IGH buffalo 75 January 2021

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JANUARY 2021 • ISSUE 75

Time to Rethink New Year’s Resolutions COVID-19 has changed everything. P. 10

ALSO INSIDE • Pandemic: What Do Kids Have to Say About It? • Working at Home Brings Its Own Health Perils • Heart Disease Is World’s No. 1 Killer

Go With the Flow: Flotation Therapy It may be just the ticket to alleviate some of the the tension during these unprecedented times.

Buffalo area has several choices from which to choose. P. 13

Physician Mark D. Hicar, UBMD pediatric infectious disease specialist, focuses his attention on Kawasaki disease, potential HIV vaccine development

Pandemic: What Do Kids Have to Say About It?

In their own words: Buffalo area kids talk about COVID-19, quarantine, social distancing, masks and how they miss their friends

Healthier Chicken Wings? They Do Exist!

P. 12

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Older Motherhood Offers Benefits, Problems P. 14

Working at Home Brings Its Own Health Perils: Survey

W

orking from home may take its toll on mental and physical health, but making some tweaks to your workspace and your headspace may help maximize

the potential benefits and minimize any downsides, a new survey suggests.

Nearly 65% of people who were working from home due

to COVID-19 restrictions reported new physical woes including “tech neck” and lower back pain, and about 74% said they had one new mental health issue, such as anxiety or depression. These risks were heightened among women and parents of toddlers and infants, who were juggling work and life responsibilities.

The findings were published online recently in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Overall, telecommuters felt that more was expected of them and that the distractions were far greater at home.

“The shift to work from home was abrupt when COVID-19 first hit, and no one was truly prepared,” said study author Burcin BecerikGerber, co-director of the Center for Intelligent Environments at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. “It is super stressful and the demands and work expectations didn’t go down, plus many of us also have to be a teacher and a parent,” said Becerik-Gerber, who is also a mother of three who now works from home.

Work from home does have it perks, namely more flexibility, no commute and more family time. And it is likely here to stay even after the pandemic ends now that many companies have systems in place, she said.

In the study, Becerik-Gerber and her colleagues asked close to 1,000 people who transitioned to work from home due to COVID-19 how the new arrangement affected their physical and mental well-being.

They asked about overall mental and physical health, and took a deeper

dive into specific symptoms and conditions.

The survey spanned many occupations and took place during the early days of the pandemic.

On average, workers spent about 1.5 hours more per day at their work station when they worked from home. Telecommuters also reported getting less physical activity and eating more than they did before the shift.

“Improperly fitted desks and chairs, and extended periods of sitting and sedentary behavior can increase risks for physical problems,” Becerik-Gerber said.

In the study, just one-third of respondents had a dedicated area for their work, while close to 50% shared their workspace with others. Those who scheduled their work around others were more likely to report new physical or mental health issues, the survey found.

Other factors that can increase productivity and boost physical and mental health while working from home include adequate natural lighting, which helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle, BecerikGerber said. “Having access to nature is extremely important, and setting your work station up where you can see trees may help offset mental health problems,” she explained.

In the pre-COVID-19 days, coworkers provided social support, and telecommuters are feeling this loss, she noted. “All of those interactions with co-workers or even seeing people on the way to a meeting are the things that take your mind off of work and are very important to mental health,” Becerik-Gerber added.

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IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021

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Cancers in U.S. Teens, Young Adults Up Study shows incidence of cancer among young adults up by 30% since 1970s

C

ancer cases among U.S. teens and young adults have shot up 30% since the 1970s, new research reveals.

Kidney cancer has risen at the greatest rate, increasing more than threefold among young men and women, according to the researchers.

Breast cancers were the most common cancers among women and testicular cancer was the most common among men.

Using data collected by the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the investigators looked at half a million cancer cases diagnosed between 1973 and 2015 among people aged 15 to 39.

What explains the dramatic rise in this age group?

Other research has pointed to a range of potentially problematic lifestyle factors. They include a rise in obesity, worsening diets, insufficient exercise and UV/tanning bed exposure, said study co-author, physician Nicholas Zaorsky, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at Penn State Cancer Institute.

Many of those issues were also cited by physician Archie Bleyer, a clinical research professor in radiation medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, in Portland.

Bleyer added substance abuse and risky sexual activity to a list of behavioral trends “that may cause cancer [and that] occur predominantly in older adolescents and young adults.”

He said, “Cancers that are related to obesity in older adults are frequent cancers in young adults. And obesity has been steadily increasing in American young adults. Also, diagnostic imaging [CT scans, MRIs, ultrasound scans, etc.] has increased in young adults, leading to diagnoses of a ‘cancer’ that would not have created a problem for the rest of the person’s life.” In other words, Bleyer said, “overdiagnosis” may play a role.

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Don’t miss theFebruary issue of In Good Health —WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper To advertise and reach more than 60,000 health-conscious readers, please call 716-332-0640 or email editor@bfohealth.com

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Heart Disease Is World’s No. 1 Killer

Heart disease cases worldwide nearly double— China leads as the country with highest incidence

H

eart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide — accounting for one-third of deaths in 2019 —and the death toll continues to rise, a new paper says.

China had the highest number of heart disease deaths in 2019, followed by India, Russia, the United States and Indonesia.

Heart disease death rates were lowest in France, Peru and Japan, where rates were six times lower than in 1990.

Countries need to create cost-effective public health programs to reduce heart disease risk through behavior changes, according to the report’s authors, who examined 30 years of data.

Heart disease cases nearly doubled over the period — from 271 million in 1990 to 523 million in 2019, and the number of heart disease deaths rose from 12.1 million to 18.6 million. In 2019, the majority of heart disease deaths were attributed to ischemic heart disease and stroke, with a steady increase from 1990. (Ischemic heart disease is a term for heart problems caused by narrowed arteries.)

In 2019, heart disease was the underlying cause of 9.6 million deaths among men and 8.9 million deaths among women globally. More than 6 million of those deaths occurred in people between 30 and 70 years of age.

The findings were published Dec. 9 in the Journal of the American

College of Cardiology.

Along with being the leading cause of death, cardiovascular disease (CVD) — especially ischemic heart disease and stroke — is a major cause of disability and rising health care costs.

There was a significant increase in the heart disease-related years of life lost and the number of years lived with heart disease-related disability doubled to 34.4 million from 1990 to 2019, the study found.

“Global patterns of total CVD have significant implications for clinical practice and public health policy development,” said lead author, physician Gregory Roth, an associate professor of cardiology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“Prevalent cases of total CVD are likely to increase substantially as a result of population growth and aging, especially in Northern Africa and Western Asia, Central and Southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern and Southeastern Asia, where the share of older persons is projected to double between 2019 and 2050,” he said, calling for increased attention to promoting heart health and healthy aging throughout life.

“Equally important, the time has come to implement feasible and affordable strategies for the prevention and control of CVD and to monitor results,» Roth said in a journal news release.

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NESTLED IN THE HEART OF WILLIAMSVILLE, STILL WNY’S MOST AFFORDABLE ASSISTED LIVING AND MEMORY CARE • Three Celebrating home-cooked meals Our 13th Anniversary!! daily and snacks • • Three home-cooked meals Beautiful, full-sized Chapel daily and services snacks with daily • • Beautiful, full-sized Chapel Personally tailored Care with daily services Services • Personally tailored Care • Services Stimulating social, educational and • Stimulating social, recreational activities educational and • recreational Housekeepingactivities and laundry Beauty/barber salon • • Housekeeping and laundry • • Beauty/barber salon Transportation services Residents & staff would like • • Transportation services to thank all of the families & Soda Shop open 24 hours friends of Park Creek for all a day Shop open 24/7 • Soda of their love & support.

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January 2021 •

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper

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Page 3

Meet

Your Doctor

By Chris Motola

Mark D. Hicar, M.D. UBMD pediatric infectious disease specialist focuses his attention on Kawasaki disease, potential HIV vaccine development Q: You deal with infectious diseases in children, but you have a few areas of specific specialty. Can you talk about them?

A: I am a pediatric infectious disease physician, so I have general knowledge of infections in children, as well as of vaccinations and treatments. I specifically work on antibody reactions to infections. My fellowship was on HIV, so I’ve been using my knowledge to help potential vaccine development. There’s also a condition called Kawasaki disease that I’m interested in. We don’t know what causes it, so we’re studying antibody reactions to try to figure that out.

It’s an inflammatory condition that looks a lot like a lot of other infectious diseases. We’re not even sure it is an infectious disease, but it falls under our clinical care. And then, with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we’ve been exploring antibody reactions, particularly because there’s a subset of children who are infected who get something called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). It looks a bit like Kawasaki disease, so when it first showed up we did some studies on it. There doesn’t seem to be any relation between it and Kawasaki though. So those are the three main things I’m working on right now.

Q: Let’s touch on each of them. I often say my impression is that, where AIDS/HIV is concerned, our success in treating it has kind of pushed the

disease out of the headlines despite the fact that a vaccine is still needed and being worked on. So where are we on that?

A: I agree with that assessment.

Unfortunately it’s still a ways away.

HIV is extremely tricky to develop a vaccine for. It has a lot of diversity, and it can continue to be infectious while it’s mutating. As soon as you get an immune response, it’s already mutated away from the immune response. So it’s a particularly hardy virus to try to attack. So we try to target different regions. There are a lot of HIV vaccines being developed.

There was some minor success with one of them, and it wasn’t replicated well in other studies. So we’re looking at antibody responses to try to target the protein on the surface of the virus.

We found a new area of the envelope that is potentially targetable on multiple types of HIV, so we think it might be a good target for a vaccine.

For treatment, we have been a victim of our success. In America, it seems like there’s hardly any pediatric HIV anymore. We’re good about getting pregnant moms therapy and also treat around the time of delivery to help prevent transmission. So pediatric cases in the U.S. are extremely rare at this point. However, it’s still a very significant issue worldwide. So from that perspective a vaccine is still a very high priority.

Q: I’ve never heard of Kawasaki

disease before. How common is it?

A: It’s technically considered a rare condition, but estimates are that there are about 5,000 to 6,000 cases in the United States. Now that we’ve vaccinated against things like strep pneumonia, pneumonia actually has fewer cases than that. We get about 12 to 13 cases a year in Western New York. The problem with Kawasaki is that it’s very inflammatory. Kids present with at least five days of high fever with multiple systems inflamed.

About a quarter of these cases will go on to have their coronary arteries become inflamed and form aneurisms we can treat that and reduce it with a medication called IVIg, but we don’t really understand why the IVIg works and we don’t know what sets off Kawasaki. We think it might be an infectious disease because siblings get it more often than non-siblings and there seems to be a seasonal predominance in the winter and spring. But even if it is an infectious disease, we don’t know if the infection is setting off the aneurysms or it’s the inflammation setting it off.

Q: And this disease only presents in children?

A: It’s most common around 3 years old, and by 7 or 8 it’s extremely rare. So it’s very much a pediatric condition. it?

Q: Do the kids usually recover from

A: Yes, most do. There are rare cases where children pass away. The mortality rate is in the realm of 1 to 500, 1 to 1,000. So the fever eventually burns out, but in about a quarter of the cases those kids have had severe coronary inflammation. Kawasaki disease was first described in the ‘60s, so we now just have adults who’ve had it as children. The data supports that they have earlier heart disease than they should for their age.

Q: What are some of the other theories for what might cause it?

A: A lot of them have been debunked, most notably that it has something to do with carpet cleaning.

