Motherhealth Caregivers Bay Area In-Home Care Hollistic

Helping seniors with care , constipation and other health issues at home

During the last week, I and other caregivers have been helping clients who are alone at home and need care with bowel movement, grooming, massage, leg exercises and food.

One senior had only 20% of his kidneys working and I did the following to ensure good bowel movement:

Mix warm drink of prune juice, aloe and cranberry juice (with drops of mineral oil)
Massage back in downward motion before going to the toilet
Inserted glycerin suppositories while using finger tips to massage the anus and to stretch
Cooked bone broth and egg omelet with lots of onions and garlic (spices of turmeric and cumin)
Hot compresses on his back and told him to not control his urine/poop
Got his appetite back with home made mouth wash of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda
Cleaned ears with hydrogen peroxide
And other caregiving tips from Motherhealth 408-854-1883

A 62 yr old with paralyzed arms and lower back needs help with grooming , exercise and bowel movement, so I teach other caregivers to:

Mix warm drink of prune juice, magnesium, liquid fiber and cranberry juice (with drops of castor oil)
Massage legs and arms in downward motion with range of motion exercise on the bed.
Inserted glycerin suppositories while using finger tips to massage the anus and to stretch
I cut his hair and made a mixture of wash (hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and peppermit essential oil)
And other caregiving tips from Motherhealth 408-854-1883

What is Mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome?

Mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDS or MDDS) is any of a group of autosomal recessive disorders that cause a significant drop in mitochondrial DNA in affected tissues. Symptoms can be any combination of myopathic, hepatopathic, or encephalomyopathic.[1] These syndromes affect tissue in the muscle, liver, or both the muscle and brain, respectively. The condition is typically fatal in infancy and early childhood, though some have survived to their teenage years with the myopathic variant and some have survived into adulthood with the SUCLA2 encephalomyopathic variant.[2][3] There is currently no curative treatment for any form of MDDS, though some preliminary treatments have shown a reduction in symptoms.

Classification

MDDS are a group of genetic diseases that share a common pathology: a lack of functioning DNA in mitochondria.[5] There are generally four classes of MDDS:[5]

a form that primarily affects muscle associated with mutations in the TK2 gene;
a form that primarily affects the brain and muscle associated with mutations in the genes SUCLA2, SUCLG1, or RRM2B;
a form that primarily affects the brain and the liver associated with mutations in DGUOK, MPV17, POLG, or PEO1 (also called C10orf2); and
a form that primarily affects the brain and the gastrointestinal tract associated with mutations in ECGF1 (also called TYMP).

Signs and symptoms

All forms of MDDS are very rare. MDDS causes a wide range of symptoms, which can appear in newborns, infants, children, or adults, depending on the class of MDDS; within each class symptoms are also diverse.[5]

In MDDS associated with mutations in TK2, infants generally develop normally, but by around two years of age, symptoms of general muscle weakness (called “hypotonia”), tiredness, lack of stamina, and difficulty feeding begin to appear. Some toddlers start to lose control of the muscles in their face, mouth, and throat, and may have difficulty swallowing. Motor skills that had been learned may be lost, but generally the functioning of the brain and ability to think are not affected.[5]

In MDDS associated with mutations in SUCLA2 or SUCLG1 that primarily affect the brain and muscle, hypotonia generally arises in infants before they are 6 months old, their muscles begin wasting away, and there is delay in psychomotor learning (learning basic skills like walking, talking, and intentional, coordinated movement). The spine often begins to curve (scoliosis or kyphosis), and the child often has abnormal movements (dystonia, athetosis or chorea), difficulty feeding, acid reflux, hearing loss, stunted growth, and difficulty breathing that can lead to frequent lung infections. Sometime epilepsy develops.[5]

In MDDS associated with mutations in RRM2B that primarily affect the brain and muscle, there is again hypotonia in the first months, symptoms of lactic acidosis like nausea, vomiting, and rapid deep breathing, failure to thrive including the head remaining small, delay or regression in moving, and hearing loss. Many body systems are affected.[5][6]

In MDDS associated with mutations in DGUOK that primarily affect the brain and the liver, there are two forms. There is an early-onset form in which symptoms arise from problems in many organs in the first week of life, especially symptoms of lactic acidosis as well as low blood sugar. Within weeks of birth they can develop liver failure and the associated jaundice and abdominal swelling, and many neurological problems including developmental delays and regression, and uncontrolled eye movement. Rarely within class of already rare diseases, symptoms only relating to liver disease emerge later in infancy or in childhood.[5]

In MDDS associated with mutations in MPV17 that primarily affect the brain and the liver, the symptoms are similar to those caused by DGUOK and also emerge shortly after birth, generally with fewer and less severe neurological problems. There is a subset of people of Navajo descent who develop Navajo neurohepatopathy, who in addition to these symptoms also also have easily broken bones that do not cause pain, deformed hands or feet, and problems with their corneas.[5]

