Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

Executive Hires: Walgreens Appoints New CEO, Cityblock Health, Innovaccer, Others – HIT Consultant

Walgreens appoints Rosalind (Roz) Brewer as the companys Chief Executive Officer, effective on March 15, 2021. Brewer will also join the WBA Board of Directors upon assuming the role. She succeeds Stefano Pessina who, as previously announced, will transition to the role of Executive Chairman of the Board of WBA. Brewer, 58, will become the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.

Former Livongo President, Jennifer Schneider, has joined Cityblock Healths Board of Directors.

Jeff McHugh, former senior Vice President of Sales at R1 RCM, has joinedInnovacceras Regional Vice President of Sales. In his new role, Jeff will focus on driving growth by identifying opportunities for healthcare organizations to leverageInnovaccers Data Activation Platform to improve care coordination, quality, and cost-effectiveness.

Dr. Steve Steinhubl, a leader in reinventing medicine through the convergence of healthcare and technology and an expert in physiology joins physIQ as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Steinhubl will help advance the adoption of physIQs artificial intelligence (AI)-based analytics for improved clinical outcomes and lower costs.

Vivante Health, a provider of digital medicine for gut health and disease appoints Dan Anolik as Chief Technology Officer.As CTO at Vivante Health, Dan will be responsible for implementing innovative solutions and continuing to propel GIThrive, making it a leading product in digital medicine and therapeutics.

Bardavon Health Innovations announces former Cerner executive Zane Burke has joined its board of directors. Burke brings extensive experience scaling healthcare technology enterprises with highly innovative and disruptive business models.

Fern Health, a digital health company pioneering virtual musculoskeletal pain programs and pain neuroscience education through employers, has named Brad Lawson as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to Fern, Lawson was an Executive In Residence at Avia Health Innovation and Abundant Venture Partners. Previously, he was Chief Growth Officer at The StayWell Company and spent eight years at WebMD Health Services as SVP of Employer Sales.

Conversion Labs, Inc., a direct-to-consumer telemedicine company, has appointedMarc Benathenas chief financial officer, effective March 1. He succeeds Juan Manuel Pieiro Dagnery, who will continue as chief revenue officer.

Virta names Alok Bhushan, a 15+ year finance exec with experience scaling global tech & consumer brands as Chief Financial Officer. Most recently, Alok served as CFO for Charlotte Tilbury, where he led the company through a period of hypergrowth in revenue, distribution, and headcount, as well as its sale to Spanish fragrance company.

Carevive Systems(Carevive), an oncology-focused health technology company has appointed Bruno Lempernesse as Chief Executive Officer. Lempernesse, a veteran health technology executive at the forefront of real-world patient data, joins the companys co-founder, Madelyn Trupkin Herzfeld, in leading Carevive. Herzfeld will continue to serve as Director, and take on the role of Vice Chairman, in which she will oversee oncology practice and health system network partnerships, and chair Carevives Strategic Advisory Board.

IMCS Group, the leading behavioral telehealth provider in workers compensation, has appointedAimee Peters in the newly created role of Chief Clinical Innovations Officer. Aimee brings a wealth of experience to the new role, including serving as Chief Clinical Officer at AbleTo.

Cognoa, a pediatric behavioral health company developing diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for children living with autism and other behavioral health conditions appoints Eric B. Mosbrooker as Chief Operations Officer. Mosbrooker will be responsible for overseeing and leading the global commercialization of the companys product offerings, expanding Cognoas operational capabilities and implementing scalable business processes.

ValueHealth, LLC, a nationally recognized, tech-enabled, data-driven healthcare services company with a surgical digital platform, is pleased to announce that ValueHealth President Don Bisbee has been named CEO of the company, effective January 1, 2021. He will succeed ValueHealth founder and Vice Chairman Dan Tasset, who will assume the role of Executive Vice Chairman and will work alongside Executive Chairman John Palumbo to promote brand awareness, influence relevant policy at the federal level, and continue to develop marquee relationships with payors, employers, and providers in both health systems and physician groups.

Lumeon, the leader in care journey orchestration appoints Tom Zajac to the Lumeon Board of Directors, effective December 20, 2020. Zajac will serve as executive chair, supporting Lumeon as it continues its growth in helping healthcare systems develop and scale new models of delivery. Zajac previously served as CEO of Population Health at Philips, president, and CEO of Wellcentive, chief customer officer at Elsevier, and CEO of CareScience.

Harmony Healthcare, a Tampa-based health care staffing firm, has namedRandy Verdinoits next CEO. Prior to joining Harmony, Verdino served as vice president at TEKSystems, a privately held information technology services firm, where he led operations and strategy for the organization and grew its division from $100 million to $600 million in annual revenue.

