure, cannabis use and eveningness (the tendency to stay up late). In a study published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, a team of researchers, led by experts
5-29-2024

MATTERING MUST BE CENTRAL IN YOUTH SUICIDE PREVENTION, SAYS STUDY

Youth suicide is a growing concern in Canada, the U.S., and around the world, with some research suggesting this might be linked with excessive social media use in vulnerable teens. With Mental Health Awareness Month closing out this week, York University Psychology Professor Gordon Flett says he was motivated by a growing sense of alarm and frustration when undertaking a review of studies on mattering and youth suicide for his latest research, which appears in Child Protection and Practice. Mattering is feeling significant in the eyes of other people, which
5-29-2024

HEARING STUDY REVEALS PREVALENCE OF TINNITUS

About 78% of participants in the Apple Hearing Study, conducted by the University of Michigan, have experienced tinnitus—the perception of sound that others do not hear. That is just one of the findings that U-M researchers and Apple shared today from the Apple Hearing Study, one of the largest surveys on tinnitus to understand the effects of
5-29-2024

RESEARCHER CALLS FOR MORE RESOURCES TO BRING REGULAR MAMMOGRAMS TO RURAL TEXANS

women who live in rural Texas, particularly those of a minority background, were less likely to get routine mammograms when compared to their urban counter parts. The findings are published in the journal Geriatric Nursing. Using Texas Medicare data, the
5-29-2024

TO SOLVE THE NURSING SHORTAGE, RESEARCHER PROPOSES GOVERNMENT FUNDING FIX

Health economist Olga Yakusheva, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, believes that current government reimbursement models incentivize hospitals to cut nursing jobs to save money. Yakusheva, an expert on the economic value of nursing, and Robert Longyear, co-founder and CEO of Avenue Health, present a new hospital funding model they believe could help solve the nurse staffing problem and improve patient care. Yakusheva discusses their research, which appears in an article in the journal Health Affairs. Since COVID, we’ve seen a lot of media coverage about
5-29-2024

IMPROVING CELL THERAPY BY CREATING T-CELL ‘SUPER SOLDIERS’

A new proof-of-concept study by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) shows that changing only a single letter in the DNA code of selected genes in T cells may lead to improved cell therapy. The researchers, led by Benjamin Izar, a member of the HICCC, used novel CRISPR-dependent base editing to “supercharge” cell therapies, making them potentially more effective for more patients. Cell therapies work by re-engineering a
5-29-2024

ULTRASOUND LOCALIZATION MICROSCOPY: BUBBLES REVEAL TINY VESSELS

To the trained eyes of a doctor, the gray-white shapes and textures of an ultrasound image reveal more than to the layperson. But the tiniest vascular structures have remained elusive—until now. The team from the Department of Medical Engineering at Ruhr University Bochum headed by Professor Georg Schmitz is perfecting ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM). By deploying a commercially available contrast agent with microbubbles and performing a number of calculation steps, it’s now possible, for example, to image the vascular structure of a mouse kidney in minute detail, as well as
5-29-2024

NOVEL DEVICE COULD ALLOW EARLY DETECTION OF DEADLY CONDITION

Each year, at least 1.7 million adults in the United States and millions more worldwide develop sepsis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s immune system has an extreme response to an infection. The condition, which can be difficult to detect and treat, rapidly damages tissues and vital organs and is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals. To help doctors spot when the condition may be developing, one medical technology company, Opticyte, has developed a novel, noninvasive device that can send out alerts when
5-29-2024

INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS REACH CONSENSUS ON THE LABELING OF SPATIAL NEGLECT

A consensus has been achieved by an international team of rehabilitation researchers and clinicians on the standardized labeling of spatial neglect, a common disorder following neurological injury, which is characterized by a lack of awareness or response to objects or stimuli on the side opposite a brain lesion. The panel reached a 75% consensus to adopt “spatial neglect” as the standard term for the disorder. The consensus paper, titled “An International and Multidisciplinary Consensus on the Labeling of Spatial Neglect Using a Modified Delphi Method,” was published open access on
5-29-2024

RESEARCHERS USE AI, SOCIAL MEDIA TO IDENTIFY HEALTH CONCERNS OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV AND AIDS

Machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and social media are providing researchers with the opportunity to analyze valuable information about social issues in relation to health and mental health, particularly in relation to topics people may be reluctant to discuss in other settings, according to Richard Lomotey, associate professor of information technology at Penn State Beaver. Lomotey, along with researchers from Penn State, the University of Saskatchewan

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Hi Everyone! My name is Chelsea, a twenty-year old who is morbidly obese…
(Buckle in, this is a lengthy post.)
After spending the last month or so reading through all the informative advice, personal stories, and inspirational journeys that have been posted I decided to take the leap of faith and share what I hope will be the beginning of my own weight loss journey.
A brief background on me — I have been overweight ever since I could remember and the label ‘funny, fat friend’ has followed me since being in primary school (around nine or ten). However, I never took offence to this as confidence was never anything I lacked… well, that was up until two or three years ago.
As time quickly passed, life events happened, and my emotional/binge eating continued the pounds started accumulating and before I could blink I had gone from being fourteen weighing in at 240lbs, to eighteen and 340lbs.
This took a big hit at my self-esteem, and although I maintained a facade of confidence to those closest to me behind closed doors it was a completely different story. I started isolating myself from friends and dedicated majority of my time to studying. My physical image was now at the forethought of every decision I made — activities, such as, being invited out to the theme park would lead to me declining due to the fear of not fitting in a rollercoaster seat.
As predicted, I again turned to food and binge-eating to drown out the situation and this has been my life for the last two years bringing me to my highest weight yet… 397.7lbs.
However, after a mild ‘health scare’ which - to my surprise - highlighted I had zero health problems (not even a fatty liver)… I realised that no one is going to save me and that I need to take accountability for my own actions.
I am set to graduate in a few weeks time, and have managed to secure my dream job as a paediatric nurse for January 2025 and right before I have a holiday scheduled. My aim is to be able to comfortably fit in the aeroplane seat, without a seatbelt extender, and be happy in my own skin once starting my new working environment.
Over the last two weeks I have manage to lose 7lbs, began monitoring my calories and aiming between 1500-2000 calories daily. All While gradually increasing my water intake and daily activity.
This is a not only a weight loss journey, but a lifestyle change that will hopefully change the way I view myself.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated! x