In MDDS associated with mutations in POLG that primarily affect the brain and the liver,[7] the symptoms are very diverse and can emerge anytime from shortly after birth to old age. The first signs of the disease, which include intractable seizures and failure to meet meaningful developmental milestones, usually occur in infancy, after the first year of life, but sometimes as late as the fifth year. Primary symptoms of the disease are developmental delay, progressive intellectual disability, hypotonia (low muscle tone), spasticity (stiffness of the limbs) possibly leading to quadriplegia, and progressive dementia. Seizures may include epilepsia partialis continua, a type of seizure that consists of repeated myoclonic (muscle) jerks. Optic atrophy may also occur, often leading to blindness. Deafness may also occur. Additionally, although physical signs of chronic liver dysfunction may not be present, many people suffer liver impairment leading to liver failure.[8][9]

In MDDS associated with mutations in PEO1/C10orf2 that primarily affect the brain and the liver, symptoms emerge shortly after birth or in early infancy, with hypotonia, symptoms of lactic acidosis, enlarged liver, feeding problems, lack of growth, and delay of psychomotor skills. Neurologically, development is slowed or stopped, and epilepsy emerges, as do sensory problems like loss of eye control and deafness, and neuromuscular problems like a lack of reflexes, muscular atrophy, and twitching, and epilepsy.[5]

In MDDS associated with mutations in the genes associated with mutations in ECGF1/TYMP that primarily affects the brain and the gastrointestinal tract, symptoms can emerge any time in the first fifty years of life; most often they emerge before the person turns 20. Weight loss is common as is a lack of the ability of the stomach and intestines to automatically expand and contract and thus move through it (called gastrointestinal motility) – this leads to feeling full after eating only small amounts of food, nausea, acid reflux, All affected individuals develop weight loss and progressive gastrointestinal dysmotility manifesting as early satiety, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain and swelling. People also develop neuropathy, with weakness and tingling. There are often eye problems, and intellectual disability.[5]

Causes

MDDS are caused by genetic mutations that may be inherited from the parents or may form spontaneously during development of the fetus.^[5]

Myopathic MDS is strongly correlated to a variety of mutations in the gene TK2, seeing a reduction of TK2 activity to less than 32% in people with MDS found with the mutation. Because TK2 plays a key role in the mitochondrial salvage pathways of several deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs), a lowered activity would lead to less cycling of nucleotides. This lack of nucleotide recycling is detrimental since the mitochondria cannot synthesize entirely new deoxynucleotides, and the inner membrane of the mitochondria prevents the negatively charged nucleotides of the cytosol from entering.^[10]

The SUCLA2 gene codes for the beta-subunit of SCS-A. This enzyme catalyzes the synthesis of succinate and coenzyme A into succinyl-CoA, but is also associated with the complex formed by nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK) in the last step of the dNTP salvage pathway.^[11]

The RRM2B gene, which is expressed in the cell nucleus, codes for one of two versions of the R2 subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, which generates nucleotide precursors required for DNA replication by reducing ribonucleoside diphosphates to deoxyribonucloside diphosphates. The version of R2 encoded by RRM2B is induced by p53, and is required for normal DNA repair and mtDNA synthesis in non-proliferating cells. The other form of R2 is expressed only in dividing cells.^[12]

The DGUOK gene encodes for mitochondrial deoxyguanosine kinase (dGK), which catalyzes the phosphorylation of deoxyribonucleosides into nucleotides.^[13] POLG encodes for the catalytic subunit pol γA, which is part of mitochondrial DNA polymerase.^[14]

Other causes are mutations of thymidine phosphorylase (TyMP), succinate-CoA ligase, alpha sub unit (SUCLG1) and PEO1/twinkle (C10orf2).^[3]^[15]

Diagnosis

MDDS is diagnosed based on systemic symptoms presenting in infants, followed by a clinical examination and laboratory tests (for example, high lactate levels are common) medical imaging, and usually is finally confirmed and formally identified by genetic testing.^[5]

Treatment

There are no treatments for MDDS, but some of the symptoms can be managed. For people whom MDDS does not kill, there are drugs to control epilepsy, and physical therapy can help with muscle control. Liver transplants may benefit people with liver involvement.^[5]

Prognosis

Myopathic form

The TK2 related myopathic form results in muscle weakness rapidly progresses leading to respiratory failure and death within a few years of onset. The most common cause of death is pulmonary infection. Only a few people have survived to late childhood and adolescence.^[5]

Encephalomyopathic form

SUCLA2 and RRM2B related forms result in deformities to the brain.^[5] A 2007 study based on 12 cases from the Faroe Islands (where there is a relatively high incidence due to a founder effect) suggested that the outcome is often poor with early lethality.^[16] More recent studies (2015) with 50 people with SUCLA2 mutations, with range of 16 different mutations, show a high variability in outcomes with a number of people surviving into adulthood (median survival was 20 years. There is significant evidence (p = 0.020) that people with missense mutations have longer survival rates, which might mean that some of the resulting protein has some residual enzyme activity.^[2]