There’s a new theory that it’s some kind of environmental antigen, or a two-part process where an allergy sets it off and then one of many differ-

ent infections comes in. There’s also debate over whether it’s entirely an active infection or an infection and then a post-infection condition. And there are people who think it’s entirely auto-inflammatory and not related to an infectious disease. It’s very frustrating. We don’t even know what the medicine we use works, what causes it, why some kids who get it worse.

Why 1% to 2% of kids who get it get a recurrence, usually within six to 12 months? That whole distinction is a mystery to us. We don’t have good answers for the parents. That’s what got me interested in it. Some people talk about passion in their life. I think I equate passion to anger. It makes me angry that I can’t give the parents good answers.

Q: Finally, regarding COVID-19, there’s definitely been a lot of cases of it causing inflammation and clotting, but we also tend not to think of children as being at as much risk as older adults.

A: Yes, that’s a really interesting thing. It seems like kids don’t get as severe a disease as adults. It’s probably going to take years of study to figure out why that is. Kids around the peak age for Kawasaki seem to do a lot better with COVID than teenagers and adults. It may have something to do with the ability to have an immune response within that age group. Some people think it’s T-cell history, with kids getting exposed more often to other coronaviruses. There are about four other common coronaviruses circulating that cause common colds.

And then there are just more comorbidities for adults. Kids bounce back from almost everything.

Q: So how dangerous is this MIS-C condition that kids sometimes develop from COVID-19 exposure?

A: Like Kawasaki, it also very rarely leads to mortality. There have only been about 700-800 reported cases around the world. Those are just the reported ones. We’ve had maybe 10,000 to 20,000 kids infected in our area, and only a handful with MIS-C. They all did pretty much fine, though some were very sick at the time. Lots of people are trying to work this out, but it looks like a completely different disease than Kawasaki. We’re also treating them with IGIv, but it’s just generally a good anti-inflammatory treatment.

Lifelines

Name: Mark D. Hicar, M.D., Ph.D. Position: Pediatric infectious disease specialist at UBMD Pediatrics and John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital; associate professor, pediatrics, University at Buffalo Hometown: Parma, Ohio Education: Ohio State University College of Medicine (2002); Ph.D, molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, Ohio State University College of Medicine (2002); fellowship, pediatric infectious diseases, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (2009); residency, pediatrics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (2005) Affiliations: Oishei Children’s Hospital; Catholic Health System Organizations: Pediatric Infectious Disease Society; Society for Pediatric Research; Infectious Disease Society of America; American Heart Association; American Society of Immunologists Family: Wife (Kate), two children Hobbies: Hiking, biking Page 4

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IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021

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Healthcare in a Minute

By George W. Chapman

Meet the New Secretary of Health and Human Services

P

resident-elect Biden has nominated current California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for the post of secretary at Health and Human Services.

Becerra will replace former big pharma executive and lobbyist Alex Azar. As California AG, he was a strong champion for consumers. Becerra sued giant Sutter Health System for driving up prices causing Sutter to settle for $575 million. He sued Teva pharmaceutical for a “pay and delay” scheme causing Teva to settle for $70 million. Becerra will inherit a surging pandemic, overwhelmed and financially stressed providers and the mass distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. He will oversee rule changes for expanded telehealth services, hospital pricing transparency and provider reimbursement that is transitioning away from traditional fee for service to pay for performance and bundled care reimbursement. Industry trade associations like the AMA, AHA and Association of Health Insurance plans (AHIP) have lauded the nomination hoping Becerra hits the ground running. They see him as a muchneeded consumer advocate in that position.

Geographic Direct Contracting

The new HHS secretary will oversee the rapidly increasing transition from fee-for-service volume-based reimbursement to more cost-effective models that require coordination and risk assumption among providers in a specific region.

The goal is to improve the quality, access, integration and outcomes of medical services delivered to Medicare and Medicaid members while also lowering costs. Physicians and hospitals serving a defined region would coordinate management services, telemedicine, provider recruiting, purchasing and develop a preferred panel of quality providers. The new entity would be paid via capitation, so much member per month, based on the area’s historical claims. The entity can keep any savings it creates based on the amount of risk it assumes.

The incentive for Medicare members to join the newly formed integrated network is improved care and a reduction in the amount of health premium deducted from their social security check. CMS, which determines physician reimbursement, recently proposed a “budget neutral” fee-for-service schedule. What that means is increases for some services, typically primary care, will be offset by decreases in other services, typically specialty. While the AMA

has registered disappointment, CMS is sending a clear message that feefor-service reimbursement is being phased out in favor of alternative payment models as herein described.

Vaccine Distribution

New CDC Director

Biden has nominated current chief of infectious disease medicine at Massachusetts General, physician Rochelle Walensky, for the post of CDC director. She will replace Robert Redfield. Walensky is also on the faculty at Harvard. Two thirds of us live in areas with limited to no access to an infectious diseases specialist.

There has been a critical shortage of I.D. physicians. Thanks to the notoriety of colleague Anthony Fauci and her recent nomination, applications to medical school are up 18%, an all time high. The expectation is many medical students will elect to specialize in infectious diseases.

Retail Primary Care Accelerating

the involvement of pharmacists in the delivery of effective primary care to its members with emphasis in underserved areas. The entry of these well-financed for-profit retail medicine clinics into the market presents a competitive threat to typically under-financed private practices, federally sponsored clinics and hospital-sponsored practices.

Tech oriented primary care startup Carbon Health recently received a $100 million infusion from investors in addition to the initial $28 million infusion in May. The goal is to open 1,500 clinics by 2025 and 100 pop up COVID-19 clinics now. Carbon Health will offer “omnichannel” care via retail clinics, video, phone apps and work place clinics. Traditional providers of care have their reimbursements controlled and set by Medicare and commercial payers which prohibits them from amassing decent profits and building huge cash reserves for expansion.

The entry of cash laden for-profit corporations, which have been free of price controls of any kind, creates an unfair playing field.

Retail druggist Walgreens has invested $1 billion in primary care provider VillageMD. The partnership plans to expand beyond their Houston-based pilot market and open up 40 more pharmacy/primary care centers by summer and 500 more over the next five years. The business model intends to increase

Operation Warp Speed has accomplished the “easier” part of the mission: development and approval of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2020. Several drug manufactures — including Pfizer, Moderna, Astra Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson — met the challenge. The harder part of the mission will be the efficient distribution and storage of the vaccines in 2021. The plan is to have 100 million of us vaccinated by the end of February, which should cover healthcare workers and nursing home residents.

The challenges are: ensuring the second dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are available and given within the recommended follow-up period; storing the Pfizer vaccine in super sub-zero refrigerators; (Moderna can be stored in regular refrigerators); ensuring providers, typically clinics and physician practices, that give the vaccines are adequately trained and prepared for the onslaught; and determining priorities based on: age, comorbidities, essential, military, school, etc.

January 2021 •

ICU Nurses Give Perspective

The Washington Post recently ran interviews with ICU nurses from across the country: Idaho, Mississippi, Iowa, Illinois, Utah and Ohio.

Most of us are far removed from the battle zone in hospitals and need to be reminded what it is like for our first defenders and healers. The nurses revealed what it’s like to work in their highly stressful environments.

Here is the gist of the interviews.

Some people arrive barely short of breath and tell the nurses they feel fine. Within just hours, many of these patients go into rapid oxygen decline and end up on a vent or deceased.

Nurses are used to processing death, but they say the pace of death caused by the virus is overwhelming. (As of this writing we are over 3,000 deaths per day.) Nurses and physicians are getting sick, but it’s not from lack of PPE. It’s from community spread.

They are angry at people who believe the virus is no big deal or even a hoax and bristle at the mixed messages from our leaders. As the surge in hospitalizations increases, and vents are fully utilized by COVID-19 patients, nurses worry about treating incoming heart attacks and other serious illnesses or injuries requiring an ICU bed. They are pleading with us to do our small part and follow CDC guidelines.

Music can soothe

A survey by music streaming service Pandora, with about 65 million users, revealed 80% of respondents said music has helped them cope with the pandemic. 58% of the respondents said music was their “go to” coping mechanism. The average time spent listening to music was 40 minutes. Experts report music can ward off or mitigate anxiety and depression, improve blood flow and lower stress-related hormones George W. Chapman is a healthcare business consultant who works exclusively with physicians, hospitals and healthcare organizations.

He operates GW Chapman Consulting based in Syracuse.

Email him at gwc@

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper

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Page 5

Live Alone & Thrive

By Gwenn Voelckers

Practical tips, advice and hope for those who live alone

Coming Home Alone

Put Out the Welcome Mat ... For Yourself

H

aving a “home sweet home” has taken on a whole new meaning and imperative as we continue to shelter in place during this pandemic. Our homes have become our sanctuaries, as well as our safe places.

Now, more than ever, I encourage those who live alone to take a fresh look at your indoor and outdoor space with an eye toward comfort, peace, security and happiness.

I’ll be joining you!

Making small, meaningful improvements at my own “House Content” is on my growing list of New Year’s resolutions.

As I contemplate these changes, I am reminded of an experience I had in my early 30s that influenced my perception of home. I remember it well.

I was working for a small nonprofit agency and was asked to deliver a document to a board member who lived in one of Rochester’s older, gentrified neighborhoods.

As I walked up the steps to Jane’s front porch, three things caught my eye: the seasonal bouquet in a hand-painted ceramic pitcher, the tasteful wreath on her door and a doormat that simply said “All are welcome here.”

A good feeling came over me.

I announced my arrival by softly

tapping the sweet little heart-shaped iron knocker on her front door. Then I waited. I stood on Jane’s porch feeling as if I had arrived at a special place — a place that held the promise of comfort and hospitality.

When Jane answered the door and invited me in, I saw that she had brought the warmth of her front porch into her home.

I walked into an oasis of rich earth tones, subtle lighting and art from around the world that invited inspection.

I just wanted to sink into one of her overstuffed tapestry chairs and savor the warm embrace of her home.

And so it came as a big surprise to me when Jane told me she lived alone. I remember thinking: “What? This can’t be.” It just didn’t add up. I had assumed that a home this wonderful — a home this lovely and complete — could only be the home of a family or, at the very least, a couple. But no; this was Jane’s home. Her retreat. Her wonderful life.

Little did I know that, years later, my experience on Jane’s front porch would stay with me and influence the way I decorated and furnished my home inside and out. Unbeknownst to her, she was a role model and, by example, showed me that a

house can be a home, even when it’s occupied by only one person.

Thanks to Jane, I found the inspiration to make my home inviting for the most important visitor of all: me.

If returning home alone triggers feeling of loneliness and loss for you, you might consider making some changes yourself. I suggest starting with your front porch: • Set the stage. I want to feel welcome even before I set foot on my front porch. That’s why you’ll find flameless candles glowing in my windows all year long, not just during the holidays. Programmed with timers, the candles come on at dusk and their soft luminescence fills me with warmth and security as I approach my home after dark.

• Keep your front porch clean. It’s no fun (in fact, it can be a real downer) to come home to a messy front porch cluttered with muddy boots, tools or a pile of collapsed shipping boxes. I’ve learned that lesson!

These days my porch is clear of extraneous items and I make good use of the handmade artisan broom I have hanging by the door. Once a month I wipe the cobwebs and “bug juice” off my porch lanterns, window sill and hand railings.

