Top Foods to Avoid and Embrace for Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

Top Foods to Avoid and Embrace for Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

M Hasan    7:17 AM   

Understanding Vasomotor Symptoms

Picture this: You're going about your day, when all of a sudden you become intensely hot, begin to feel flushed, and start to sweat. If you're approaching menopause, or are already in it, hot flashes and night sweats—also known as vasomotor symptoms (VMS)—can come on quickly, often accompanied by symptoms like heart palpitations, vertigo, anxiety, breathlessness, and more.

Hormonal therapies and lifestyle changes may help tame these menopausal symptoms, but one aspect of treatment that's often overlooked is diet. Here, learn about certain foods that may reduce the intensity and frequency of your hot flashes.

What Causes Vasomotor Symptoms?

Around 74 percent of perimenopausal women in the United States are affected by hot flashes and night sweaks. When you enter the menopausal transition, your estrogen levels begin to fluctuate drastically, interfering with your body's ability to regulate its temperature. A study presented at the 2022 North American Menopause Society Conference showed that while hot flashes and night sweats are both VMS responses to menopause, they are not the same thing. Both can interfere with sleep, but night sweats last longer and are more stressful.

Foods That Help Fight Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

While eating consistent meals throughout the day may help regulate vasomotor symptoms, here are some specific foods to try to reduce your symptoms:

1. Soy Foods and Natural Soy Products Isoflavone is a type of phytoestrogen—an estrogen-like compound derived from plants—and it's plentiful in soy. A small study published in 2023 found that postmenopausal women who followed a diet rich in soy, along with a low-fat vegan diet, saw their total hot flashes decrease by 79 percent and their moderate-to-severe hot flashes decrease by 84 percent. Those in the group who made no dietary changes experienced decreases of only 49 percent and 42 percent, respectively. Additionally, 59 percent of those in the soy group reported that they no longer experienced moderate or severe hot flashes at all.

I will recommend soy, and phytoestrogens in general, as a medicinal food almost. I don't know of any other foods that have that kind of effect. Try to include these in your daily diet, says Jenn Salib Huber, RD, ND, who was not involved with the study. Rule of thumb: The less processed the soy is, the more beneficial.

Overly processed soy products, such as protein powders, mock meats, energy bars, or sweetened soy milks and yogurts, often contain higher levels of salt, sugar, saturated fats, additives, and fillers. Minimally processed soy foods, such as the following, contain more healthful vitamins and minerals: * Tofu, miso, and tempeh * Soybeans and edamame * Soy milk * Soy nuts

1. Avocado, Almonds, and Other Vitamin E-Rich Foods Several studies suggest that vitamin E supplementation reduces hot flashes. One concluded that vitamin E reduced the incidence of hot flashes by nearly one-third of the base amount. Granted, this study was done using supplements, but it couldn't hurt to incorporate more vitamin E into your diet naturally.

Vitamin E may benefit your heart and immune system too. Consider the following foods: * Asparagus * Avocado * Almonds * Beet greens, collard greens, spinach * Mango * Peanuts and peanut butter * Red bell pepper * Sunflower seeds and sunflower oil * Wheat germ, safflower, and soybean oils

1. Plant-Based Foods Research shows that when it comes to hot flashes and night sweats, the more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes you eat, the better.

Findings from the same study of postmenopausal women mentioned above suggest that a vegan diet improves VMS symptoms. It concluded that a dietary intervention consisting of a plant-based diet, minimizing oils, and daily soybeans significantly reduced the frequency and severity of postmenopausal hot flashes and associated symptoms.

If you want to try veganism, consult with a registered dietitian who can help you create a balanced, nutritious diet plan. If you can't manage veganism or vegetarianism, try to eat more low-fat and unprocessed foods. Recent reports have found that the intensity of VMS symptoms is associated with high-processed foods, saturated fats, and sugars in postmenopausal women.

1. Cold-Water Fatty Fish and Omega-3s Research has found that omega-3 supplementation has a positive effect on hot flashes, night sweats, and sleep quality in menopausal women. Another study reported that omega-3 supplements combined with vitamin E reduced hot flashes.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of research on foods (rather than supplements) and vasomotor symptoms, but nutritious food sources of omega-3 acids, such as the following, might be helpful: * Cold-water fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring, and sardines * Fortified foods, such as certain brands of eggs, yogurt, cereals, juices, milk, or soy drinks. * Check labels for added omega-3s; they may be listed as EPA or DPA, which are different forms of omega-3s.

Foods to Avoid During Menopause

Discover foods to avoid during menopause and some healthy alternatives for a smoother transition.

5 Foods to Avoid

If you want to lessen the intensity and frequency of VMS, try to avoid or limit these foods: 1. Processed Sugars, Such as Candy, Cakes, and Sweetened Drinks Too much sugar, or foods that break down into sugar, can cause a quick spike and drop in blood sugar. When your blood sugar drops, it can bring on a hot flash, particularly if you have diabetes.

Carbohydrates are the most likely to create that spike and drop. The rule of thumb is the more processed a grain, the more quickly it turns to sugar in your system. Fast influx of sugar means a quick rise in blood sugar followed by a steep decline, says Elaine Stern, a licensed acupuncturist and naturopathic practitioner in New York City.

1. Caffeinated Beverages, Such as Soda or Coffee While older studies have found that caffeine consumption is associated with a higher risk of hot flashes, especially during perimenopause (the transition phase right before menopause), newer research has yet to be published regarding this connection.

If you find that drinking beverages like coffee, soda, or energy drinks triggers hot flashes for you, it's best to limit or avoid these drinks to see if it improves your symptoms. Try other ways to increase your energy levels, such as taking quick walks or eating foods like whole grains, fibrous veggies, and nuts to avoid sugar crashes, says Stern.

1. Hot Beverages Another problem with your coffee habit is that the beverage is usually served at scalding temperatures. Hot chocolate or tea (or anything that causes your body temperature to rise) may trigger your system to overreact and bring on a hot flash. Instead, to avoid overheating, try iced herbal tea, seltzer, or cold water. If you do need to drink decaffeinated coffee, let it sit for a few minutes so that it's not piping hot, says Huber. Or opt for iced coffee instead.

2. Alcohol, Such as Red Wine Alcohol, red wine in particular, seems to trigger hot flashes, especially if it's consumed close to bedtime, says Huber. While studies on alcohol's connection to hot flashes have had mixed results, many women say that reducing their intake brought relief.

If you are dealing with VMS, it can't hurt to try eliminating alcohol from your diet to see if it works for you.

1. Chilis, Wasabi, Chorizo, and Other Spicy Foods Those salsa and jalapeño poppers may do more than set your taste buds on fire: Spicy hot foods can trigger menopausal hot flashes. That doesn't mean you have to eat blandly. Many restaurants can adjust the heat to your preference and tolerance. Or you can up your flavors with milder spices and seasonings such as basil, bay leaf, cardamom, Chinese five-spice blend, cinnamon, coriander, lemon balm, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, and parsley.

The Takeaway

Hormonal therapy and lifestyle changes can help relieve menopausal hot flashes and night sweats, but your diet is important for relieving symptoms too.

Adding foods like soy, fatty fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds may help tamp down your vasomotor symptoms during menopause.

Limiting or avoiding hot beverages, caffeine, alcohol, and spicy foods may also help prevent the onset of hot flashes and night sweats.

If you're unsure about what to eat to relieve menopause symptoms, reach out to a doctor or registered dietitian who specializes in hormonal changes to come up with a personalized meal plan.

How to Survive the Holidays on a GLP-1

How to Survive the Holidays on a GLP-1

M Hasan    5:38 AM   

Key Takeaways

For anyone taking a GLP-1 medication, overdoing it on rich foods at a holiday meal can raise the risk of side effects like nausea and bloating. Focus on eating slowly and mindfully, fill up your plate with protein and vegetables, and take just a small amount of carbs and high-fat dishes. If you're worried about being pressured to eat more by loved ones, a script prepared ahead of time can help.

Overeating is practically a holiday tradition in the United States. But if you're taking a GLP-1 drug, you may not be able to indulge with the same gusto. The tendency over the holidays is to not worry so much about diet and to overeat in general, says Mir Ali, MD, a bariatric surgeon and the medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California. But it's tougher to do what everyone else is doing when you're on a GLP-1 medication.

You can absolutely still enjoy holiday meals and gatherings when you're on a GLP-1 drug, Dr. Ali says—you just need to be strategic about it. Here's what he and other doctors who treat people on these medications recommend.