RRM2B mutations have been reported in 16 infants with severe encephalomyopathic MDS that is associated with early-onset (neonatal or infantile), multi-organ presentation, and mortality during infancy.^[5]

Hepatopathic form

DGUOK, POLG, and MPV17 related forms result in defects to the liver.^[5] Liver dysfunction is progressive in the majority of individuals with both forms of DGUOK-related MDS and is the most common cause of death. For children with the multi-organ form, liver transplantation provides no survival benefit.^[17]

Liver disease typically progresses to liver failure in affected children with MPV17-related MDS and liver transplantation remains the only treatment option for liver failure. Approximately half of affected children reported did not undergo liver transplantation and died because of progressive liver failure – the majority during infancy or early childhood. A few children were reported to survive without liver transplantation.^[18]

Washington Post evening edition 8-14-2017

An American tourist gave the Nazi salute in Germany — so a stranger beat him up, police say

The American man was “severely drunk,” according to police.

By Amy B Wang • Read more »

Local • Perspective

Trump lit the torches of white supremacy in Charlottesville. We must extinguish them.

The president gave the racists permission to take off their hoods. Even after the violence Saturday in Virginia, he refused to condemn them by name. But we can.

By Petula Dvorak • Read more »

Opinion

Trump babbles in the face of tragedy

Charlottesville proved Trump incapable of one of the president’s primary jobs.

By Michael Gerson • Read more »

One dead as car strikes crowds amid protests of white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville; two police die in helicopter crash

One driver was taken into custody after the crash. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he had a message for the white nationalists: ‘Go home.’

By Joe Heim • Read more »

White House doubles down on Trump’s Charlottesville comments, ignores calls to directly confront white supremacy

Trump did not single out white nationalists in his condemnation of the weekend violence in the Virginia city.

By Jenna Johnson • Read more »

Right Turn • Opinion

Enough of the Confederate statues, the alt-right heroes and Trump’s moral idiocy

Trump gave white nationalists encouragement. Now he cannot denounce them.

By Jennifer Rubin • Read more »

Who is Kim Jong Un and what will he decide to do?

The world knows very little about North Korea’s supreme leader.

By Anna Fifield • Read more »

PostPartisan • Opinion

These are your people, President Trump

They were speaking your language, vomiting your sentiments, acting out what animates you from within.

By Colbert I. King • Read more »

Progressives are building outside of the Democratic Party to win in 2018

Just as the Tea Party complemented the work of the Obama-era GOP, progressives hope to build organizations to turn out voters who might be turned off by Democrats.

By David Weigel • Read more »

Think things will be rosy for Democrats in 2018? Not so fast.

Democratic hopes could be undermined by a good economy and structural obstacles that have grown worse since 2006 gains.

By Dan Balz • Read more »

5 dead after FDA-approved obesity treatment that places silicone balloon in stomach, agency says

All deaths happened within a month of the procedure, the FDA said in a letter earlier this week to health-care providers. However, what role the balloons played, if any, in the deaths has not been determined.

By Kristine Phillips • Read more »

Police in Charlottesville criticized for slow response to violent demonstrations

Beatings, fights broke out in park before White Nationalist rally.

By Peter Hermann • Read more »

The Post’s View • Opinion

What a presidential president would have said about Charlottesville

Once again, we offer a wishful correction to Mr. Trump’s sad record.

By Editorial Board • Read more »

Marshawn Lynch takes a stand with Colin Kaepernick — by sitting during the national anthem

Lynch had expressed his support for Kaepernick taking a knee during the National Anthem.

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. • Read more »

Exercise does so much for you. Why won’t it make you lose weight?

Weight loss keeps coming back to calories: You have to cut them to lose the pounds.

By Marlene Cimons • Read more »

Washington Post 9-5-2017

Edited by: Max J. Rosenthal and Kazi Awal

BY ISHAAN THAROOR

The North Korean chessboard: What next for the main players?

Over the weekend, North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test, claiming it had detonated a thermonuclear bomb for the first time.The regime in Pyongyang has been signaling for months its intent to unveil such a weapon, and American experts are now coming to grips with what was once an “unthinkable” scenario — that North Korea may pose a credible nuclear threat to the U.S. mainland.

On Monday, that dawning reality led Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to describe North Korea as “a global threat.” Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said during an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council that the North Korean regime was “begging for war.”

“We have kicked the can down the road long enough,” Haley said as other council members suggested additional sanctions on Pyongyang. “There is no more road left.” But here’s an attempt at gauging where the path ahead may take the actors involved in this geopolitical crisis.

The United States

The Trump administration’s approach, telegraphed for weeks by key figures such as Haley, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, is to exert “maximum pressure” to force North Korea to the negotiating table. But this position has been undercut by President Trump, who fired off a series of bellicose tweets this weekend.

