Florida state Democratic lawmaker Angie Nixon blamed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “anti-woke” policies for motivating the Jacksonville shooting. The Jacksonville sheriff’s office announced on Sunday that Ryan Christopher Palmeter, 21 White male, killed two Black men and one Black woman at a Dollar General store in a predominately Black neighborhood, before killing himself at the scene. “Plainly put, the shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said during a news conference over the weekend. After showing clips of DeSantis declaring that “Florida, the state, and its people condemn the horrific racially-motivated murders, perpetrated by a deranged scumbag,” MSNBC anchor Lindsey Reiser asked Nixon for her thoughts about his comments Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon shares her thoughts on the horrific shooting in Jacksonville, Florida. (MSNBC) FLORIDA SHERIFF REVEALS IDENTITY OF SUSPECT IN ‘RACIALLY MOTIVATED’ JACKSONVILLE SHOOTING Nixon criticized DeSantis for making “hollow” statements, and suggested his rhetoric and policy were partially to blame for the shooting. “This is a governor who has done nothing but fan these types of happenings throughout our state. Look, at the end of the day, the governor has blood on his hands,” she said. “He has had an all-out attack, on the Black community with his anti-woke policies, which we know very well was nothing more than a dog-whistle to get folks up and riled up in the way in which it just happened on yesterday.” She continued, “Myself and other representatives, particularly Black representatives, throughout the past few legislative sessions, we have repeatedly told him what his rhetoric was going to do, and that is exactly what transpired on yesterday.” A 21-year-old White man opened fire at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, killing three people. (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office) JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF RELEASES IMAGES OF WEAPON BEARING SWASTIKAS AFTER DOLLAR GENERAL SHOOTING She blamed DeSantis as “one of the causes to this” and appeared to claim a past warning of his not to “’monkey this up’” was intended as a racially charged dog whistle that “only leads to things like this.” CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP DeSantis made a statement during the 2018 gubernatorial debate that his critics claimed was racially tinged. “The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state,” DeSantis said at the time. Democrats accused him of coded racial rhetoric because the Democratic nominee at the time was Andrew Gillum, who is Black. For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media Alexander Hall is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].
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Residents living in and around Chanute in October can learn about their risk for cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes and other chronic, serious conditions with affordable screenings by Life Line Screening. The Chanute Recreation Commission will host this community event Oct. 10 at 400 S. Highland Ave. in Chanute. Screenings can check for:
QUINCY (WGEM) – Firefighters, police officers, paramedics and held a friendly competition Monday afternoon for a good cause. Monday marked the annual Battle of the Badges blood drive at the Quincy Regional Training Facility. The competition featured nearly two dozen first responders from the Quincy Police Department, the Quincy Fire Department, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and the Adams County Ambulance District. Quincy fire chief Bernard Vahlkamp said Monday’s event was a fun way to help the community while raising awareness for the need of blood donations. “It’s just part of our community involvement to try to help the Red Cross out, help get blood, they’re always in dire need of a blood supply so this is just a way to bring some awareness to it and have a friendly little competition at the same time,” said Vahlkamp. He said the Red Cross helps the fire department all the time, so this was also their chance to give back. “They’re a big partner in our community. They help out during disaster relief, they help out with us at fire scenes with providing housing for people that need it that are displaced, clothing, so there’s lots of needs, lots of areas that the Red Cross works in partnership with the police and fire departments to help people in need,” said Vahlkamp. He encourages anyone else to give blood if they are able to. Whichever agency gave the most blood donations on Monday will get their name on a plaque. Copyright 2023 WGEM. All rights reserved.