Why Big, Heavy Meals Might Not Mix With GLP-1s

There are a few reasons why holiday meals can be difficult when you're taking a drug like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or Zepbound. GLP-1 medications slow stomach emptying, so large or heavy meals can sit longer, says Rashika Bansal, MD, an assistant professor of endocrinology, metabolism, and nutrition at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Holiday foods tend to be richer, higher in fat, and served in bigger portions. That's exactly the combination that can worsen side effects, Dr. Bansal says. When you take a GLP-1 medication, you may feel full quicker, get bloated, or feel nauseous if you try to eat the way you did prior to starting the medication, says Raghuveer Vedala, MD, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City. If you choose the wrong foods or accidentally overeat, you could end up feeling uncomfortable, he says.

How to Approach Holiday Meals When You're on a GLP-1

Doctors say you can still enjoy holiday foods, but there are certain strategies to consider to make sure you stay comfortable.

Eat Slowly and Mindfully

Slow everything down, Dr. Vedala says. Eat smaller portions, take breaks between bites, and listen to your fullness cues. He recommends that his patients pause after eating half of their plate and see how they feel. If you're full, then go ahead and stop. If not, then try eating a little bit more, he says. You don't need to avoid the foods you love, but you don't necessarily have to finish the plate either.

Bansal, too, stresses the importance of eating mindfully, instead of grazing all day long, so you can enjoy your food and lower the odds of overindulging.

Fill Your Plate With Protein and Vegetables

When you're on a GLP-1 drug, it's best to fill your plate with protein and vegetables, according to Ali. These help to stabilize your blood sugar and are also satisfying, he says. Minimize carbohydrates and sugars, Ali adds. That doesn't mean you need to completely avoid foods like mashed potatoes or rolls. Instead, Bansal suggests adding small, intentional portions of these foods and savoring them. Think taste, not plateful, she says. This helps your stomach handle the meal better and keeps the rest of the evening comfortable, Vedala says.

Minimize Foods and Drinks Likely to Cause Nausea and Bloating

For people taking GLP-1s, some foods are more likely to lead to common side effects such as nausea, bloating, and even vomiting. High-fat dishes (gravies, creamy sauces, fried foods), heavy dairy, and sugary desserts are the most common triggers, Bansal says. These slow digestion even more and can amplify nausea or reflux in people on GLP-1 therapy.

Carbonated drinks and alcohol can make bloating worse, Vedala says. A little is fine—just avoid stacking all the triggers at once, he says.

Be Careful Around Alcohol

Alcohol often impacts you differently when you're taking a GLP-1 medication. Alcohol hits faster when you're eating less, and it can worsen nausea or dizziness, Bansal says. She suggests sticking to one drink (if you drink at all), sipping slowly, and avoiding sugary cocktails. If you drink alcohol, it's best to do it alongside food. Try to avoid drinking on an empty stomach, Vedala says.

Note: While research on alcohol is evolving, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drinking less or not at all is better for your health.

What to Do if You Overeat or Feel Nauseated

If gut discomfort strikes, it's important to stop eating immediately and give your food a chance to move through your stomach, Bansal says. Sip water or ginger tea, take slow walks to relieve fullness, and avoid lying down, she says. After feasting, Vedala recommends eating tiny, bland meals for the rest of the day. If you start vomiting and can't seem to stop, or you feel miserably nauseated, Ali recommends calling your prescribing doctor. You may need to take anti-nausea medication to feel better, he says.

How to Deal With the Social Pressure to Eat When You're on a GLP-1

Ali admits that facing social pressure to eat more is a tough part of holiday meals. People bring lots of food and they want everyone to try what they've brought, he says. But just minimize the amounts that you try. Vedala stresses that you don't need to eat simply because others want you to. It's okay to say no, he says. You don't owe anyone an explanation.

If you're comfortable discussing your health, Bansal recommends being honest about how you feel. A simple script helps: "I love this, but my stomach fills up fast on my medication," she says. Most people understand. If you'd rather not discuss your health or medication, Bansal has a trick to try: Holding a beverage or small plate prevents unwanted pressure, if you do not wish to disclose, she says.

FAQ

Should you pause your GLP-1 for the holidays?
Doctors don't recommend doing this. Don't stop your medication without a medical reason, Bansal says. Pausing can cause appetite rebound and blood sugar fluctuations. The key is adjusting how you eat, not stopping the therapy. Vedala also recommends keeping this in mind: Stopping and restarting can actually make the nausea worse. If anything, staying consistent helps your body stay stable.

What if I forget my weekly GLP-1 dose while traveling?
It depends. If you're within a few days of your scheduled dose, just take it when you remember and then go back to your normal schedule, Vedala says. If it's been longer or you've missed multiple weeks, sometimes we restart at the prior [lower] dose. (If you're unsure about next steps, Vedala recommends contacting your healthcare provider first.)

Is there a specific Ozempic or GLP-1 holiday diet?
There is no special Ozempic or GLP-1 holiday diet. Just general principles that already work well with GLP-1s: smaller portions, lean proteins first, vegetables next, and rich foods in small bites, Bansal says.

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Emily Kay Votruba
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Emily Kay Votruba has copy edited and fact-checked for national magazines, websites, and books since 1997, including Self, GQ, Gourmet, Golf Magazine, Outside, Cornell University Press, Penguin Random House, and Harper's Magazine. Her projects have included cookbooks (Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet), self-help and advice titles (Mika Brzezinski's Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth), memoirs (Larry King's My Remarkable Journey), and science (Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Learn, by Cathy Davidson). She started freelancing for Everyday Health in 2016.

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Korin Miller is a health journalist with more than a decade of experience in the field. She covers a range of health topics, including nutrition, recent research, wellness, fitness, mental health, and infectious diseases. Miller received a double bachelor's in international relations and marketing from The College of William & Mary and master's in interactive media from American University. She has been published in The Washington Post, Prevention, Cosmopolitan, Women's Health, The Bump, and Yahoo News, among others. When she's not working, Miller is focused on raising her four young kids.

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Accusations of Abuse and Neglect Surface at Kingstree Youth Facility

Accusations of Abuse and Neglect Surface at Kingstree Youth Facility

M Hasan    5:14 AM   

A Behavioral Treatment Facility Faces Allegations of Abuse and Neglect

A behavioral treatment facility in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, has come under scrutiny for multiple allegations involving sexual assault, physical abuse, and neglect. The facility, known as Broadstep Behavioral Health in Kingstree, is a 40-bed psychiatric residential treatment facility that serves children in foster care and those with special needs.

The facility treats individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health conditions. It primarily houses children referred by agencies such as the Department of Social Services or parents who believe their children need more support.

A Parent's Experience

In 2020, Deeva Williams sent her son, Justin Williams, to Broadstep Kingstree based on a recommendation from their Department of Disabilities and Special Needs case worker. “As a parent, you don’t know everything that your child is dealing with and enduring back there. They go through that door in the back and you have no idea,” she said.

Justin, who was only 13 years old when he first entered the facility, has autism and suffers from serious depression, often experiencing suicidal thoughts. “I was more than just depressed; I couldn’t be alone at all because it was like every day it was a crisis,” he said.

Once inside the facility, Justin claimed his depression and suicidal thoughts were not only ignored but encouraged. “When I talk about things that were bothering me and that were done to me, it’s never handled, it’s never addressed,” he said. “The only excuse they would give you is, ‘Oh, I’m an adult, I can say what I want.’ They felt like they were judge, jury and executioner.”

Tragedy and Legal Consequences

One of Justin’s friends at the facility was physically and emotionally assaulted, leading to severe emotional distress. The teenager took his own life inside the facility on January 25, 2024. Court documents state that Broadstep did not properly file an investigative report following the death, which violated a state regulation.

“I was extremely angry. After that, yeah, I cried a lot,” Justin said. “It shouldn’t take somebody having to die before people realize the effect that they have on other people.”

Repeated Complaints and Violations

The situation at Broadstep Kingstree is far from isolated. The South Carolina Department of Public Health provided data showing dozens of complaints against the facility from 2023 until this year. These complaints include staff hitting, sitting on, and stepping on children, allowing children to fight, isolating them due to understaffing, improper medical care, bed bugs, residents escaping, emotional abuse, and sexual assault.

“Why is it that more vulnerable children can go to a daycare, go to somewhere where they’re supposed to be taken care of, and get this type of treatment?” Deeva Williams asked. “You are having to try and deal with this and put the pieces back together. We were already out of our depth.”

One complaint claims a patient was physically assaulted by a staff member and placed in restraints. Another states that a staff member slammed another patient into a wall. Another complaint alleges that a staff member poured bleach into a Welch’s grape juice bottle and threw it into the trash before a resident drank it, causing severe vomiting.

An additional complaint states a resident was found with shoe prints on their body, with a staff member claiming they accidentally stepped on the individual’s face.

Legal Representation and Ongoing Issues

“These facilities are shrouded in confidentiality and kind of secrecy protections under the law,” said Attorney Heather Hite, who has represented multiple clients against Broadstep. “These children haven’t done anything wrong to deserve the way that they’ve been treated.”

