hospitals Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Junk Food in Hospitals

The AHA! Team — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 06:35:18 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – Why is hospital food so unhealthy? “Put in stark terms, CVD [cardiovascular disease] claims 1 American life every 39 seconds and is responsible for more deaths annually than cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, and accidents combined.” For most heart attack deaths, you just keel over. Sudden cardiac death “is the first manifestation of CHD [coronary heart disease] for the majority of individuals, particularly among women.” So, “for many of these sudden death victims, their demise was the ﬁrst indication of the presence of coronary heart disease.” They didn’t even know they had heart disease. That’s why an ounce of prevention is worth way more than a pound of cure—because there is no cure for death. That’s also why the prevention of sudden cardiac death “remains a major public health challenge” because most people don’t even know they’re at risk. However, we’ve known for more than half a century, when we first started autopsying young servicemen who died during the Korean War, that coronary artery disease begins in our youth, even among young children. So, “business as usual…simply is not going to yield the improvements necessary to radically improve the CV [cardiovascular] health of the United States” and around the world. There is good news, though. A “low-risk lifestyle (not smoking, exercising regularly, having a prudent diet, and maintaining a healthy weight)” may be able to eliminate the vast majority of the risk for sudden cardiac death. “The time is now long overdue to start aggressive preventive cardiovascular disease programs in our schools, our homes, and our worksites.” How about starting in our hospitals? As I discuss in my video Hospitals Profit on Junk Food, a significant percentage of hospitals surveyed had fast-food restaurants inside them, with Krispy Kreme topping the list. Brilliant marketing, given that “families surveyed at the hospital with McDonald’s were…twice as likely to think McDonald’s was healthy, as compared to families at the hospitals without McDonald’s.” After all, McDonald’s was in the hospital. What about food served in hospital cafeterias? Any better? Researchers analyzed 384 entrees from 14 children’s hospitals in California, and only 7 percent “were classified as healthy.” And, just in case someone chose the rare healthy option, 81 percent of eating venues in children’s hospitals had junky “high-calorie impulse items, such as ice cream freezers, cookies, and candy, at or near the checkout register” and 38 percent “had signs encouraging unhealthy eating.” Why would they do that? If you ask hospital cafeteria managers, “less than a quarter (4 of 17) of respondents reported that the hospital followed nutrition standards for food offered in the cafeteria.” “Nutrition is not a top priority.” It’s the same reason unhealthy food is sold anywhere else: “pressure on food service departments for cafeterias to generate proﬁt.” “Increased emphasis…[is] placed on running a hospital foodservice department as a profit center”—a bigger and “bigger profit center,” that is. It’s such a metaphor for our sickness-care system in general, where healthy, treat-the-cause approaches are eclipsed by the pills and procedures that bring in the most money. What do you expect from the private sector? Public hospitals don’t seem to be much better. A 2019 analysis of veterans’ hospitals found that “all VA Hospitals contain vending machines providing a majority of soda, candy, and junk foods that directly conﬂict with healthy food choice recommendations from US governing health bodies,” such that, ironically, “hospital visits could theoretically promote worse health….An important question that should be posed is why are any soda or candy machines available at our VA hospitals? Are we trading the health of our veterans for proﬁts?” Maybe it’s time to ban junk food on hospital premises. “On daily rounds, it is appalling to see patients…gorging on crisps [potato chips], confectionery [candy], sports drinks, and cola—the very food items that may have contributed to their admission in the first place…It is obscene that many hospitals continue to have…fast food franchises on site, as well as corridors littered with vending machines selling junk food. Such practice legitimizes the acceptability and consumption of such foods in the daily diet…The obesity epidemic represents a public health crisis, but it is a public health scandal that by legitimizing junk food hospitals have themselves become a risk factor for diet-related disease by perpetuating the revolving door of healthcare…It’s time to stop selling sickness on the hospital grounds.” What message do residents receive when they are fed pizza and soda at grand rounds? We need a healthcare system with “more Hippocrates, less hypocrisy.” For more on how the profit motive is degrading our health, see related posts below. Key Takeaways Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death, surpassing the combined deaths from cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, and accidents. Sudden cardiac death often occurs without prior symptoms, particularly in women. Many victims are unaware they have coronary heart disease until it’s too late, highlighting the importance of prevention. Studies dating back to the Korean War show that coronary artery disease can begin in youth, including among young children, indicating that early prevention is crucial. A low-risk lifestyle, including not smoking, regular exercise, a prudent diet, and maintaining a healthy weight, can significantly reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death. Hospitals often fail to prioritize nutrition, with many offering unhealthy food options, including fast food and junk food, which contradicts health advice and potentially worsens patients’ conditions. There’s a call for hospitals to stop promoting unhealthy foods and focus on better nutritional practices. To read the original article click here.