As Tropical Storm Idalia—which is predicted to intensify into a hurricane— approaches the Suncoast, Suncoast Blood Centers is in need of blood donations. In order to keep blood center shelves stocked ahead of an emergency, Suncoast Blood Centers is asking for individuals who feel safe and can donate blood to consider doing so. Suncoast Blood Centers has donation centers at the following locations: Bradenton: Bayshore Shopping Center 6026 14th St. W., Bradenton Lakewood Ranch 3025 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., Suite 111 Port Charlotte: Charlotte Square 2150 Tamiami Trail, Unit 17, Port Charlotte Sarasota 1760 Mound St., Sarasota Venice: Bird Bay Plaza 539 U.S. 41 Bypass, Venice In general, healthy adults over the age of 16 with no history of blood-borne illness or pathogens can donate blood. Also, donors between 16 and 18 years of age can donate with a signed parental consent form. Donors must weigh at least 110 lbs. and be in good health — that means you feel well and can perform normal activities. If you have a chronic condition, such as diabetes, and you want to donate blood, it’s essential that you are being treated and the condition is under control. If you’re not feeling well on the day of your donation, please reschedule. Additional eligibility criteria apply, including certain medications, medical conditions, travel to certain countries, and personal history. For info, click here. For more information on hours and eligibility, click here or call (866) 959-1176.
A blood test given as early as the end of the first trimester of pregnancy could help identify patients at the highest risk of preeclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition associated with high blood pressure in pregnancy, before it occurs. Preeclampsia dramatically raises the odds of stillbirth and preterm birth, as well as of maternal organ damage, seizures and death. There is currently no cure for preeclampsia, which can occur from 20 weeks of pregnancy to up to six weeks postpartum, and once it’s developed, delivery is the only way to prevent the worst outcomes. Patients at high risk of the disease can lower their chance of preeclampsia by taking low-dose aspirin starting between 12 and 16 weeks of pregnancy — so by the end of the first trimester or early in the second. Doctors can predict a patient’s risk level from their medical history; having kidney disease or a history of preeclampsia raises one’s risk, for example. But reviewing only medical history can leave some at-risk patients out, meaning not all patients that need preventative aspirin are advised to take it. So some countries now do additional tests to improve doctors’ risk predictions, having them assess certain proteins in the blood and blood flow to the uterus. However, some of these screening tests are tricky to administer or aren’t routinely given in early pregnancy, said Bernard Thienpont, head of the Laboratory for Functional Epigenetics at KU Leuven in Belgium and senior author of new research describing the blood test. “Depending on which measures you use, you end up with different accuracy,” in terms of how many patients are accurately flagged as high risk, Thienpont told Live Science. So Thienpont and his team set out to develop a new, easy-to-give test to add to the arsenal. “We don’t see it as something that should be applied independent of all the other tests, but more as an add-on,” he said of the new blood test, which was described in a report published Monday (Aug. 28) in the journal Nature Medicine. Related: Maternal death rates doubled in the past 20 years in the US The test looks at DNA floating in the blood during pregnancy. Doctors already collect this “cell-free” DNA to run noninvasive prenatal screenings, the tests used to see if a fetus likely has extra or missing chromosomes. This free-floating DNA comes from dying cells in the body, and if you’re pregnant, a fraction comes from the placenta, which is why it’s useful for prenatal screening, Thienpont explained. This could also make the DNA useful for preeclampsia screening, Thienpont’s team thought, given evidence that the condition may stem from problems with the placenta. Preeclampsia has been linked to poor blood flow, and thus low oxygen levels, in the placenta. And in other diseases, when tissues lack oxygen, their cells can show epigenetic changes, meaning changes in the chemical tags that sit “on top of” DNA. These chemical tags include methyl groups, or molecules that latch onto genes and thus control whether they’re switched “on” or “off.” Researchers have previously examined placentas after birth and found big differences in methylation between preeclamptic and healthy pregnancies, Thienpont said. His team wanted to see if those differences could be spotted before birth. They analyzed this cell-free DNA previously collected from nearly 500 pregnant women and then stored. About one-third of the women included in the study had developed early-onset preeclampsia, which develops before week 34 of pregnancy. Both at the time of their diagnosis and weeks earlier, preeclamptic women had different patterns of DNA methylation than the control group, and these differences were linked to cell-free DNA from the placenta, rather than from other cell types. Affected genes included those that help cells of the placenta develop and mature, said Tu’uhevaha Kaitu’u-Lino, a professor and co-lead of the Translational Obstetrics Group at the University of Melbourne in Australia. So the work may give clues as to reasons why preeclampsia can occur, she told Live Science in an email. This is only a theory, but “what we think is happening is that there is a delay in the development of the placenta in preeclamptic women,” Thienpont said. Using the DNA data, the team developed a model to predict patients’ risk of preeclampsia based on free-floating DNA sampled at or after 12 weeks. Tested on its own, the model identified 38% of patients who went on to develop preeclampsia while giving few false-positive results. That number jumped to 57% when the model was combined with maternal risk factors, such as having a family history of preeclampsia, and leapt to 72% when the team allowed for slightly more false-positive results. (The maternal risk factors, alone, captured only about 30% of the high-risk patients.) “It may improve if additional variables are included,” Kaitu’u-Lino said, “such as some of the variables included in the Fetal Medicine Foundation test.” The first-trimester test, used in the U.K. and Australia, accounts for many risk factors and predicts preeclampsia risk with 75% accuracy with few false positives, but it’s fairly involved and requires a special ultrasound, Kaitu’u-Lino and colleagues wrote in a commentary. Thienpont’s team is now interested in combining the new blood test with more metrics, to boost its predictive power. “But the huge potential is that this paper identifies a convincing link between a novel measurement, and a poor pregnancy outcome,” she said. “It opens the door for a new horizon of clinical biomarker discovery.”