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Executive Hires: Walgreens Appoints New CEO, Cityblock Health, Innovaccer, Others - HIT Consultant

Physiology

Campaign urges people not to ignore signs of a heart attack – In Your Area

Photo: The cardiac Physiology team at Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan

A health campaign is reminding people who suffer with worrying chest pain symptoms of the importance of seeking medical attending during the COVID-19 crisis.

Throughout 2020 and into the new year there have been hundreds of people experiencing palpitations, chest pains and other symptoms of heart failure and staying at home rather than calling 999 to receive urgent medical attention.

Claire Gallagher-Harrison, Head of Cardiac Physiology at Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, says the new strain of the virus has increased concerns after confidence was slowly rebuilding following the initial national lockdown.

Reinforcing the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) and Welsh Government Help Us, Help You campaign, she assured the public it is safe to visit the department for vital treatment, including echocardiograms.

During the first wave of COVID-19 last Spring, even urgent patients would not attend the hospital as they were very frightened, it was unprecedented and unknown, said Claire.

We had to cancel all outpatient appointments but because we provide such a key role for wards across the hospital, we continued to provide urgent diagnostic tests.

Things had picked up again and the winter is usually by far our busiest time of year, but understandably there is uncertainty.

In fact, to not get checked out could cause damage beyond repair, so we need anyone who feels they are showing signs of heart problems or palpitations to seek help immediately.

In 1990, Glan Clwyd Hospital carried out around 500 echocardiogram ultrasound scans - known as an echo - every year.

Now, that annual figure is more than 8,500, and with people living longer and a rise in the number of heart attacks among adults under 50, Claire says it is vital the warning signs are not ignored.

Due to the challenges of COVID-19, the 23-strong Cardiac Physiology team is still working through the backlog of appointments but are committed to delivering the same level of service and care for patients.

Those words were echoed by Head of British Heart Foundation (BHF) Cymru Adam Fletcher, who said: If you think you're having a heart attack or stroke it's crucial that you call 999 immediately, as every minute counts and prompt treatment saves lives.

If your heart symptoms are getting worse, get in touch with your healthcare team so that they can reassess your situation. Delaying risks your life and you are more likely to suffer serious heart damage and spend longer in hospital, so don't hesitate in seeking medical help.

For more information on how best to access NHS services this winter, visit http://www.111.wales.nhs.uk #HelpUsHelpYou

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Campaign urges people not to ignore signs of a heart attack - In Your Area

Physiology

Developing a Weight Training Program for Greater Strength and Power – The Great Courses Daily News

ByMichael Ormsbee, PhD,Florida State UniversityEdited by Kate Findley and proofread byAngelaShoemaker, The Great Courses DailyAt the start of a weight training program, it is important to learn proper alignment and form, then develop a specific plan tailored to help you meet your individual goals. Photo By Jiri Hera / ShutterstockGetting Started

When developing a weight training program, you can refer to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines, which take into account the recommendations of experts across many disciplines, like exercise science, physiology, athletic training, and medicine. ACSM recommends lifting weights a minimum of two to three days per week if you use a fullbody workout.

However, if you really enjoy strength training, you can easily spread it out over four or more days per week and change up the order of the muscle groups you exercise each time. Training each major muscle group twice per week is sufficient.

To begin, ask yourself, what fits into your schedule now? If it is only one day per week, start there. Over time, you can add more days, time, and intensity to your training.

Professor Ormsbee recommends starting with one to three sets of exercises that target each major muscle group. Aim for 8 to 12 repetitions.

Often, beginning with machines instead of using free weights is your best bet because they help to reinforce proper alignment and form and may be safer until you feel more comfortable with the process. As you become more advanced with your program, and your goals become more specific, you can develop a specific plan tailored to help you meet those goals.

When designing a plan to build muscle mass or improve muscle quality, a few criteria are unique. Muscular strength is a measure of how much force your muscles can produce in one effort.

To improve strength, do five to eight repetitions at a weight that progresses up to 80% of your maximal strength for one repetition, or RM. Think higher weight and low to moderate reps for three sets.

For example, if you can lift 100 lb, or 46 kg, on the bench press, then you would start with about 6570 lb, or 2931 kg, and work up to using around 80 lb, or 36 kg, for five to eight repetitions. You would repeat this two more times before switching exercises.

The second type of muscular training is muscular endurance, which ultimately leads to hypertrophy, or the increase in muscle fiber size. For muscular endurance and hypertrophy, you would use a lower weight, roughly 6585% of your one RM, and 8 to 12 repetitions for one to three sets.