My mom keeps a scrapbook of photos holding several memories. Every photo that I was in followed the same pattern, at least until I turned 22.
In these memories, I would be in the backyard running around with Trevor with my shirt off. Trevor is our family pit bull. Thank you very much.
My body devoid of fat or muscles would expose the outline of my ribs. My arms would dangle by my hips, and my grin in need of braces would present no charm.
All the way up till my third semester at community college, I thought I would have this exact physique until I died. Christ, do I now wish I could have still lived out that past insecurity.
My usual school appetite of zero sugar Gatorade and a side of apple slices had ceased a bit.
I didn’t suddenly have an epiphany where I looked down at my hollow exterior and realized that I should start putting more food in my system from then on. Nothing like that at all.
My mother had called me. The things she said… her voice. God, it was a cry that sent a shockwave through my body.
At around 2PM, my father had a heart attack. Tragic, but it hadn’t been unexpected. Like what my body would later become, he too was a heavy individual.
He spent most of his last few years on earth breathing through an oxygen mask while he sat in a wheelchair on the backyard deck.
After I had watched the man, my childhood hero, eat himself to death, lowered 6 feet under within a casket as my mom and I cried our souls out, it would have been the best time to use it as motivation to hit the gym. This hadn’t occurred. Weeks after the funeral, I spent countless of checks at nearby fast-food joints.
The passenger seat of my car had filled up with empty food bags, wrappers, and several unfinished cups of vanilla-flavored coffee drinks. Don’t even get me started on the piss bottles underneath my bed.
With all of this, others thought of me as a lazy and heavy individual. What killed me was that they were right. I wouldn’t stand in front of the mirror and look at my body and feel proud. I just… couldn’t.
After I clocked out from one of my shifts during the late afternoon, I had passed a local burger joint on my way home. For once, a spark of willpower had shined deep within me. I drove past the location and had congratulated myself when I pulled up to my childhood home. That hadn’t lasted long.
When night came, I drove back to the place and feasted down on two double doubles with a side of chili cheese fries. It embarrasses me to admit it, but I spent the next 2 minutes sobbing alone in my car as I finished the second burger. Humiliation over my weight hurt like fire. Unfortunately, comfort food didn’t seem to hurt until it went down my throat.
A few days later, I had received an ad on my laptop about a health program. I had been scratching Trevor’s belly as I spent my time browsing random YouTube videos.
That was when it popped on the right side of the screen. It had been a website that involved a program that specialized in healthier lifestyles. Yet… the company presented a routine where you could eat all you want. You wouldn’t have to cut out all of the good…unhealthy stuff from your diet. You didn’t even have to work out.
As much as I would love to say that my future downfall would be for not reading the entire agreement of the website, that had not been the reason. Aside from the no diet or exercise for weight loss, I hadn’t noticed any red flags regarding the program. I typed out my information on the contact form below and didn’t hear anything for two days. That’s when I got the call. A woman with a friendly voice had spoken on the other end. She set up a time and a date for when I could stop by the location.
May 7th…
When I arrived at the building, I noticed that the parking lot had been entirely filled up. I ended up parking at a local hiking trail on the other side of the street. When I made my way towards the location, a three story bricked building surrounded by spruce trees, I took note of the vehicles. While some of them appeared okay when it came to cleanliness, others had not. They were covered in thick coats of dust, along with the several dried and white droppings of bird shit.
When I entered the building, I filled out a form at the front desk, and a male worker in scrubs wrote me a room number: 213. I found the room after going up to the second floor. I’m surprised I hadn’t taken note of how isolated the place felt. There was also a loud flushing sound from beyond the walls. It was the kind of noise you’d hear behind the door of a public restroom when you walked by.
I found the room and waited inside. The pictures on the walls made me turn away and gag as soon as I realized what they were. There were several photographs of hands holding the removed and gold-like fat from patients. For some, it may have been motivating. For me, I was ready to lose my lunch.
It hadn’t been long until a thin woman with dyed blue hair entered the room and smiled. We talked for a bit about my weight. What was in my usual diet, and if I had always been this particular weight.
She then took a file off a nearby table and pulled out a trio of photos. The first image showed a brown and boxlike metallic belt. There were a pair of large and white tubes sticking out from both sides, and in the middle, was what looked like a clear and round glass casing.
The second photo had been of an obese man standing behind a brown backdrop, presumably around 300 pounds. If I didn’t stop eating what I ate, I might have ended up looking like him.
