HEALTHY REPS

Health news and notes

Physical health amid a pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has likely brought many changes to how you live your life, and with it uncertainty, altered daily routines, financial pressures and social isolation, wrote Dana Sparks for Mayo Clinic’s health blog. “You may worry about getting sick, how long the pandemic will last and what the future will bring. Information overload, rumors and misinformation can make your life feel out of control and make it unclear what to do.” Sparks provided several self-care strategies, including a watchful eye over one’s physical health. Suggestions included getting enough sleep, participating in regular physical activity, eating a well-balanced diet, avoid tobacco, alcohol and drugs, limiting screen time and find ways to relax and recharge.

Focus on what you can control

During a crisis, our minds can often wander to anxious, stress-inducing thoughts.

In a post for Piedmont Healthcare’s Living Better blog, Mark Flanagan, LMSW, MPH, MA, a social worker at Cancer Wellness at Piedmont suggested that rather than dwell on nervousness, you should focus on the things you can control. “When you move the locus of control from something outside yourself to inside yourself, you powerfully reduce anxiety and boost confidence.” One suggestion he gave for reducing stress was to create a morning routine. When you’re stuck at home, it can be tempting to let go of basic routines, but Flanagan says a morning routine can help you feel more productive and positive. Consider waking up at the same

time each day, exercising, showering, meditating, journaling, tidying your home or having a healthy breakfast as part of your morning ritual. Other tips included checking in with loved ones regularly, finding ways to help others, create a daily self-care ritual, and limiting news and media consumption.

A family affair

One possible benefit of sheltering in place for your kids? Home cooking. According to an article by Jane Brody for The New York Times, rediscovering home cooking during our weeks spent at home can be an opportunity to foster better eating habits in our kids. Children can be more involved in food preparation. But most importantly, parents need to model the eating behaviors they want to see in their children. “Parents should serve children the same foods they eat, though in smaller portions, and not offer something else saying, for example, ‘There are chicken nuggets in the freezer if you don’t like the broccoli I made’,” one source for the article, Dr. Kowal-Connelly, said in an interview. “Children look up to us, they model our behavior and notice what we enjoy.”

One step at a time

Doctors often recommend walking as an easy way for inactive people to ease into better health. Taking 4,000 or fewer steps a day is considered a low level of physical activity. A goal of 10,000 steps a day is commonly cited, but recent studies have shown that health benefits accrue even if fewer than 10,000 steps are taken daily. A research team with investigators from NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at the association between step count, intensity, and risk of death in a broader range of the U.S. population. The team used data from people aged 40 or older who wore an accelerometer – a device that measures step number and cadence (steps per minute) – during their waking hours for a week. Researchers then collected information on deaths for about a decade. They also tracked deaths specifically from cancer and heart disease. In their analysis, the researchers compared the risk of death over the followup period among people who took fewer than 4,000, up to 8,000, or 12,000 or more steps a day. They also tested whether step intensity, measured by cadence, was associated with better health. During the decade of follow-up, 1,165 out of the 4,840 participants died from any cause. Of these, 406 died from heart disease and 283 died of cancer. Compared with people who took 4,000 steps a day, those who took 8,000 steps a day at the start of the study had a 50% lower risk of dying from any cause during follow-up. People who took 12,000 steps a day had a 65% lower risk of dying than those who took only 4,000. Higher step counts were also associated with lower rates of death from heart disease and cancer. These benefits were consistent across age, sex, and race groups.

Prepare Your Health

If your health is your most important asset, why wouldn’t you do all you can to prepare and protect it from the ‘side effects’ of a natural disaster, disease outbreak, or other emergency? The Center for Disease Control and Prevention created the Prepare Your Health initiative to encourage personal health preparedness for public health emergencies with practical advice on how to get ready and build resilience. Prepare Your Health is organized into three categories: ʯ Personal Health Preparedness (Be prepared to protect your health until help arrives) ʯ Plan Ahead (Have a strategy for staying informed, healthy, and in contact. ʯ Create Community (Team up with neighbors to help build community health resilience. ʯ For more information, visit https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/prepareyourhealth.