The third type of muscular training is called muscular power, which is the amount of work performed per unit of time. This is a quick movement involving two strategiesthe most traditional is to aim for a heavy load, typically over 90% of your 1 RM, with only one to four repetitions.

Again, using our example of one RM bench press of 100 lb, you would lift 9095 lb for just one to two reps. You would likely take long breaks between sets with this style of lifting.

Alternatively, because muscular power is based on how fast the movement can be completed, you can also use a light loadit could even be your body weightor a load that is somewhere around 50% of one RM and then perform the movement fast. Of course, the style you choose is based on your goals, and working with a coach is highly recommended given the technical aspects of doing this safely. The main idea is to move the load as fast as possible.

Thus, in order to increase your muscle mass, effort is required when youre at the gym. If you like to lift and to do aerobic exercise, then dont worry too much about whether you do cardio or resistance training first when you work out.

Lets assume you want to lift weights. You might think you should do a total body routine or split the body segments into working your legs one day and your upper body on a second day.

However, many other variations exist like chest and triceps on day one, then back, biceps, and shoulders on day two, and legs on day three. It can be confusing without proper guidance.

To settle this argument, researchers recruited 20 resistance-trained young men and had them perform two to three sets of eight to 12 repetitions for a total of 18 sets per session for eight weeks. They used either a one-day-per-week, split-body routine where multiple exercises were done for two to three muscle groups per session, or a three-day-per-week, total-body routine where one exercise was performed per muscle group per session with all muscle groups trained.

The researchers tested the upper and lower body strength and muscle size. After eight weeks, they noted no differences except for greater increases in the size of the forearm flexors in the total-body routine compared to the split-body routine.

In the end, Professor Ormsbee recommends developing a weight training program that you like and that you can stick to.

Michael Ormsbee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Interim Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University. He received his MS in Exercise Physiology from South Dakota State University and his PhD in Bioenergetics from East Carolina University.

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Developing a Weight Training Program for Greater Strength and Power - The Great Courses Daily News

Physiology

Lack of touch: Carleton University professor on what it means to our well-being – CTV News Ottawa

OTTAWA -- No handshakes, no hugs, for many, especially our elderly, no physical contact from loved ones; this is the collateral pain of COVID-19.

Visits through panes of glass, or no visiting at all, is the imagery defining this pandemic. Keeping us safe from a virus has kept us physically apart.

We count on technology to stay in touch with loved ones, but can tech compare with touch?

Carleton University professor in neuroscience Alfonso Abizaid says tech is not touch, and the lack of touch is hard on our health, both mentally and physically.

"Like hunger for food, humans have evolved mechanisms that produce cravings for social interactions and depletion of social interactions lead to stress," explains Abizaid.

If you cannot be with the ones you love, Abizaid suggests having something of theirs to hold.

"I think of my lovely mother-in-law, Julie, who is an amazing knitter. She knits sweaters and blankets for our kids," said Abizaid.

A lot of the time when you look at my kids, and theyre snuggling, they always grab those blankets because they have, in addition to being comfy and warm and fuzzy, they were made by their grandmother, so it makes them think of their grandmother.

When asked about grandparents missing physical contact, Abizaid suggests:

"Maybe if the families, the children and the grandkids can bring a teddy and send a nice message, 'hug it and when you hug it think of us will be hugging you back.'"

Abizaid says it is so interesting that a physical object can offer comfort.

"Its not only texture and how a material feels on the skin; its the association being made between that object and a particular person," says Abizaid.

We are creatures that do benefit from vicarious experiences, and having some item to hug that is clearly associated with those we love may provide for respite."

Abizaid explained the importance of touch to our physiology, and psychology, on CTVs News at Noon and how our pets, our therapy animals, he explains, play a role in our health.

"Pets like cats and dogs, who incidentally also benefit from the interaction, can provide the sensory information that can help mitigate the pandemic isolation effects on mental health."

Abizaid refers to decades old psychological studies illustrating the importance of physical affection and contact.

"To attain the full positive effects of social interactions we require the sense of touch. Our skin transmits touch information to brain centers that stimulate hormones like oxytocin, which are important for the formation of social bonds and the development of brain regions that allow individuals to socialize and form as they grow and integrate with their social group," said Abizaid.

Being deprived of this important sensory information is highly aversive, and over prolonged periods of time, it could lead to disruptions on how the brain works."

Abizaids lab work looks at how the brain attains what biologist's term homeostasis, which refers to a state in which we are at a comfortable balance.