The third and final photo had been the same man. This time, he had slimmed down, and was even putting on muscle. The female worker smiled and told me that the man hadn’t worked out or changed his diet at all. What shocked me even more was when she told me that his eating habits had become worse, and yet he still had what I considered “the ideal male physique.”
The woman told me the machine was a device that helped suppress the weight of the patients in the facility. I didn’t have to hear anything else. It was unintelligent of me to not ask any other questions, yet that fantasy… my old body . . maybe even one that was better than before, it sounded wonderful.
The worker opened the door, and we went down the hall and into a room through a pair of yellow and metallic doors. There was a chair and a metal table off to the right. There, the device sat.
I also took notice of a brown door connected to the room. It didn’t matter then. All I wanted was the damn weight to go away. The woman asked for me to remove my shirt, and she sat me down in the chair and begin to set up the device. She hooked up the belt from the machine around my waist.
I closed my eyes and began to cry a little. This had to work. Earlier, I had thought about stopping my vehicle, and go back home and forget the entire program. For all I knew, they could have just been a group of scammers that wanted to harvest my organs.
No… I needed this. This fantasy had to become true. If I opened my eyes a little quicker, I would have noticed the woman pointing a syringe towards my neck…
I had woken up in a dazed state. The lights had been on in the large room, and yet my surroundings weren’t the first thing I noticed. The aroma stung my nostrils. It was like I had been thrown into a nonworking trash compactor. No crushing at all… only the smell of waste.
I wretched so hard that I felt a migraine coming along. That’s when I saw the other patients. From all around, there were several men and woman, all of different ages. They were strapped down in metallic chairs. They too had been wearing the same contraption I had around my waist. Their weight had grown far beyond from what a living person could take.
Incisions had been made just above their hips, and those tubes from the machines had been forced within the cuts. A fluid of yellow, red.. and brown was being sucked out of their bodies, and disposed from within the belt-like machine, then down holes imbedded in the ground in front of their seats.
There had also been metal buckets placed below their exposed buttocks. That’s when I realized the smell had not been garbage and waste, but excrement.
Some of patient’s bodies hadn’t been heavy at all. Loose skin from their faces and limbs hung below the chairs, and it continued on a bit before stopping at their shoes.
On the other end of the room, there was that same brown door. Nurses came in and out carrying large trays of fast food, desserts, and several packs of soda cans.
The first thing I thought would happen was that the patients would knock the food out of the workers hands, and use the remaining energy they had to break out of their prison. Instead, they only looked up at the nurses without saying anything, and began to grab at the food before stuffing it into their mouths and barely chewing.
There had been that vacuum sound, the one that I heard beyond the walls from earlier. The machines had turned on, and the suction of the tubes began. Groans echoed throughout the room. I heard someone to the right throw their head forward and vomit.
I looked down at my body.
Like everyone else, incisions had been made just above my hips where those tubes had been placed. These people, the owners of those dust covered vehicles… they didn’t seem like they wanted to leave. Had they been here for months? Stuffing their faces, having these meals and fat pumped out of their body after it hit their stomachs?
I pictured my future, the despair of my mom as she wondered where I had gone. Even if she found my car outside this building in the future, it would be too late for when she came back with a bunch of armed police men.
Would she find my body, either heavier than she had ever seen me or any other human, or twig thin with all my excess skin hanging all the way to the floor? What if I too accepted this life, and decided to enjoy the rubbish these workers would continue to feed me until my heart would give out?
It’s sad to note that most of these things later happened. Months later, my mom had tracked down the location, and the building had been swarmed to the brim with a swat team and cruisers. They had found my body near death, frail with loose skin that stretched on.
Although all of this happened so long ago, I still can’t think about it without wanting to burst into tears. I’ve been a part of a rehabilitation center for a while now. After everything that I went through, my body will never become the ideal figure that I’ve always wanted to have.
Writing all of this down helped a little thankfully. I might show it all to my psychologist tomorrow morning. If I did indeed present it to them, I’ll probably post this online as well. If anyone on Reddit or face book is reading this right now, I hope that you can all look past the grotesque aspect of my life story.
If any of you have been struggling with weight insecurities, I hope that you’ll be kinder to yourselves. Don’t let it drag you down. If you do want to get into better shape, I shall cheer you on. My mom’s mental health has been improving since then, and if I’m lucky enough, I can come back home and start up community college again. The next thing I’m hoping to work on is letting go of that facility. Despite all the pain I went through, I sometimes have this urge to look up that website and find another location.

