July 2024

Allyson Felix Talks Pampers Partnership to Aid Premature Babies

We caught up with U.S. Track & Field legend and 11-time Olympic medalist Allyson Felix to dish on her inspiring partnership with Pampers. 

Felix, a dedicated mother herself, is working with Pampers to support parents of premature infants through a significant initiative. Pampers has committed to donating up to one million preemie diapers to NICUs across the country. According to the news release, from July 2 to September 2, 2024, Pampers will contribute one Pampers Preemie Swaddlers diaper to Children’s Miracle Network hospitals for every purchase of a Pampers Swaddlers Huge Pack at Walmart. This effort continues Pampers’ longstanding tradition of supporting the healthy development of babies, especially those who need it the most.

“My daughter’s arrival was a big moment for us as a family, but it was also a time of uncertainty. In the NICU, she spent her first days and weeks separated from me as we both embarked on our own health journeys after birth,” said Felix in a statement.

“For many families, the NICU is just another hurdle they have to clear before crossing the finish line and settling in at home. It’s a time when parents and their baby need to feel love and support, so I’m proud to be partnering with Pampers at Walmart to help NICU families across the country.”

Marty Vanderstelt, father of two and Senior Vice President, North America Baby Care at P&G, added, “As preemies face the biggest challenge of their lives in the NICU, it’s important that we do what we can to help simplify their stay, and providing specially designed diapers is a small way that we can support them.” 

Per the news release, Pampers Preemie Swaddlers are made of Blankie Soft material for ultimate softness and have unique features meant to protect the delicate skin of premature babies:

• Has a Multi-Stripe Wetness Indicator that allows for early, accurate detection of wet diapers to help nurses and parents better care for baby’s skin

• Protects your baby’s delicate belly with our Umbilical Cord Notch

• Reversible design with re-attachable tabs for any-position diaper change to minimize overhandling baby

Pampers has been supporting parents of premature infants since the 2002 introduction of its specialized preemie diaper. It is the top choice of U.S. hospitals and the diaper recommended by 95% of NICU nurses.

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What Are the Human Body Systems?

Let’s journey through the incredible human body systems and discover just how amazing we are on the inside. Each body system plays a vital role in keeping us healthy, strong, and ready to take on the world.

Let’s look at the main structures of the body systems and see what interesting information we can discover.

The Skeletal System

Imagine having no bones – you’d be as floppy as a jellyfish! Lucky for us, our skeletal system provides structure and support. It’s like a strong, protective framework made up of bones, joints, and cartilage. This system not only helps us stand tall but also protects our delicate organs.

The Muscular System

Flex those muscles and get ready to move! The muscular system is responsible for all the amazing things our bodies can do, like running, jumping, and even wiggling our toes. With over 600 muscles working together, this system allows us to be active and have fun!

The Circulatory System

The circulatory system and blood vessels can be compared to a superhighway. It transports important things, like blood, oxygen, and nutrients, to every part of our body. Our heart, like a powerful pump, keeps the blood flowing and ensures that everything gets where it needs to go.

The Respiratory System

Take a deep breath in, and then let it out. Without the respiratory system, we wouldn’t be able to do that! This system enables us to breathe, bringing in life-giving oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. Our lungs work hard to keep us breathing fresh air and feeling energized.

The Digestive System

Time for a tasty snack! The digestive system breaks down the food we eat into nutrients that our body can use. From our mouth, where we start chewing, to our stomach and small intestine, where the real magic happens, this system keeps our bellies happy and our bodies nourished.

The Nervous System

Think of the central nervous system as your body’s communication center. It’s like an electrical network, sending messages back and forth between our brain and body. This system helps us move, feel, and even think. It’s what makes us smart and aware of the world around us.

The Excretory System

Time to flush out the waste! The excretory system takes care of removing toxins and waste products from our body. Our kidneys work hard to filter our blood, while our bladder helps us eliminate liquid waste. Thanks to this system, our bodies stay clean and healthy.

Reproductive System

The reproductive system is all about making babies! It’s like a special team of organs that helps boys and girls grow up to become moms and dads someday. Boys have things called testicles, which make special cells called sperm. Girls have organs like the ovaries, which hold special cells called eggs. When a sperm meets an egg, it can create a baby!

Endocrine System

The endocrine system is like a super important messaging system in your body. It uses special glands to send messages called hormones to different parts of your body. Hormones are like little messengers that tell your body to do things like grow taller, feel happy or hungry, or even fall in love. It’s like having your very own secret communication network!

Lymphatic System

Think of the lymphatic system as your body’s garbage collectors. It helps clean up the messes in your body and keeps you healthy. The lymphatic system has a network of vessels and organs that work together to carry away waste, fight off germs, and help you stay strong. It’s like having a superhero team that protects you from getting sick!