NEW JERSEY — Health officials are warning consumers in New Jersey and across the nation about potential contamination in two brands of eye drops, which could lead to a serious and even fatal infection. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to consumers not to purchase “and to immediately stop using” Dr. Berne’s MSM Drops 5 percent Solution and LightEyez MSM Eye Drops – Eye Repair. The eye drops could potentially be contaminated with bacteria, fungus, or both, according to an Aug. 22 consumer warning. Both companies sell the drops online. “Using contaminated eye drops could result in minor to serious vision-threatening infection which could possibly progress to a life-threatening infection,” said the FDA. Health officials also said these products contain an active ingredient that is unapproved, and is “illegally marketed” for sale in the United States. The FDA warning said that microbial contaminants were found in both products. The Dr. Berne’s MSM Drops were found to have both bacterial and fungal contamination, while the LightEyez MSM Drops were found to have four different bacterial contaminants. On Aug. 26, Dr. Berne’s issued a voluntary recall of several lubricating eye drops (see below). The Food and Drug Administration did not indicate that this recall is connected to a deadly strain of highly drug-resistant bacterial infections from contaminated eyedrops, which has been linked to four deaths nationwide. That particular bacteria, P. aeruginosa, was not on the list of contaminants found in the Dr. Berne’s and LightEyez products. Health officials also said these two products also contain methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) as an active ingredient, which is not approved in the U.S. “These products are unapproved drugs and illegally marketed in the U.S.,” the FDA said. “There are no legally marketed ophthalmic drugs that contain MSM as an active ingredient.” Dr. Berne’s Whole Health Products issued a nationwide recall of these eye drops and several others on Aug. 26. Two people reported adverse reactions to using the drops, the company said, but did not provide further details. The Dr. Berne’s-issued recall is for all lots of MSM DROPS 5 percent and 15 percent Solution, Dr. Berne’s Organic Castor Oil Eye Drops, and Dr. Berne’s MSM MIST 15 percent Solution. LightEyez Limited had not responded to the FDA as of last week’s warning, and does not appear to have issued any recall. Dr. Berne’s consumers with questions about the recall can contact Dr. Berne’s Whole Health Products at (877) 239-3777 or by e-mail at [email protected] Mon-Fri 9-5 pm Mountain time. Anyone who has quality problems, or who experiences an adverse reaction to using the eye drops, is advised to contact their physician or healthcare provider. Consumers can also report to the FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program either online, by regular mail or by fax: Complete and submit the report Online Regular Mail or Fax: Download form or call 1- 800-332-1088 to request a reporting form, then complete and return to the address on the pre-addressed form, or submit by fax to 1-800-FDA-0178 This recall comes amid a growing number of cases linked the deadly and “extensively drug-resistant” P. aeruginosa bacteria found in eye drops, which health officials as EzriCare Artificial Tears. According to the most recent Centers for Disease Control update, 81 patients with the rare strain have been identified in 17 other states. Those states are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. Related article:
British men have been urged to get a grip of their unhealthy lifestyles after a major study revealed they are twice as likely to suffer heart attacks as women. The NHS will start offering blood pressure checks in barber shops so that men can have a test while they have their hair cut, in a drive to identify those at high risk of deadly heart problems. Health chiefs hope that offering millions of free checks to the over-40s will prompt men to lose weight, cut down on drinking, and start medication such as statins before it is too late. Heart disease is the biggest killer of men in the UK, and new research has provided the first comprehensive breakdown of the scale of the increased Related articles