Trump not only raised the prospect of a potentially catastrophic regional trade war but also criticized the new liberal government in South Korea, which hopes for more productive engagement with its northern neighbor. How this helps matters is anyone’s guess.

Trump’s rhetoric is useful in understanding the pronounced split within the White House between those who see the crisis primarily as an opportunity to pressure China, North Korea’s only real ally, and those pursuing a more conventional, if hawkish, strategy to bring North Korea to heel.

Trump, meanwhile, is also reportedly keen on scrapping an existing free-trade deal with South Korea (more on that later in the newsletter), which may in part explain his harsh words for Seoul.

The confused messaging, which now is a running theme of the Trump presidency, somewhat obscures the fact that the United States has a narrow set of options when confronting North Korea. For all the posturing over American “fire and fury,” no one is willing to countenance military action that could lead to hundreds of thousands of South Korean deaths within hours of a first strike.

U.S. officials will focus this week on extending the already tight regime of international sanctions further, possibly seeking to cut oil exports to North Korea and curb Pyongyang’s ability to send cheap North Korean laborers to neighboring China and Russia.

China and Russia

It’s unclear whether Moscow and Beijing would go along with such punitive measures at the Security Council, though neither country ruled out new sanctions on Monday. But both the Chinese and Russian ambassadors to the United Nations reiterated that diplomacy and dialogue — not simply sanctions — were essential to calming tensions.

The spotlight is burning bright on China, which has been put in an increasingly awkward position by North Korea. Chinese President Xi Jinping is preparing for a vital party congress in October that will cement his political legacy, and the drama next door is rocking the boat at the worst time.

“China has been cornered,” said Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing, to my colleague Emily Rauhala. “I’m afraid of what we are facing now, we are at the stage of a showdown.”

American critics say Beijing could do far more to pressure Pyongyang, including cutting off economic aid. But the Chinese contend that further isolating the North Korean regime would only provoke Kim Jong Un into more destabilizing and unpredictable behavior.

And while the United States and China share the same goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, they are at odds over a range of other issues, including the nature of U.S.-South Korean security ties and ongoing military exercises conducted by the United States and its allies in waters near China.

South Korea and Japan

Of course, no one is more alarmed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests than its U.S.-allied neighbors. For both Japan and South Korea, Pyongyang’s enhanced nuclear threat raises new doubts that the United States can shield their nations from attack.

“If the Americans face a choice between San Francisco and Seoul, they will choose San Francisco,” said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, to the New York Times.

Soldiers from South Korea's Capital Defense Command take part in a drill in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap via Agence France-Presse)

Soldiers from South Korea’s Capital Defense Command take part in a drill in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap via Agence France-Presse)

After the nuclear test, both countries sought reassurances from the United States and moved to beef up their own arsenals. South Korea said it would conduct a live-fire drill later this month of missiles that could potentially strike North Korean military and nuclear sites, while its defense minister floated the controversial possibility of redeploying American tactical nuclear weapons on the peninsula — a move that carries real political and security risks.

As for Trump’s jab about South Korean “appeasement,” it didn’t seem to interfere with his 40-minute phone call on Monday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in which the men pledged to “strengthen joint military capabilities” and “maximize pressure” on Pyongyang. As my colleague Anna Fifield reported, many South Koreans recognize that Trump, while a loose cannon, is still someone they must work with.

“Opinion polls show South Koreans have one of the lowest rates of regard for Trump in the world and they don’t consider him to be a reasonable person,” said David Straub, a former State Department official who dealt with both Koreas, to Fifield. “In fact, they worry he’s kind of nuts, but they still want the alliance.”

North Korea

Then there’s Kim and his regime. North Korea-watchers have puzzled over Pyongyang’s aggressive moves in the past year, which seem to have advanced beyond securing an effective deterrent against potential attack. For North Korea’s brutal leadership, a nuclear arsenal is its main avenue toward global credibility.

“After observing China’s acquisition of nuclear weapons in the 1960s and watching it stare down America’s ‘policy of hostility and imperialism’ by the early 1970s, the Kim regime seems to believe it can pull off the same trick,” noted nonproliferation expert Joshua Pollack.

Whether that’s possible half a century later is another matter. What Pyongyang does seem to be achieving, though, is a calculated chaos that has the potential of driving wedges between its neighbors. Trump’s angry jabs at South Korea are a case in point, and perhaps only a preview of more to come.

• The crisis along the Burmese border with Bangladesh has grown markedly worse since we wrote about it last week. Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are suspected to have been killed during a Burmese military offensive targeting supposed extremists. At least 75,000 Rohinyga have fled across the border to Bangladesh, with tens of thousands more marooned in a no-man’s land without adequate food or shelter.