Stepping onto a nice clean porch makes me feel good about myself. A sense of pride wells up in me before I even walk over the threshold. That little boost gets my evening off to a good start.

• Add some inspiration. I see my porch as a blank canvas, and I’m the artist.

I delight in making decorative changes that reflect the seasons, capture my taste, and stimulate the senses: My wind chimes create an immediate soothing effect, my “Believe” wreath reminds me to have faith, and my charming little chalkboard invites messages from visiting friends and relatives.

One friend recently wrote “Welcome Home, G.” I left his kind message in place and enjoy this friendly greeting on a daily basis.

I know that coming home alone can be a challenge, especially if you are accustomed to returning to a house filled with the hustle-bustle of family life. I also know that making “welcome” changes can ease the way into a new life and home of your own.

Roll out the welcome mat for yourself and discover all the good things that may arrive at your doorstep!

Gwenn Voelckers is the founder and facilitator of Alone and Content, empowerment workshops for women, and author of “Alone and Content,” a collection of inspiring essays for those who live alone. For information about her workshops, to purchase her book, or invite her to speak, visit www. aloneandcontent.com

s d i K Corner

Teen Smoking Rates Drop, E-Cig Use Rises: Study

A

merican teens’ use of tobacco cigarettes and smokeless tobacco has dropped to record lows, even as their use of electronic cigarettes increased, new research shows.

For the study, researchers analyzed nationwide data on tobacco product use among 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders from 1991 to 2019.

Daily smoking rates among 12thgrade boys rose 4.9% a year between 1991 and 1998, but fell 8% a year between 1998 and 2006, and 1.6% from 2006 to 2012. There was a 17% annual decline from 2012 to 2019. Overall, daily smoking among 12th-graders Page 6

•

fell to about 2% by 2019, the study found.

“This is an astoundingly low rate, and our goal from a public health perspective should be to keep smoking at this rate or lower,” said study co-author David Levy, a professor of oncology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Similar results were seen for boys and girls in all grades and for both Black and white teens. The researchers also reported similar rapid decreases in teen use of cigars and cigarillos, along with consistent declines in smokeless tobacco use in the last five years.

Lead study author Rafael Meza said, “While the increases in e-cigarettes are indeed concerning and is something we need to address and reverse, the decreases in other tobacco products, in particular, cigarettes — the most concerning form of tobacco use — are accelerating.” Meza is associate professor of epidemiology and global health at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The across-the-board decline in cigarette smoking is something to highlight and celebrate, and it “suggests that it’s a general pattern, that kids are just not into smoking anymore,” Meza added.

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021

There have been concerns that increased e-cigarette use among teens could lead to a resurgence in use of traditional cigarettes and other tobacco products.

“But, in contrast, what we found is that the decline in smoking has accelerated,” Meza said. “So I think the good news is that the rapid increase in e-cigarette use has not yet resulted in a reversal of the decreasing trends of cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco use, and if anything, those trends have accelerated.”

The report was published online Dec. 2 in JAMA Network Open.

Maeve Borden, 15, a 10th grader, lives in the Buffalo area with her family and three dogs.

Ben Gluck, 14, is in ninth grade. He lives in Amherst with his family.

McKenzie Rusinek, 12, lives in the Buffalo area with her family. Photo by Alyissa Landry.

Pandemic: What Do Kids Have to Say About It? In their own words: Buffalo area kids talk about COVID-19, quarantine, social distancing, masks and how they miss their friends Interviews conducted and edited by Jana Eisenberg

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his time has been repeatedly described as unprecedented for adults — we couldn’t imagine how kids are feeling and reacting, especially related to COVID-19. So we decided to ask a few for their candid reactions.

Participants:

• Maeve Borden, 15, a 10th grader, lives in the Buffalo area with her family and three dogs. She loves tennis, volleyball and skiing. She’s would like to go out of state for college, and is thinking of studying psychology.

• Ben Gluck, 14, is in ninth grade.

He lives in Amherst with his parents, older brother, two dogs, and various other creatures.

• McKenzie Rusinek, 12, lives in the Buffalo area with her family, including several younger siblings and two dogs. She’s in seventh grade; her favorite subjects are English and math. One of the things she enjoys is volunteering.

Q&A Q: What did you hear when the pandemic hit? How did it make you feel?

Maeve: I was scared, because nobody had ever experienced anything like it. As soon as we heard, our teacher tried to explain what was happening. We all thought it was crazy, and also didn’t think anything was going to happen.

Ben: I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to see friends, or do things normally. My family talked about how something like this hasn’t happened since the Great Depression. I didn’t know what “quarantine” meant!

The health and economic aspects are affecting our society.

McKenzie: I knew it was real, but it felt surreal. It hit hard — I was having a great school year, and our class had a lot of plans. I worried about older people like my grandparents, and people who don’t have a home, or access to necessary precautions, like masks.

Q: What changed right away?

Maeve: No school, no sports or clubs — not seeing anyone except for who I lived with, or others from far away with masks. The whole world was on lockdown, and we didn’t know when it would end.

Ben: It made the end of eighth grade rough. I was stressed. It was hard to keep in touch with friends; finding ways to socially interact. I wrote a song about how I felt; the Black Lives Matter movement and an awareness of LBGTQ+ issues gave me a broader picture of how I can stand up for people.

McKenzie: I became more tightly connected to my brothers and sisters.

Some of my friendships evolved.

When we were apart we got stronger.

We opened up and told each other more.

Q: What’s changed since?

Maeve: At the beginning, people didn’t know anything; they were scared. When doctors learned and told us about it, we could start seeing people, as long as you wear a mask.

Ben: I expanded my hobbies. I got really into fishing — it’s a good, social distanced activity. I enjoy doing theater; I’d been cast in “Pippin” at Niagara University. I was disappointed it was canceled.

McKenzie: I became student council president in October, then school closed again. I tried to get out the message about our canned food drive for those without access to food. As a woman, I stand for women empowering other women.

Online learning created stronger bonds between teachers and students; we’re obligated to talk to each other more. Because of that, this will be a good year academically for a lot of kids.

Q: Did anything positive happen during the pandemic?

Maeve: I’ve seen people come together, even if it’s through a screen or online. It can be comforting: we’re going through the same thing, and people look out for each other.

Ben: It’s helped me learn how to manage time, and be productive.

McKenzie: My new baby sister was born in April; I would have been caught up with school and not spent much time with her.

January 2021 •

Q: How have you handled challenges?

Maeve: I was almost nostalgic for when things were normal. I FaceTimed with friends, and, to de-stress or calm down, I like to color and read. Listening to music helped, and I went on long walks with my family.

McKenzie: Online school caused a lot of anxiety. I wanted to be perfect.

Also, so many people were affected by the world shutting down. When I think about the absurd, crazy number of deaths, I also think about the many millions of other people affected.

I like to bake, play softball and read. I don’t think about anything else when I work on softball mechanics with my dad, which also creates a greater bond with him. With baking, you have to stay focused. I’m drawn in when I read a good book; I think about Harry Potter or Coraline’s problems instead of my own.

Q: How are you thinking about the future?

Maeve: We are still pretty deep in it. In the “new normal,” there will be more precautions. I hope that I will be able to finish high school in person.

Ben: I am done with this! I’m hoping we’ll get our act together; that people will mature and do the right thing. It’s hard not being able to interact, dance with and touch other people. Racial and political issues will still be a problem after COVID. I’m curious to see what’s going to happen.

McKenzie: The future can be bright again. People need to keep listening, until the vaccines are widespread. People say that they want to go out: wear your mask, cover your nose. We can change and be better, we stopped the spread before. I hope people stay safe.

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper

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Page 7

Clinical Trials: The Hard Work Behind Vaccines, Therapies CEO of Buffalo-based Circuit Clinical discusses the work that goes in the development of vaccines, devices and therapies. “All Americans should be proud of Operation Warp Speed,” he says

By Jana Eisenberg

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he COVID-19 pandemic has increased many people’s awareness of clinical trials, as we’ve all waited with bated breath for a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, while experiencing the worst public health crisis in most of our lifetimes.

While clinical trials may not have been a common conversation topic before March 2020 for most, interest in the process has also increased.

Irfan Khan, a cardiologist by training, is the CEO of Buffalo-based Circuit Clinical. The thriving company he founded in 2015 was originally meant to increase participation in and access to clinical trials for all Americans.

One way it does this is with its proprietary platform, TrialScout (“Yelp for clinical trials,” he has called it), where people can go to research and rate clinical trials.

To explain the broader picture, and importance of clinical trials, Khan describes the “journey” that every medication must take before you or your loved one swallows, inhales or is injected with it.

“Clinical trials are the way that

BlueCross BlueShield Awards $575,000 to Local Groups

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lueCross BlueShield of Western New York Blue Fund announced $575,000 in grants to support several major health-based projects across Western New York, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a profound impact on nonprofit organizations. This grant cycle includes $100,000 in new Blue Fund microgrants to 75 organizations across the eight counties of Western New York.

The community-based, nonprofit health insurer pivoted its traditional 2020 Blue Fund grant cycle to support the most critical and immediate community needs as a result of the pandemic. This included a $1 million Page 8

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the FDA — which is charged with keeping us all safe — tests new products. Early trials of the [medication/ device/therapy] with smaller groups of people test if it’s safe,” he said. “In the next phase, larger trials are done to prove that it has a positive effect.

The whole process can take up to 10 years and cost up to $1 billion. And that’s true for every single medicine we take.”

Why is it important that people are aware of trials?

“The core idea is that everyone should view participation in a trial as a care option,” he asserted. “When more people have the opportunity to participate in trials, it’s good for all of us. Lack of awareness and participation is one reason it can take 10 years to bring new medicines to market.”

Why should people trust trials?

“We need to continue to educate people on the safety and protections built into trials,” he added. “Everybody worries about participating; many think that they are being used as guinea pigs. But participants’ safety is first and foremost: everything is monitored and their input is valued and listened to. Rather than being ex-

donation to the WNY COVID-19 Response Fund, a $100,000 donation to Say Yes Buffalo to expand and enhance the organization’s Health Homes Care Coordination program, and a $25,000 contribution to help Project Play WNY distribute more than 12,000 PlayPacks to Buffalo Public School students.

In total, BlueCross BlueShield Blue Fund invested $1.7 million into the community in 2020.

“BlueCross BlueShield has a long-standing history of supporting organizations dedicated to improving the lives of individuals in all eight counties of Western New York,” said David W. Anderson, President and CEO, BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York.

Below are the recipients of the 2020 Blue Fund Grants:

Back to Basics Outreach Ministries, Inc.: $50,000 To support the Buffalo Peacemakers HEAT Program (Health, Empowerment, Altitude, and Teamwork), which will improve physical and mental health in the vulnerable, hard-to-reach population of at-risk minority youth by building habits of

perimented on, it’s like being part of a discovery mission. The participants are active at the front and center — they are the point of the endeavor!”

In addition to possibly receiving treatment and being part of the discovery process, other reasons that people choose to participate in clinical trials can include a sense of the greater good — the research that is done today could benefit themselves or someone else in the future.

Another way that Circuit Clinical increases opportunity for individuals to participate in clinical trials is by partnering with regional doctors’ offices and medical groups to conduct trials. This allows patients who opt in to a clinical trial to receive the trial-related clinical care where they receive their medical care, rather than going to a separate research facility.

Trials can also provide people who may not have the means to afford it access to cutting-edge treatment.

What about people who might not be eager to receive a coronavirus vaccine, once they have been approved and are available?