When discussing homeostasis, people often use body temperature or energy as examples of homeostasis and I do study these mechanisms in detail, specifically how the brain works to attain temperature or energy balance.

It has become increasingly obvious, according to the professor, especially with the pandemic, there are also mechanisms that are associated with "social homeostasis", a sort of balance in the way we interact with others and that when imbalanced, it can lead to diseases.

"Because getting out of any of these homeostatic comfort zones leads to stress and prolonged episodes of stress can lead to all kinds of physiological and psychological pathological states."

Professor Abizaid on how we know this:

Professor Abizaid says hug those you can, when you can.

Cuddle your pets, or even your cozy blankets.

"Having support care takers that hug those that are socially isolated is also helpful, as long as measures that prevent transmission are taken, and finally support animals can also provide a source of comfort."

Dr. Abizaid is interested in how the brain deals with stress. This is the Carleton University project he, and his colleagues, published relating to COVID-19.

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Lack of touch: Carleton University professor on what it means to our well-being - CTV News Ottawa

Physiology

Study suggests that hormone seasonality in humans may have a physiological peak season for biological functions – EdexLive

A recent study has provided researchers with a dataset of millions of hormone tests from medical records that shows seasonality with a winter-spring peak in hormones for reproduction, growth, metabolism, and stress adaptation. The hormone seasonality indicates that, like other animals, humans may have a physiological peak season for basic biological functions.

Uri Alon and colleagues analysed the results of hormone blood tests between 2002 and 2017 from nearly 3.5 million adults aged 20 to 80 years and living in Israel. Data were sourced from the medical database of the Israeli health-service Clalit. The test results revealed that human hormones exhibit patterns of seasonality. Effector hormones peaked between winter and spring. However, most upstream-regulating pituitary hormones for growth, reproduction, and stress peaked in late summer.

The delay of pituitary hormones was unexpected, given that hormone circuit delays typically last hours rather than months. The authors also determined that adrenal and pituitary gland masses grow within months due to hormones' trophic effects, which produce a feedback circuit with a natural annual frequency. The findings suggest that hormone seasonality in humans may have a physiological peak season for biological functions, according to the authors.

The specific seasonal phases of the hormones were used to suggest a model for a circannual clock in humans and animals that can keep track of the seasons, similar in spirit to the circadian clock that keeps track of the time of day.

Hormones control the major biological functions of the stress response, growth, metabolism, and reproduction. In animals, these hormones show pronounced seasonality, with different set-points for different seasons. In humans, the seasonality of these hormones remains unclear, due to a lack of datasets large enough to discern common patterns and cover all hormones. The study analyzes an Israeli health record on 46 million person-years, including millions of hormone blood tests.

Clear seasonal patterns were found, the effector hormones peak in winter-spring, whereas most of their upstream regulating pituitary hormones peak only months later, in summer. This delay of months is unexpected because known delays in the hormone circuits last for hours.

This study explains the precise delays and amplitudes by proposing and testing a mechanism for the circannual clock: The gland masses grow with a timescale of months due to trophic effects of the hormones, generating a feedback circuit with a natural frequency of about a year that can entrain to the seasons. Thus, humans may show coordinated seasonal set-points with a winter-spring peak in the growth, stress, metabolism, and reproduction axes.

Major biological functions in mammals, like growth, reproduction, metabolism, and stress adaptation are controlled by dedicated hormonal axes. In each axis, signals from the hypothalamus cause secretion of specific pituitary hormones into the bloodstream. The pituitary hormones instruct a peripheral organ to secrete effector hormones with widespread effects on many tissues.

For example, the stress response is governed by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis: Physiological and psychological stress signals cause the hypothalamus to induce secretion of ACTH from the pituitary, which instructs the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol. These axes act to maintain physiological set points. The setpoints can change to adapt to different situations, a concept known as rheostasis.

Animals show seasonal changes in the pituitary and effector hormones that govern seasonality in reproduction, activity, growth, pigmentation, morphology, and migration. This adaptive physiology includes changes in body composition, organ size, and function. In general, hormone seasonality is thought to be a dominant regulator of physiological and behavioural traits in animals.

Animals show these changes with a circannual rhythm even when maintained in constant photoperiod and temperature conditions. They cycle without external signals, by means of an internal oscillator with a period of about, but not exactly, 1 y. The mechanism and physiological location of this circannual clock is a subject of current research. A key component is the pars tuberalis in the pituitary stalk, whose thyrotrophin cells oscillate between high and low states of hormone production. This area receives input on photoperiod from melatonin signals.

