Stay Well

January 17, 2024

"Hunger Is Not Seasonal": Bay Area Food Banks Struggling To Keep Up With A Spike In Need

On a recent frigid Thursday morning, about 60 people stood in line, prepared with their folding shopping carts, waiting for the food pantry at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park in Oakland to open at 10 a.m. Some had arrived before dawn. Lucia Pablo, carrying her 2-year-old daughter on her back, has been coming to this food pantry in the Fruitvale neighborhood for six months. She was receiving an extra $200 through the state’s CalFresh program, she said, until state officials ended the pandemic-era food assistance bonus in February 2023. Now, she said, she receives about $300 a month to buy groceries for her five-person household. SF Chronicle

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How Do You Cut Down On Costly Ambulance Trips To The ER? Alameda County Has A Plan

Calling 9-1-1 for a medical emergency typically leads to a trip in an ambulance to a nearby emergency room. Research shows that many times patients don’t need that level of care. And whether the ambulance ride was necessary or not, you are likely to get stuck with a big bill. Now, Alameda County wants to change that wasteful practice so ambulance providers are more accountable for providing an appropriate level of care. The county’s emergency services agency on Friday unveiled its vision as it begins the search for its next ambulance provider for all areas of Alameda County – outside of the cities of Berkeley, Piedmont, Alameda and Albany. The new contract would start in 2026, when the county’s current contract with Falck US expires. “This is kind of cutting edge,” said Lauri McFadden, director of Emergency Medical Services at Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. The effort comes as public officials have been grappling with national conversations about mental health, policing, and our health care system.

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Stanford Researchers Think Future Pandemics Could Be Prevented With Universal Vaccines

Preventing the next worldwide pandemic from happening before it even starts - researchers at Stanford University think it's possible. Doctors say the COVID-19 virus will always be with us, but some experts wonder if the pandemic could have been avoided all together? What if there was a way in which our bodies fought off a new infection using different immunities? Stanford University Professor Bali Pulendran and his colleagues think they may have found an answer. ABC7 News Read more



Why Are 1,500 Americans Still Dying From COVID Every Week?

More than three years into the pandemic, hundreds of Americans are still dying from COVID-19 every week. For the week ending Dec. 9, the last week of complete data, there were 1,614 deaths from COVID, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The last four weeks of complete data show an average of 1,488 weekly deaths. By comparison, there were 163 weekly deaths from the flu for the week ending Dec. 9, according to CDC data. While high, these COVID death figures are still lower than the high of 25,974 deaths recorded the week ending Jan. 9, 2021, as well as weekly deaths seen in previous winters, CDC data shows.

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These COVID Symptoms Are Red Flags That You Need Medical Attention

When you have a COVID-19 infection, you’re told to isolate and stay away from others until you’re better. But while many folks do improve at home thanks to a combination of medication, rest, hydration and time, others require additional medical intervention. While we know the hallmark symptoms of COVID ― like coughing, fatigue, for example ― there are some COVID-19 symptoms that aren’t normal and shouldn’t be treated as such. Breathing issues, high fever, dizziness and confusion are all reasons to get immediate medical care. HuffPost Read more

Why Did My Loved One Contract COVID, But Not Me? One Expert Explains

How is it possible that my partner — or child or sibling or roommate — tested positive for COVID-19, and even though I slept in the same room or lived in the same house, I didn’t come down with the virus? Weren’t they breathing out infectious particles for days on end? And I assume I was breathing them in. There is an answer to this question. But it’s a bit complicated. KQED Read more



Is It Normal For Cold-Like Symptoms To Last For Weeks? An Expert Explains

The winter surge of respiratory viruses is underway. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to record rising levels of hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 as well as increasing hospitalizations for influenza and the respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV. Many ill people are reporting that their symptoms are lasting for more than a week, even up to two weeks for some. Is this normal? What should your expectations be about the length of viral respiratory illnesses? When should you contact your doctor for additional testing? And what other steps could you take to facilitate your recovery? For example, is it advisable to work, go to school or exercise? Mercury News Read more

Medical Mistakes Are More Likely In Women And Minorities

Charity Watkins sensed something was deeply wrong when she experienced exhaustion after her daughter was born. At times, Watkins, then 30, had to stop on the stairway to catch her breath. Her obstetrician said postpartum depression likely caused the weakness and fatigue. When Watkins, who is Black, complained of a cough, her doctor blamed the flu. About eight weeks after delivery, Watkins thought she was having a heart attack, and her husband took her to the emergency room. After a 5½-hour wait in a North Carolina hospital, she returned home to nurse her baby without seeing a doctor. When a physician finally examined Watkins three days later, he immediately noticed her legs and stomach were swollen, a sign that her body was retaining fluid. After a chest X-ray, the doctor diagnosed her with heart failure, a serious condition in which the heart becomes too weak to adequately pump oxygen-rich blood to organs throughout the body. Watkins spent two weeks in intensive care. NBC News Read more

More U.S. Pharmacists Can Now Prescribe Birth Control, And Soon, Some Patients Won’t Need Prescriptions At All

Access to hormonal birth control — such as birth control pills and patches — is getting major changes in 2024. Opill, the first over-the-counter birth control pill approved in the United States, should soon be available in stores and online, according to its manufacturer, Perrigo. “We are on track for making Opill available nationwide in Q1,” a Perrigo spokesperson wrote in an email this week, referring to the period from January through March. And more states are enacting laws that allow patients to get prescriptions for birth control directly from pharmacists, without having to see a doctor first. CNN Read more