Khan points to Operation Warp Speed, the federal program that poured funds into pharmaceutical companies to aid in the research and testing possible new formulas to immunize millions of people against the scourge.

“Operation Warp Speed may be the most ambitious American undertaking since the Manhattan Project, and it’s unfortunate that we’ve ended up in a climate that has politicized science,” said Khan. “Every American can be incredibly proud of this effort, which has produced not one but two vaccines. For people who are not sure they will take the vaccine, it’s important to remember that quality and safety were the No. 1 concerns of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca; the best and brightest minds and companies were working quickly on problems and solutions, yet they did not sacrifice any part of the process.”

“Pragmatically optimistic” for recovery from the pandemic, Khan believes that with some organization

physical activity, healthy eating, and attaining positive goals.

Buffalo Center for Health Equity: $125,000 To support improving community health through healthy eating.

The program aims to shift the health curve of pre-diabetics and early diabetics through a dietary intervention that will transform the eating habits of the participants living in Buffalo’s least-healthiest ZIP codes.

Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network: $100,000 Purpose: To support Healthy Families Buffalo, an evidence-based voluntary home-visiting model, designed to provide services to families that begins prenatally or at birth and continues through age five.

Harmonia Collaborative Care: $100,000 To support TeleMental Health Services, which assesses community needs, identifies partners and collaborators, and initiates a program that increases access to mental health and telemental health services for rural and Native Americans ages 13 and up.

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021

Cardiologist Irfan Khan, CEO of Circuit Clinical, in Buffalo: “This could be a golden age for discovery about how to bring new medicines to market,” he says. and cooperation, it can be overcome.

“We’re on the right path,” he said.

“We have a set of great vaccines — there are a ton of logistical issues. I know everyone is fatigued, but we also need to get back to basic public health practices: distancing, masks, washing hands.”

“I like to say we are one vaccine away from things getting back to normal,” he said. “I love to travel — when the vaccine is available and I can get it, I will be first in line!

Everyone should feel hopeful that we are not done: there are a ton of trials that are looking at not just vaccines, but also testing and diagnostics. We will need options to get out to the billions of people who are going to need them.”

As for the bigger picture? “This could be a golden age for discovery about how to bring new medicines to market,” he said. “That’s the mission Circuit Clinical set out to serve.”

YMCA Buffalo Niagara: $100,000 o support “Y on the Fly,” a mobile YMCA that delivers fun physical fitness activities, enrichment experiences, including STEM and literacy, and nutritious meals to families living in neighborhoods where food insecurity and a lack of youth development and wellness resources are most prevalent. This year-round program will be offered at indoor and outdoor sites in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Lackawanna.

In addition to awarding major grants to five local nonprofits, BlueCross BlueShield partnered with intermediary organizations in each county to help identify microgrant recipients for awards that will range from $500 to $2,500, totaling $100,000.

Intermediary partners include Partnership for the Public Good in Erie County; United Way of Greater Niagara; Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation; United Way of Southern Chautauqua County; Allegany County Area Foundation; United Way of Orleans County; United Way of Wyoming County and United Way of Genesee County.

Meet Your Provider

Gelber & O’Connell, LLC What Do I Do if I Have a Car Accident?

If you or a loved one is involved in a car accident, take a deep breath and then:

• Stop the car and call 911.

• If able to do so, exchange license and insurance information with everyone involved in the accident.

• Take photos of the accident scene, location of the vehicles, license plates and car damage.

• If there are any witnesses, try to get their names.

After the accident scene is cleared: • Report the accident to your own auto insurance company.

• If needed, seek medical attention.

• Obtain a No-Fault claim application form from your own auto insurance company. NYS No-Fault claims must be filed within 30 days of the accident.

• If you are a passenger, submit your claim to the insurance company of the owner/driver of the vehicle.

If you have sustained an injury and need assistance with any or all of the

above, our law firm offers to our clients such assistance at no cost.

How do I choose a personal injury attorney?

Being involved in a legal matter and hiring an attorney to help you is a very personal experience. There are a few steps you should take into account when making the critical decision to hire the right personal injury attorney: • Do not rely on television and radio ads. Do your own research.

• Contact your chosen law firm/ attorney as soon as possible to schedule an appointment to determine your legal rights before critical evidence disappears. Make sure you speak with an attorney and your appointment is made to meet with an attorney. Do not accept an appointment with a paralegal, legal assistant or intake clerk. Only an attorney can give legal advice.

• When you make the appointment, ask and be assured that the specific attorney you are scheduled to meet

with will be the attorney personally involved with your case until it is resolved. A large part of your experience with an attorney derives from your relationship, so chemistry and continuity are very important.

• Discuss the fee arrangement. Also, ask about anticipated costs and disbursements and how they are to be advanced and reimbursed. Be sure to find out that in the event there is no recovery whether you are responsible to reimburse the law firm for their out-ofpocket expenses. Some law firms require the repayment of these expenses. We do not.

• Read your retainer agreement carefully before signing. You should be cautious of signing any written retainer agreement that provides that in the event you change attorneys you are obligated to pay specific itemized sums of money for the legal services rendered by that law firm up to the time of discharge. Ours does not.

• If you have any hesitation about hiring the attorney you meet with, do not be pressured into signing the agreement.

Stephanie Gelber, Esq. has been practicing law for over 35 years, having joined Gelber & O’Connell, LLC as its managing attorney in 2010.

Gelber & O’Connell, LLC, located in Amherst, has been assisting injured clients with their car accident and other injury claims for over 20 years.

It is also important to know that after you have retained a personal injury attorney, you have the right to discharge that attorney and retain another attorney in place of the original one if you are unhappy with your representation, even after the claim is put into suit. If you decide to change attorneys, the new attorney should reimburse the outgoing attorneys for their out-of-pocket expenses to obtain the release of your file. Your percentage of the recovery is not affected.

Gelber & O’Connell, LLC • 716-633-5050 • www.gelberoconnell.com 6512 Main Street • Buffalo, NY 14221

Daily Mental Healthcare At-home tips from the pros to alleviate depression

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

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ittle daily habits can add up in big ways. For example, eating a big lunch can result in gained weight because of excess calories. Or, on a positive note, going for a daily walk can cause weight loss because of burned calories.

Mental healthcare is similar.

Instilling good daily habits can also contribute to good mental health.

Shawn Marie Cichowski, life coach and owner of Western New York Life Coaching in Williamsville, said that staying grounded and centered can increase the likelihood of good mental health. She calls these practices the building blocks of meditating. “With meditation, it doesn’t have to be sitting cross legged. You can pray, color or do something repetitive that brings your focus.”

These techniques help you stay present instead of longing for the past or worrying about the future.

Neither of the latter is healthy.

Gratitude can also help turn thoughts toward the positive side of life. Cichowski said that it is as simple as listing the things for which one is thankful. Daily affirmations can also help, as can building structure into the day.

“Keep some type of routine,” Cichowski said. “It is optimal for wellbeing.”

It can start with making the bed in the morning and taking care of plants and pets. Set and achieve little goals you can accomplish that day, as well as steps toward a larger goal.

Another way of staying positive is doing something for someone else, like contributing shelf stable goods to a food pantry, donating gently used clothing to a shelter or dropping off groceries to an elderly person could all represent ways to think of others.

Cichowski encourages selfcare, such as obtaining regular and sufficient sleeping, eating a healthful diet and engaging in regular physical activity “We have a mind-body connection that we should respect,” she said.

Self-care can also mean listening to uplifting music and taking time for stress-relieving activities.

In addition to mindfulness and self-care, Anna Shurmantz, licensed clinical social worker and owner of Shurmantz Counsling, LCSW, PC in Cheektowaga, said that people need to feel connected to something bigger than themselves.

“It can be a community of faith or a group of people or a spiritual-based practice and not necessarily a religious one,” Shurmantz said.

“It gives me a place to express my emotional needs and it lets me not be in charge all the time. I have someone to talk with physically or a more spiritual practice of expressing what I’m holding inside to the universe, God or whatever I believe in. It lets me not carry everything inside all the time.”

She also suggested journaling as a way some people like to express their feelings.

It is also helpful to limit or avoid social media since the difference between the posted life and real life are so different. For example, the post showcasing the perfectly decorated home, gourmet meals and well-be-

January 2021 •

haved children looks like an impossible ideal to emulate. But those viewing the website do not see the online household’s messes, kitchen mishaps and squabbles. Believing the posts can breed jealousy, disappointment and disillusionment.

Of course, daily mental health practices cannot replace professional help when that is what is needed.

Reach out for help should you notice that for two weeks or longer, you are avoiding contacting others, performing routine personal care or dropping formerly enjoyed interests for no reason. Anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts or thinking no one would care if they died should seek professional help, as should those abusing alcohol, using drugs or misusing prescription medication.

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper

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Page 9

Resolutions Elmwood Village for a local shopping excursion will be much needed ventures after the long hiatus.

Finances

My expenditures have definitely changed this past year. With my youngest child returning from college and grocery prices going up, my weekly grocery bill increased considerably. At the same time, our social budget diminished without daytrips, dinners out, movies and the like. It is time to redraft the monthly budget to take these new factors into account.

It’s also a great time to check out the balances on your mortgage, loans and credit cards, and touch base with lenders for better rates. If you are able to put more into savings, shop around for the best rate and don’t forget to check rates at your local credit union to keep the funds in our regional market.

Organize and Declutter

New Year: Time to Rethink Resolutions

By Catherine Miller

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ike many others I use the fresh start of the new year to reaffirm my goals and make resolutions to enhance my life.

Losing weight, improving finances and trying new experiences tend to top my yearly list.

But what happens after a year like 2020?

Last year’s list was thrown into the wind during the chaos of the pandemic. Getting to the gym and eating healthier were replaced with making sure we had food on the table and taking care of families in need.

But now that we have had time to absorb the changes in our lives, it is time to take a fresh look at our traditional goals and fine-tune them to make the most of the coming year.

Health: Physical and Mental Goals Health goals top my list each year. This year it is a two-fold resolution. In addition to improving physical health, I have added improving mental health to the list. The stress of the past year has hit most of us. I like ritual. I like planning. 2020 took Page 10

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me out of my office routine and into a homebound work format that had to be reset. This year I plan to use daily meditation to relax and reassess daily goals. There are so many variables in our lives now that it’s important to be fluid in what we plan to accomplish on a day-to-day level on both a personal and professional level. I plan to go back to regular yoga classes that will help with both mental and physical health. With the use of DVDs and online videos I can continue yoga while social distancing. Daily walks will continue to be my go-to fitness and de-stress tool.

Read Daily

Offering relaxation, what better way than reading to transport your mind from the cold WNY winter to a distant place with crowds of characters waiting to be discovered.

Reading stimulates brain activity and promotes creativity and imagination.

As our current world becomes more limited in experiences, reading offers a way to expand our horizons. Our local bookstores have thousands of books that offer an immediate retreat to a new realm and visiting our com-

munity bookstores aids in our local economy. A definite win-win.

Travel Local and State-wide

Every year I try to visit new destinations along with rediscovering a few from my past. The pandemic is making this difficult, but not impossible. Even with elevated positivity rates you can visit outdoor or non-populated venues and get away from your daily routine. Niagara Falls, often noted as one of the seven wonders of the world, is available for a day trip and displays its winter beauty in cascades of frozen snow and ice. The Festival of Lights is underway and is breathtaking. Having not visited in years, the falls will remake an appearance on my travel list, along with trips to the Thousand Islands and Adirondack Mountains.