😞 UPDATE !
So had my pre op this morning with a nurse that had the social skills of a jaffa cake.
She explained nothing to me just thrust a swab under my face and barked swab, swab who where ? Me? her? I had no idea what I was doing!
She then got quite cross with me for asking what do u want me to swab? (this is going well)
she then did a finger prick test where I'm diabetic and as my bloods were raised She said I must take my medication and I explained that I am being sick most days or at the least I'm feeling sick all the time, so I'm not keeping the meds down, which my consultant knows and she said if my bloods are raised when they test again before surgery then they will cancel the surgery 😭😭😭 and that I need to speak to my GP urgently. And they will cancel my surgery if it's raised
Ended up in tears so the ward sister came over and said the woman isn't a nurse and she doesn't know what she's on about ... in that case why has she just been sticking needles in me and putting me on machines? I'm soo done.
Honestly had enough now 😭 why can people not just do their jobs and stop being incompetent twats so I can get a bit of confidence in this whole thing?
I'm going home to dream about chicken nuggets and a decent burger 🍔
it's a longish one .....
Surgery booked for the 6th June and its been one hell of ride even getting to this point.
To give u a little back story I'm in the UK, I collapsed in December with my first gallstone attack given a ultrasound, the ultrasound guy could not believe this was the first I'd heard of gallstones there was so many and told I'd need surgery and I would be put on the waiting list. Had a couple of appt for blood tests in January but heard nothing after that. I'm a florist and we had valentines day coming up 14th Feb so wasn't keen on rocking the boat on chasing the appt date up as I knew I was going to be manic at work and was super careful over what I was eating. Valentines came and went and I phoned to ask how much longer it would be to my surgery I was told I'm not on any waiting list, and there had been an error and I'd not been put on it. They needed to get me in to see the consultant asap. They'd send me an appt, Mothers day was just around the corner on the 10th March this year so thought right il get mothers day done then focus on me. 4 hrs after shutting up shop mothers day I had the biggest flare up ever, I'd exhausted myself i ended up back in A&E i was left there for 5 hrs in the most excruciating pain of my life. Throwing up everywhere. I got told to go to five different departments until I reached the point where i just couldn't walk anymore and my hubby got me a wheelchair and got me to assessment and i pantingly told my story to the doctor on call. i was then told to go to yet another dept where we had some burly attitude filled nurse bark at me to sit up straight so she could get an iv line in. Erm hun you ever tried sitting straight in the middle of a gallbladder attack ?? Evidently not!! She then proceeded to bark at me that if I wanted pain meds it would be oramorph Erm I've been throwing up consistently I've got an iv line in why not use that rather than something that's going to make me more sick? I was there 9 more hrs and hadn't seen a doctor properly yet before I got sick of being told i have kidney stones and me repeating myself it's gallstones and I discharged myself. Cue two days later letter pops through door to see consultant. Hooray we're getting somewhere now!!
I bounced into his surgery filled with hope and smiles. Told him tall the nasties that had been going on the sickness, pain etc that I was diabetic and rhesus negative blood group and on iron tablets all my history laid out for him.
To which he said he wanted to send me for further tests, mri and endoscope to see if it really was gallstones, this is despite him having the ultrasound results in front of him 🤦🏼‍♀️🤯 these tests would take around a month to complete. And he didnt hold back when stating that as I am so grossly grossly obese I'm 15 st and 5ft 5, size 16 bottom and 18 top. He told me he would probably end up having to do general surgery because of my weight. And my recovery would be long and very hard and I need to lose alot of weight. Thanks Einstein yes I'm a tad porky I'm also on my feet for 12-15 hrs a day 6 days a week and carry 20lb+ vases in one arm and can guarantee I'd lap him in the car park 🥸
I left deflated and terrified now. I got in the car and burst into tears the disgust and disdain had been written all over his face. None of my questions answered he just solely concentrated on my weight and how awful surgery will be for me.
Cue 2 weeks later girl from endoscope team ring said this is my appt date and btw I'm not on iron tablets am I? I replied yes to which she replied i need to stop taking them IMMEDIATELY as they're very dangerous to be on when having an endoscope. 🫤 why did he not tell me that?
So the continous shit show has carried on with various things this consultant and the hospital has failed on but i desperately need this surgery so much so it got to the point where I was harassing the consultants secretary every other day for my surgery appt as i am living on soup buscopan and painkillers.
Well I now have got the date coming up v soon. I asked if I could change consultant when the pre op team rang me with that appt and they said well your consultant knows all your history... oh I how I laughed !
Anybody else terrified by not having an exactly confidence giving consultant that obviously doesn't like them and has survived surgery?
Tia x

Is there a mom here who has experienced occasional breast pain?
I'm an exclusively breastfeeding mom, 3 months postpartum this coming June 2. I've been feeling pain in my left breast, not constantly, but when it does occur, it's very painful.
The pain is intermittent and feels like a lot of needles stabbing the side of my breast (not in the areola). I always check for lumps but haven't found any.
I worry that it might be because I'm now obese and haven't been able to get back to my fitness routine. My breasts are quite large now, and I wonder if that could be the cause, but I'm not sure.
Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced this?
*As I'm typing this, my breast currently hurts! 😮‍💨😮‍💨 *My Baby nurses both my breasts *I don't use breast pumps, we latch directly and feeding on command. *I don't wear bra at home (and I'm always home atm).
Can someone answer me? Thanks.