Rights groups and leaders of Muslim countries condemned what some allege to be a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” carried out by Burmese security forces. Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nobel laureate who now is one of the country’s de facto civilian leaders, has become a magnet for criticism given her conspicuous silence on the plight of the Rohingya. In a letter to her Nobel prize-winning counterpart, Pakistani youth activist Malala Yousafzai condemned Burma’s abuse and neglect of the Rohingya, an ethnic minority deprived of basic citizenship rights by the state.

“Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same,” Yousafzai wrote. “The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are waiting.”

• Reports emerged from the White House that President Trump is readying to scrap an Obama-era program that gave young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers” temporary guarantees they would not be deported. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program had allowed 800,000 people whose parents, in most cases, came to the United States as undocumented migrants to keep living and working in the United States without fear of deportation. The mooted cancellation of that program stirred outrage and raised the prospect of a new political battle to hit Washington. My colleague David Nakamura has more:

“Moderate congressional Republicans, and even some conservatives, suggested that they are open to crafting a legislative deal that could offer permanent legal status to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been in the country illegally since they were children. Democrats lambasted Trump for his expected decision and called on the GOP to join them to protect the dreamers…

Yet the odds that a sharply polarized Congress could strike a deal — steep in the best of times — are considered especially difficult at a time when lawmakers face a busy fall agenda. Congress is under pressure to raise the federal debt limit, pass a spending bill and approve a defense authorization bill, at a time when Republicans also hope to consider a tax plan and potentially try once again to repeal the Affordable Care Act.”

• Ahead of Germany’s federal elections later this month, the main party leaders faced off in televised debates on Sunday and Monday. The two heavyweights, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her social-democrat rival Martin Schulz, sparred on Sunday in a duel that “at times resembled a duet,” as my colleague Griff Witte put it. The next day saw leaders of five smaller parties go at it in a more chaotic encounter.

In the Merkel-Schulz debate, both politicians spoke out against demagogues elsewhere, including Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but refrained from vicious blows against each other.

“On issue after issue — including refugees, the economy and, of course, President Trump — the pair expressed occasional mild disagreement but largely refrained from serious attacks,” reported Witte.

A truck drives between shipping containers at a container terminal in Incheon, South Korea, in 2016. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

Another one bites the dust?

For months, President Trump has suggested he’d like to renegotiate — or outright cancel — the U.S.-South Korea free trade deal. Now, my colleagues report, he’s instructed his team to draw up a plan for withdrawal. Although Trump’s associates say he hasn’t made up his mind, they say the decision could come as early as this week.

The trade agreement, signed in 2007, slashed tariffs on 95 percent of goods and strengthened intellectual-property protections. It was celebratedas an “integral part” of the effort to boost opportunities for U.S. businesses and farmers. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimated that exports to South Korea would grow by $10 billion. The head of a U.S. manufacturing lobby said it would produce “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Except it didn’t quite work. Since the arrangement went into effect in 2012, the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea, America’s sixth-largest goods trading partner last year, has more than doubled. U.S. exports to South Korea fell by $3 billion between 2011 and 2016.

“As tariffs fell, American carmakers griped that South Korean regulators were erecting other barriers,” the Economist explained. “The South Korean government was accused of devaluing its currency for competitive advantage.”

On its face, that looks pretty bad. But experts say the deal isn’t primarily to blame for the deficit. The U.S.-South Korea deal came into effect as trade was slowing around the world. “Without the deal, which slashed tariffs, American goods exports would have been even lower,” the Economist wrote.

And some U.S. industries have benefited tremendously. Beef exports to South Korea, for example, rose 152 percent between 2011 and 2017. U.S. service industries have done well, and Korean companies have invested $23 billion in the United States. That’s more than in the previous 30 years, according to Business Insider.

Experts say that withdrawing completely would lead to big increases on the tariffs levied against products the United States imports from South Korea. That would mean all kinds of everyday goods, from televisions to cellphones and automobiles, would get more expensive. South Korea would probably raise tariffs against U.S. products too, including agricultural products.

It would create diplomatic headaches too, isolating South Korea as tension with North Korea roils. Canceling the trade deal is “likely to strain diplomatic relationships,” Honglin Jian, a research analyst at Credit Suisse, wrote in a note. — Amanda Erickson

Journalists watch a televised debate between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz, leader of Germany's SPD party, in Berlin on Sept. 3. (John Macdougall/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)</p>

Journalists watch a televised debate between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz, leader of Germany’s SPD party, in Berlin on Sept. 3. (John Macdougall/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

The big news

The German election is now in full swing, or something like it. The big debate on Sunday night between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz, her challenger from the Social Democrats seemed to do little to change the race or threaten Merkel’s dominant position. With Merkel seemingly on track to comfortably win a fourth term later this month — her party is polling around 40 percent, far more than any of its rivals — The Post‘s Berlin-based writer Rick Noack is asking Germans to weigh in on the election, the big issues at stake and whether or not the vote even matters to them given the almost-certain outcome. Here’s how to participate or follow along with his coverage:

What is this project?