Hite has represented a then 13-year-old special needs child who was placed into Broadstep’s care. According to court documents, the girl experienced employees refusing to give residents water and blankets when they were cold. She also witnessed other children being restrained and strip-searched.

The 13-year-old was later moved to Broadstep’s Kingstree location, which the lawsuit claims was even worse. The girl reported being sexually assaulted by a maintenance man who entered her room.

“She was further abused and neglected. It made her needs — they were already bad — go from bad to worse,” Hite said.

State Agencies and Facility Responses

How is a facility like Broadstep still operating despite its history of abuse and neglect? After each complaint is filed, the South Carolina Department of Public Health (SCDPH) is required to inspect a facility. However, even when Broadstep failed inspections, the facility would provide a corrective action plan and claim improvements were made.

Yet, SCDPH allowed Broadstep to continue operating despite ongoing complaints and violations. “I think the people who run these companies, run these facilities, they should be held responsible because you’re dealing with these precious packages,” said Deeva Williams.

SCDPH declined an interview request but released a statement explaining its role in licensing and regulating facilities. The department stated it conducts inspections and investigations to ensure compliance with regulations. Since June 2024, SCDPH has conducted one routine inspection, two food and sanitation inspections, and five complaint investigations of Excalibur Youth Services Kingstree, resulting in eight cited violations.

DSS and DDSN did not respond to requests for comment. Broadstep’s corporate offices did not respond to three different requests for comment.

Continued Concerns

Despite the allegations, Broadstep continues to operate in several locations, including Simpsonville and Williamsburg. The company previously had locations in Georgetown, Pickens, and Simpsonville, but after media coverage, the Georgetown and Pickens locations closed down.

Broadstep also has a location open in Summerville that has faced lawsuits in recent years. However, SCDPH states that the facility is technically a group home, not a behavioral treatment facility, meaning the state agency does not oversee it.

Blazing Games: The Heat Hazard in Football Stadiums

Blazing Games: The Heat Hazard in Football Stadiums

M Hasan    9:00 AM   

The Heat Inside College Football Stadiums

When Vanderbilt University football fan Douglas Dill set out with his son the morning of October 4 to watch their team play rival University of Alabama, he didn’t expect his game-day experience to include a gurney ride to a medical facility inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. But by the fourth quarter in Tuscaloosa, with the sun beating down on the upper decks, the 60-year-old needed medical help.

“It was smoking hot up there,” said Dill, who traveled from Nashville for the game. “The sun was burning me through my clothes. I needed to get up and get some fluids in me or I was going to go down big time. I was starting to get light-headed.” Dill, who operates a courier service with his wife, said he drank water throughout the day but that he had none left by the middle of the fourth quarter. His son and a stadium paramedic helped him down the steep upper-deck stairs to where additional emergency medical personnel were waiting with the gurney.

Paramedics treated Dill for dehydration as well as low blood sugar and monitored his blood pressure, which had climbed above normal. Dill has type 2 diabetes but does not usually have high blood pressure. While Dill missed the end of the game, he recovered enough for his son to drive him home.

Dill is one of hundreds of fans who have fallen ill from extreme heat in recent years at college games in powerhouse stadiums in the Southeastern Conference. The SEC, a collegiate athletic association, represents programs across a dozen states and accounts for 9 of the country’s 13 largest football stadiums.

ICN reviewed temperature studies of heat conditions at Auburn University, the University of Alabama, and Mississippi State University, and collected its own temperature measurements during two games in October, one at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and the other at University of Alabama at Birmingham.

An Inside Climate News analysis of data from inside these Southern stadiums found that temperatures can spike for hours, from 10 degrees to 16 degrees Fahrenheit higher than outside heat, depending on the venue. Concrete surface temperatures in seating areas of the Tuscaloosa stadium measured over 130 degrees F.

Those high temperatures had consequences. Auburn University averaged well over 100 emergency calls per game in 2024, with the majority being heat-related. Halfway through the 2025 season, Alabama was averaging 60 to 65 medical calls per game, with 50 to 75 percent of calls during day games related to heat, according to interviews with medical personnel, though university officials provided lower numbers.

Auburn administrators said they are aware of excessive heat risks for spectators and are trying to enhance cooling efforts. University of Alabama officials said in a statement that “fan safety is a top priority” and that it aims to safeguard fans by providing cooling stations and emergency responders during games in Tuscaloosa.

The university informs spectators about the free water stations and first aid through websites, apps, social-media channels, and in-stadium announcements from the public-address system and on video screens, the statement said. The University of Alabama at Birmingham, which has a stadium about half the size of Tuscaloosa’s arena, has also provided cooling stations.

Still, none of the universities have made changes that could make the biggest difference in lowering the potential for illness: shifting game times or the season itself. That would require a much greater degree of cooperation — particularly because of the financial consideration of big college football — across athletic conferences.

Medical professionals said that spectators need help in assessing heat risks and making safe choices on game days.

“People tend to really want to be there, and so they will endure perhaps more physical discomfort to stay there throughout the event than they would if they were just taking a walk or doing stuff on their own,” said Dr. Cheyenne Falat, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Maryland who specializes in weather-related and heat illnesses.

Another factor that likely affects fans’ ability to withstand heat is alcohol consumption. Auburn, University of Alabama, and University of Alabama at Birmingham have recently allowed the sale of alcohol at games. Medical logs reveal that alcohol was a complicating factor at Auburn University for people treated for heat-related illnesses during games. Auburn began selling alcohol in 2024, the other schools in 2022.

As climate change intensifies, heat risks are likely to increase.

A federal government analysis of climate modeling predicts that by the 2040s, the average maximum daily temperature in Tuscaloosa, the home of the University of Alabama, will be 5 degrees F above the average registered from 1961 to 1990.

A researcher who has tracked heat risks at Auburn University’s Jordan-Hare Stadium — at 88,043 seats, second in capacity in the state only to the University of Alabama’s 101,821 — said his ongoing work is aimed at crafting possibilities to alleviate potential harm.

“I don’t want to say it’s out of the realm of possibility, per se, but I would say in terms of solutions, I think we have to face the reality that we are, in fact, going to have [midday] games,” said Brandon Ryan, an Auburn graduate researcher and teaching assistant in the department of geosciences. He’s been measuring in-stadium temperatures since 2023. “If that’s unavoidable, how do we tackle that problem?”

First responders busy

For a few months every year in Alabama, Saturdays are sacred. College football reigns as the king of sports across much of the South, and in this sun-drenched state, two fields hold dominion: the Alabama and Auburn gridirons.

But gathering to yell “roll tide” or “war eagle” as teams compete in these massive concrete stadiums comes with costs. First responders at these universities increasingly spend days, and sometimes nights, rescuing football fans exposed to excessive heat.

Wes Michaels, emergency services coordinator at the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium and a lieutenant with Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue, said 60 medical professionals were on hand for the Crimson Tide’s October 4 game against Vanderbilt, with its capacity crowd.

“You think, man, 60 people, that’s a lot,” Michaels said. “I’ll tell you, with 100,000 people in here, it gets really, really busy. Everybody is doing something, tending to a patient.”

Researchers at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa raised an alarm 15 years ago about in-stadium heat. An Auburn University research team, led by Ryan, continues to study heat stress among fans on much-anticipated game days at Jordan-Hare.

Ryan knows about sacred Saturdays — especially the hot ones.

One of them came on September 21, 2024, when Auburn played Arkansas.

Kickoff that day at Jordan-Hare was at 2:30 p.m. The high temperature at the university airport station was 88 degrees. The heat index, a measure of the “feels like” temperature that accounts for humidity, was around 90 degrees from noon through 5 p.m.

Inside Jordan-Hare, the 13th largest stadium in the United States, the temperature was much higher.

“It was brutal,” Ryan said.

He saw some fans in higher tiers leave their seats in search of shade in the stadium walkways. Many guzzled water. Others were less able to cope. Heat indices in the stadium, according to temperature sensors Ryan installed in seating sections across the facility, ranged from 97 to 114 degrees.

“They were literally dragging people out of the way,” Ryan said of medical personnel. He said his review of emergency service records found that first responders received 214 medical calls during that game, the majority of which were heat-related.

Ryan was not wholly surprised by the illnesses. He had been studying stadium heat for more than a year then, working with a faculty advisor and members of the university’s public safety team. Because of his ongoing research, Ryan has become the institution’s go-to expert on stadium heat, offering a scientific approach with a bit of a fan’s heart.

“I don’t want it to have to come to somebody dying, and maybe now we’re doing something about it,” Ryan said of his interest in stadium heat. “I don’t want it to be someone I know. I don’t want it to be one of my students.”

Ryan’s research conclusions and related recommendations have been shared with university officials and offer some sobering conclusions about game-day health risks.