All venues offer non-populated open-air activities. Once nicer weather makes its way back to the region, I plan to visit local venues that have taken an economic hit. Kayaking, touring our arts centers, lunching on the waterfront and visiting places like Olcott, Ellicottville and the

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021

Decluttering is a goal I began during the stay-at-home phase of the pandemic that I continue to complete in the new year. After 20 years in our house there are objects stored in the back of our closets that need to find a new home. Surely my son will not miss that Ninja Turtle suitcase from 1995. While continuing my efforts in 2021, I am redistributing what I can to those in need and donating useful items to local donations centers to avoid them ending up in a landfill.

There are more people than ever utilizing donation centers due to financial constraints and a perfect time to donate to them.

The above are my traditional top resolutions. But in 2021 it is time to add a new resolution:

Reach out to Others Normally a very social person, there has been a marked decrease in my interaction with people since the onset of the pandemic. Working from home and minimizing time with family and friends to limit exposure have combined to make my social life nearly non existent. I reside with two family members which gives me daily human interaction, but I know many who live alone. This year I resolve to reach out on a regular basis to those who are isolated. While phone calls are the easiest, I have decided to use video calling more regularly to allow for a more personalized experience. The next few months promise to be difficult for those that are isolated, and a friendly face might make all the difference.

As we trek into 2021 we should be mindful that times of transition offer a chance for new growth. Instead of continuing resolutions of old, we should embrace this opportunity to change things a bit to suit the current climate and embrace activities within our current limitations. Certain changes made can aid the local economy — which is a much-needed bonus. If you are planning to add health goals to the new year include activities that can be completed with social distancing and improve your mental health as well as physical.

Finding new ways to keep active, socialize and relax will continue to be essential as we learn to roll with what comes our way in the 2021 frontier.

Resolutions

5 Resolutions for 2021 During the pandemic you need personal resolutions for physical and mental health

By Robbie Raugh Special for In Good Health, WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper

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ell, that was a crazy year, but 2020 had also some wonderful parts at the same time. In the midst of how horrible this pandemic has been for many of us, there have been some silver linings.

For me personally, spending more time with family has been priceless. We had both our daughters home for three months and one has been here since March. I am so grateful for this extra time together.

The pandemic has also given us a chance to reinvent ourselves and think outside the box for work and other things. I do believe God wanted us to slow down and realize what’s important in life. It certainly isn’t flying from one thing to another with no time for the important things in life.

Dinners and spending more time at home have been a blessing. For me, it has been doing everything on Zoom and from my home — from AM Buffalo television “Health and Fitness” segments to seeing patients and doing podcasts.

Slowing down has also given us time to think about our health and

staying healthy should be part of everyone’s new year’s resolutions, especially in 2021. We need to build up our immune system, which is our best defense against the COVID-19 virus and many other diseases and health conditions. Vitality and longevity should be our goals.

Resolutions I believe everyone needs to consider following are:

for your physical health, but mental health as well. Health is wealth. And if you do not have any energy to work out, remember, energy produces energy! You achieve energy by working out!

3.

Eat healthy to boost our immune system. You cannot eat out of a box or window and have a million-dollar body or a clean bill of health. Our gut microbiome is our own internal ecosystem which also plays a huge part in our immunity and is connected to our brain health as well.

Take care of your finances. Financial health is a big goal for me as well this year. We all need to get our ducks in a row and clean up our spending during this pandemic. Go through your checking account and get rid of app charges and other charges you don’t really need. Keep track of everything.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure, whether it’s your food intake or your finances. Failure to plan is planning to fail.

Exercise most days of the week to boost our immune system and stay healthy. If the gyms are closed, go for a walk or set up space in your house to exercise. No time to work out? You simply must make time because it’s that important! It’s important not only

Get your health appointments in. Self-care is so important. Get a massage; go to the chiropractor; make those health checkups you’ve been too busy to do.

Know your numbers: your blood pressure, your vitamin D levels and your blood work. As my mother

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4.

always told me, “If you don’t take care of you, you can’t take care of anyone else.” Make time to also stay connected. Spatial distance rather than social distance. We are made to be connected with others so don’t isolate yourself. Call others, Facetime, zoom or whatever you can do to stay connected.

5.

Our spiritual fitness is most important. Don’t forget to pray about everything and lay your burdens down. Make it a priority in 2021 and you will have peace that surpasses all understanding.

Robbie Raugh is the founder and CEO of Raw Truth Health, based in Williamsville. She is a registered nurse and author of “The Raw Truth Recharge Book — 7 Truths for Total Health and Fitness.” She hosts “The Raw Truth” on WDCX Radio 99.5 FM or 970 AM. For more information, visit www. robbieraugh.com.

Robbie Raugh, founder and CEO of Raw Truth Health, based in Williamsville. Photo provided.

January 2021 •

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper

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Page 11

SmartBites

The skinny on healthy eating

Healthier Chicken Wings Do Exist!

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re you sitting down? Last year, on Super Bowl Sunday, we Americans consumed 1.4 billion chicken wings.

Holy hot sauce! That’s a lotta wings! But no surprise, right? Football and wings go together like chips and dip.

Decades ago, before kids, my husband and I wolfed down a basket of chicken wings every Friday. We were on a mission to find the best wings in town. Our focus? Taste and crisp-factor. Our lack of focus? Nutrition. Never, not once, did we even wonder about fat, calories or sodium back then.

Chicken wings can have that effect. They’re so delicious, so addictive, so (for some) special-occasion, that you just want to enjoy them without the guilt.

Are you still sitting down?

Chicken wing consumption doesn’t have to be riddled with guilt! With a few tweaks here and a few bad-for-you ingredients slashed there, you can easily make this popular appetizer a whole lot healthier.

But before we delve into wing do-overs, let’s talk nutrition.

While clearly there are healthier parts of the chicken to be had, wings still have something to cluck about. When roasted in the oven, one drumette with skin provides about 100 calories, 9 grams of protein, and decent amounts of both niacin and selenium.

An essential nutrient that powers many chemical reactions in our body, protein helps to keep our muscles and bones strong, which is important for maintaining balance and mobility

as we age. Niacin, a B vitamin, helps convert food to energy and influences how we process cholesterol, while selenium, a powerful antioxidant, plays an important role in the health of our immune system and helps to protect our body from damage caused by oxidative stress.

Unadulterated, chicken wings are super low in sodium and fairly low in cholesterol. Wings are, however, the fattiest part of the chicken, delivering about 6.5 grams per wing (2 grams saturated). So, what happens to sodium, cholesterol and fat when wings are drenched in flour, deep-fried in oil and slathered with hot sauce? All levels skyrocket. As an example, a popular chain restaurant posts the following amounts for 10 fried Buffalo wings: 5,020 mg of sodium, 515 mg of cholesterol, and 69 grams total fat (18 grams saturated).

To shed perspective on these amounts: The USDA recommends that healthy adults limit their sodium intake to less than 2,400 mg per day, their cholesterol intake to no more than 300 mg per day, and their total fat intake from 44 to 78 grams per day (with saturated fat making up no more than 22 grams). Again, that’s per day, not per appetizer!

Healthy Cooking and Eating Tips Grill or bake wings. Read wing sauce labels, opting for one with less sugar, sodium and calories. If recipe calls for adding butter to the sauce, replace it with heart-healthy olive oil or better yet, skip it altogether. Make your own blue cheese dipping sauce with Greek yogurt. Be mindful of your intake: calories quickly add up!

2 teaspoons onion powder ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt 1 ½ teaspoons coarse black pepper Celery, trimmed and cut into sticks Hot sauce of choice (optional)

Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce 4 tablespoons blue cheese or gorgonzola crumbles ½ cup nonfat Greek yogurt 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice ½ teaspoon garlic powder ¼ teaspoon each salt and coarse black pepper pinch of cayenne pepper (optional) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and place an oven-safe rack on top of the foil. Coat the rack with cooking spray or a light layer of canola oil.

Pat chicken wings dry to remove moisture. Place wings in a large bowl and rub olive oil well into each piece.

Combine all seasonings in a small bowl; sprinkle over wings; toss until thoroughly coated.

Arrange wings in a single layer on the prepared rack and bake for 30 minutes. Flip wings and bake 20 minutes more or until the skin is crispy.

To make the dip: Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.

Serve wings with celery, blue cheese dip and (optional) a small bowl of hot sauce for dunking.

Anne Palumbo is a lifestyle colum-

nist, food guru, and seasoned cook, who has perfected the art of preparing nutritious, calorie-conscious dishes. She is hungry for your questions and comments about SmartBites, so be in touch with Anne at avpalumbo@aol.com.

Crispy Baked Chicken Wings 2 pounds chicken wings (about 20 drumettes and wingettes) 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon smoked (or regular) paprika 2 teaspoons ground cumin 2 teaspoons garlic powder

Drinking Water for Weight Loss: Does it work?

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

C

ould something as simple as water help you lose more weight?

Area experts say yes.

While it is obvious that replacing caloric beverages with calorie-free water would help with weight loss, water offers other advantages to people working at weight loss.

“Water supports weight maintenance,” said Danielle Meyer, clinical director of the dietetic internship and registered dietitian at UB “We need it for all our metabolic processes.”

She added that people often mistakenly think they are hungry but they are actually thirsty, especially when the craving is for sweet or salty foods.

“Sometimes, with mild dehydration, you might confuse thirst for hunger,” she said. “If you think you’re hungry, take a drink first.”

Drinking during a meal can also help people feel full sooner instead of continuing to eat after their satiated.

Meyer said that can also aid in taking Page 12

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in fewer calories.

Drinking sweetened drinks can add many more calories to a daily diet than one realizes. That is why water is the beverage recommended

by Katie Vaughn, who earned a master’s in nutrition and dietetics from D’Youville College and is a board certified in sports dietetics, certified functional strength coach and owner of Katie Vaughn Nutrition in Rochester.

“Make at least 75% of your drinks from water to reduce calorically dense drinks,” Vaughn said.

As a bonus, water also can affect the metabolism a little. Vaughn said that the body heats up any cold water that a person drinks to bring it up to body temperature.

“This causes a thermogenic effect, which can slightly burn more calories,” Vaughn said.

Feeling too drained to make it through the afternoon without a snack? Reach for that water bottle instead. Vaughn said that staying

hydrated helps the body feel more energized.

“Being dehydrated can impact the flow of oxygen to the brain,” Vaughn said. “This can cause your heart to work harder to pump oxygen to all of your organs, making you more tired and less alert.”

Drinking enough can also help improve workout sessions. That same energizing component, along with providing enough hydration to muscles, can boost athletic performance.

“Since muscle is about 80% water, staying well hydrated is very important for reducing oxidative stress and promoting good recovery,” Vaughn said. “Even being slightly dehydrated can cause moodiness– anxious, angry, irritated feelings, and brain fog, lack of focus and headaches. Feeling this way can decrease the motivation to put weight loss efforts into practice.”

Drinking water also means displacing calorie-laden beverages such

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021

as soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, alcohol, fruit cocktail and juice. The average can of soda weighs in at 150 calories, for example.

Drinking “diet” versions of sweetened drinks can contribute to conditioning the body to crave sweets. It is better to stick with unsweetened beverages.

To make consuming water more palatable, use glass or stainless-steel containers. Sometimes, plastic containers can give water an off taste.