As Germany prepares to head to the polls, Noack will give readers in Germany and elsewhere the opportunity to follow personal updates from the ground in Berlin via messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

Over the next three weeks, he’ll use those services to broadcast daily updates and occasional polls, while also replying to responses from readers.

How it works

Using WhatsBroadcast as our service provider, subscribers can select exactly where they want to receive updates. Updates are available in both German and English on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram. The broadcast list launched on Sept. 4 and runs through election night. Subscribers will be given a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to build a story from scratch at The Washington Post. We will also kick-start discussions around the election and hope to highlight some of them in future coverage.

How can I subscribe?

You can subscribe to receive updates directly to your smartphone here.

If you want to subscribe via WhatsApp, simply add the number shown here as a contact in your phone and send the word “start” to activate the messages.

To subscribe via Telegram, please search for our contact called “WashingtonPostGermanElection_bot” in the app, and text “start” in order to receive updates.

If you prefer to subscribe to updates via Facebook Messenger, please send the word “start” to our Facebook page washingtonpostworld.

As the Trump administration searches for a response to North Korea’s continuing tests, Foreign Policy warns that Pyongyang is trying to drive wedges between Washington and its allies in Asia, while The Post explains why it’s vital to keep America’s ties with South Korea healthy and close. In Germany, a psychologist tells Der Spiegel that the emotions of German voters are running high beneath the placid surface of the election. And in Bangladesh, a local paper urges Bangladeshis to welcome the Rohingya Muslims being forced into their country by persecution in Burma.

North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests are aimed at splitting its rivals

Can Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. stand firm against Pyongyang’s efforts to drive wedges among them?

By Leif-Eric Easley | Foreign Policy • Read more »

Facing North Korea, Washington and Seoul must avoid war with each other

No ally has been as loyal as South Korea.

By Chung Min Lee | The Washington Post • Read more »

‘I’ve never seen so much hate’

Stephan Grünewald has spent much of his career studying Germans. In a new study, he looked at current political attitudes and discovered raw emotions ahead of the upcoming election.

By Nils Minkmar | Der Spiegel • Read more »

Let them in

We cannot close our doors to people fleeing ethnic cleansing

By The Dhaka Tribune • Read more »

The U.S. has the worst income inequality in the developed world, and the gap may be greater now than during any other era. The New York Times explores the problem by contrasting the career trajectories of two janitors. In other news, BuzzFeed explains how a teenaged Internet troll who came to the U.S. expecting freedom from persecution ended up grounded in a detention center, while The Post finds out whether or not it’s fair to call one band’s die-hard legion of fans criminals.

To understand rising inequality, consider the janitors at two top companies, then and now

Focusing on core competence and outsourcing the rest has made U.S. companies lean, nimble and productive. It has also left lots of people worse off.

By Neil Irwin | The New York Times • Read more »

This teen troll fled to the U.S. for political asylum. Now he’s stuck in a deportation center.

18-year-old Amos Yee went up against the repressive Singaporean government with ideas and tactics he learned on YouTube. Then he fled to the U.S.

By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian | BuzzFeed • Read more »

The FBI labeled Insane Clown Posse fans a gang. Now they’re marching on Washington.

The FBI labeled abrasive rap group’s fans a gang. The move touched off a controversy at the crossroads of pop culture, criminal justice and the First Amendment.

By Justin Jouvenal, Devin Doyle and Benjamin Din | The Washington Post • Read more »

American football is back for a new season, but the biggest touchdown of the weekend took place in Kazakhstan. A Soyuz capsule returned to earth on Saturday, carrying three astronauts back from the International Space Station. One of them was Peggy Whitson, who shattered several American spaceflight records during her 288-day stint in orbit. In addition to being the oldest woman to fly in space and the most experienced female spacewalker, Whitson has now spent more days in space than any other American in history. (Sergei Ilnitsky/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

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Utah hospital bars police from contact with nurses after ‘appalling’ arrest

The action stems from the rough treatment by police of nurse Alex Wubbels.

By Fred Barbash • Read more »

Hurricane Irma strengthens to Category 4 on its track toward the U.S.

It’s becoming less likely that Irma will escape out to sea, and the chances of a U.S. landfall have increased compared with Sunday.

By Greg Porter and Angela Fritz • Read more »

Parkinson’s Severity Assessed Through Drawing

Summary: Researchers have developed software capable of measuring writing speed and the pressure of a pen on a page. Asking volunteers to draw spirals, and using the new technology to analyse both speed and pen pressure, researchers were able to detect who had Parkinson’s, as well as the severity of the disease.

Source: Frontiers.

Researchers combined measurements of drawing speed and pen pressure to diagnose Parkinson’s disease severity.