Temperature and humidity observations measured throughout Jordan-Hare Stadium from 2023 to 2025 revealed that the heat index in the facility regularly reached 10 or more degrees above that measured outside its walls. During some games, heat indices inside the stadium, built in 1939, rose to over 100 degrees, according to Ryan’s research.

Ryan said that large sports stadiums like Jordan-Hare can trap excessive heat for several reasons. High-capacity stadiums pack in spectators, and people who sit for the average three-hour game may find themselves hostage to the sun. High humidity is also a problem, limiting the body’s natural cooling ability.

James Spann, chief meteorologist for the ABC affiliate in Birmingham, attends all the University of Alabama home games in Bryant-Denny Stadium as a weather advisor to coaches. Known for engaging live broadcasts during severe weather events and for focusing on weather-safety education, Spann helps spectators stay on top of the weather, too. He issues updates that are shared on the stadium’s large video screens.

Body heat adds to the thermal load inside the stadium, increasing air temperature by 2 to 5 degrees, Spann said. Artificial turf can heat up to 20 to 30 degrees hotter than the ambient air, he continued, and concrete and metal stands absorb and radiate heat.

And where a fan sits — in the sun or in the shade — can make a big difference, too, according to Spann. Seating areas in the sun in Bryant-Denny Stadium can be 10 to 15 degrees warmer than shaded areas, “so if you’ve got a day where it’s 90 degrees, it could be 105 in the sun,” he said.

Spann said fans know this, but 7 of 8 spectators randomly interviewed during the October 4 game underestimated how hot it got inside the stadium, giving the day’s forecasted high in the mid-80s or a lower number. An Inside Climate News reporter measured temperatures as high as 96 degrees in the stadium that day.

Asked about whether the public and designers and operators of sports stadiums need to take rising maximum daily temperatures into consideration in their decision-making, Spann referred such questions to Alabama’s state climatologist, John Christy, who notably rejects mainstream climate science. Christy has argued there is no causal link between CO2 emissions and a warming climate.

Even when weather conditions are overcast and breezy, as they were during University of Alabama at Birmingham’s October 4 game against Army in Protective Stadium, a significant temperature difference can occur between inside and outside the stadium, which seats about 45,000 people.

That day, kickoff was at 11 a.m. and measurements taken by an Inside Climate News reporter that day recorded a difference in air temperatures of as much as 10 degrees — depending on sun exposure — even in a newer stadium. Protective Stadium opened in 2021.

Ryan said his data at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium shows that sun exposure has a clear and measurable impact on the relative comfort of a particular seat.

“Day games are extremely problematic,” Ryan said. “Night games, not as much.” Over three seasons of observations, Ryan said his measurements recorded heat index values exceeding 115 degrees at least once during both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, both on late September day games.

During that same two-year period, elevated temperatures inside the facility have led to more than a thousand heat-related medical calls to first responders, records show.

On the day of the 2024 Auburn-Arkansas game, Ryan said, sensors in 7 of 9 seating sections across Jordan-Hare measured “feels like” conditions above 103 degrees. Temperatures exceeding that are characterized as dangerous by experts, making “heat cramps or heat exhaustion likely, and heat stroke possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity,” according to the National Weather Service.

Ryan has also relied on data from Auburn university officials to collate his findings. In 2023, there were as many as 43 heat-related medical calls per game, university records showed.

Spectators at Jordan-Hare suffered heat-related illnesses including nosebleeds, seizures, dehydration, and low blood sugar and complaints of feeling lightheaded and dizzy. Other fans called first responders for abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, heart palpitations, and difficulty breathing.

By 2024, medical calls increased significantly inside the stadium, according to Ryan’s research.

First responders averaged 161 calls per game for a total of more than 805 calls at all home games, the majority of which were for heat or cardiac-related events, records revealed.

In the 2023 dataset, of the 113 emergency calls attributed to heat-related illness, 44 involved individuals who fainted or were reportedly “about to faint.”

Numerous heat-related incidents reported inside Jordan-Hare included alcohol as a contributing factor, according to medical logs reviewed by ICN. Although the school did not begin to sell alcohol inside the stadium until the 2024 season, experts say alcohol use may have exacerbated the risk of heat-related illness.

Alcohol contributes to heat illness in two ways, said Falat, the University of Maryland expert on weather-related illnesses and the university hospital’s assistant medical director for the adult emergency department.

Alcohol dehydrates, she said, and dehydration is an initial stage of heat illness that can lead to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Then, “as you drink more and more, your ability to recognize your symptoms becomes impaired … and that’s when we start to really, really enter that danger zone,” she said.

Spann, the meteorologist, said alcohol consumption during early-season day games at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa has proved to be a significant problem. “The worst thing you can do is drink a lot of alcohol on a hot day out there in the sun, and nothing good is going to come out of that,” he said.

The university challenge

Since 2023, Ryan has been submitting recommendations to Auburn University officials, outlining the empirical data from the research team and making policy suggestions aimed at mitigating health risks.

Ashley Gann, Auburn’s public information officer for campus safety and security and a meteorologist herself, said Ryan’s work “was incredibly valuable” and has helped administrators build a strategic heat plan.

“His work helped validate the importance of our existing heat plan and gave us the data we needed to refine it even further,” Gann said. “Thanks to Brandon’s study, we were able to concentrate resources in the areas of greatest need and engage in more strategic pre-planning for both football and baseball events. His contributions have strengthened our ability to protect fans and staff from heat-related risks.”

Earlier research at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa stands as a precursor to Ryan’s findings, which he is continuing to refine and plans to publish.

Fifteen years ago, researchers conducted a study similar to Ryan’s at Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Barrett Gutter, now an assistant professor of meteorology at Virginia Tech, tracked temperature data in Bryant-Denny Stadium as part of his student research in 2009. The facility was constructed in 1929 and has been expanded multiple times.

Gutter collected readings at six locations inside the stadium during a game in October 2009 and compared them to temperatures recorded at the National Weather Service station at Tuscaloosa Regional Airport. He found “significantly warmer temperatures” at each location inside the stadium.

Temperatures in the concourse areas were up to 17 degrees higher than those at the airport, while temperatures at field level seating and in the upper decks were recorded 10.5 degrees and 13 degrees warmer, respectively.

Gutter’s study was conducted before a stadium expansion in 2010 that enclosed the south end zone and added an upper deck with about 9,000 seats. The stadium also added artificial turf sidelines in 2023. Gutter said in a recent interview that temperature differentials likely would be greater today.

“When you close in a stadium like they did, it really limits the amount of air flow and circulation you’re going to get in there,” he said. “You basically are just in a bowl, and so all of that heat has a harder time basically evacuating that stadium. When you have an open end zone, you have a way for that heat to escape.”

Gutter’s research provided some telling geographical detail about seating risks then. Field-level temperatures between 3:15 p.m. and 5 p.m. were about 6 degrees higher on the east side versus the west side of Bryant-Denny Stadium. The western section of the upper deck casts a shadow that gradually covers seating on the western side of the stadium during that time period, Gutter observed. The shadow cooled the temperature sensor in that location.

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Gutter later pursued research on stadium heat at Mississippi State University, where he was a professor. Last year, he and three other researchers published a study in the journal Atmosphere that analyzed the impact of heat exposure on spectator health at Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium.

The researchers deployed 50 sensors around the arena and measured temperature and humidity from August through November 2016. They compared that data with readings at a weather station near Mississippi State as well as first-aid and emergency medical data from the university’s office of emergency management.

“What I got out of that study, more so than anything, was, on a spatial and temporal scale, how much fluctuation you see even through a game, which is the influence of shade,” Gutter said.

Gutter said the Mississippi study solidified findings from the Bryant-Denny research. Heat-related illness comprised up to two-thirds of cases requiring first-aid at Mississippi State. The majority of heat-related incidents occurred in the most thermally oppressive parts of the stadium, according to the study.

The study concluded there was a need for greater monitoring of heat exposure inside stadiums, better education for spectators regarding heat-mitigation strategies, and stadium design modifications to improve circulation, increase shade and reduce crowding.

The search for water

On the day in October that Douglas Dill fell ill at the University of Alabama, a reporter for Inside Climate News recorded temperatures inside and outside Bryant-Denny Stadium. The readings were recorded from 12:08 p.m. to 4:55 p.m. and approximately every 30 minutes during the game. Air temperatures were measured using a probe thermometer, and an infrared thermometer was held above concrete and metal in seating areas to measure surface temperatures.

Temperatures were recorded on the eastern side of the stadium, where spectators were in direct sunlight for the entire game.

At 2:30 kickoff time, an air temperature reading in the upper deck of the stadium was 11 degrees warmer than the temperature recorded at the airport. Temperatures measured inside the stadium ranged from 85 degrees to 96 degrees.