Urinary System

The urinary system is all about keeping your body clean and getting rid of waste. It includes organs like the kidneys, which filter your blood and remove waste products. These waste products are turned into urine, which travels through tubes called ureters and is stored in your bladder. When you go to the bathroom, your body is getting rid of the waste it doesn’t need anymore.

Body Structure

Our bodies are created by God in an astounding way! Everything works together to allow us to function and live. Let’s take a look at the structure of our bodies.

Cells

Imagine your body is like a big city! In this city, each cell is like a little worker, busily doing its job. Just like a city, cells come together to form tissues. Tissues are like little teams that work together to perform specific tasks, kind of like how a group of people might work together to build a house.

Organs

Now, let’s take things up a notch! Just like a city has different buildings, your body has organs. Organs are made up of different types of tissues and they have specific jobs to do. For example, your heart is an organ that pumps blood throughout your body, and your lungs are organs that help you breathe.

Organ Systems

But wait, there’s more! Your body is not just a bunch of organs doing their own thing. Just like a city needs organization, your body has organ systems. Organ systems are like teams of organs that work together to keep your body running smoothly, just like how different departments in a city work together to make sure everything functions correctly.

So, cells make up tissues, tissues make up organs, and organs work together in organ systems. It’s like a perfectly coordinated team of workers, all doing their part to keep your body healthy and strong. Isn’t it amazing how our bodies work?

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Popular Weight Loss and Diabetes Drugs Linked to Increased Risk of Rare Form of Blindness

(CNN) — People who take Ozempic or Wegovy may have a higher risk of developing a rare form of blindness, a new study suggests. Still, doctors say it shouldn’t deter patients from using the medicines to treat diabetes or obesity.

Last summer, doctors at Mass Eye and Ear noticed an unusually high number of patients with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION, a type of eye stroke that causes sudden, painless vision loss in one eye.

The condition is relatively rare — up to 10 out of 100,000 people in the general population may experience it — but the doctors noted three cases in one week, and each of those patients was taking semaglutide medications.

A look back at six years of medical records showed that people with diabetes were more than four times more likely to be diagnosed NAION if they were taking a prescription semaglutide, and those who were overweight or obese were more than seven times more likely to experience the condition if they were taking the medication. The risk was found to be greatest within the first year of receiving a prescription for semaglutide. The study, published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Ophthalmology, cannot prove that semaglutide medications cause NAION. And the small number of patients — an average of about 100 cases were identified each year — from one specialized medical center may not apply to a broader population. 

Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of the only semaglutide medications in the US, emphasized that the data in the new study is not sufficient to establish a causal association between the use of semaglutide medications and NAION.

“Patient safety is a top priority for Novo Nordisk, and we take all reports about adverse events from the use of our medicines very seriously,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email to CNN.

Semaglutide prescriptions have soared in the US, which could raise the number of people at risk for a potential side effect. And NAION is the second-leading cause of optic nerve blindness after glaucoma.

But even with an increased risk, the condition remains relatively uncommon. “The use of these drugs has exploded throughout industrialized countries and they have provided very significant benefits in many ways, but future discussions between a patient and their physician should include NAION as a potential risk,” lead researcher Dr. Joseph Rizzo, director of the neuro-ophthalmology at Mass Eye and Ear and a professor at Harvard Medical School, said in a news release. “Our findings should be viewed as being significant but tentative, as future studies are needed to examine these questions in a much larger and more diverse population.” 

Experts agree that the potential risk of NAION should not deter the use of semaglutide medications to treat diabetes or obesity.

“In the ever-changing landscape of systemic therapies, being vigilant for potential new disease associations is a duty we all share on behalf of patients,” Susan Mollan, an ophthalmologist with the University Hospitals Birmingham in the UK wrote in a related commentary. But the large number of people who are taking semaglutide should raise confidence that the absolute risk of developing NAION as a result is rare.

The ways that semaglutides interact with the eyes are not entirely understood. And the exact cause of NAION is not known either. The condition causes damage to the optic nerve, but there is often no warning before vision loss.

Changes in blood sugar levels can affect the shape of an eye’s lens and may affect vision, said Dr. Disha Narang, an endocrinologist and director of obesity medicine at Endeavor Health in Chicago. She was not involved in the new study. 

And the use of semaglutides, which prompt the body to create more insulin to reduce blood sugar, has been previously linked to temporary vision changes — new or worsening cases of diabetic retinopathy, or damage to blood vessels at the back of the eye — likely related to the rapid improvement of blood sugars.

The US Food and Drug Administration-approved labels for both Ozempic and Wegovy include vision changes among potential side effects, and Novo Nordisk is exploring the link between semaglutide use and diabetic retinopathy in a trial which they expect to complete 2027.