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Evidence-Based Design or Feng Shui in Hospital Rooms Might Benefit Patients

The AHA! Team — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 08:24:38 +0000

PLOS via EurekAlert! – Image-based online study shows no benefits, however, of virtual room designs incorporating the golden ratio In an online study, virtual hospital rooms designed according to the principles of evidence-based design or the principles of Feng Shui were associated with greater potential benefit for viewers than virtual representations of standard hospital rooms. Emma Zijlstra of Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and colleagues presented these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on June 5. Hospital designers might consider employing specific design principles in an effort to improve patients’ experiences. Growing evidence suggests there are beneficial outcomes from an approach known as evidence-based design. For instance, exposure to more daylight in hospitals is associated with lower stress and pain. Other well-known design approaches include Feng Shui, a Chinese system based on hypothetical energy flow, and the use of proportions following the golden ratio. Despite these well-known options, experimental evidence on their relative benefits in hospitals is lacking. To help clarify, Zijlstra and colleagues randomly assigned each of 558 study participants to view online representations and information about a virtual hospital room designed with one of four approaches: Feng Shui, the golden ratio, evidence-based design or, as a control, a standard design from a real-life hospital. Only people who had previously been hospitalized at some point in their lives were invited to participate. After experiencing the virtual rooms, participants completed a questionnaire that included standard measures of anxiety and other outcomes. Statistical analysis of their answers showed that, compared to participants who viewed the standard rooms, those who viewed rooms with evidence-based design reported less anxiety and greater senses of control, social support, distraction from negative thoughts, and pleasantness of the room. Feng Shui design was not directly associated with lower anxiety, but participants who viewed the Feng Shui rooms did have greater senses of social support, positive distraction, and pleasantness of the room. There was no evidence for any benefits of golden ratio-based design. Participants who viewed the Feng Shui rooms did have greater senses of social support On the basis of their findings, the authors suggest that rooms designed according to the principles of evidence-based design or Feng Shui might benefit patients. They note similarities between the two approaches, such as incorporation of greenery. However, they caution, it is unclear how well these online findings might translate to real-life hospital settings. The authors add: “To our knowledge, this is the first and largest randomized controlled trial linking design principles, partly ancient and world-renowned, directly to anxiety in hospital rooms. This study showed that both Feng Shui and Evidence-Based Design are capable in effecting anxiety and it is important that large follow-up studies are conducted to examine the effect of specific design features.” ##### In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0303032 Citation: Zijlstra E, Zwaag Bvd, Kullak S, Rogers A, Walker D, van Dellen S, et al. (2024) A randomized controlled trial of Golden Ratio, Feng Shui, and evidence based design in healthcare. PLoS ONE 19(6): e0303032. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303032 Author Countries: The Netherlands, Singapore, UK Funding: This study was funded by the Delta Prize (Deltapremie) number PR.01.2. This prize is a leading award for applied research at universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands (https://regieorgaan-sia.nl/taskforce-applied-research-sia/). Mark Mobach received this prize in 2019. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript Journal PLoS ONE DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0303032 To read the original article click here.