Emergency calls

Emergency medical staff who operate a 10-bed first-aid facility at Bryant-Denny Stadium said on October 4 they had received an average of 60 to 65 medical calls per game at that point in the 2025 season. Not all calls are heat-related. The percentage of heat calls depends on game time, temperature and time of year, according to Michaels.

“Heat is one of our biggest challenges we face,” Michaels said.

During the October 4 game, 50 percent to 60 percent of calls were heat-related, with most people suffering from heat exhaustion or fainting, said Michaels, who has worked as a first responder at the stadium since 2009. Problems slowed in the second half as shade spread over the western half of Bryant-Denny Stadium, he said.

On September 13, during the Wisconsin-Alabama game that kicked off at 11 a.m., every bed and chair in the first-aid facility was occupied, Michaels said. The high temperature outside the stadium that day was 92 degrees.

There were more than 70 EMS calls during that game, and approximately 75 percent were heat-related, Michaels said. “The Wisconsin game was very challenging as far as managing the heat-related stuff,” he said. “Crews did a really good job of getting people to where they needed to go, whether it be a cool zone, whether it be one of the first-aid rooms or whether it be the hospital.”

There have been games with as few as about 10 calls, he continued, and those are typically at night or late in the season.

Michaels said people planning to attend a game should know what the physical demands are and consider their health conditions. They should be aware, for instance, that they might have to walk a mile and half in the heat just to get to the stadium, then walk up spiral ramps and stairs to get to their seats, he said.

“That can be a lot,” he said. “Folks have to know their limitations.”

Other medical professionals said much the same, adding that people should wear ventilated clothing and shaded hats, use cooling rags and stand near fans when possible on hot days. Elderly people, young children and those with certain medical conditions or who are taking particular medications are especially vulnerable to heat risks.

Heat already kills more Americans than any other weather-related hazard, according to the National Weather Service, and climate change is leading to more frequent, intense and longer-lasting heat waves, Falat said.

“It’s absolutely expected that deaths and other complications from heat-related illnesses will rise as those events rise, but it is also an opportunity for us as a society to really increase our public health awareness of these events, because the statistics don’t have to follow suit,” she said.

Dr. William Barton, assistant medical director of the emergency department at DCH Regional Medical Center, located 2 miles from Bryant-Denny Stadium, said the football season also affects his emergency department. Between 50 and 100 people are treated at the stadium’s first-aid facility during some games, he said. Paramedics send an average of 10 to 20 people per game over to the medical center’s emergency room, Barton said, and the majority are experiencing heat-related illness.

The university provided far lower numbers of illness to Inside Climate News.

“So far this season, EMS has responded to 18 heat-related calls during three home football games,” according to the university statement dated October 10. “Last season, EMS responded to 26 heat-related calls during seven home games. During the past two seasons, two fans were transported to the hospital for heat-related illness.”

“Hydration is the big thing,” Barton said. “That’s where most people run into trouble. Your skin does what’s called evaporative cooling, and in the process of that, you lose a lot of fluids from your body. You are going to find yourself in a position where you’re becoming dehydrated, and you really didn’t know that you were.”

Minor changes, major stakes

Universities are making some headway in addressing heat risks in their football stadiums.

The University of Alabama added cooling stations a decade ago, and that has made a difference, Michaels said. “Before those cooling stations were installed, it was nothing to have 100 calls in a ball game,” he said about Bryant-Denny Stadium. “And when the university invested the resources to permit those cooling stations, it drastically affected the call volume.”

Both Gutter and Ryan said that there are other small steps that universities can take such as improving air circulation, creating more shaded areas in the stadiums, increasing access to cooling stations and improving education about heat-related illness.

Decisions that could limit the most risk, experts said — banning midday games during warmer months, enclosing stadiums or building climate-controlled facilities, and even shifting the football season to later in the year — do not seem likely.

Global sports have begun to adapt to the realities of a warming climate, Ryan said, and some leagues may be setting an example for U.S. athletics.

“FIFA had to change the way they did the World Cup,” Ryan said. “We even saw it with the Paris Olympics. If the Olympics are having to think about this sort of stuff, we’re probably gonna have to think about these things too.”

Heat-related deaths, Ryan said, are ultimately avoidable.

“I care about this university a lot. I care about my students a lot. I want them to come to the game to watch the game, and I don’t want them to worry about their grandma passing out,” he said.

Douglas Dill doesn’t regret his day at Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium. His team lost, 30-14. But he said Vanderbilt played a good game and his heat-illness episode won’t deter him from witnessing future ones.

“I love football, and nothing will keep me away from it,” Dill said.

MS Medicaid patients struggle to access weight loss drugs

MS Medicaid patients struggle to access weight loss drugs

M Hasan    8:17 AM   

The Rise of GLP-1s and Their Impact on Medicaid Coverage

April Hines, a 46-year-old from Mississippi, has spent much of her life battling obesity. However, in recent years, she has made significant progress, shedding over 200 pounds and improving her overall health. Her journey is largely attributed to Trulicity, a drug belonging to a new class of weight loss medications known as GLP-1s. These drugs have become a focal point for many individuals struggling with obesity, especially those covered by Medicaid.

Mississippi's Medicaid program took a bold step in 2023 by including GLP-1s in its coverage for individuals aged 12 and older. This decision was notable because only 13 states cover these drugs for Medicaid recipients, and Mississippi’s Medicaid program typically offers limited benefits. Despite this, the uptake of these medications has been slower than expected, with just 2% of eligible adults receiving a prescription by December 2024.

Challenges in Accessing GLP-1s

The slow adoption of GLP-1s in Mississippi has been influenced by several factors. National drug shortages, a complex prior authorization process, and a lack of marketing have all contributed to the low usage rate. William Rosenblatt, a family doctor in Columbus who treats Hines, expressed disappointment that so few people are benefiting from these drugs. He emphasized that GLP-1s address the root causes of many health issues, making them a valuable tool in managing chronic conditions.

However, the future of GLP-1s in Medicaid coverage is uncertain. Federal funding cuts, stemming from a recent tax-and-spending bill signed by President Donald Trump, could lead to reduced coverage. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the law will cut Medicaid spending by $911 billion over a decade. This financial pressure may force states to reconsider expanding benefits, particularly for costly medications like GLP-1s, which can cost around $1,000 per month.

The Cost-Benefit Dilemma

Despite their high cost, GLP-1s have shown promise in treating obesity and related health conditions. These drugs, originally developed for Type 2 diabetes, have gained attention for their effectiveness in weight loss and reducing obesity-related complications. However, states remain hesitant to expand coverage due to the long-term nature of the health benefits. For example, the reduction in heart attacks or strokes may not be evident for years, and the financial benefits might accrue to other insurers rather than Medicaid itself.

North Carolina recently dropped its coverage of GLP-1s, citing their high cost. This decision highlights the challenges states face in balancing the immediate costs of these drugs with potential long-term savings. The Trump administration has also faced criticism for its stance on GLP-1s, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplaying their necessity and emphasizing diet and exercise instead.

Federal Policy Shifts

In contrast, the Biden administration proposed covering weight loss drugs under Medicare and Medicaid to combat obesity as a public health crisis. However, the Trump administration revoked this proposal, stating that the programs would not cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. Despite this, there have been rumors of a potential five-year pilot program for Medicare and Medicaid to cover these drugs, although no details have been released.

The Trump administration has also included GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus on its list of medicines subject to price negotiations under Medicare Part D. The results of these negotiations are expected this fall, potentially impacting the affordability of these drugs for patients.

Limited Coverage and Patient Experiences

Most private insurers do not cover GLP-1s for weight loss, making them unaffordable for many patients. In Mississippi, the first 15 months of coverage saw only about 2,900 Medicaid enrollees starting treatment. Nearly 90% of these patients were female, and many had comorbidities such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The analysis also revealed that most users lived in the southern, central, or northern parts of Mississippi, rather than the Mississippi Delta, where obesity rates are highest. About 40% of adults in Mississippi are obese, placing the state just one percentage point behind West Virginia.

Medicaid's Perspective

Mississippi Medicaid spokesman Matt Westerfield noted that the state spent $12 million in the first 15 months, providing the drugs to 2,200 adult members. While utilization has been below projections, Westerfield emphasized that treatment decisions are up to patients and their doctors. The state has been working to raise awareness among healthcare providers, but further efforts are needed.

Rosenblatt, who works for Baptist Medical Group, highlighted the importance of these drugs in his practice. He has seen patients lose significant weight and reduce their need for other medications. However, he pointed out that the state does not pay doctors to counsel patients on necessary dietary changes when prescribing GLP-1s, which may discourage some physicians from using them.

Future Outlook

Despite the challenges, the potential benefits of GLP-1s remain clear. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that participants receiving GLP-1 drugs experienced more significant and sustained weight loss compared to those on a placebo. Other studies have shown that these drugs can help lower high blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokes.