Taking 4,000 or fewer steps a day is considered a low level of physical activity. A goal of 10,000 steps a day is commonly cited, but recent studies have shown that health benefits accrue even if fewer than 10,000 steps are taken daily.

DUKAL is solving clinical problems with innovative patented solutions.

DUKAL Corporation has introduced its latest innovative

solution, with the Capseus Bone Dust Collector (Capseus BDC-15).

Designed to easily provide cost-effective local autograft generated at the surgical site during spinal fusion surgery, the Capseus BDC-15 reduces hospital costs, time, and infection risk, while providing higher-quality bone.

Spinal fusion is performed on approximately 400,000 patients in the United States annually. The national rate has more than doubled since the start of the 21st century and is continuing to increase year after year.

To facilitate spinal fusion, surgeons require additional bone, known as “graft,” to help two or more vertebrae fuse into a single structure. Different graft options exist, including both “allograft,” which is derived from donor bone, and “autograft,” which is bone derived from the patient’s own body.

Allograft products are expensive (est. $1,000 to $10,000 per surgery) and because they are derived from sources outside the patient’s body such as cadavers, disease transmission and rejection risks exist. Importantly,

using allograft in spinal fusion can be less effective than using the patient’s own bone. Further, most patients do not like the idea of cadaver bone being used for surgery in their body, especially when autograft options exist.

One way to obtain autograft from a patient is by creating a second surgical site on the patient’s hip and harvest this “non-local” autograft from the patient’s iliac crest. However, there are significant issues with this approach including longer operating times and increased blood loss. Along with extended hospital stays and additional pain and infection risk from having a second surgical site, leading many surgeons to move away from this option.

DUKAL was introduced to the clinical need for a bone dust collector that could easily and cost-effectively collect local autograft generated at the surgical site by Dr. Abrahams of Northern Westchester Hospital in New York and Michael Bielski, a medical device entrepreneur.

DUKAL, along with Dr. Abrahams and Mr. Bielski, successfully brought the Capseus BDC-15 to market in September 2019.

Unmatched bone dust collecting experience.

Eliminated Allograft Related Complications

> Lower rejection risks > Lower disease transmission

Eliminated Non-Local Autograft Related Complications

> Less pain > Lower infection risk > Single surgery site > Lower blood loss

Reduced Hospital Costs and Time

> Less operating time > Shorter recovery > Lower cost than allograft products

Today, the Capseus BDC-15 allows surgeons to quickly and easily collect any volume of locally drilled autologous bone directly at the point of suction without any additional pressing steps.

Setup Process

Characteristics

Use Capseus BDC-15 Pressing Devices with Downstream Collection

Immediately, ready for use. Setup requires multiple steps. Collection of autograft occurs in direct view of surgeon, no bone loss in tubing. Bone can be lost in suction tubing, and downstream nature may lead to accidental loss. Freshly drilled bone harvested with minimal processing. Characteristics of bone can be affected due to processing and clotting. Simply remove freshly-drilled bone from filter. Bone immediately ready for use as graft. Lengthy, complicated suctioning and pressing process to prepare bone for harvesting, due to bone storage in blood/saline.

Since its 2019 launch, the Capseus BDC-15 has successfully been used in cervical fusions, lumbar fusion, craniotomies, and other orthopedic procedures.

DUKAL is bringing new technologies to life.

DUKAL’s approach to healthcare innovation is to provide the highest quality manufacturing, sourcing, and quality regulation to solve real clinical problems through new healthcare technologies.

Working collaboratively with healthcare professionals, DUKAL turns innovative ideas into practical patented-solutions.

An inside look into DUKAL’s Innovation

With over 28 years in healthcare manufacturing and logistics, DUKAL is a trusted partner in creating healthcare solutions. From invention and patent application to prototype development and design – from supply chain to branding, marketing and sales, our team offers partners a full range of capabilities.