CVS To Close Some Pharmacies Within Target Stores

CVS Health said on Thursday it will close some pharmacies that operate inside Target stores during the first several months of the year. The closures will begin in February and be completed by the end of April, a company spokesperson said. Prescriptions will be transferred to a nearby CVS Pharmacy prior to closing, the spokesperson added. U.S. pharmacy chains including rival Walgreens Boots Alliance have been implementing cost cuts in an effort to tackle decreased spending by inflation-weary consumers and intense competition. Reuters Read more

S.F. Still Restricted In Sweeps Of Homeless Encampments, Court Rules



San Francisco cannot remove homeless people from its streets and sidewalks unless it offers them immediate and available shelter, a divided federal appeals court ruled Thursday, upholding a magistrate’s restrictions on sweeps of homeless encampments in the city. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu’s December 2022 injunction was based on evidence that San Francisco “used a set of laws and practices … to criminalize sitting, sleeping, or lying in public,” arresting unhoused people who refused to leave and confiscating their belongings. SF Chronicle Read more

Newsom Administration Makes Progress On Tiny Home Promise

Nearly a year ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to deploy 1,200 tiny homes to help shelter

the state’s growing population of homeless residents. Now, the state has chosen who will

build those tiny homes and what they will look like — but there’s still no word on when people

will be able to move in. Newsom unveiled his plans in March to deliver the tiny homes to Los Angeles, San Diego County, San Jose and Sacramento. The state has selected six companies to manufacture the dwellings. There are more than 181,000 unhoused residents living in California, according to the state’s most recent estimates. Of those, more than 123,000 people are living in encampments, vehicles, abandoned buildings or other places not meant for habitation. CalMatters Read more



The National Issue Of Criminalizing Our Mentally Ill

Biya Belayneh was already clinically diagnosed with schizophrenia, hypermania and bipolar disorder when he was wrongfully accused of assaulting a cellmate in jail. The allegation put him in solitary confinement in Maryland's Montgomery County Correctional Facility for a year. By the time he was cleared of all charges for assaulting his cellmate and released from solitary confinement in 2019, his mental health had deteriorated considerably, according to Tizita Belachew, Belayneh's mother. "He was worse than when he got in," Belachew told ABC News. "More isolated." The mental health care system in the United States is dysfunctional, according to law enforcement and mental health care advocates. One result of that is people suffering from mental illnesses are often being incarcerated and deteriorating behind bars, says Sheriff Tony Thompson of Iowa's Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office. ABC News Read more

Workplace Wellness Programs Have Little Benefit, Study Finds

Employee mental health services have become a billion-dollar industry. New hires, once they have found the restrooms and enrolled in 401(k) plans, are presented with a panoply of digital wellness solutions, mindfulness seminars, massage classes, resilience workshops, coaching sessions and sleep apps. These programs are a point of pride for forward-thinking human resource departments, evidence that employers care about their workers. But a British researcher who analyzed survey responses from 46,336 workers at companies that offered such programs found that people who participated in them were no better off than colleagues who did not. NY Times Read more

7 Brain Foods That Can Help You Beat Anxiety

We already know that what we eat affects our bodies. Now a growing body of research suggests our food choices can also affect our minds. The emerging field of nutritional psychiatry focuses on how eating certain foods may improve our mental health. Some research suggests that a variety of foods can help boost mood, improve cognition and even reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety. The foods include extra dark chocolate, leafy greens, broccoli, avocados, green tea, chia seeds or flaxseeds, and beans and lentils. Washington Post

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California Bill Paves Way For Psychedelic Therapy After Failure To Legalize "Magic Mushrooms"

The movement to legalize psychedelics in California appears to be entering a new phase, with a focus on incremental steps to permit the drugs in therapeutic settings following failed efforts to pass more sweeping change. An initiative that sought to ask voters to decriminalize so-called magic mushrooms and products containing psilocybin failed to qualify for the 2024 ballot when it missed last week’s deadline to submit signatures. That followed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto last year of a bill that would have decriminalized a short list of natural psychedelics, including “magic mushrooms.” Now, the Legislature is considering much narrower approaches. A bill expected to be introduced in the coming weeks will call for legalizing psychedelic-assisted therapy, while a bill that passed the Assembly health committee last week would fund a work group to study the benefits and dangers of psychedelic therapy. LA Times Read more

Federal Scientists Recommend Easing Restrictions On Marijuana

Marijuana is neither as risky nor as prone to abuse as other tightly controlled substances and has potential medical benefits, and therefore should be removed from the nation’s most restrictive category of drugs, federal scientists have concluded. The recommendations are contained in a 250-page scientific review provided to Matthew Zorn, a Texas lawyer who sued Health and Human Services officials for its release and published it online on Friday night. An H.H.S. official confirmed the authenticity of the document. The records shed light for the first time on the thinking of federal health officials who are pondering a momentous change. The agencies involved have not publicly commented on their debates over what amounts to a reconsideration of marijuana at the federal level. NY Times Read more



Cold Weather Can Make Your Workout Less Efficient And More Risky

With temperatures dropping, anyone who heads outside to exercise should remember that cold can affect both your safety and your exercise performance. When it’s cold, the body adjusts by moving blood toward the core, the brain and important organs, and away from the skin and muscles. While this protects the brain and important organs, it also can limit exercise performance while increasing the risk of frostbite, breathing difficulty and hypothermia. Washington Post Read more