As the debate over Medicaid coverage continues, the impact of GLP-1s on public health remains a critical issue. With ongoing policy shifts and financial constraints, the future of these medications in Medicaid coverage remains uncertain, but their potential to improve lives cannot be overlooked.

Boy's Rare Condition Stuns Doctors After Groundbreaking Gene Therapy

Boy's Rare Condition Stuns Doctors After Groundbreaking Gene Therapy

M Hasan    7:24 AM   

A three-year-old boy has astounded doctors with his progress after becoming the first person in the world with his devastating disease to receive a ground-breaking gene therapy. Oliver Chu has a rare, inherited condition called Hunter syndrome - or MPSII - which causes progressive damage to the body and brain. In the most severe cases, patients with the disease usually die before the age of 20. The effects are sometimes described as a type of childhood dementia.

Due to a faulty gene, before the treatment Oliver was unable to produce an enzyme crucial for keeping cells healthy. In a world first, medical staff in Manchester have tried to halt the disease by altering Oliver's cells using gene therapy. Prof Simon Jones, who is co-leading the trial tells the My healthy of life: "I've been waiting 20 years to see a boy like Ollie doing as well as he is, and it's just so exciting."

At the centre of this remarkable story is Oliver - the first of five boys around the world to receive the treatment - and the Chu family, from California, who have put their faith in the medical team at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. A year after starting the treatment, Oliver now appears to be developing normally. "Every time we talk about it I want to cry because it's just so amazing," says his mother Jingru.

The My healthy of life has followed Oliver's story for more than a year - including how scientists in the UK first developed the pioneering gene therapy and how the medical trial they are conducting almost didn't get off the ground due to lack of funds.

Stem cell removal - December 2024

We first meet Oliver and his dad Ricky in December 2024 at the clinical research facility at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. It's a big day. Since being diagnosed with Hunter syndrome in April, Oliver's life - like that of his elder brother, Skyler, who also has the condition - has been dominated by hospital visits. Skyler had shown some late development in speech and coordination, but this had initially been put down to being born during Covid.

Ricky tells me his sons' diagnosis came as a complete shock. "When you find out about Hunter syndrome, the first thing the doctor tells you is 'Don't go on the internet and look it up because you'll find the worst cases and you'll be very, very disheartened'. But, like anybody, you look it up and you're like, 'Oh my goodness, is this what's going to happen to both my sons?'"

Children are born apparently healthy, but around the age of two they start to show symptoms of the disease. These vary and can include changes to physical features, stiffness of the limbs and short stature. It can cause damage throughout the body, including to the heart, liver, bones and joints and in the most serious cases can lead to severe mental impairment and progressive neurological decline. Hunter syndrome almost always occurs in boys. It's extremely rare, affecting one in 100,000 male births in the world.

Until now, the only medicine available for Hunter syndrome was Elaprase, which costs around £300,000 per patient, per year and can slow the physical effects of the disease. The drug is unable to cross the blood-brain barrier and so does not help with cognitive symptoms. But today, Oliver is being hooked up to a machine and having some of his cells removed - the first crucial step in trying to halt his genetic disorder in this one-off treatment.

"His blood is being passed through a fancy machine that is collecting a specific type of cell called stem cells which will be sent to a lab to be modified and then given back to him," Dr Claire Horgan, consultant paediatric haematologist explains.

Oliver's cells are tweaked

Oliver's cells are carefully packaged and sent to a laboratory at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London. In Hunter syndrome, a genetic error means that cells are missing the instructions for making an enzyme, iduronate-2-sulfatase (IDS), essential for breaking down large sugar molecules which over time accumulate in tissues and organs.

Scientists insert the missing IDS gene into a virus, which has its genetic material removed so that it can't cause disease. A similar method has been used in other gene therapies, such as the treatment for another rare inherited condition, MLD. Dr Karen Buckland, from the Cell and Gene Therapy Service at GOSH, explains: "We use the machinery from the virus to insert a working copy of the faulty gene into each of the stem cells. When those go back to Oliver, they should repopulate his bone marrow and start to produce new white blood cells and each of these will hopefully start to produce the missing protein [enzyme] in his body."

There still remains the issue of how to get enough of the missing enzyme into the brain. To overcome this, the inserted gene is modified so that the enzyme it produces crosses the blood-brain barrier more efficiently.

Infusion day - February 2025

We next meet Oliver back at the clinical research facility at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. This time he's with his mum Jingru, while Ricky has stayed in California to look after Skyler. There is a sense of anticipation as a member of the research team opens a large a metal cryopreservation tank where Oliver's gene edited stem cells are frozen, having been transported back from GOSH.

A small, clear infusion bag is removed and slowly brought to body temperature in a tray of liquid. After multiple checks, a nurse draws the clear fluid containing around 125 million gene-modified stem cells, into a syringe. Oliver is used to hospitals, but is fretful, and wriggles as the research nurse slowly injects the treatment, about a cup full, into a catheter in his chest. Jingru holds Oliver steady in her arms. After 10 minutes, the infusion is done. An hour later, a second, identical infusion is made. Oliver continues to watch cartoons on a portable screen, oblivious to the potential importance of what's just happened.

And that's it. The gene therapy is complete. It seems to be all over rather quickly, yet the ambition here is huge: to stop Oliver's progressive disease in its tracks, in a one-off treatment. After a couple of days, Oliver and Jingru fly back to California. Now the family, and the medical team must wait to see if the gene therapy has worked.

Early signs of progress - May 2025

In May, Oliver is back in Manchester for crucial tests to see if the gene therapy is working. This time the whole family is here. We meet in a park in central Manchester and it's immediately clear that things are looking good. Oliver is more mobile and inquisitive than I've seen him. Admittedly, he now has the freedom to play and is out of hospital, but he appears brighter and healthier.

Ricky is thrilled: "He's doing really well. We have seen him progressing in his speech, and mobility. In just three months he has matured." The really big news is that Oliver has been able to come off the weekly infusion of the missing enzyme. "I want to pinch myself every time I tell people that Oliver is making his own enzymes," says Jingru. "Every time we talk about it I want to cry because it's just so amazing." She tells me he is "so different" from before the treatment, is talking "a ton" and is engaging more with other children.

It is lovely to finally meet five-year-old Skyler who is very protective and caring towards his younger brother. "My wish upon the star is for Skyler, to be able to get the same treatment," says Ricky. "It feels like Oliver has got a reset in his life, and I want the same thing for Skyler, even though he's a bit older." Initially it was thought that Oliver was too old for the trial, as the treatment cannot reverse existing damage, but tests showed he was still largely unaffected. Skyler seems to take delight in the world around him, and is keen to hold my hand and chat as we walk to the park.

Ricky explains that Skyler has delayed development in speech and motor skills, but is undergoing infusion therapy, which gets the treatment to his body, but not his brain.

'Eternally grateful'

Oliver returns to Manchester every three months for a few days of follow-up tests. In late August, further checks confirm the gene therapy is working. Oliver is clearly thriving, and to date is now nine months post treatment. Prof Jones, whom Oliver calls Santa because of his white beard, is beaming: "Before the transplant Ollie didn't make any enzyme at all and now he's making hundreds of times the normal amount. But more importantly, we can see he's improving, he's learning, he's got new words and new skills and he's moving around much more easily."

However, Prof Jones exercises a degree of caution: "We need to be careful and not get carried away in the excitement of all this, but things are as good as they could be at this point in time." On the rooftop garden at the hospital, Oliver plays with his dad. "He's like a completely different child. He's running around everywhere, he won't stop talking," says Ricky. "The future for Ollie seems very bright and hopefully this means more kids will get the treatment."

In all, five boys have been signed up for the trial, from the US, Europe and Australia. None are from the UK as patients here were diagnosed too late to qualify. All the boys will be monitored for at least two years. If the trial is deemed a success, the hospital and university hope to partner with another biotech firm in order to get the treatment licensed. Prof Jones says the same gene therapy approach is being applied to other gene disorders.

There are similar treatments on trial in Manchester for MPS type 1 or Hurler syndrome and MPS type 3 or Sanfilippo syndrome. Ricky and Jingru say they are "eternally grateful" to the Manchester team for allowing Oliver to join the trial. They say they are astonished by his progress in recent months. Oliver's now producing the missing enzyme and his body and brain are healthy.

"I don't want to jinx it, but I feel like it's gone very, very well," says Ricky. "His life is no longer dominated by needles and hospital visits. His speech, agility and cognitive development have all got dramatically better. It's not just a slow, gradual curve as he gets older, it has shot up exponentially since the transplant."

The trial that almost never was

Researchers at the University of Manchester led by Prof Brian Bigger had spent more than 15 years working on creating the gene therapy for Hunter syndrome. In 2020 the university announced a partnership with a small US biotech company Avrobio, to conduct a clinical trial. But three years later the company handed back the licence to the university, following poor results from another gene therapy study and a lack of funds. The first-in-human trial, which would soon help Oliver, was in jeopardy before it had even begun.