Whether hormones show seasonality in humans has not been studied comprehensively by tracking many hormones in a large number of participants. Each axis has been studied separately, usually with small samples. These studies suggest that thyroid hormones and cortisol show a seasonal variation on the order of 10%. The studies are limited by considerations of circadian rhythms which affect cortisol and other hormones.

To study human hormone seasonality requires a large dataset with comprehensive coverage of all hormones. Such a study was provided using an Israeli medical record database with millions of blood tests. It addresses the circadian rhythm concern using the time of each test and found coordinated seasonality with a winter/spring peak in effector hormones and surprising antiphase between pituitary and effector hormones.

It provides an explanation for this antiphase by showing that trophic effects of the hormones create a circuit in which the functional masses of the glands changes over the year and can entrain to yearly signals. The results support a winter-spring peak for human reproduction, metabolism, growth, and stress adaptation.

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Study suggests that hormone seasonality in humans may have a physiological peak season for biological functions - EdexLive

Physiology

Wellbeing webinar: improved brain function via meditation – Epigram

By Emma Hanson, English Literature MA

The Croft Magazine // In the final webinar of Transcendental Meditation Societys 360 Degree Wellbeing series, Emma learned about the benefits of transcendental meditation from Gaetano Arena and James Miles.

Gaetano Arena is a PhD student at the University of Bristol who set up the 360 Wellbeing series. I asked him about the impact that it has had on his life:

I learnt transcendental meditation (TM) a couple of years ago when, at the end of my PhD in Aerospace Engineering, I was really struggling with my own mental health. It was very hard to concentrate and write my dissertation, and my mood and energy levels were always incredibly low. I thought that it was only stress and some personal issues that were causing this sudden drop in my motivation and enjoyment of life.

I felt some of the benefits of TM just days after I had tried my first meditation. I was feeling more and more energetic and happy each day, but the main benefit I noticed was that I became much more aware of my physiology and its connection to my mind. I could notice almost immediately the effect food and sleep had on my mood and energy level.

Likewise, I could feel how introducing yoga and a more regular workout routine had a massive impact on my mental health. Basically, the meditation practice removed deep layers of stress that prevented me from realising what was causing the issues with my own physiology and mental health.

TM is a very simple technique, best done twice a day for 20 minutes in the morning and evening. It is a meditation technique that uses a mantra to go beyond the thinking process and reach a fourth state of consciousness to transcend thoughts and in this way reach a state of peace and rest.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced this technique to the Western world in the 1950s and it has since been practised by celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld and Hugh Jackman. Celebrities are fans of it, but what makes transcendental meditation is its simplicity.

So how do you actually do it? As I said before, TM is a type of mantra meditation. You simply close your eyes and chant a mantra. Mantras can be found by searching transcendental meditation mantras on YouTube, and you can find one that works for you. There is also a free app called 1 Giant Mind, which offers a guided introduction to TM meditation, and the option to do a 30-day challenge.

TM allows you to reset yourself. It makes us more efficient, stops us procrastinating (the dream!), and gives us the ability to focus more sharply by developing our full mental potential.

Patrice Gladwin, a transcendental meditation teacher, attested to the benefits of TM, commenting: I love teaching TM as it makes life so much more joyful and stronger than life without it.

Gaetano talked about why he felt the need to set up this wellbeing series and educate students about various aspects of wellbeing:

I was shocked when I read the studies and annual reports on the wellbeing and mental health of UoB students. Therefore, I submitted a proposal to the UoB Alumni Grant Award, asking to sponsor the university's TM Society for the organisation of wellbeing courses that I could exploit to spread the awareness of TM and several healthy habits among university students. The grant was eventually assigned, and, with the help of the TM national organisation, I have organised the 360 Wellbeing Webinar. I am really grateful to the UoB Alumni Group for the support.

At the start of the first session, James Miles talked about the importance of our wellbeing, summarising the importance of the techniques learnt over the course of this webinar series.

We all want more energy, we want to be creative, we want full use of our brain functioning, we want to be successful, happy, and reduce stress. Most of all we want to enjoy life. And we must remember that we can achieve this because our wellbeing is in our own hands.

Even if you missed the 360 Wellbeing webinar series, you can easily access information about the techniques discussed by reading my other articles on sleep hygiene, the benefits of yoga and how Ayurveda can support wellbeing. As James Miles concisely says, your wellbeing is in your own hands, and the benefits of these four practices have the potential to transform your university experience.

Featured image: Epigram / Robin Ireland

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Wellbeing webinar: improved brain function via meditation - Epigram

Physiology

Study Finds MediPines’ Breakthrough Non-invasive Gas Exchange Method Highly Precise: Ideal for Covid Response – PRNewswire

Using the MediPines AGM100, a respiratory medical device,researchers were able to demonstrate that the new breath-based measurement of gas exchange efficiency has very low variability and is highly correlated with established blood-sampling methods.

