BY SANDRA GUY

Research shows that natural remedies may be worth a try if you’re trying to reduce inflammation and blood pressure – leading to greater heart health.

Although human trials are either mixed or not yet active, experts say your health routine could benefit from extracts of bilberry, garlic, the hawthorn berry, ginkgo biloba and Omega-3.

Five randomized trials have shown aged garlic extract helps reduce dangerous plaque build-up in one’s arteries and can lower cholesterol and blood pressure, said Dr. Matthew Budoff, a principal investigator at the Lundquist Institute, a 70-year-old medical research lab in Torrance, California.
One nice benefit is that the supplement is odorless, Budoff noted.

In one study, 55 patients ages 40-75 who had been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome were given either a placebo or a dose of 2,400 milligrams of aged garlic extract every day. The syndrome’s conditions include increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, abnormal cholesterol levels, and excess body fat around the waist.

A follow-up screening a year after the initial screening revealed the people who’d taken the aged garlic extract had slowed their total plaque accumulation by 80 percent and reduced their soft plaque accumulation, according to the study in the Journal of Nutrition.

Other potentially heart-healthy supplements include:

• Omega 3, a fish oil derivative, has been shown to reduce cardiovascular events, Budoff said. The best validated is a prescription therapy shown to reduce cardiac events – incidents that can damage the heart muscle, he said. Such events can include heart fluttering, chest pain and shortness of breath.

• A non-prescription dietary supplement called
hawthorn, which comes from a flowering tree or shrub of the rose family. Animal studies have shown the supplement can relax constricted blood vessels.

• Bilberries, often called English blueberries, contain antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties.

• Ginkgo-biloba can reduce inflammation, but experts caution that people should first consult their doctors before taking it.
Budoff cautioned against extreme diets or other measures.

“There’s not one diet fits all,” he said. “And diets that are quiet extreme are not sustainable. By definition, they don’t work.”’
Budoff, a cardiologist for more than two decades, said neither eating a caveman diet of pure protein or a pure vegan diet is healthy.

“There’s nothing about our physiology or tooth structure that says we can be sustained by vegetables only,” he said.

“This is truly a marathon,” Budoff said of heart-healthy lifestyle changes. “It’s about changing behaviors for life.”

MILWAUKEE – This morning, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled an officially licensed, limited edition bobblehead featuring Chicago Cubs star shortstop Javier Baez riding a cub. This is the newest addition to the extremely popular Riding Bobblehead Series and comes as Watt prepares to host Saturday Night Live tomorrow night. The bobbleheads are being produced for the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum by FOCO, an official licensee and manufacturer of Chicago Cubs and MLB merchandise.

Wearing the Cubs signature home pinstripe uniform, the smiling Baez bobblehead is holding a bat and sitting atop a ferocious looking cub. Each bobblehead is individually numbered to 2,020, and they are only available through the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum’s Online Store. The bobbleheads are in production with expected delivery in May. They are $40 plus a flat-rate shipping charge of $8 per order.

Nicknamed “El Mago” (Spanish for “The Magician”), Baez has developed into one of the game’s most exciting young players on both offensive and defense. The ninth overall selection in the 2011 MLB Draft, Baez made his MLB debut with the Cubs in 2014. Two years later, he was named the NLCS co-MVP with pitcher Jon Lester as the Cubs won the 2016 N.L. pennant and went on to win their first World Series in 108 years.

An All-Star in 2018 and 2019, Baez was also a Silver Slugger award winner in 2018 as he led the N.L. with 111 RBI. On the heels of his World Series triumph, Baez helped Puerto Rico capture the silver medal in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. In his last three MLB seasons, Baez has been one of the most productive shortstops in baseball, collecting 102 doubles, 15 triples, 86 home runs, 271 RBI and 42 stolen bases with 265 runs scored.

“We’re always thinking of ideas for unique and fun new bobbleheads and the riding bobbleheads have been some of the most popular over the last year,” National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said. “With Javy being one of the brightest young stars in baseball, we’re excited to add him to the lineup for Cubs fans to add to their collection.”