Prof Jones: "We had to move very quickly to try to save the whole idea and find another sponsor and another source of funding." It was then that British charity, LifeArc, stepped in, providing £2.5m of funding. CEO Dr Sam Barrell said: "A huge challenge for the more than 3.5 million people in the UK living with rare conditions, is getting access to effective treatments – currently 95% of conditions have none. "The Chu family are relieved the trial didn't come to a halt and now hope Skyler may one day benefit from the same gene therapy as his brother. "I would walk to the end of the earth, backwards, forwards, upside down, barefoot, to make sure my kids have a better future," says Ricky.

"What I Wish I'd Known About Anaphylaxis" – A Patient's Story with Doctor's Insights

"What I Wish I'd Known About Anaphylaxis" – A Patient's Story with Doctor's Insights

M Hasan    12:32 AM   

About the Expert

Lara Gross, MD, is an allergist-immunologist at Dallas Allergy & Asthma Center, where she specializes in food allergies. She has board certifications in both internal medicine and allergy & immunology.

Key Highlights

Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening allergic reaction, but warning signs can vary widely. If you have a food allergy, experiencing a mild reaction doesn’t mean the next one won’t be serious, as one patient shares. A food allergy expert clears up epinephrine treatment misconceptions—and sheds light on a new nasal spray alternative.

Many of us quickly glance at food labels for nutritional details such as calories or fat content, but scanning for certain ingredients is a necessary task for the estimated 33 million Americans living with at least one food allergy, according to the American Pharmacists Association. “That being said, you can do all the right things and be super vigilant, and there may still be cross-contamination and things can happen,” says Lara Gross, MD, an allergist-immunologist at Dallas Allergy & Asthma Center.

The Risk of Food Labels

This risk gets even more confusing when trust in food labels gets thrown into question—such as when a recall reveals unlisted ingredients or a product has a sudden packaging change. “It’s tough and scary when one of those happens, because you think, well, what else?” Dr. Gross says. “The recalls are an issue, but so is the kind of vague labeling that is out there.”

Figuring out potential food allergens at home is one thing, but traveling can make things even trickier. Beyond potential language barriers or misunderstandings, 2024 research from the World Allergy Organization Journal, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights how precautionary allergen labeling (“may contain”) is inconsistent around the world, calling for more regulation.

What is Anaphylaxis?

Anaphylaxis is a severe, potentially fatal allergic reaction. “And it can show up in a lot of different ways,” Dr. Gross says. You might picture someone’s throat closing up, but warning signs can range from itchy hives all over a person’s body, eye swelling, lip swelling, trouble breathing, dizziness, stomach issues, or just feeling “off.”

Continues Dr. Gross: “With milder allergies, like things out in the environment, we think of itchy eyes or sneezing. But with these anaphylactic reactions, it affects the whole body and more organs, and can have really detrimental effects.”

Additionally, anaphylaxis doesn’t look the same every time. “That’s a myth that we really try to educate about,” Dr. Gross says. A mild reaction once doesn’t guarantee the next one won’t be serious. “We don’t want people to think: ‘Oh, it’s not a big deal, it was just a little uncomfortable,'” she says. “Because the next time it could be something else—it could affect your blood pressure, it could be something more serious.”

For Chris, a 21-year-old college student, these stakes became reality while on a trip in Switzerland. Ahead, he shares how unpredictable food allergies can be—even when you think you do everything right—and how he was able to quickly treat his life-threatening anaphylaxis.

What I Learned About Anaphylaxis: You Can’t Tough It Out

As told by Chris, a college student from Ohio, to Leslie Finlay, MPA

Chris has a tree nut allergy—which can include nuts like walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, and more—and says he’s “always had to avoid everything related to nuts.” And it’s a risk he doesn’t take lightly. “My friends typically avoid everything related to nuts, my partner currently avoids everything related to nuts, it’s just something I’ve always dealt with.”

In spite of his best efforts, Chris says he’s previously “had small allergic reactions—it’s been something like my throat’s been itchy—but that’s been the extent.”

As Dr. Gross explains, it’s not unusual for people with severe food allergies to have these mild reactions though “we don’t really know why.” But it can make it confusing for people to understand when a reaction is serious and when to use epinephrine, the front-line treatment for severe allergic reactions.

Not Another Itchy Throat: “This Was Something Completely Different”

Chris was traveling in Switzerland and wanted to try a bar of Swiss chocolate. He first checked the label’s text using Google Translate before having a French-speaking friend take a second look. (Switzerland has four national languages, one of which is French.) “I’m always very cautious, granted those two checks were just quick,” he says. “Immediately after I took a bite, I was like, ‘This does not feel right,’ so I threw it away.” He later learned that the bar contained traces of hazelnuts.

Within seconds, Chris’s throat started tingling—a symptom he’s experienced before from nut exposure. “But this was something completely different. I just started feeling more and more nauseous; I felt like I could collapse at any moment.”

He was going into anaphylactic shock, which Johns Hopkins Medicine says is another term for anaphylaxis. “I really tried to tough it out, because normally in the past, I’d take Benadryl and I’m fine,” Chris says.

Clearing Up Common Misconceptions

Chris says he has always carried epinephrine with him in case of a severe allergic reaction, and as his symptoms worsened, he used it for the first time. “I felt pretty much immediate relief,” and Dr. Gross says it potentially saved his life.

Epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, is both a medication and a hormone, according to the Allergy & Asthma Network. Your adrenal glands produce the hormone, which helps the body regulate organ functions—and, if you’ve ever experienced the feeling of “fight or flight,” that’s from the hormone. But as a medication—such as a pre-filled auto-injector—it “reduces or reverses severe [anaphylaxis] symptoms very quickly” by opening airways, maintaining blood pressure, and more, according to the organization.

“Unfortunately, when we see mortalities from food allergies, typically it’s when there’s a delay in epinephrine,” Dr. Gross says. She says that this often stems from:

• Not knowing if a reaction is “bad enough” to use ephinephrine.
• Concern about having to go to the hospital after.
• Hesitancy to inject themselves (or others) with a needle.

These are common misunderstandings, according to Dr. Gross. For starters, she encourages using it if you think there’s a need. “We run into trouble when people don’t get it when they should,” she says.

A trip to the emergency room is no longer required, either. “Ephinephrine is not harmful to give, we want people to give it,” she says. “So if someone is on the fence, going to the hospital shouldn’t be a deterrent.”

She also says there’s a new way to treat anaphylaxis that experts hope will reduce dangerous delays in care.

An Easier Way to Treat Anaphylaxis

Fear of self-injection substantially affects the use of life-saving epinephrine, according to 2025 research published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. Dr. Gross explains that until recently, the only treatment available was with a needle-based auto-injector (such as an EpiPen). “Understandably, a lot of people are hesitant to give themselves or their child a shot, especially in a very stressful situation,” she says.

In 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Neffy, a nasal spray version of epinephrine. Dr. Gross explains it as “the same epinephrine that’s in the auto-injectors, except instead of an injection in the thigh, it’s just a single-use spray in the nose.”

“It works quickly and it’s effective, and I’m thrilled to have a non-needle option available,” she says. “Chris is not a unique case—no fault of his—but I’m not sure that he would have done an injection.”

Chris says she’s probably right, and he’s glad he had a Neffy device with him in Switzerland. “I do have a fear of needles. Getting to that point where I’d have to stick a needle in myself—that would have taken me a long time,” he admits. “But with the Neffy, the instructions are very, very clear. I remember thinking immediately after, ‘Did I do it correctly?’ It felt too easy, but it genuinely made an immediate difference.”

Lessons Learned After Anaphylaxis

After his anaphylaxis experience, Chris admits he “was pretty annoyed with himself,” saying, “I give myself leeway, but my main takeaway is to be cautious and careful.” He highlights it’s important not to assume that food labeling regulations are the same everywhere.

For example, manufacturers in the U.S. are not legally required to disclose potential cross-contamination. Statements on product labels such as “may contain traces of” or “made in a facility that also produces” are voluntary, according to 2025 research published in Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research. Meanwhile, other countries around the world have varying requirements in food product labeling.

Chris also urges others to be open about their allergy and medication. “I communicate with everyone I’m traveling with, whether or not I really know them or not,” he says. “As I was having my allergic reaction, the person who was with me helped a lot and did what he could. And it was literally the first day we’d met.”

Diane Keaton's 13 Secret Healthy Habits for a Long, Vibrant Life

Diane Keaton's 13 Secret Healthy Habits for a Long, Vibrant Life

M Hasan    12:32 AM   

This weekend, Hollywood lost one of its most whimsical women. Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress who made an art form of sweater weather, menswear, and fun that radiated warmth, died October 11, 2025, at age 79. The cause of Keaton’s death was not announced, but a source shared that the actress had kept her sense of humor and closeness to her friends “right up until the end.”