Add a tiny amount of juice to give it a splash of flavor. Add slices of cucumber, citrus fruits or berries to a pitcher in the refrigerator. It will not add calories but does offer a light flavor.

Unsweetened hot or iced tea can also make it easier to get enough fluids daily but go for caffeine-free options. Because caffeinated beverages tend to cause dehydration, minimize these and consume them by noon to avoid sleep issues.

Flotation pod at Float 18 in Buffalo. Owner Scott Stambach, a physician’s assistant, says floating promotes mental clarity and enhances creativity and problem solving, among other benefits.

Flotation pod at Ascend Float Spa in Buffalo. The business has been in operation since 2019. “When I first floated, it was the mind, body and spirit healing — the whole person healing. It changed my life,” says Katrina Avent, a registered nurse, who owns the place.

Go With the Flow: Flotation Therapy

By Amanda Jowsey

T

he tension and stress caused by this pandemic are evident right now. With fear and uncertainty looming all around, we could all use something to calm our nerves and boost our well-being.

Flotation therapy may be just the ticket to alleviate some of the tensity felt during these unprecedented times.

Flotation therapy is a holistic treatment that allows a person to float in warm Epsom salt water inside a special tank.

Referred to as “sensory deprivation tanks,” they are designed to remove outside distractions. This term feels daunting at first, but when opening up to the idea of closing the world out for a while, it becomes more inviting.

This therapy has become increasingly popular as its multiple health benefits have been further studied and confirmed. Many spas and float centers offer this experience worldwide.

Here in the Buffalo area, there are now four centers that specialize in this therapy: The Flo, Float 18, Ascend Float Spa and Silver Essence Floating Spa. Each center puts its own personal touch on things, but they all have one thing in common: to help people discover the mental, physical and spiritual benefits this unique experience offers.

mind a break from the constant daily exposure of lights and sounds.

Matthew Daily, an employee at The Flo, describes floating as “a little mental vacation.”

After being stuck at home the past several months, “you build different types of anxiety and stress.

This gives you a chance to have a little bit of clarity,” Daily says.

As clients begin to relax into their sessions, the creative part of the brain takes over the rational. The subconscious mind overrides the constantly thinking mind, giving people a break from the world and even from themselves.

The benefits of floating are best achieved over time and several sessions. It is a cumulative process. The more someone floats, the more they will experience an overall reduction in stress, pain and anxiety.

Scott Stambach, owner of Float 18, explains this process further. In your first session, “there’s a lot to deal with in order to get to a relaxed state of mind where your brain waves actually change and your

‘Mental vacation’

8825 Sheridan Dr. Suite 200 Buffalo, NY 14221 716-331-1900, ascendfloatspa.com

The water inside each tank is heated to body temperature and infused with up to 1,000 pounds of Epsom salt. The softened water creates the feeling of weightlessness, giving the body a break from the strains of gravity. The tanks give the

endocrine system adapts. You’re switching over from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system. That might take a couple of times,” he says.

Stambach is also a physician’s assistant who understands the consequences that our daily demands have on our health. “If you consider the biggest forms of disease that we’re facing now — from heart disease to anxiety to depression — the majority of them are from the fact that we are constantly in fight or flight mode, or the sympathetic nervous response,” Stambach says. “Our endocrine system is charging us up constantly to the point that even when we’re not having that stimulation, we’re addicted to it in a way that we’re searching for it. We feel uneasy because we don’t have it.”

According to Stambach, floating reduces the production of cortisol and increases the production of endorphins. It promotes mental clarity and enhances creativity and problem solving. It alleviates pain, boosts immune function, improves circulation

Where to Float in Buffalo The Flo

228 Allen St. Buffalo, NY 14201 716-770-1000, alteryourflo.com

Ascend Float Spa

Float 18

1129 Kenmore Ave. Buffalo, NY 14217 716-248-1021, float18.com

Silver Essence Floating Spa

6 Los Robles St. Williamsville, NY 14221 716-568-7985, silveressencefloatingspa.com The average session is 60 to 90 minutes and the prices range from $55 to $70. Every center offers membership packages with special rates, as well as first-time floater promotion codes that can be found on their websites.

January 2021 •

and lowers blood pressure.

Special filtration systems Katrina Avent, a registered nurse, opened Ascend Float Spa in 2019 and has been helping people to reduce pain and stress ever since. Her delivery of this service is based on her own personal experience as well as the evidence of its health benefits.

“When I first floated, it was the mind, body and spirit healing — the whole person healing. It changed my life,” she says. She knew from that moment on that she wanted to help people by offering this alternative treatment for pain and stress management.

“The Laureate Institute for Brain Research has been studying the effects of flotation for over 10 years,” Avent says. In these studies, “they are showing the physiological benefits are that the heart rate drops, diastolic blood pressure drops, and the respiratory rate gets slower.”

The float tanks typically provide an environment free of light and sound. Whereas The Flo offers a purer version of this sensation, Ascend and Float 18 have different types of tanks or “pods” to appeal to the more hesitant client.

These pods provide the ability to choose different colored lights that can remain on or off during a session.

Ascend’s pods also play music for the first and last five minutes of a float. They are even customizable to someone’s own music so that it can play under water to enhance their experience.

For those that may be claustrophobic or put off by this deprivation, each center has the option of leaving the door cracked or open to ease any fears. Ascend also has a small room known as the “wave room” where individuals can float.

Each spa makes sure that every room and tank is clean and sanitized.

They have special filtration systems which allow the tanks to self-clean before and after every client. Every room is equipped with a shower, fresh towels and any toiletries needed before and after the process. As it is a solitary activity, social distancing is easy to do.

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper

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Page 13

Women’s Health

Older Motherhood Offers Benefits, Problems Study suggests later maternal age for a woman’s last child may indicate greater longevity; experts say late pregnancy brings more risks for the unborn

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

A

study published in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society, suggests that later maternal age for a woman’s last child may indicate greater longevity for the mom.

While it is yet unknown if the ability to naturally achieve a later pregnancy indicates a healthier woman or if the later pregnancy causes a longer life, it is still an interesting finding.

Most news for older moms is not as positive. For many reasons, it is ideal for the health of moms and babies for mothers to become pregnant younger; however, life does not always happen that way.

“From what we know so far, if you’re 35 or older, it presents more challenges and you’re at greater risk for birth defects, premature birth, getting pregnant with multiples and complications in pregnancy,” said Darcy Dreyer, director of maternal and child health for March of Dimes across the region from Buffalo to Syracuse.

She said one of the reasons behind the uptick in complications is that many women as they hit their mid-30s are more likely to have chronic health problems such as diabetes, hypertension and high blood pressure. Fertility also begins to decline.

Dreyer encourages women who want to have a baby to get healthy before getting pregnant. “Everyone should try to get healthy, but if you’re hoping to have a baby, these things carry more weight. Get a pre-conception health check up at the OB/GYN and manage any chronic health conditions.”

If left untreated and unmanaged, chronic health conditions can contribute to more problems; however, the age of the mom also matters. A woman’s eggs are formed when she is developing as a baby in her mother’s uterus. She is born with all the eggs she will ever have. New eggs do not develop. The eggs age along with the woman, so with many women, eggs fertilized at age 37 are more likely to have suffered age-related degradation than those fertilized at age 27. To an extent, her lifelong health habits do play a role in the health of her eggs.

Physician Sarah Berga, president of UBMD Obstetrics & Gynecology and department chairwoman at UB, said that a major risk of waiting to conceive is not getting pregnant.

“When they’ve studied populations that don’t use contraception, the last age for spontaneous conception is usually around age 42. We have many years of experience. We understand that not every woman gets the same number of eggs and not everyone’s eggs last as long. People run out and sometimes run out before age 40. Some don’t completely run out but their eggs aren’t as fertile.”

She added that for women at age 42, the chances of becoming pregnant without medical intervention is about one in 10,000.

“In the fertility business, we’d rather see people try when they’ve discovered a problem while they’re younger rather than when they discover they have a problem with fertility and they have waited until the last possible moment to see us.

Even with in-vitro fertilization, it’s hard to get women pregnant after 42.

It has a less than 10% success unless you use donor eggs.”

The risk of pregnancy complications increases with age, including fetal anomalies and genetic disorders — and not just because of the mother’s age. Berga said that the father’s advanced age — not just the mother’s — can cause a greater likelihood of chromosome conditions like trisomy 13 and trisomy 18.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), most children with trisomy 13 die before their first month of life and survivors commonly experience lifelong disabilities and complications, including breathing issues, deafness, feeding problems, heart failure, seizures and vision problems. Those surviving infancy may also have intellectual disabilities and developmental delays and higher risk for cancer. The NIH describes trisomy 18 a chromosome disorder that can cause a hole in the heart, wasting syndrome, permanent flexion of the finger and cognitive impairment.

Berga added that mothers above 40 also have higher risk for preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, premature labor, premature rupture of membranes, labor problems, post-partum hemorrhage, labor problems and prolonged labor.

While some younger mothers

experience complications and it is impossible to eliminate risk during pregnancy, it is helpful for any mother to take care of herself prior to and during pregnancy. Like Dreyer, Berga said that improving maternal health includes achieving a healthy weight before conception as well as managing any pre-existing conditions.

Berga also recommends healthy, lifelong habits for moms of any age, including avoiding tobacco use, alcohol consumption, contraindicated prescription and over-the-counter drugs and street drugs. Exercising regularly before pregnancy and as advised during pregnancy, along with taking prenatal vitamins support healthy pregnancy. Birth defects can occur even before a woman knows she is pregnant, so pre-conception care is vital.

While it is better to get healthy before pregnancy than to become pregnant unhealthy, lifelong poor health has already decreased a woman’s chances of a healthy pregnancy and fetal health; however, it is never a bad idea to improve health habits.

“If you think pregnancy is a high priority, plan accordingly,” Berga said. “We’re here helping, not making this a guarantee.”

U.S. Moms-to-Be Are Much Less Healthy Now

I

n the past 30 years, U.S. women have been in progressively worse physical shape as they become pregnant, a new study finds.

A combination of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and having children later in life have led to potentially more complications, and even infant and maternal death, researchers say.

Obesity is a major driver of these complications, said lead researcher, physician Eran Bornstein. He’s vice chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

“They’re also going to have more hypertensive disorder [high blood pressure] because older women are at Page 14

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a higher risk for all of these complications,” he said. “Basically, we showed that over the last three decades, women’s health in the United States has worsened.”

For the study, Bornstein’s team used data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to calculate risk factors and trends in pregnancies from 1989 to 2018.

During that period, the prevalence of high blood pressure disorders rose 149%, the investigators found.

Specifically, chronic hypertension increased 182%, diabetes increased 261% and having babies at an older age rose 194%. Also, the number of twin and triplet births

increased 33%.

The increase in chronic hypertension was mostly seen in the past 20 years. High blood pressure tied directly to pregnancy and having more than one baby was seen largely in the last 10 years, the findings showed.

The rates of all these conditions were highest among women who had children later in life, the study authors noted.

“Hypertensive disorder is associated with significant morbidity to the mother and significant complications for the baby,” Bornstein said.

“Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are one of the three major risks for maternal mortality.”

The advice to women is twofold, he said. “First of all, even before

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021

pregnancy, young women should concentrate on improving their health and their metabolic status.

That means that they watch their weight, diet, exercise – just the basics in good health care,” Bornstein said.

Second, women should be aware of the potential consequences of delaying childbearing, “and try to complete childbearing at a younger age,” he said.