“Patient safety is paramount at the FDA and we continuously review available sources of data and new information on potential risks of drugs, including GLP-1 receptor agonists, and update labeling as needed to communicate new information on potential risks to healthcare providers and to patients as soon as possible,” Chanapa Tantibanchachai, a press officer with the FDA, told CNN over email.

While there is a “biologically plausible mechanism” for a potential interaction, “‘association is not causation’ and diabetes mellitus is a known risk factor for NAION,” Dr. Andrew Lee, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and neuro-ophthalmologist at Houston Methodist Hospital, told CNN in an email. He was not involved in the new study.

For now, patients who are taking semaglutide or considering treatment should discuss the risks and benefits with their doctors, especially those who have other known optic nerve problems such as glaucoma or preexisting visual loss, experts say. “It is important to consult with ophthalmology if patients experience visual changes,” Narang said. “It is important to make sure patients are consulting with physicians who are also comfortable prescribing semaglutide and talking through what may be clinically relevant versus irrelevant, and discussing benefits versus risks of long-term therapy.”

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Black Donor Kidneys More Likely to be Discarded 

Black Americans who donate their kidneys are discovering a sad reality, with the donated body part ultimately being thrown away. More so than kidneys from nonblack donors. 

In an article written by bioethicist Ana S. Iltis, the finding stems from what she described as a “flawed system that erroneously considers all Black donor kidneys as more likely to stop working after a transplant than kidneys from donors of other races.”

The educator noted the impact of kidney disease as one of the leading causes of death in the U.S, labeling it as a “serious public health problem.” One that affects black Americans in a major way.

The Conversation notes that Black Americans, who are three times more likely than white Americans to develop kidney failure. Despite making up only 12% of the U.S. population, Black people account for 35% of those with kidney failure. The partial reason for this can be traced to the prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure – the two largest contributors to kidney disease – in the Black community.

Black people are among the almost 100,000 people in the U.S. who are awaiting kidney transplantation. Black Americans may be more likely to need transplants, but another reality check reveals they are also less likely to receive them. 

And it doesn’t get any better. Ana S. Iltis goes on to voice her belief that the serious ethical concerns about justice, fairness, and good stewardship of a scarce resource – kidneys. are raised from the flawed medical system

“The U.S. organ transplantation system rates donor kidneys using the kidney donor profile index, an algorithm that includes 10 factors, including the donor’s age, height, weight and history of hypertension and diabetes,” Iltis wrote while bringing race into her argument and its factoring into how well kidneys function when they are donated by black people.

“Research on previous transplants shows that some kidneys donated by Black people are more likely to stop working sooner after transplantation than kidneys donated by people from other races.

This brings down the average time a transplanted kidney from a Black donor can last for a patient.

“As a result, kidneys donated by Black people are discarded at higher rates because the algorithm downgrades their quality based on the donor’s race,” she continued. “This means that some good kidneys may be wasted, raising several ethical and practical concerns.”

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Sex Therapist Zuri Pryor-Graves on How Sex Changes as You Age

Sex in the media follows a super simplified script: it starts as an awkward teenage tale, levels out as you get the hang of things, and then it’s like the journey’s over. But that’s far from reality. Your sexuality isn’t a one-size-fits-all deal—it’s always changing due to a slew of factors like health and life events. And the big one: Sex changes as you age. 

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Zuri Pryor-Graves Talks Hormones and Health
According to sex therapist Zuri Pryor-Graves, hormones play a big role in how our sex lives change as we age. Menopause and andropause can mess with our hormones, affecting our libido. Plus, health issues like diabetes or heart problems and medications can also put a damper on things. Stress and depression can throw a wrench in the works too.

“It’s important to talk openly about these changes with your doctor and your partner,” Pryor-Graves says. “Some people might discover new ways to connect emotionally or explore different sides of their sexuality.”

Mental Shifts with Age
As we get older, our bodies change, and that can mess with our confidence and how we feel about ourselves. Pryor-Graves explains that societal attitudes about aging and sex can also mess with our heads, affecting our mental health, reports 21Ninety.

Physical Changes and What to Do About Them
For women, aging can make sex less comfy due to changes in vaginal tissues. Pryor-Graves says there are treatments available, like moisturizers and hormone creams, to help with that. Plus, staying active sexually or doing pelvic floor exercises can keep things in shape down there.

Can Sex Stay Awesome as We Age?
Absolutely, says Pryor-Graves. It’s all about keeping the lines of communication open, being flexible with our needs, and having a positive attitude towards sex. With a little care and understanding, our sexual relationships can stay fulfilling and vibrant throughout our lives.

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