Oh, right, Bernie, you’re not talking about “communism” and you accused Mike Bloomberg of a “cheap shot” when, in the Democrat presidential debate, he said the Marxist system doesn’t work.

You instead said, “Let’s talk about democratic socialism. Not communism, Mr. Bloomberg….Let’s talk about—let’s talk about what goes on in countries like Denmark …”

(John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

It’s Sanders’ familiar charade, intended to mask his long history of advocating for autocratic, centralized government. Let’s clear it up by referring to Jonah Goldberg’s fine and revealing article in The Dispatch, “Bernie Sees Only What He Wants to See. That’s a Problem.He talks a good game about ‘democratic socialism’ but has demonstrated affinity for authoritarian regimes.’

In it Goldberg notes:

• “First, while it’s true that Sanders does not advocate communism, it’s also true that when communism was still a live proposition in the Soviet Union, Sanders lavished praise on it.”
• “Sanders supported a Marxist-Leninist party that backed the Iranian Revolution and the hostage-taking of Americans. In 1985, he supported the effort by Daniel Ortega, the Soviet-backed Sandinista leader of Nicaragua, to suppress opposition newspapers. Until recently, Sanders was supportive of the dictatorship in Venezuela.”
• The Nordic countries that Sanders says are his preferred kind of democratic socialist nations, are not as successful as he would have us believe and are no longer the kind of system that Sanders advocates.

Supportive details are provided in the article.

Sanders knows all this, but he reveals himself as just another political hack who’ll bend the facts to suit his goals.

[email protected]

www.dennisbyrne.net 

My historical novel: Madness: The War of 1812

Want to subscribe to the Barbershop? Type your email address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.

“So a lot of these things, they seem odd. A lot of people aren`t paying

attention to some of them. They accrue over time, a month later, and two

months later, and something else. And if you don`t focus on the whole

picture, he`s not standing out and giving a speech about saying I want a

king –

REID: Yes.

AYER: He`s actually just implementing it a step at a time.”

The President is not a king,

He’s not above the law.

He’s not there for our worshiping,

The President is not a king.

This isn’t Moscow or Beijing,

Manila or Warsaw.

The President is not a king,

He’s not above the law.

BY SANDRA GUY

As National Engineers Week draws to a close, two young women engineers say they’re excited to work on advancements in heart technologies.

Beatrice E. Ncho

Shelly Singh-Gryzbon

.

Beatrice E. Ncho, a fourth-year chemical engineering PhD candidate at Georgia Tech, focuses on engineering prototypes of transcatheter aortic valves that have a reduced risk of thrombosis (from a fluid mechanics standpoint).

She is starting her fourth year working in Dr. Ajit Yoganathan’s Cardiovascular Fluids Mechanics Laboratory.

Yoganathan has led the testing of every prosthetic heart valve design on the U.S. market for safety and effectiveness.

His lab has served as a valve approval site for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for four decades, according to a Georgia Tech research story (https://rh.gatech.edu/features/king-hearts).

Ncho, 25, has helped in testing and developing new heart valve devices.

“The heart valves in our bodies work — open and close — to allow blood flow in the right direction. When these valves don’t work properly, our blood flow is compromised,” Ncho said. “The solution to this problem is generally a replacement or repair of our heart valves with an engineered device. Sometimes, this engineered device has complications, and the patient is at risk of further problems.

“My work is to look at existing devices and test them to understand reasons for certain failures (for example thrombosis/ “blood clots” on an engineered heart valve), and then develop and test new devices that will reduce the risk of such failure,” she said.

Ncho credits her engineering training for enabling her to think critically, be analytical and seek creative solutions.

Ncho, who grew up in Bamenda, Cameroon, in West Africa, credits her family for encouraging her and her five sisters to aim for the highest in their chosen profession.
“Growing up, my father was a businessman with an entrepreneurial spirit, and my mother a middle and high school history teacher. They constantly instilled in my siblings and me the values of hard work, a great education and a valuable profession – one that contributes to the world around us,” she said.
“In an African society that mostly valued and prioritized the education and success of the male child, my parents taught us we were equally as good and all we needed to do was be hard working for whatever we wanted,” Ncho said. “My father encouraged us to pursue medicine related professions (i.e pharmacy and medicine), but I always wanted to be an engineer.