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Researchers Create Air Filter That Can Kill the Coronavirus

AHA Publisher — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 07:00:07 +0000

University of Houston via EurekAlert – Researchers from the University of Houston, in collaboration with others, have designed a “catch and kill” air filter that can trap the virus responsible for COVID-19, killing it instantly. Zhifeng Ren, director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH, collaborated with Monzer Hourani, CEO of Medistar, a Houston-based medical real estate development firm, and other researchers to design the filter, which is described in a paper published in Materials Today Physics. The researchers reported that virus tests at the Galveston National Laboratory found 99.8% of the novel SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was killed in a single pass through a filter made from commercially available nickel foam heated to 200 degrees Centigrade, or about 392 degrees Fahrenheit. It also killed 99.9% of the anthrax spores in testing at the national lab, which is run by the University of Texas Medical Branch. “This filter could be useful in airports and in airplanes, in office buildings, schools and cruise ships to stop the spread of COVID-19,” said Ren, MD Anderson Chair Professor of Physics at UH and co-corresponding author for the paper. “Its ability to help control the spread of the virus could be very useful for society.” Medistar executives are is also proposing a desk-top model, capable of purifying the air in an office worker’s immediate surroundings, he said. Ren said the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH) was approached by Medistar on March 31, as the pandemic was spreading throughout the United States, for help in developing the concept of a virus-trapping air filter. Luo Yu of the UH Department of Physics and TcSUH along with Dr. Garrett K. Peel of Medistar and Dr. Faisal Cheema at the UH College of Medicine are co-first authors on the paper. The researchers knew the virus can remain in the air for about three hours, meaning a filter that could remove it quickly was a viable plan. With businesses reopening, controlling the spread in air conditioned spaces was urgent. And Medistar knew the virus can’t survive temperatures above 70 degrees Centigrade, about 158 degrees Fahrenheit, so the researchers decided to use a heated filter. By making the filter temperature far hotter – about 200 C – they were able to kill the virus almost instantly. Ren suggested using nickel foam, saying it met several key requirements: It is porous, allowing the flow of air, and electrically conductive, which allowed it to be heated. It is also flexible. But nickel foam has low resistivity, making it difficult to raise the temperature high enough to quickly kill the virus. The researchers solved that problem by folding the foam, connecting multiple compartments with electrical wires to increase the resistance high enough to raise the temperature as high as 250 degrees C. By making the filter electrically heated, rather than heating it from an external source, the researchers said they minimized the amount of heat that escaped from the filter, allowing air conditioning to function with minimal strain. A prototype was built by a local workshop and first tested at Ren’s lab for the relationship between voltage/current and temperature; it then went to the Galveston lab to be tested for its ability to kill the virus. Ren said it satisfies the requirements for conventional heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. “This novel biodefense indoor air protection technology offers the first-in-line prevention against environmentally mediated transmission of airborne SARS-CoV-2 and will be on the forefront of technologies available to combat the current pandemic and any future airborne biothreats in indoor environments,” Cheema said. Hourani and Peel have called for a phased roll-out of the device, “beginning with high-priority venues, where essential workers are at elevated risk of exposure (particularly schools, hospitals and health care facilities, as well as public transit environs such as airplanes).” That will both improve safety for frontline workers in essential industries and allow nonessential workers to return to public work spaces, they said. To read the original article click here.

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An Insider’s Look at Working in an Israeli Corona Ward

AHA Publisher — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 07:00:37 +0000