Researchers in Australia asked volunteers to draw a spiral on a sheet of paper. By analyzing how long it took them to draw the spiral and how hard they pressed on the paper with the pen, the team could not only tell which volunteers had Parkinson’s disease, they could also tell how severe it was.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes shaking, muscle rigidity and difficulty with walking. Many treatment options for Parkinson’s are only effective when doctors diagnose the disease early, and when symptoms are very noticeable it may be too late. It’s also important for doctors to be able to tell how severe the disease is, to make the right treatment decisions, and to follow-up the progression of symptoms.

One way to contribute to the diagnosis of Parkinson’s involves getting patients to use a pen. Certain symptoms that appear early in the disease, such as rigidity, can interfere with a patient’s ability to write or sketch. Handwriting can be influenced by a person’s level of education and language proficiency, so a better alternative involves sketching a shape, such as a spiral.

One drawback to this approach is that only an expert can interpret the sketches, meaning that routine check-ups at a doctor’s surgery aren’t possible. However, even for an expert, it can be difficult to tell how severe the disease is from the sketches alone, especially at the early stages of the disease.

Previous research has found that Parkinson’s patients tend to move their pen more slowly when sketching, and they also use less pressure on the page. While these factors are useful for telling if someone has Parkinson’s or not, so far researchers have not been able to reliably gauge how severe someone’s disease is, using pen speed or pressure.

In a new study, recently published in Frontiers in Neurology, a team of researchers in Australia set out to develop an automatic system to contribute to the diagnosis of Parkinson’s, and to asess its severity, from the comfort of a community doctor’s office. “Our aim was to develop an affordable and automated electronic system for early-stage diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, which could be used easily by a community doctor or nursing staff,” explains Poonam Zham, a researcher involved in the study.

The researchers developed specialized software and combined it with a tablet computer that can measure writing speed, and a pen that can measure pressure on a page. They used the system to measure pen speed and pressure during a simple spiral sketching task in a sample of healthy volunteers and Parkinson’s patients with different levels of disease severity. In a world-first, the system also mathematically combines pen speed and pressure into one measurement, which the team calls the Composite Index of Speed and Pen-pressure (CISP) score.

The system measured slower pen speeds, pen pressures and CISP scores in the Parkinson’s patients, compared with the healthy volunteers, and all three measurements clearly indicated whether a participant had Parkinson’s or not. On their own, pen speed and pressure were not sufficiently different between patients with different levels of Parkinson’s severity, for the system to distinguish between them.

However, using the new CISP score, the system could tell whether the patients had level 1 or level 3 Parkinson’s, using a particular disease severity scale. “The system can automatically provide accurate Parkinson’s diagnosis and could also be used by community doctors to monitor the effect of treatment on the disease,” says Zham. “This simple device can be used by community doctors for routine screening of their patients every few years after the patients are above middle-age.”

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Funding: The work was supported by RMIT University, Dandenong Neurology Centre.

Source: Melissa Cochrane – Frontiers
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Dinesh Kumar and Ms. Poonam Zham of the ‘Affordable diagnostics’ group in RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
Video Source: The video is credited to RMIT University.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Distinguishing Different Stages of Parkinson’s Disease Using Composite Index of Speed and Pen-Pressure of Sketching a Spiral” by Poonam Zham, Dinesh K. Kumar, Peter Dabnichki, Sridhar Poosapadi Arjunan, and Sanjay Raghav in Frontiers in Neurology. Published online September 6 2017 doi:10.3389/fneur.2017.00435

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Frontiers “Parkinson’s Severity Assessed Through Drawing.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 6 September 2017.
<http://neurosciencenews.com/parkinsons-drawing-7422/>.

Abstract

Distinguishing Different Stages of Parkinson’s Disease Using Composite Index of Speed and Pen-Pressure of Sketching a Spiral

The speed and pen-pressure while sketching a spiral are lower among Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with higher severity of the disease. However, the correlation between these features and the severity level (SL) of PD has been reported to be 0.4. There is a need for identifying parameters with a stronger correlation for considering this for accurate diagnosis of the disease. This study has proposed the use of the Composite Index of Speed and Pen-pressure (CISP) of sketching as a feature for analyzing the severity of PD. A total of 28 control group (CG) and 27 PD patients (total 55 participants) were recruited and assessed for Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). They drew guided Archimedean spiral on an A3 sheet. Speed, pen-pressure, and CISP were computed and analyzed to obtain their correlation with severity of the disease. The correlation of speed, pen-pressure, and CISP with the severity of PD was −0.415, −0.584, and −0.641, respectively. Mann–Whitney U test confirmed that CISP was suitable to distinguish between PD and CG, while non-parametric k-sample Kruskal–Wallis test confirmed that it was significantly different for PD SL-1 and PD SL-3. This shows that CISP during spiral sketching may be used to differentiate between CG and PD and between PD SL-1 and PD SL-3 but not SL-2.