Men are to be offered blood pressure checks in barbershops as part of an NHS drive to prevent heart attacks, as research reveals they face double the risk of women. Having high blood pressure raises the risk of a heart attack, but many men and women remain unaware they may be affected because typically there are no symptoms. Every year there are 100,000 NHS hospital admissions due to heart attacks – one every five minutes. The NHS has doubled the number of blood pressure checks for people aged over 40 in the last year, figures reveal, but officials have now green lit a huge expansion of the scheme in England. The free checks will be offered to people in a wider range of locations in an effort to spot high blood pressure early and reduce the number of heart attacks. Under the plans, patients will be able to access the potentially lifesaving checks in barbershops, churches, mosques, community centres and dominoes clubs. Research presented in Amsterdam at the world’s largest heart conference has found the relative risk of heart attacks for men is twice as high as it is for women. The study looking at sex-specific risks of cardiovascular events, led by the University of Aberdeen, was presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. More than 20,000 people in the UK aged over 40 were tracked between 1993 and 2018. Researchers adjusted for several factors including ethnicity, deprivation, BMI, physical activity, alcohol intake and smoking status. On average, they were followed for 22 years. Research has previously shown how men generally face a higher risk of heart-related illnesses. This new study shows the extent of the difference. Compared with women, the relative risk for men of experiencing heart attacks and peripheral artery disease is twofold higher, the study found. Men also have a 50% higher risk of heart failure and atrial fibrillation. The study discovered that men have a 42% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. The research did not look at why. Men are also more likely to experience a heart attack at a younger age than women. “Men had a higher risk of incident cardiovascular disease throughout their lifetime than women, but these sex differences were most pronounced for myocardial infarction and peripheral artery disease, followed by atrial fibrillation, heart failure and cardiovascular mortality,” the study concluded. Lead researcher Dr Tiberiu Pana, an honorary research fellow at the University of Aberdeen and a junior doctor in the NHS, said: “The advice is that men should start looking early at risk factors, like obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, and reach out to their GP to get those things addressed. “The earlier the better. There’s no harm in minimising your cardiovascular risk.” Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This large study again highlights that men more commonly have heart attacks at a younger age than women. skip past newsletter promotion after newsletter promotion “Coronary heart disease is the most common killer of men. There’s never been a better time to get physically active and replace that pub session with an extra session in the gym.” However, both Pana and Babu-Narayan said it was important to stress that women also face significant risks of heart attacks and strokes, and should also take measures to reduce their risk. “If we consider the effects of heart disease over a lifetime we need to remember that it costs lives for both men and women,” said Babu-Narayan. “With 30,000 women in the UK admitted to hospital with a heart attack each year, it is vital to dismantle the dogma that heart attacks are the preserve of men. Regardless of gender, cardiovascular disease is the world’s biggest killer and there are steps everyone can take to reduce their risks. “Eating a healthy, balanced diet, being physically active, managing your weight and attending health checks when offered can all help improve your chances of being free of cardiovascular conditions.” The blood pressure checks expansion will see a further 2.5m performed in the community in England. The NHS estimates they will prevent about 1,350 cardiovascular events every year. Figures show there were 150,000 community blood pressure checks in May this year, more than double the 58,000 delivered in May 2022. David Webb, the chief pharmaceutical officer for England, said: “With the number of people living with major illnesses including heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions set to grow substantially over the coming years, it has never been more important to put in place preventive measures like easy-to-access blood pressure checks that can pick up the early signs and risks.”
