Gut-brain connection affects overall health

Medical and dietetic students often co-author a column for the Daily Reflector under Dr. Kolasa's byline. The students research the topic a reader or patient has asked. Dr. Kolasa reviews their draft for technical accuracy, patient friendly language, people first language. She fact checks the study or other evidence-based reference the student provides. If a physician review is appropriate, Dr. Kolasa requests a colleague from ECU physicians to review the article. The final draft is submitted to the Reflector with the editor having the final say. The headline is written by the Reflector headline writer. The food and nutrition column has run weekly since 1987. Starting in 2020, in addition to the Daily Reflector, the article is published in daily and weekly papers owned by the Adams Publishing Group East (https://adamspg.com)This is a weekly Q and A newspaper column under the byline of Dr. Kathy Kolasa. Today's column is discussing the topic of the gut-brain axis, and how our nutrition can affect its health.Non

Get exercise, information during Walk-With-A-Doc

Medical and dietetic students often co-author a column for the Daily Reflector under Dr. Kolasa's byline. The students research the topic a reader or patient has asked. Dr. Kolasa reviews their draft for technical accuracy, patient friendly language, people first language. She fact checks the study or other evidence-based reference the student provides. If a physician review is appropriate, Dr. Kolasa requests a colleague from ECU physicians to review the article. The final draft is submitted to the Reflector with the editor having the final say. The headline is written by the Reflector headline writer. The food and nutrition column has run weekly since 1987. Starting in 2020, in addition to the Daily Reflector, the article is published in daily and weekly papers owned by the Adams Publishing Group East (https://adamspg.com)This is a weekly Q and A newspaper column under the byline of Dr. Kathy Kolasa. Today's column highlights the importance of preventive health measures through 1-hour physical activity with local physicians.Non

Future of Data Analytics in the Era of the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe

The development of evidence to demonstrate ‘value for money’ is regarded as an important step in facilitating the search for the optimal allocation of limited resources and has become an essential component in healthcare decision making. Real-world evidence collected from de-identified individuals throughout the continuum of healthcare represents the most valuable source in technology evaluation. However, in the European Union, the value assessment based on real-world data has become challenging as individuals have recently been given the right to have their personal data erased in the case of consent withdrawal or when the data are regarded as being no longer necessary. This act may limit the usefulness of data in the future as it may introduce information bias. Among healthcare stakeholders, this has become an important topic of discussion because it relates to the importance of data on one side and to the need for personal data protection on the ot

„W trosce o słabe serce” — model edukacji chorych hospitalizowanych z powodu dekompensacji niewydolności serca ze zmniejszoną frakcją wyrzutową

Introduction. Kompleksowa opieka nad chorymi z niewydolnością serca (KONS) is the name of a Polish programme for the coordinated care for patients with heart failure that has been proposed as a complex heart failure management solution based on European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Heart Failure recommendations. The challenge is that there are currently no available systemic solutions for educating these patients. Our project aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a pilot model of education and telemonitoring known as ‘The Weak Heart’ for patients hospitalised due to decompensation of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Materials and methods. ‘The Weak Heart’ educational model consists of three phases: phase I — training and certification of nurses to perform the role of heart failure nurse specialists; phase II — checking the effectiveness of the model in a clinical setting; and phase III — implementation of patient education standards in cardiac centres. Data collected will be used to evaluate the impact of the programme on patients’ understanding regarding heart failure, their compliance with recommendations, and their pro-health behaviours in terms of self-care and self-control. Conclusion. ‘The Weak Heart’ programme will allow conclusions to be drawn concerning the usefulness and effectiveness of the first targeted heart failure-based patient educational model in Poland. Positive results in this pilot project could become the basis for implementing systemic changes, and introducing the model into everyday clinical practice.Introduction. Kompleksowa opieka nad chorymi z niewydolnością serca (KONS) is the name of a Polish programme for the coordinated care for patients with heart failure that has been proposed as a complex heart failure management solution based on European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Heart Failure recommendations. The challenge is that there are currently no available systemic solutions for educating these patients. Our project aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a pilot model of education and telemonitoring known as ‘The Weak Heart’ for patients hospitalised due to decompensation of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Materials and methods. ‘The Weak Heart’ educational model consists of three phases: phase I — training and certification of nurses to perform the role of heart failure nurse specialists; phase II — checking the effectiveness of the model in a clinical setting; and phase III — implementation of patient education standards in cardiac centres. Data collected will be used to evaluate the impact of the programme on patients’ understanding regarding heart failure, their compliance with recommendations, and their pro-health behaviours in terms of self-care and self-control. Conclusion. ‘The Weak Heart’ programme will allow conclusions to be drawn concerning the usefulness and effectiveness of the first targeted heart failure-based patient educational model in Poland. Positive results in this pilot project could become the basis for implementing systemic changes, and introducing the model into everyday clinical practice