In the new non-invasive method of measuring gas exchange efficiency, concerns of variability in expired breath samples have been addressed.The variability of gas concentrations throughout the respiratory cycle can range dramatically; however, when steady state end-tidal gas samples are used, gas concentration is remarkably constant.Thecurrent study found the very lowvariability of end tidalgasmeasurementswithin subjectsof1.3%or 1.4 mmHg for oxygen and 1.8% or 0.7 mmHg for carbon dioxide.The traditional method (Riley Method) does not directly measure the lung alveolar gas level but estimates the alveolar level from a calculation that uses arterial blood gas values and a number of assumptions.

In the age of respiratory diseases like Covid-19, where stability and repeatability of patient measurements matter, this study's conclusion is a breakthrough finding for quicker, non-invasive methods that are ideally suited for the hospital. A breath-based gas exchange analysis using the AGM100 is easy to obtain for both practitioner and patient. The gas exchange analysis provided by the AGM100 requires the patient to simply breath into a mouthpiece and can be completed within two minutes.

"This study demonstrates the merits of a breath-sampling based approach, given the low variability, which allows for high reproducibility and reliability in clinical practice. This is consistent with our previous study that demonstrated a very high correlation and low measurement bias of directly measured arterial PO2, with that estimated non-invasively from the AGM100 in a range of different physiological states," said Dr. Phil Ainslie,Canada Research Chair and Co-Director of the Centre for Heart lung and Vascular Health, School of Health and Exercise Sciences at theUniversity of British Columbia.

This finding further supports a clinical validation study published in 2020 by researchers from the University of British Columbia and Duke University Medical Center, demonstrating the high precision of the new expired breath sampling method.

MediPines AGM100

MediPines AGM100is the world's first non-invasive gas exchange analyzer. This advanced respiratory monitoring system was designed to rapidly detect respiratory impairment caused by conditions such as COVID-19, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, ARDS, pulmonary edema, and pulmonary embolism. The device is FDA cleared and approved for Health Canada COVID-19 Emergency Use. It provides a comprehensive panel of respiratory measurements including blood oxygen levels, Oxygen Deficit (A-a gradient), P/F ratio, and alveolar oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.

About MediPines

MediPines Corporation, based inCalifornia, is a market leader in respiratory assessment and monitoring of pulmonary gas exchange. The company mission is to advance respiratory medicine by providing physiology-based respiratory devices that enhance clinical effectiveness and achieve better patient outcomes.

MediPines.com

Media contact: Carissa Drews 949-398-4670 [emailprotected]

SOURCE MediPines

http://medipines.com

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Study Finds MediPines' Breakthrough Non-invasive Gas Exchange Method Highly Precise: Ideal for Covid Response - PRNewswire

Physiology

Key to true health: A healthy mind and a healthy body always go hand in hand – YourStory

When it comes to feeling great health, it should include energy, mental equilibrium, great sleep, greater resilience to stress, and amazing creativity. Whenever you struggle with challenges involving your mind and stress, it will impact your physiology.

When you struggle with physical symptoms and conditions, it will impact your mental health. This is why the key to true health is to bring some focus into supporting a healthy body and working towards a healthy mind.

One thing that cannot be changed is stressors all around. Stress can be electromagnetic, which is something that is a part of the information age. Stress can be physiological from nutritional deficiencies or chronic inflammation. Stress can be caused by poor sleep.

The stressors might vary for each one of us, but we do not live in a bubble, and therefore we can only work on our resilience. Resilience is something that can be changed dramatically in spite of the level of stress. It might not seem possible, but it is true.

Those who sleep poorly, have nutritional deficiencies, and poor blood sugar balance struggle with resilience. Time is a big factor when it comes to a healthy mind. Some tweaks or hacks can support a healthy mind, one that is balanced and calm. What are some of the hacks that can help you keep a stable and healthy mind?

Even amid the number of apps and planners out there, there is something unique about a handwritten to-do list. I will admit that I also use a planner, but it does not come anywhere close to my quickly scribbled lists.

Image source: Shutterstock

There is a wonderful practice of scribbling your list in five minutes and putting down whatever comes in your mind the moment you wake up. This allows you to maintain clarity and great awareness through the day since this activity helps you dump everything on your mind at the get-go.

It is time-saving, releases clutter within your mind very early in the morning, and taps into your subconscious mind when you are just moving from sleep to wake.