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Cardiovascular disease (CVD) cost the EU an estimated €282 billion in 2021, according to late breaking research presented at ESC Congress 2023. Health and long-term care accounted for €155 billion (55%) of these costs, equaling 11% of EU health expenditure. The findings are published in the European Heart Journal, and the analysis was a collaborative effort by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the University of Oxford, UK. Study author Dr. Ramon Luengo-Fernandez of the University of Oxford said, “CVD had a significant impact on the EU27 economy, costing a total of €282 billion in 2021. That’s equivalent to 2% of Europe’s GDP and is significantly more than the entire EU budget itself, used to fund research, agriculture, infrastructure and energy across the Union.” This was the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the economic costs of CVD to society in the EU since 2006. It is the first study to use Europe-wide patient registries and surveys rather than relying on assumptions and, unlike previous reports, includes the costs of long-term social care. The current analysis provides estimates of the societal economic costs of CVD for the 27 members states of the EU in 2021, including 1) health and social care; 2) informal care; and 3) productivity losses. The breakdown includes: €130 billion for health care (46%) €25 billion for social care (9%) €79 billion for informal care (28%) €15 billion in productivity losses due to illness/disability (5%) €32 billion in productivity losses due to premature death (12%). The total cost equated to €630 per EU citizen, ranging from €381 in Cyprus to €903 in Germany. CVD cost health and social care systems approximately €155 billion in 2021, accounting for 11% of total health care expenditure. There was wide variation between countries in the proportion of health care budgets spent on CVD, from 6% in Denmark to 19% in Hungary. Health care included primary care, emergency care, hospital care, outpatient care and medications, while social care included long-term institutionalized care, and care at home. The main contributor was hospital care, which cost €79 billion, representing 51% of CVD-related care costs. CVD medications accounted for €31 billion (20%) of care costs, followed by residential nursing care homes at €15 billion (9%). Informal care costs included the work or leisure time, valued in monetary terms, that relatives and friends gave up to provide unpaid care. Relatives and friends provided 7.5 billion hours of unpaid care for patients with CVD, amounting to €79 billion across the EU. Productivity losses included lost earnings due to illness/disability (early retirement/absenteeism) or premature death. In 2021, 256 million working-days were lost in the EU because of CVD illness/disability, at a cost of €15 billion. That same year, 1.7 million people died due to CVD across the EU, representing 1.3 million working-years lost, and generating productivity losses of €32 billion. ESC Board member and study author Professor Victor Aboyans of Limoges University, France said, “This study underscores the urgent need to act collectively on the European scale to better combat the cardiovascular risk of European citizens, in particular through regulations for better cardiovascular prevention and investment in research. By choosing not to invest in cardiovascular disease we are simply deferring the cost. These data force us to ask the question: do we invest in cardiovascular health today or be forced to pay more at a later stage?” Professor Panos Vardas, chief strategy officer of the European Heart Agency, the ESC’s office in Brussels, said, “Today’s presentation provides a clear understanding of the overall economic burden of cardiovascular disease across different EU countries, offering the opportunity to draw valuable conclusions that are useful for those responsible for designing health care plans.” “It is evident that there is significant fragmentation among EU countries in terms of cardiovascular disease health care expenditures. This necessitates a re-evaluation by the EU as a whole, and the 27 EU countries individually, to better address the outstanding needs and invest more effectively in supporting those suffering from cardiovascular disease.” More information: Ramon Luengo-Fernandez et al, Economic burden of cardiovascular diseases in the European Union: a population-based cost study, European Heart Journal (2023). DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehad583 Provided by European Society of Cardiology Citation: Price tag on cardiovascular disease in Europe higher than entire EU budget: Study (2023, August 28) retrieved 28 August 2023 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-price-tag-cardiovascular-disease-europe.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
Withings, the healthcare technology company known for its remote monitoring devices, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its newest smart scale, the Body Scan Connected Health Station. Body Scan includes a high-strength glass platform with four weight sensors and 14 ITO electrodes and a retractable handle that includes four additional stainless steel electrodes for performing 6-lead electrocardiograms. The device evaluates a user’s body composition, heart rate and vascular age, and it was designed to identify any signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). Body Scan also gives users access to personalized recommendations and can connect directly with a healthcare specialists when needed. Once Body Scan’s sensors perform an ECG, the devices use advanced artificial intelligence to identify and track heart patterns known to be found in AFib patients. The results are displayed both on the device’s LCD screen and the user’s smartphone application. These results are saved, allowing them to be compared as time goes on, and they can be shared directly with healthcare providers.