Dissipative dynamics of qubits driven by a bichromatic field in the dispersive regime

We study the coherent dynamics of relaxing qubits driven by a bichromatic radiation in the dispersive regime, when detuning of the frequency $\omega_{rf}$ of a longitudinal radiofrequency field from the Rabi frequency $\omega_{1}$ in a transverse microwave field is comparable in magnitude to $\omega_{rf}$ and $\omega_{1}$. We analytically describe this regime beyond the rotating wave approximation and find that the dominant feature of dynamics of qubits is the shift of the Rabi frequency caused by the dynamical Zeeman and Bloch-Siegert-like effects. These fundamental effects can be experimentally separated because, unlike the Bloch-Siegert effect, the dynamical Zeeman effect depends on the detuning sign. Our theoretical results are in a good agreement with the experimental data obtained in pulse EPR for the $E'_{1}$ centers in crystalline quartz.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Chronic mild stress alters the somatostatin receptors in the rat brain

RATIONALE: The involvement of somatostatin (SST) and its receptors in the pathophysiology of depression and stress has been evidenced by numerous studies. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present study was to find whether chronic mild stress (CMS), an animal model of depression, affects the SST receptors in the rat brain and pituitary, as well as the level of SST in plasma. METHODS: In CMS model, rats were subjected to 2 weeks of stress and behaviorally characterized using the sucrose consumption test into differently reacting groups based on their response to stress, i.e., stress-reactive (anhedonic), stress-non-reactive (resilient), and invert-reactive rats (characterized by excessive sucrose intake). We measured specific binding of [(125)I]Tyr(3)-Octreotide, expression of mRNA encoding sst2R receptors in the rat brains, expression of SST and its receptors in rat pituitary, and the level of SST in the plasma. RESULTS: The obtained results show decreases in binding of [(125)I]Tyr(3)-Octreotide in most of rat brain regions upon CMS and no significant differences between three stressed groups of animals, except for significant up-regulation of sst2 receptor in medial habenula (MHb) in the stress-reactive group. In the same group of animals, significant increase in plasma SST level was observed. CONCLUSIONS: There are two particularly sensitive sites distinguishing the response to stress in CMS model. In the brain, it is MHb, while on the periphery this predictor is SST level in plasma. These changes may broaden an understanding of the mechanisms involved in the stress response and point to the intriguing role of MHb

A curriculum for heart failure nurses : an expert opinion of the Section of Nursing and Medical Technicians and the Heart Failure Working Group of the Polish Cardiac Society

ABSTRACT The rates of mortality and morbidity due to heart failure (HF) are expected to significantly rise over the next 10 years owing to an ageing population and will be the highest of all rates pertaining to cardiovascular diseases. To face this rapidly progressing problem, that is, the increasing prevalence of HF and need for care of patients with this disease, an attempt was made to develop a curriculum targeted at HF nurses. The HF nurse, as a member of the therapeutic team, has to play an active role in monitoring patients’ physical and mental condition, coordinating hospital care, planning intervention after discharge from the hospital, and involving the patient and / or his or her family in self‑care, effective cooperation, and communication with the therapeutic team. The curriculum was conceived to complement the knowledge of HF and improve HF nurses’ educational skills. The proposed model of education, based on the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology and led by trained educators, will enable clinicians to fully implement the principles of coordinated care and properly assess the effectiveness of educational interventions in patients with HF

Biological invasions, ecological resilience and adaptive governance

In a world of increasing interconnections in global trade as well as rapid change in climate and land cover, the accelerating introduction and spread of invasive species is a critical concern due to associated negative social and ecological impacts, both real and perceived. Much of the societal response to invasive species to date has been associated with negative economic consequences of invasions. This response has shaped a war-like approach to addressing invasions, one with an agenda of eradications and intense ecological restoration efforts towards prior or more desirable ecological regimes. This trajectory often ignores the concept of ecological resilience and associated approaches of resilience-based governance. We argue that the relationship between ecological resilience and invasive species has been understudied to the detriment of attempts to govern invasions, and that most management actions fail, primarily because they do not incorporate adaptive, learning-based approaches. Invasive species can decrease resilience by reducing the biodiversity that underpins ecological functions and processes, making ecosystems more prone to regime shifts. However, invasions do not always result in a shift to an alternative regime; invasions can also increase resilience by introducing novelty, replacing lost ecological functions or adding redundancy that strengthens already existing structures and processes in an ecosystem. This paper examines the potential impacts of species invasions on the resilience of ecosystems and suggests that resilience-based approaches can inform policy by linking the governance of biological invasions to the negotiation of tradeoffs between ecosystem services