Born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, Keaton started life in a corrugated metal Quonset hut. (She said her childhood home gave her a “lifelong appreciation for arches.”) From that unique beginning she became one of the most beloved actresses in movie history. Her career stretched more than 50 years and included an Oscar, a BAFTA, two Golden Globes, and the AFI Life Achievement Award. Her prominence was known across generations, from Annie Hall to Kay Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, and Nina Banks in Father of the Bride where she fell pregnant in her late 40s—then proved, in Something’s Gotta Give, that romance doesn’t end at 50.

A longtime friend of figures like Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Steve Martin, in her fifties she adopted daughter Dexter and son Duke. “Motherhood was not an urge I couldn’t resist,” sources have quoted her as having told Ladies Home Journal. “It was more like a thought I’d been thinking for a very long time. So I plunged in.” That’s not to mention her work as a photographer, a memoirist, and someone who renovated so many houses it’s no wonder Nancy Meyers sets made her look right at home.

How did Diane Keaton make 79 years look so good? Read on to discover the 13 habits that kept her lively.

She woke up every day at 6 a.m.

Before getting up before dawn was a social media trend, Keaton was already up and at it. “I get up early, around 6 a.m., in the remarkable, wonderful mess of life,” she said in a 2022 interview with WSJ Magazine. While the rest of us hit snooze, she was already enjoying the peaceful morning hours—with “plain old black coffee.”

Early birds really may be healthier. A University of Toronto study published in the journal Emotion found that morning people reported greater levels of happiness and positive emotion than night owls, regardless of age. Recent research also found many people regard morning as the most positive window of the day, before the rush of the world kicks in.

She walked her dog every morning

Each day started with a walk with Keaton’s golden retriever, Reggie. “I take the dog, who sleeps with me on top of my bed … on a walk in the darkness,” she told the Wall Street Journal. “We walk around the neighborhood; we really enjoy that.” (Reggie was with Keaton to the end and is featured in her very last Instagram post.)

Dog owners who regularly walk their dogs have lower rates of obesity, fewer chronic health conditions, and fewer doctor visits, according to a study published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. Also, don’t discount the feel-good power of a good pet snuggle.

For 30 years, she ate a vegetarian diet

Keaton went vegetarian around 1995 and never looked back. “I’m a vegetarian now. I don’t eat meat or fish. I eat eggs and cheese,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times. “And I do watch what I eat.”

You don’t have to go full vegetarian to be healthy, as just adding a few servings of veggies a day can give you a health boost. Harvard Health reports that vegetarians typically have lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and a lower body mass index—all associated with longevity and reduced risk of chronic diseases. Some research has shown that vegetarians are 25% less likely to die of heart disease.

She adored nuts

Keaton had strong opinions about snacks. In the Wall Street Journal interview, she revealed she kept “a variety of jars of nuts on hand.” In an Instagram video she added, “Almonds are my favorite nut in the world. It’s salty and there’s nothing like it.”

When healthy eating becomes automatic, you know you’re doing something right. Almonds and walnuts are a great choice—packed with vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids, which support heart and brain health. Harvard research notes nuts help regulate blood sugar and contain antioxidants, fiber, and minerals that can protect against heart disease.

She exercised every day (but it never involved running)

She knew the power of a good endorphin rush so even when she was working on a film set, she made time to exercise every day. No excuses, no “I’ll do it tomorrow.” She was also honest about what worked for her. “I walk. I get on the treadmill,” she told the Chicago Sun-Times. “And I’ll walk really fast to break a sweat. One thing is for sure—I don’t run. It’s too hard. But the fast walking does give me a lot of energy to face the day.”

Experts agree: Walking fast provides great cardio…while generally being gentler on knees than a run. Consistency matters more than intensity—daily exercise has so many benefits we can’t even list them all here, but to name a few: it reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. Brisk walking provides cardiovascular benefits similar to running but with much less stress on joints and lower injury risk.

She mixed up her workouts with spin classes

Even into her late sixties, Keaton was taking spin classes. “I do take spin classes with my daughter Dexter,” she said in the Chicago Sun-Times interview. “It’s rough. But at least I’m there. I’m sweating. I think the key here is that you don’t have to be like everybody else. Just do it. Do it the best you can do it.” She added, “I know in spin class that for 45 minutes, I’m using my body to its fullest. And that’s big.”

Big, it is. High-intensity interval training, like spinning, can build cardiovascular endurance, strengthen muscles, and burn serious calories. Plus, exercising with family members creates accountability and strengthens relationships. (Nothing says “bonding” like exchanging a look on the hill climb.)

She also stretched and strength-trained

Keaton understood that strength training and mobility become even more important as you get older. She added yoga and Pilates, working on strength, flexibility and range of motion. These practices improve balance (reducing fall risk), maintain mobility, and help prevent the chronic back pain that plagues so many people as they get older.

She had a surprising relationship with music

In the candid Wall Street Journal interview, Keaton revealed an unusual habit: she rarely listened to music—she explained: “I don’t play it very often. I don’t want it around … it reminds me of things that make me sad or [that I] miss.” Namely, she shared, her mother. “It takes you back to moments in time and people that meant more than anything,” she said, adding that she’d only use it strategically when acting to help herself cry for a scene.

This wasn’t about avoiding emotions—it was about managing them. Keaton understood her own triggers and set boundaries to protect her mental health. Knowing your emotional triggers and setting healthy boundaries is a form of self-care. While music can be therapeutic for many, recognizing what works (or doesn’t work) for your own mental health and acting accordingly shows emotional intelligence and self-awareness—both key components of psychological well-being.

She loved being outdoors

According to Keaton’s Instagram, she embraced the California hills and hiked regularly, proving that exercise doesn’t have to happen in a gym.

Getting outdoors provides the added benefit of exposure to nature, which has incredible health benefits. In fact, it’s so powerful that the Japanese swear by “shinrin-yoku” or “forest bathing” as a type of medicine. A 2022 study published in Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine, found that being outdoors reduces cortisol (the stress hormone), lowers blood pressure, boosts immune function, promotes better sleep, improves cognitive function, and lifts mood.

She always wore sunscreen

That said, after two skin cancer scares—one at 21 and one later in life—Keaton became religious about sun protection. “Thanks to those basal- and squamous-cell skin cancers, I never skip sunscreen; a broad-spectrum SPF 30 is in my pocket every day,” she said in a 2024 interview with AARP.

This was wise. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...but it’s also one of the most preventable. Daily sunscreen use significantly reduces your risk of both melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. And SPF 30, like she used, blocks about 97% of UVB rays, according to Northwestern Medicine.

She treated herself

Keaton didn’t deprive herself. In a 2022 Instagram video tour of her pantry, she showed off her snack collection, saying, “I enjoy a raisin. Raisins are good for you and they smell great.” She also revealed her favorite candy: Chimes Toasted Coconut Hard Toffee.

She also liked to relax with a glass of wine. In the same Instagram video, she points out a bottle of wine, saying, “There’s a little bit of wine that I’m familiar with.” She also launched her own wine brand, The Keaton, in 2015—and in an X post said, “Don’t forget the ice. Cheers.”

Research, such as noted by Inc., shows that people who allow themselves small, planned indulgences are more likely to stick with healthy eating long-term. The key word is “small”—a few toffees, not the whole bag.

She focused outward, not inward

This might be the most important healthy habit Keaton practiced. In the AARP interview she said, “The overall trick is to stay curious, energized and engaged, and to let go of your concerns as much as possible. You want to look outward more, instead of inward so much. Oh, and never look back!” She also advised: “Distract yourself. Have a busy, full life and stop looking in the mirror all the time!”

Translation: Stop obsessing over yourself. Get interested in the world. Do stuff. Make things. Talk to people. Live.

It’s not just about positive vibes, the Harvard Longevity Study—a nearly 100-year research project—found that having a positive outlook, strong social connections and engagement with the world live longer and have better mental health. These are a bigger predictor of how long you will live than social class, IQ, or even genetics. Self-obsession and rumination, on the other hand, are linked to anxiety and depression. Looking outward can help you feel healthier and happier.

She embraced aging like a boss

When asked about getting older, Keaton previously shared: “Bottom line: I think healthy aging is something you take on with a modicum of grace.” She got real about what matters: “I’m at an age where the real goal is to be the best person you can be. That’s something that starts in your brain. It’s the real challenge of life.” Instead of the Photoshop and drastic procedures we so often see in Hollywood, she handled aging with grace, acceptance, and showing up as her best self.

This can help you, too. Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people with positive attitudes about aging live an average of 7.5 years longer than those with negative views. Accepting aging as a natural process—rather than something to fight—reduces stress and improves both mental and physical health outcomes.