June Newsletter
June, 2021
Welcome to the June newsletter. This newsletter aims to provide information and analysis of timely topics from recent articles published in the medical literature. I hope you find this information useful and helpful in your health journey. If you have comments or questions, please let us know!
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Hospitalizations and deaths continue to decrease throughout the country which is welcome news. An analysis of CDC data for the month of May shows that 99.9% of hospitalizations and 99.2% of deaths occurred in people who are unvaccinated. The available vaccines are remarkably effective. Wisconsin has given 5.8 million doses of the vaccines up to this point. If you have any questions regarding the safety or effectiveness of the vaccines please let me know.
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I am happy to announce that I have secured access to one of the newest diagnostic tests available. The Galleri test is a blood test that can detect over 50 types of cancer before they are apparent through regular screening testing (and many cancers don't have a screening test). The test detects methylation patterns of cell-free DNA which can indicate cancer and thus has the potential to detect cancer at the earliest stages. If you are interested in learning more about this test please let us know.
Fruity Lunch, Veggie Dinner
We all know we should eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. But does the time of day we eat specific foods matter? Can we be healthier based on when we eat our spinach? This study, from the Journal of the American Heart Association, examined dietary patterns and found that the timing of our fruit and vegetable consumption as well as substituting certain foods for our snacks can help us to reduce our cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. 
 
A1c for You and Me
In medicine, we are good at identifying people who are at high risk of a disease or illness. But what about people who appear to be low risk? This study explores the risk of progression of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). How can we identify people who are at low risk now but are likely to progress to high risk later? How do we then decide who should have aggressive intervention to prevent the progression of atherosclerosis? This study explores using a simple, inexpensive blood test that can be combined with other risk evaluation tools to help us understand who is truly low risk and who is likely to move up the risk scale with atherosclerosis.  

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Health 401K
The foundation for health problems is often laid during young adulthood. Most people lose their ideal cardiovascular health before they reach midlife, which is the point when most of us start to think about our health and especially our heart health. What habits and strategies can be used to preserve or restore our heart health? Does it matter when we improve our health? Is it ever too late to make a contribution to our "health 401K"? 
To Your Health...
Thank you for taking the time to read through this newsletter. We hope you have found this information useful. Feel free to pass this on to anyone you think would benefit from this newsletter.

Mark Niedfeldt, M.D.


Old-fashioned medicine with 21st Century convenience and technology