“I thought it was an exciting profession — one where you think of an idea and bring it to reality. I told my father that my compromise with him was I will pursue a profession that allows me to be an engineer that addressed medicine related problems.”

Ncho now encourages girls and young women to pursue engineering.

“My main advice for people I mentor is to have a vision and a why — a reason,” she said. “You may not have everything figured out, but have a rough idea of where you’re headed. Be also open to detours and changes along the way. The journey will be challenging, but never forget your reason for doing it because it will encourage you to stay the course.”

Ncho stays motivated by making “Determination, Discipline and Dedication” a personal motto, and remembering that whatever she does “is in service of others and bigger than me.”

She chose chemical engineering because of its near-limitless career possibilities, including work with oil and gasoline, energy, plastics, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and medical devices.

Ncho earned her bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering (Summa Cum Laude) from Texas Tech University in 2016, and her master’s in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2018. She is expected to graduate with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, and a minor in Biomedical Engineering, in December 2020.

She intends to join the medical device industry after graduation, working as a Research and Development engineer who uses engineering fundamentals to continue to provide solutions to medical-device issues.

Shelly Singh-Gryzbon, PhD, a former post-doctoral fellow in Yoganathan’s lab, focuses on developing models of heart valves on the computer.
These models can be used to understand how heart diseases develop or progress; to help design treatments or devices for the heart diseases, or to perform virtual surgery to help doctors decide the best procedure/device to use on a patient.

“As an engineer, you learn how to take highly complex, real-life situations and understand them using fundamental laws of physics,” said Singh-Gryzbon, 32, who is now a lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago.

Singh-Gryzbon grew up in Arima — a small town in Trinidad – and she credits her parents and teachers at her semi-private all-girls school for encouraging her to pursue her dreams and her favorite subjects, which were always math and science.

“The school and the teachers played a huge role in my upbringing, and truly pride themselves on developing strong, independent and confident women,” she said. “My mom and dad never restricted us from any activities because we were girls.”

Singh-Gryzbon earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical and process engineering from The University of the West Indies; her master’s in chemical engineering from Imperial College London, and her PhD in chemical engineering from Imperial College London.

She said she now hopes to use her training and experience to spread awareness of the role engineers can play in medicine and medical technology in Trinidad and Tobago, and set up a program that fosters collaboration and communication across the medical, engineering and natural science disciplines.

BY SANDRA GUY

If you’re newly available and starting to date after 40, you don’t have to feel like Rip Van Winkle.

Nothing feels the same, especially for people coming out of a long marriage.

But a Chicago-area therapist says take a deep breath and prepare to learn about dating apps, online privacy and keeping your cool when a date reminds you of your ex.

It will be worth it.

A key part of learning to use dating apps is to figure out what works best for you and to avoid getting overwhelmed, says Alexandra H. Solomon, Ph.D., @AHSolomon dralexandrasolomon.com/ whose “Marriage 101” class at Northwestern University has been featured on NBC’s “Today Show” and who has just published her second book, “Taking Sexy Back: How to Own Your Sexuality and Create the Relationship You Want (New Harbinger Publications, 2020),” urging women to find their unique sexual selves.

“What works for you may be different than what works for your best friend or sister,” said Solomon, a licensed clinical psychologist who practices at The Family Institute at Northwestern University and who teaches in the university’s School of Education and Social Policy.
Beware being overwhelmed with potential dates.

“You can stand in line at Trader Joe’s and swipe on 20 people – the issue is the volume of the possibilities of people,” Solomon said.
It’s a quantity versus quality issue.

And get clear on why you’re re-entering the dating scene.

“People may find it’s helpful to go slow to avoid burnout and cynicism,” said Solomon, 46, who’s been married for 21 years. “Keep in mind this is a learning and growing process.”