It’s difficult to tell women they need to complete childbearing by a certain age, but childbearing at 40 is associated with major complications, Bornstein said.

The report was published online recently in the journal E Clinical Medicine.

Women’s Health

Agencies Report Dramatic Drop in HIV Testing in Upstate Officials expect greater spread of HIV this year

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

F Study: Home Hair Color Not Strongly Linked to Increased Cancer Risk

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

A

new study published by BMJ indicates that permanent hair color does not increase risk of most cancers and only slightly elevates risk of a few.

For 36 years, the study followed 117,200 women in Boston who did not have cancer at the beginning of the study.

The women who used hair dye did not show an increase of cancers of the bladder, brain, colon, kidney, lung, blood and immune system nor those effecting the skin or breast.

Only slight risk of basal cell carcinoma of the skin was seen in women with naturally light hair.

Certain breast cancers also showed a slight risk in correlation with the amount of dye exposure.

Risk for Hodgkin lymphoma increased for women with naturally dark hair.

The research is limited because it mainly included white women of European origin and no men, although only 10% of men use hair color.

The study also was not conducted as scientifically as possible because some of the women stopped and restarted using color or may have misclassified their coloring product as permanent when it was temporary.

Still, the research does not indicate a marked elevation of risk, which should be a relief for the scores of those turning to bottles of dye to maintain their look while at home during the pandemic.

“It’s not clear how much personal hair dye use might raise cancer risk, if at all,” said Jason Coleman, Cancer Control Strategic Partnerships manager for American Cancer Society throughout Upstate New York. “Most studies done so far have not found a strong link, but more studies are needed to help clarify this issue.

“If someone is still concerned about hair dye safety, they can embrace their natural hair color or try some of the newer hair dye products that are vegetable-based. These prod-

ucts may have some drawbacks, such as not being able to change hair color drastically or having the color fade sooner than is seen with permanent dyes unless they contain some of the same ingredients as the permanent dyes.”

There is also a difference between home color available at stores and color used at salons by professionals such as Sarah Riehle, manager at Cielo Salon in East Aurora.

“At Cielo, we primarily use L’anza products,” she said. “It has very low ammonia and has no known carcinogens whatsoever. All of the plant derivatives they use are eco-friendly and all of the formulas are clean air formulas. Even the vapors of it are safe for people to breathe in and for the environment.”

She said that the company uses wild rather than cultivated botanicals for their plant-based ingredients.

Riehle also lauded the low-ammonia content of natural brands of hair color compared with boxed color used at home.

“The ammonia levels are very high in boxed color because it’s not customized at all,” Riehle said. “It has to work on someone with white, unpigmented hair or black hair. It’s very strong for certain people.”

While she views boxed color as far better than it used to be for its safety, its efficacy represents her concern as it is one-formula-suits-all.

That can be problematic for people with sensitive skin or an allergy to a certain ingredient.

“Now that we have been open a while, we are seeing the aftermath of people coloring at home,” Riehle said. “You can buy $20 boxes of hair color but you can spend $200 to $300 to correct what happens. You never know what you’re going to get if you use at-home hair colors.”

While some color their hair successfully, other people have experienced topical reactions to the ingredients used and undesired results in their hair’s color.

or people at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, receiving regular testing and prompt test results can help reduce their chances of spreading HIV. Since the pandemic began last spring, testing and prompt results have been disrupted.

According to Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, which maintains offices serving the Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse areas, testing for HIV has decreased dramatically since the local onset of the pandemic.

The agency facilitated 4,644 tests from Mar. 1, 2019 through Oct. 1, 2019. During the same period in 2020, the number of tests plummeted to only 2,403. That is 51% fewer tests.

The reasons vary behind why testing has declined so dramatically.

“I think that is directly related to our patients not wanting to come in,” said Amy Hsi, nurse practitioner for Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York in Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse. “In general, it’s because of the risk of COVID and having to adjust for safety reasons.”

The healthcare industry underscored the seriousness of COVID-19 by suspending non-emergency services for weeks during the pandemic’s onset. Although on April 1, Planned Parenthood announced expansion of telehealth, testing for HIV through Planned Parenthood requires a physical presence.

“Most healthcare providers are offering telehealth services so people can get care, but for HIV testing, you have to go somewhere,” Hsi said.

“They need to come in or we could order it and they could go to a lab.”

The agency does not provide home-based tests for patients to take or mail to a lab. Home tests are available at pharmacies such as CVS and Rite Aid for about $35 to $45. Oral tests offer accurate results in minutes; however, they are only accurate if the test is taken after three months of the exposure incident. For people who frequently engage in risky activity, waiting that long for test results can contribute to the spread of HIV. Although healthcare providers have opened back up for seeing more patients, the social distancing rules mean fewer patients can be admitted in offices at a time. That can hamper providers’ ability to offer services in a timely fashion.

Hsi said that periodic surges in COVID-19 infection numbers continue to keep many wary patients away.

She thinks that the pandemic may cause greater spread of HIV compared with previous years. At this point, it is difficult to tell.

“If people really are self-quarantining and not getting out as much, they may not be doing at-risk activities,” Hsi said. “Then again, maybe people at home are having more unprotected sex without knowing their HIV status. If people can’t get condoms and PrEP, it puts them

January 2021 •

more risk.”

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is a daily medication that can prevent people at high risk for HIV from contracting the infection.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “In the United States, HIV is mainly spread by having sex or sharing syringes and other injection equipment with someone who is infected with HIV. Substance use can contribute to these risks indirectly because alcohol and other drugs can lower people’s inhibitions and make them less likely to use condoms.”

Number of Tests Up at Evergreen Health Trillium Health, which serves Buffalo and Rochester, offers HIV testing among its services. Ashley Zuppelli, senior director of strategic service lines, said that the organization has seen a decrease from 200 HIV tests per month in 2019 to about 125 per month since the pandemic began.

Part of the reason is that Trillium is not accepting walk-in patients.

Completing fewer tests may mean that more people who are unknowingly infected could spread HIV. “It’s a significant concern,” Zuppelli said. “We’re starting to see an increase of new COVID infections.

I suspect that people seeking testing services will decline again.”

At Evergreen Health in Buffalo, Matthew Crehan Higgins, associate vice president of specialty care, said that the number of tests performed has increased because in March, the Erie County Department of Health began focusing on COVID-19 testing and routing sexual health patients to Evergreen.

“We’ve seen increases across all sexually transmitted infection testing,” Crehan Higgins said.

He takes pride in the main office of the organization remaining open throughout the pandemic, although some sites and outreaches have had to close and tweak their hours and policies.

“Nonavailability of services leading to more transmission is one reason we felt committed to stay open,” he said. “During this time period, we felt the need to be here as much as we could. Virtual doesn’t work for everybody. There are plenty of people who don’t have access to technology or own a smartphone.

We had times where a staff member wasn’t here but the person came here to use a phone.”

The state provides a Home Test Giveaway (HTG) program which offers consumers a free home HIV test kit as needed.

The request form for the New York State Home Test Giveaway is at https://survey.alchemer.com/ s3/5977532/HHTG-Fall-2020-Eligibility-Survey-Live.

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper

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Page 15

its programs work within the community to help identify problems of adequacy, acceptability and a accessibility in the delivery of these services, especially to those who are high-need; to seek support for implementation of programs and services that help attain the agency’s mission; promote coordination between service providers who serve similar consumers/clients; and to provide informational and educational activities for providers and consumers, to help enable improved birth outcomes for the targeted population.”

Q. What is the primary focus of BPPN? A. “Our focus is to improve pregnancy outcomes, promote better maternal and infant/child health care, establish better linkages between existing programs and ensure families have access to the full range of preventive and primary health care, social support and educational resources in Erie County. We serve more than 25 zip codes in high risk neighborhoods on Buffalo’s East and West Side, as well as South Buffalo, Cheektowaga and Lackawanna. Our target populations are African-American and Hispanic women since they have demonstrated the highest rates of low birth weight infants and infant mortality.”

How to Be a Living Liver Donor

A

bout one in five Americans waiting for a liver transplant dies before getting the organ. Their odds might be better if more people knew they could donate a portion of their liver in a process called living liver donation.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnessota, want to raise awareness of these living liver transplants.

“About 12,000 to 13,000 people are on the liver transplant waiting list, which means about 2,500 people who are on the list each year will either die or become too sick while waiting for a liver transplant,» said physician Timucin Taner, surgical director of liver transplantation at Mayo.

In a living donor liver transplant, a portion of the healthy person’s liver is removed surgically and placed in a person whose liver does not work properly. The liver regenerates in about three to four weeks in both the donor and the recipient. Patients who receive a transplant from a living donor generally have better results.

“The incidence of technical issues during surgery can be somewhat higher for the recipient because it’s more difficult to transplant a partial organ. There can be increased risk of bile duct complications and arterial thromboses,” said Taner. “But in living donor liver transplantation, the transplant typically occurs before the recipient becomes dangerously ill awaiting transplant, which improves the outcome.”

Donors typically are under age 60, must be in good physical health and will undergo blood tests to ensure blood and tissue types are compatible with the recipient.

“It’s a significant operation for the donor,” Taner said. “Although in the past, it required a larger incision, over the past four years, we’ve used a hybrid procedure that reduces the size of the incision, which translates into better pain control. The time in hospital is about four to six days, and typically it takes about four to six weeks for donors to have a full recovery.”

The number of living donor liver transplants doubled last year, to 6% of all liver transplants nationwide.

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Q A &

with With LuAnne Brown CEO of Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network discusses the agency’s mission and its efforts to help those less fortunate igain access to prenatal, perinatal and postpartum health care, among other services

L

By Mike Billoni

uAnne Brown is the chief executive officer of the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network, Inc., a nonprofit organization which is one of 16 comprehensive networks established in 1987 by former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. At the time, he was responding to the high infant mortality and low birthweight infants throughout the state. The Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network began with a staff of 10 and has grown to its present staff of 55. It operates on a $2.9-million budget and is funded by the New York State Department of Health and the state’s Office of Children and Family Services; The United Way of Buffalo

and Erie County; The John R. Oishei Foundation, and the Mother Cabrini Foundation. Brown, a former nursing executive at the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, has been the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network CEO since January 2015.

Q. What is the mission of Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network?

A. “The coordinating and collaborating with key stakeholders in Erie County and the city of Buffalo to increase access to and utilization of preconception, prenatal, perinatal and postpartum health care services in the community. The agency and

Q. Explain some of the programs operated by BPPN? A. “We currently house the Department of Health Maternal Infant Community Health Collaborative (MICHC), which was awarded to us in late 2013. The program works with Medicaid-eligible high-need, low-income women and their families to improve their health outcomes while reducing racial, ethnic and economic disparities. MICHC integrates and replaces our Network and Community Health Worker programs, but components of those programs are used in the new initiative to help with the development of a community-wide system-based approach to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. We also offer The Buffalo Home Visiting Program, which offers comprehensive home based services to families for 3-5 years after a child is born. Our goal is help parents meet the challenges of parenting in order to assure healthy development for their children.

Q. What makes BPPN so special?

A. “We are proud to be one of the first agencies in Buffalo to have women of color as certified lactation consultants; we have 90% of the children we serve up to date on immunizations; 95% of our clients have a medical provider; 90% will have a recommended number of well-baby visits and 35% of moms will now breast feed their newborn child for the first three months. We are also especially proud of our newest program — Nurturing Fathers — for current or expectant fathers to educate and advocate for men in the areas of responsible fatherhood, to promote involvement and quality father-child relationships; as well as providing fathers with the support needed to improve economic mobility for the strengthening of the family and community infrastructure.”