Naama Barak via Israel21c – Physiotherapist Dania Hofi talks to ISRAEL21c about donning protective gear, treating Covid-19 patients and the rehabilitation that awaits them. “Entering the isolation wards is putting yourself at risk. We feel on the front lines.” This is what treating people suffering from coronavirus is like for Dania Hofi, a physiotherapist who runs Sheba Medical Center’s school of physiotherapy. In regular times, she doesn’t work in the wards – but once the pandemic hit Israel, she volunteered to treat Covid-19 patients. “Everyone there is giving their heart and soul,” she says. “There’s a personal risk but it’s part of the dedication that characterizes us as professionals.” Usually associated with things like back pain or injured athletes, physiotherapy also deals with respiratory treatment and rehabilitation. While this less-than-glamorous field is usually relegated to the backbenches, Covid-19’s adverse effects on patients’ respiratory systems has brought it forward. “The respiratory field is not very popular, but if there’s a field in physiotherapy that really deals with matters of life or death – this is it,” Hofi says. “Unfortunately, it’s very much in demand nowadays.” This demand started when Sheba opened its first coronavirus ward. At first, physiotherapists communicated with patients via telerehabilitation, giving them exercises and instructions from afar. But as the number of patients grew and their condition worsened, it was time to step in. “We see all types – we see the people who have corona and don’t have any symptoms at all in their respiratory system,” Hofi explains. “There are those who experience it lightly – perhaps a little shortness of breath while under stress, a dry and persistent cough. “Then there are the patients listed in satisfactory condition who fail to oxygenate properly,” she says. “They work very hard to absorb the oxygen. It’s tiring to breathe like a chimney all the time, and the respiratory muscles grow weaker and then comes the moment that they require a ventilator. That’s a very difficult situation with a high mortality rate.” Patients on the Verge In their treatment of coronavirus patients, physiotherapists have several goals. One is to ease breathing and reduce shortness of breath – this is done with breathing exercises, relaxation methods, placing patients in various positions and using different accessories. Another goal is to improve patients’ oxygen saturation so that their condition doesn’t deteriorate. And when a patient does require being hooked up to a ventilator, the focus turns to trying to prevent complications and to help with the weaning process. Because coronavirus patients can deteriorate so quickly, physios need to make sure they don’t tire them out. “There are patients who really are on the verge, and all it takes is for you to do a few innocent exercises with them and it’s beyond their capabilities,” she explains. “We keep this danger in mind.” Meanwhile, therapists also treat patients for more general difficulties associated with long-term hospitalization. “The disease isn’t over in a day or two, and patients lie down for a long time,” Hofi says. “Even if their condition isn’t that severe, they feel really ill and are confined to bed for a long time. Even if you put a young man in bed for a long period, it will be difficult for him to get up and walk.” Treatment Without Touching While in regular times treatment is hands-on, this isn’t a possibility for patients in isolation wards. “It doesn’t look like regular treatments,” Hofi explains. “It’s all about touch, closeness. We spend a lot of time with the patients. And suddenly you either treat from afar or you wear a suit through which you can hardly see your eyes. It’s against our nature.” While medical staff are required to limit patient contact as much as possible, therapists find themselves torn between adhering to safety guidelines and helping patients reach for their food, for example, or connect their phones to chargers. “We’re also seeing a lot of sad things – the terrible loneliness of the patients.” “It’s work that you take home with you, big time,” Hofi says. “I’m an old hand, and I’m telling you it’s not easy at all. We really are trying to do our best.” “Happily, I can point to people who do recover and that raises my morale,” she adds. Sharing Insights Coronavirus’ long-term effects on patients remain unclear. “I can tell you that the people I’ve seen recovering have recovered well. They go back to themselves,” Hofi says. “Does it leave respiratory limitations? That’s a question I can’t answer, but we’re thinking about it.” A bright side to working on the global pandemic, Hofi says, has been the spirit of mobilization and cooperation. “I’ve been very touched by the cooperation between physiotherapists here in Israel and also across the world,” she says. “Information is being put out quickly to share insights. Everything is being done very quickly to meet the requirements.” A physiotherapist from China with more COVID-19 experience, for example, has been passing on his insights to Israeli colleagues, while on a local level people are putting forward their knowledge and expertise. “I think Israel really can serve as an example,” Hofi says. “There’s room for improvement, but overall we deserve a pat on the back.” And, she adds, “Thank God it’s not total chaos like what we’re seeing elsewhere. It’s under control. That also needs to be said.” To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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