You might wonder how taking 30 minutes to dance in your room is time-saving. This goes back to ancient wisdom. One of the reasons that your mind feels unhealthy and cluttered is restless energy.

The energy within your body is exactly like the wind. You cannot see your energy. But you can see the impact of that energy as to how cluttered, restless or unhealthy your mind feels.

In fact, taking 30 minutes in the morning to dance in your room without anyone around, where you can express your moves freely, burns away the restless energy within yourself.

What happens through the day is much better productivity and focus that saves time in everything else that you do. It is important to do this without anyone else in the room so that you can really let go!

Image source: Shutterstock

I found that the one year when I did not make separate lists, my entire year, including every month and every day, was filled with uncertainty, chaos, and lack of vision for greater goals. Separate lists should be written out for main things to do the whole year, what to do for each month as well as breakdown for each category, which will be unique to you.

You cannot imagine how much time this saves through the year in terms of direction and planning. Someone asked me how did I manage so much through the day? It had to do with this very simple time-saving practice.

I also encourage you to get a colourful book to do all of this, which will support your creativity and inspiration.

Not only is it highly possible to fall into the trap of not spending time with a loved one as you get overwhelmed by the list of things to do, but it is also very easy to not realise the value of this very simple five-minute practice. One of the biggest reasons for an unhealthy mind and poor resilience to stress is cortisol.

Cortisol is your stress hormone, which is the physiological reason that you feel more stressed. Oxytocin is a peptide hormone and neuropeptide, which is produced in your hypothalamus and then released by your pituitary. It plays a key role in breastfeeding, sexual reproduction, the birth of a child, a postnatal period, and in overall social bonding.

The fascinating thing about oxytocin is that is shares an antagonistic relationship with cortisol. When you spend five minutes hugging someone you love, your body releases oxytocin and reduces cortisol! This means that you instantly increase your resilience and have a calmer mind.

One of the main reasons for an unhealthy mind is the inability to set boundaries. Imagine a child who looks forward to the surprise at the end of a tiring school day. If I tell my little boy that I have something wonderful planned for his dinner, there is a world of difference in how inspired he is all day. He does not go around wasting his time, he is productive, and he is much more stable in his mood.

We truly are not all that different from the children in our lives. Just this morning, I had a conversation with a client who was unable to feel calm, productive or healthy because he was always waiting for the phone to ring even if it was at midnight.

Image source: Shutterstock

This one little hack was magic to my productivity, and even with much more on my plate now, I have never been as productive or as relaxed.

Saving time is not something that should be viewed with a reductionist approach of just saving time on one specific day. Time-saving has to be viewed from a greater perspective, where little hacks introduced and made a big part of your life. It should shift you towards a space where you have a calmer mind that supports your body.

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Key to true health: A healthy mind and a healthy body always go hand in hand - YourStory

Physiology

Strides in spatial genomics & transcriptomics market to transform landscape of liver physiology and disease biology – TMR Research Blog

Spatial genomics and transcriptomics have emerged as valuable tools in understanding liver physiology and disease biology. The drive for discovering new therapeutic targets for chronic liver diseases and cancer is a key trend shaping the evolving contours of the spatial genomics and transcriptomics market. The tools show incredible promise in studying rare cells such as liver progenitor cells and non-parenchymal cells in cancer. Strides made in computational analyses have led better characterisation of primary liver cancers. Expanding horizon of immunotherapy and strides made in precision medicine have broadened the canvas for industry stakeholders in the spatial genomics and transcriptomics market. Growing popularity of single-cell RNA sequencing is a key trend bolstering the prospects.

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The focus of creation of high-quality sequencing libraries or cell atlases has stirred the attention of researchers to harness spatial genomics and novel sequencing-based technologies such as spatial transcriptomics. Growing prevalence of chronic diseases and cancers has spurred the number of gene expression studies in tissues, thereby bolstering the expansion of the avenue in the spatial genomics and transcriptomics market.

Need for novel treatment strategies for liver cancer drives prospects

The need for high-quality genomic study for genetic engineering is a key factor propelling the application of next-generation sequencing. A case in point visualizing the RNA molecules at resolution equal or less than 100m. Over the years, researchers have been leveraging spatial genomics and transcriptomics for studying heterogeneity within liver cancer and expanding the understanding of the underlying tumour microenvironment. Spatial transcriptomics is likely to pave way to novel treatment strategies for liver cancer. In recent years, new spatial transcriptomic approaches have helped researchers unravel the treatment avenue for genetic diseases.

Strides made in biomedical research in oncology using high-throughput sequencing has expanded opportunities for industries looking to expand the stakes in the market. Some of the key players are Bio-Techne, Fluidigm Corporation, Illumina, and NanoString Technologies.