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By Jim Miller

What You’ll Pay for Medicare in 2021

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Dear Savvy Senior, I know there will be a small cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits next year but what about Medicare?

What will the Medicare Part B monthly premiums be in 2021, and when do the surcharges kick in for higher income beneficiaries?

Date: Time:

While Medicare Part A, which pays for hospital care, is premium-free for most beneficiaries, Part B, which covers doctor visits and outpatient services does have a monthly premium. Starting in 2021, the standard monthly Part B premium will be $148.50, up from $144.60 in 2020. That $3.90 bump represents a 2.7% increase, which is more than double the most recent Social Security cost-of-living adjustment which was 1.3%.

But if you’re a high earning beneficiary, which makes up about 7% of all Medicare recipients, you’ll have to pay more. Medicare surcharges for high earners are based on adjusted gross income from two years earlier, which means that 2021 Part B premiums are determined by 2019 annual income.

So, if your 2019 income was above $88,000 up to $111,000 ($176,000 up to $222,000 for married couples filing jointly), your 2021 Part B monthly premium will be $207.90, up from $202.40 in 2020.

Monthly premiums for singles with an income between $111,000 and $138,000 ($222,000 and $276,000 for joint filers) will rise from $289.20 to $297. Individuals earning above $138,000 up to $165,000 ($276,000 to $330,000 for joint filers) will see their monthly premium increase from $376 to $386.10.

Those with incomes above $165,000 up to $500,000 ($320,000 to $750,000 for joint filers), you’ll pay $475.20 per month in 2021. And single filers with income of $500,000 or more ($750,000 or more for joint filers) will pay $504.90 per month next year.

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Dear Inquiring,

Medicare Part B

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Inquiring Senior The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced their cost adjustments for 2021 and the increases for premiums and out-of-pocket costs for most beneficiaries will be modest. But if you’re a high earner, you’ll pay more.

Here’s what you can expect starting in January.

Medicare Part D If you have a Medicare (Part D) prescription drug plan, the average premium in 2021 will be about $30 per month for most beneficiaries.

But, again for high earners with annual incomes above $88,000 ($176,000 for joint filers) you’ll pay a $12.30 to $77.10 monthly surcharge on top of your regular Part D premiums.

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How to Contest Income

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Beneficiaries that fall into any of the high-income categories and have experienced certain life-changing events that have reduced their income since 2019, such as retirement, divorce or the death of a spouse, can contest the surcharge.

For more information on how to do this, see “Medicare Premiums: Rules for Higher-Income Beneficiaries” at SSA.gov/benefits/medicare/medicare-premiums.html.

Other Medicare Increases In addition to the Part B and Part D premium increases, there are other cost increases you should be aware of. For example, the annual deductible for Medicare Part B will see a bump from $198 to $203 in 2021.

The deductible for Medicare Part A, which covers hospital services, will increase from $1,408 in 2020 to $1,484 in 2021. There are no surcharges on Medicare deductibles for high earners.

For more information on all the Medicare costs for 2021 visit Medicare.gov and click on “2021 Medicare Costs,” or call 800-633-4227.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior. org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

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I Weight Loss, Fitness Trends for 2021

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

I

f losing weight is among your New Year’s resolutions, learn about the trends for weight loss local experts foresee for 2021. Here they are: • “We’ll see more individualized fitness. People are looking forward to getting back to normal and being able to play competitively but in a lot of ways, the fitness industry will be different forever. Being someone that does run a gym and performance center, we’ve been hit pretty hard. I think our business is going to have to adapt and change long-term to be more virtual. It affected everything we do as appointment only. The fitness industry needs more of that and getting away from the open gym where you come in and do your own thing. I think you’ll see less of that and the packed classes, but the oneon-one and coached fitness. I think those are positives for the fitness industry.”

— Brain DeLuca, director of impact sports performance at UBMD Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, Cheektowaga

• “All things promoting a healthy gut is on the rise, especially the pre-packaged food items that naturally contain probiotic and prebiotic foods: packed sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, miso, soybeans, yogurts, kefir and kombucha. They make it more convenient to consume these types of foods, not to mention, all of the prebiotic and probiotic supplements that can come in pill and powder form, from greens powders to collagen powders to whey protein powders.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that live in our gut and have many powerful health benefits for your body and brain when consumed.

Due to these amazing benefits, more and more food companies are adding probiotics and prebiotics to their food. Though these food companies are infusing probiotics to their food products, it doesn’t make them any healthier. I’m talking to you, probiotic infused tortilla chips!

• “Flexitarian diet, combining flexible and vegetarian, is a semi-vegetarian diet that is mainly plantbased focused while allowing meat and other meat products in their diet on occasion. A flexitarian mainly consumes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, eggs, dairy, plant-based proteins, oils, herbs and spices and meat in moderation. Within the last year or so, I am finding more and more of Page 18

•

my clients heading down this path.

They don’t completely want to avoid meat due to it being a high-quality protein source containing many crucial vitamins and minerals. This diet philosophy negates rigid rules and guidelines, allowing people to occasionally indulge in their favorite meat options. As a nutrition professional, I definitely support this type of nutrition lifestyle. It’s easy to accommodate personal preferences, rich in nutrient-dense foods and sustainable for longterm.”

— Katie Vaughn holds master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics from D’Youville College. She is board-certified in sports dietetics, certified functional strength coach and owner of Katie Vaughn Nutrition in Rochester • “A big trend that has already hit fitness is intermittent fasting. It’s a popular way people are finding success at losing weight. I think that will be the most popular diet type of 2021. Intermittent fasting is a type of nutritional intake where you fast for a time and eat your days’ calories in a shorter period. It gets people on a schedule and stops people from overeating. It helps manage intake. It doesn’t work for everyone, just seven out of 10 people. Also, it can be hard to get started if you’re the type of person who will struggle with fasting for 16 hours straight.

• “Wearable technology will be big in 2021. It’s a lot easier to track your important health metrics. Wearable tech is helpful to developing healthier lifestyle, manage diseases and improve efficiency of exercise. It will be very popular.

• “Virtual training will be very big because of the global pandemic.

More are turning to at home workouts like Peloton.

• “Another big trend will be outdoor workouts. In many places, gyms are closed or limited capacity.

Being outdoors is less dangerous.

• “The combining of exercise and mindfulness together is also a trend.

With the pandemic creating a new kind of stress, people are looking for new ways to relieve that stress and exercise will help with that. This year, the body-mind connection will be a big part of the fitness industry.”

— Doug Keller, nationally accredited through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and owner of Keller Fitness and Personal Training, Rochester

f you receive a benefit verification letter, sometimes called a “budget letter,” a “benefits letter,” a “proof of income letter,” or a “proof of award letter,” we have good news for you! A new standardized benefit verification letter is now available when you need proof of Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income or Medicare.

In addition to name, date of birth and the benefits received, the new benefit verification letter includes other identifiers to prevent misuse and fraud. This is an added benefit to you as proof of income for loans, housing assistance, mortgage and other verification purposes.

The same standardized letter is

Q&A Q: Are Social Security numbers reassigned after a person dies?

A: No. We do not reassign Social Security numbers. In all, we have assigned more than 500 million Social Security numbers. Each year we assign about 5.5 million new numbers.

There are over one billion combinations of the nine-digit Social Security number. As a result, the current system has enough new numbers to last for several more generations.

For more information about Social Security, visit our website at www. socialsecurity.gov.

Q: I prefer reading by audio book.

Does Social Security have audio publications?

A: Yes, we do. You can find them at www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs.

also available if you need proof that you do not receive benefits, or proof that benefits are pending. If you are an individual representative payee, you can use the my Social Security representative payee portal to access the same standardized benefit verification letter online for your beneficiaries.

This new standardized benefit verification letter is another example of our commitment to improve our service to you.

No matter how you request your letter, whether calling our National 800 Number, your local office, the interactive voice response system, or online with your personal my Social Security account at www.ssa.gov/ myaccount, the benefit verification letter now contains a seamless look.

Some of the publications available include “What You Can Do Online,” “Working While Disabled — How We Can Help,” “Apply Online for Social Security Benefits,” and “Your Social Security Card and Number.”

You can listen now at www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs.

Q: I haven’t received my Social Security Statement in the mail the last few years. Will I ever get one again?

A: We currently mail Social Security statements to workers age 60 and over who aren’t receiving Social Security benefits and do not yet have a my Social Security account. We mail the statements three months prior to their birthday. Instead of waiting to receive a mailed statement, we encourage people to open a my Social Security account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount so they can access their statement online, anytime.

Serving Western New York A monthly newspaper published by Local News, Inc. Distribution: 32,500 copies throughout more than 1,500 high-traffic locations in the region In Good Health is published 12 times a year by Local News, Inc. © 2020 by Local News, Inc. All rights reserved.

3380 Sheridan Dr., # 251 • P.O. Box 550, Amherst NY 14226 Phone: 716-332-0640 • Fax: 716-332-0779 • Email: editor@bfohealth.com Editor & Publisher: Wagner Dotto • Associate Editor: Lou Sorendo • Writers: Deborah J. Sergeant, Jim Miller, Gwenn Voelckers, Anne Palumbo, Chris Motola, George W. Chapman, Michael J. Billoni, Catherine Miller, Jana Eisenberg, Robbie Raugh, Amanda Jowsey Advertising: Anne Westcott, Amy Gagliano • Layout & Design: Dylon Clew-Thomas Office Manager: Nancy Niet No material may be reproduced in whole or in part from this publication without the express written permission of the publisher. The information in this publication is intended to complement—not to take the place of—the recommendations of your health provider. Consult your physician before making major changes in your lifestyle or health care regimen.

IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021

H ealth News

Russell J. Salvatore Community Health Center ‘Hero’ the signage donation and served as master of ceremonies. Mark King, chairman of the board of directors, brought a warm welcome and Bethany Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Raymond Allen performed the invocation.

“I love giving because it makes me feel so good inside. This is my first donation to the Niagara Falls community, and it makes me feel great to give back,” said Salvatore during the event. “You have to give back to the community. You can’t take it with you,” he added.

Community Health Center CEO LaVonne Ansari said the sign was a “beacon of light for this community, to let the people know we are here.”

The Community Health Center of Niagara Falls Nov. 4 held an unveiling ceremony to honor Russell J. Salvatore for his generous donation of signage that now stands on its property at 2715 Highland Ave. in Niagara Falls.

Salvatore is the founder of Russell’s Steaks, Chops and More and Salvatore’s Grand Hotel in Williamsville.

Karla Thomas, director of marketing, opened the program with congratulations from Congressman Brian Higgins and State Sen. Timothy Kennedy, who could not attend. She then introduced Project Manager Stephanie Cowart, who was instrumental in working with Salvatore on

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Our dedicated frontline heroes are here for you.

©2020 ECMC

Our ECMC family is incredibly grateful for the doctors, nurses, specialists, and staff who are working tirelessly to care for our community with undeterred dedication. Amid the challenges of the pandemic, you are fighting COVID-19 head-on. Even when we’re through this chapter, your courage and sacrifices will always inspire our community.

The difference between healthcare and true care ECMC.edu

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IN GOOD HEALTH – Buffalo & WNY’s Healthcare Newspaper • January 2021