Questions you should ask yourself include: Am I ready to date? Am I choosing to date because I’m excited about the possibilities of love? Or because I’m afraid of being alone or seeing my ex find someone else first?

The healthy answer is telling yourself, “I have a lot to offer a partner. I’m excited to love again,’” said Solomon, whose first book is “Loving Bravely: Twenty Lessons of Self-Discovery to Help You Get the Love You Want” (New Harbinger, 2017).

So after you’ve laid the groundwork, practical issues matter.

Use a free Google phone number to make dating connections.

Alexandra Solomon Photo by Marita Poll

Never get picked up or dropped off for a date at your home. Meet at a restaurant or other public place.

And finally, sit with your feelings when you get home from a first date – BEFORE you discuss it with anyone else, even your best friend, your mom or your sister.

“Whether you’re 25 or 55, you should take time to check in with yourself and see how you feel before a whole squad of people start to weigh in,” she said. “Internalizing other people’s strong opinions about your love life is a boundary violation, and it makes it harder for you to figure out how you feel. You need to figure out for yourself, ‘How do I feel about this connection?’”

The issue gets more complicated when children are involved. There are no hard and fast rules.

“It’s important for kids to be brought in once there’s a sense of clarity – that this is exclusive, that we’re building a relationship,” Solomon said. Some joint parenting agreements specify a timeframe in which the children can be introduced to a new partner.

If becoming a step-parent seems daunting, stay open-minded.

“Sometimes, our lives unfold in a way we can’t foresee,” Solomon said. “Sometimes becoming a step-parent becomes one of the most beautiful aspects of a person’s life.”

Finally, do your own healing work to deal with loving after loss.

“Understand and sit with the emotions – anger, sadness, shame, disappointment — and process those feelings, ideally with a therapist,” she said. “That way, you can trust yourself to choose a new partner for who that new partner is, versus in reaction to your loss.”

Doctors from the University of Chicago
Department of Medicine – University of Chicago
Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition.

One of my biggest regrets was allowing my brother to agree not to have an autopsy done on my mother. At the time, I was a bit emotional after my mother had passed away so I told my brother to answer the University of Chicago doctor phone call. Little did I know the doctor had called to convince my brother to refuse an autopsy on my mother. He went into a long story on how the autopsy would involve a lot of cutting that would leave my mother’s body in such a way that an open casket funeral would not be possible.

The doctor did a great job of getting my brother to think of how gruesome an autopsy would be, but more importantly, the doctor did a great job of covering the University of Chicago mistakes.

My mother had cancer that did not spread to her brain. At some point she became unresponsive. The doctors at the University of Chicago kept telling us she had an infection. They also kept saying she should be back talking after they treat the infection. Several days passed with the doctors supposedly trying to learn about and treat the infection.

Keep in mind, the doctors kept telling me they believe they could treat my mother. I mean the doctors were pretty nice to me over the phone until I told them of an incident of the staff at the University of Chicago dropping my mother’s head on a concrete like surface either before or after one of her CT or MRI scans. After I informed a doctor of the incident, from that point on, the doctors at the University of Chicago gave me legal answers and talked very slowly. They made sure they were careful with their words.

As her son, I only wanted my mother to be okay. I asked the doctors to do a head scan to check her head because my mother was in a lot of pain before she became unresponsive. She would call me in tears talking about how much her head hurt, how the room was spinning and how they dropped her head. She was in pain and in need of help before she became unresponsive. So, I told her to tell the doctors and nurses of the head dropping incident, which she did.

The doctors at the University of Chicago knew of the incident, but likely did not think I knew about it. It has been over five months since my mother passed away and the University of Chicago won’t give me her medical records, copies of her head scan, doctor notes and the dates of her head scans. I have asked them several times to tell me if a head scan was done on my mother after she became unresponsive, but they won’t answer that question or any question about my mother’s head. I have been denied access to my mother’s medical records.

You can check out Tron’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/tron-griffin

*This post is from the personal experience of the blogger and his family.