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Strides in spatial genomics & transcriptomics market to transform landscape of liver physiology and disease biology - TMR Research Blog

Physiology

The hidden burdens of healthcare workers – University of Victoria – University of Victoria News

Tasha Vollo-Crawford has long known that her nursing job causes her stressall the more so since the start of the pandemic.

But it wasnt until a University of Victoria researcher put a watch-sized heart rate monitor on her wrist, to wear during her shifts, that she fully grasped the impact of that stress on her physical health.

I knew that my heart rate was always high on my shift, from beginning to end, says Vollo-Crawford, a nurse at Victoria General Hospital. I see now that Im in a constant state of stress at work.

Vollo-Crawford is one of the Victoria-area health care workers recruited by UVic grad student Marisa Harrington for a study monitoring physiological stress responses in Victoria-area health care workers.

These are still early days of data collection. But for Harrington, whos pursuing a masters degree in exercise physiology, the results are already confirming what every health-care worker already knows: their work is stressful.

This is such a unique area to research during a pandemic, says Harrington, whose study is funded by WorkSafe BC and UVics Centre for Occupational Research and Testing, in the School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education. Her research is evaluating how well those who carry the responsibility to keep us safe and healthy, are staying safe and healthy themselves, she says.

The study is part of broader research being conducted by Lynneth Stuart-Hill, an occupational physiologist and associate professor at UVic. She is studying the stress responses of Greater Victoria front-line healthcare workers whose jobs include shift work.

The main focus of Harringtons research initially revolved around shift work itself. But then COVID-19 struck, bringing the rare opportunity to examine the objective and subjective stress levels of nursesnot just in terms of shift work, but during a global health crisis.

The 10 nurses who participated in Harringtons ongoing study wore monitoring equipment over an eight-day shift rotation. Their sleep patterns were monitored alongside the rate and variability of their heartbeats.

A reduction in variability is a signal that the bodys sympathetic nervous systemresponsible for our fight, flight or freeze responseis chronically dominating the parasympathetic nervous system, which keeps us calm. Its one of the indices of stress. When its out of kilter, we know that this is a body out of sync, says Stuart-Hill.

The research project also analyzes nurses saliva for three markers associated with stress: cortisol, melatonin, and interleukin-y. The last of these is a cytokinea protein related to the bodys immune response, now getting attention for the deadly cytokine storms that affect some people with COVID-19.

Participants also kept logs while at work, noting any high-stress incidents over the shift that might later be correlated with a change in their physiological responses.

Were still analyzing, but we have seen significant data already, around sleep in particular, says Harrington. These nurses are spending more time in light sleep and less in REM sleep. Weve looked at the cardiovascular data and there is definitely an effect there as well.

We know that this is a population that feels stressed psychologically. Now, were establishing that theres a measureable physiological impact as well.

Harringtons research will help fill critical knowledge gaps, says Stuart-Hill. Much of the research done to date on the physiological impact of stressful work has involved male-dominated professions such as firefighting and logging. Stuart-Hill hopes to build on Harringtons research findings through future studies of long-term care employees, paramedics and other community-based health care workers.

The nurses are delighted that were studying this, adds Stuart-Hill. What were learning through the data are the things they inherently know.

Ongoing analysis will examine differences in data depending on a participants specific job role. But Harrington says early results are establishing that participants stress responses are significant and similar, regardless of what department or hospital they work in.

The stress of the pandemic for health care workers goes far beyond whether theyre actually working on a COVID ward, says Stuart-Hill.

These workers have to presume that anyone they are dealing with could have COVID, she says. If you work in these facilities, you also have to worry about bringing COVID to work, so your own home life is more stressed.

Can you still hug and cuddle your kids, given that theyre back in school? Can you share a bed with your partner? You have to worry about all of that.

Phase two of Harringtons study is now underway with a new round of study subjects. She anticipates concluding her work this spring.

Stuart-Hill and Harrington ultimately hope the research will shed light on better ways to manage the stress of health-care work. The shift rotation that Island Health uses for hospital-based nurses (two day shifts, two night shifts, and four days off) is notorious for disrupting normal sleep patterns, notes Stuart-Hill. Add in a pandemic and its uncharted territory.

The anguish that health care workers are seeing in their patients, the frustration of seeing people in their communities not taking this seriously, the lack of camaraderieits amazing theyre able to keep doing what they do, says Stuart-Hill.

I think theres going to be long-term fallout from this period. This data will provide some evidence for that when the time comes.

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The hidden burdens of healthcare workers - University of Victoria - University of Victoria News