Chilling Out: Breathing Exercises Go Mainstream Amid Spike In Anxiety
Doctors tell physicians and patients that a kind of deep breathing called "box breathing" is known to reduce stress. Other COVID reports are on deafness and missionaries. Also, in the news: the passing of an HIV hero, the loss of a baby, breast cancer, exercise routines and a documentary on dementia, as well.
ABC News:
Changing How You Inhale And Exhale Could Help Reduce Coronavirus Anxiety
Fear, worry and anxiety during the coronavirus pandemic debilitates your mental and physical health. Amid this growing mental health crisis, some medical doctors are now prescribing a deep breathing technique for patients and physicians alike, nicknamed "box breathing." Intentional deep breathing exercises are known to reduce feelings of stress. Experts interviewed by ABC News identify box breathing as a type of breath hold specifically used to overcome the type of anxiety people are experiencing during these distressing times. (Lambert, 10/1)
Georgia Health News:
For Deaf People, Pandemic Brings Unique Problems
When Julie Burton was growing up, she had a hard time communicating with the people and the world around her. Being born profoundly deaf posed many challenges for the young Burton. But life changed for her when she started school at the Alabama School for the Deaf (ASD) and became immersed in the deaf world. She’s now an American sign language teacher at the Georgia School for the Deaf, and is one of about 48 million deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals living in the United States. (Laguaite, 9/30)
The Salt Lake Tribune:
How The Coronavirus Has Reshaped LDS Missionaries And Members As They Find New Meaning In A New Normal
Missionaries suddenly streaming home before their end dates. Weekly worship services being discontinued. Temples closing. Brigham Young University moving online. The campus evacuating its students. Like so many worldwide disruptions last spring, COVID-19 was radically reshaping Latter-day Saint rituals and communities — and BYU folklore archivist Christine Blythe felt an urgency to document the transformations. (Stack, 9/30)
In other public health news —
The New York Times:
Timothy Ray Brown, First Patient Cured Of H.I.V., Dies At 54
Timothy Ray Brown, the first person to be cured of H.I.V., through an experimental bone marrow transplant that offered hope though not a realistic treatment for most people with the virus, died on Tuesday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 54. His partner, Tim Hoeffgen, said the cause was unrelated recurring leukemia. Mr. Brown had remained free of H.I.V., the virus that can lead to AIDS. (Roberts, 9/30)
USA Today:
Chrissy Teigen Suffers Pregnancy Loss After Hospitalization
Chrissy Teigen suffered a miscarriage Wednesday, three days after she was hospitalized for bleeding issues. Teigen, 34, posted a heartbreaking hospital room photo on Instagram announcing that her unborn child, a boy, had died. "We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before," Teigen wrote. "We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn’t enough." (Alexander, 10/1)
CNN:
Breast Cancer Awareness: Battling Depression Post-Treatment
I discovered I had breast cancer last year after a routine mammogram. I was 50 years old. It took about a month of biopsies, more mammograms, MRIs, ultrasounds and genetic testing in my suburban Chicago hospital before I was diagnosed with stage I breast cancer. I then had a unilateral mastectomy, followed months later by reconstructive surgery. (Segal Block, 10/1)
Fox News:
Consistency In The Time Of Day You Work Out May Keep Off The Pounds, Study Finds
The key to working out consistently and keeping off the pounds may be as simple as setting the same time of day for your workouts and sticking to the schedule, according to a recent study in the journal Obesity. Researchers from Brown Alpert Medical School looked at the exercise habits of 375 individuals who work out regularly, and found that people who set the same time of day for their workouts spent notably more time working out per week than people who set random times of day for exercise. (Best, 9/30)
Stat:
One Filmmaker's Surreal, Hilarious Documentary On Her Father's Dementia
When the documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson learned her dad had dementia, she decided to kill him herself. Over and over again. The result is the new film “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” which is available on Netflix starting Friday. In it, Johnson combines staged enactments of her father dying in accidental ways (tumbling down the stairs or getting hit by a falling air conditioner) with scenes from their life navigating his memory loss, cognitive decline, and impending death. The film is both incredibly moving and funny, an exploration of the coming grief and an act of preserving what it is that Johnson is so sad to be losing. (Joseph, 10/1)