“Distinguishing Different Stages of Parkinson’s Disease Using Composite Index of Speed and Pen-Pressure of Sketching a Spiral” by Poonam Zham, Dinesh K. Kumar, Peter Dabnichki, Sridhar Poosapadi Arjunan, and Sanjay Raghav in Frontiers in Neurology. Published online September 6 2017 doi:10.3389/fneur.2017.00435

Ketogenic Diet Improves Lifespan and Memory in Aging Mice

Summary: Researchers report mice that were put on a ketogenic diet showed significant improvements in memory and were more likely to survive to older ages than those on different diets.

Source: Buck Institute.

Study on the effects of ketone bodies opens up new area of inquiry in aging research.

A ketogenic diet significantly improved memory in aging mice and increased the animal’s chances of surviving to old age. Results of the study from Eric Verdin’s lab at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, CA are published in the September 5th issue of Cell Metabolism.

Eating a ketogenic diet – which is high fat, low protein, and low carbohydrates – ramps up the production of the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate acid (BHB). While small studies in humans with cognitive impairment have suggested that BHB could improve memory, senior scientist and Buck President and CEO, Eric Verdin MD, says this is the first study in aging mammals which details the positive effects of BHB on memory and lifespan. “This opens up a new field in aging research,” said Verdin. “We think the health benefits of BHB may go beyond memory and could affect tissues and organ systems.” Verdin added that the results also support efforts in his lab to translate the findings to the clinic. “We’re looking for drug targets. The ultimate goal is to find a way for humans to benefit from BHBs without having to go on a restrictive diet.”

The study was designed by lead scientist John Newman, MD, PhD, who is both a researcher in the Verdin lab and a geriatrician at University of California San Francisco. He wanted to study the long-term effects of a ketogenic diet in mice, while addressing one of the major issues that crop up in research involving diet – variability. “When studying a diet intervention, you have to pay attention to every detail,” he said. Newman carefully designed three diets that were matched in every way except fat and carbohydrate content: a normal high-carbohydrate diet, a zero-carbohydrate ketogenic diet, and a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that was not ketogenic. Mice were fed the ketogenic diet intermittently to prevent them from becoming obese, starting at one year old – middle age for mice.

The ketogenic diet-fed mice had a lower risk of dying as they aged from one to two years old, although their maximum lifespan was unchanged. Another group of mice underwent memory testing at both middle age (one year old) and old age (two years old). Mice that had been eating a ketogenic diet performed at least as well on memory tests at old age as they did at middle age, while mice eating the normal diet showed an expected age-associated decline. Mice who ate the ketogenic diet also explored more, and their improved memory was confirmed with another test a few months later. Newman noted that the mice were off the ketogenic diet and did not have any BHB in their blood during the testing period. “We were careful to have all of the mice eating a normal diet during the actual memory testing which suggests the effects of the ketogenic diet were lasting. Something changed in the brains of these mice to make them more resilient to the effects of age,” he said. “Determining what this is, is the next step in the work.”

Newman said gene expression could explain the cognitive improvement. “Looking at gene expression, the ketogenic diet suppressed the longevity-related TOR pathway and insulin signaling and up-regulated the fasting-related transcription factor PPAR-alpha, a master regulator that helps the body more efficiently metabolize fat.”

Verdin said the study will open the door to new therapies for the cognitive problems of aging. “As we gain a deeper understanding of what BHB does in our body and our brain, we can intelligently design therapies to capture individual benefits while minimizing harms.” The Verdin lab is currently exploring beneficial effects of a similar ketogenic diet in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.

The research has many caveats for humans eager to utilize diet to improve their odds of maintaining cognitive ability — it involved a single strain and sex of mice living in an environment where it’s easy to control every aspect of the diet. Ketogenic diets are used clinically for life-threatening conditions like epilepsy, and most people should consult a health care professional before trying it on their own, said Verdin. “Exercise also creates ketone bodies – that may be one of the mechanisms why it shows such protective effects on brain function and on healthspan and lifespan,” he said.

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Other Buck Institute collaborators include Anthony J. Covarrubias, Minghao Zhao, and Che-Ping Ng. Other collaborators include Xinxing Yu, UCSF Division of Geriatrics, San Francisco, CA; Philip Gut, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, San Francisco, CA; and Yu Huang and Saptarsi Haldar from the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, San Francisco, CA.

Funding: The work was supported by grants from National Institutes of Health, K08AG048354 and R24DK085610; Gladstone Institutes intramural funds, Buck Institute intramural funds, and funds from the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, the American Federal for Aging Research and the Buck Institute Impact Circle.

Source: Verena Müller – Buck Institute
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Newman et al./Cell Metabolism.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Ketogenic Diet Reduces Midlife Mortality and Improves Memory in Aging Mice” by John C. Newman, Anthony J. Covarrubias, Minghao Zhao, Xinxing Yu, Philip Gut, Che-Ping Ng, Yu Huang, Saptarsi Haldar, Eand ric Verdin in Cell Metabolism. Published online September 5 2017 doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2017.08.004

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Buck Institute “Ketogenic Diet Improves Lifespan and Memory in Aging Mice.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 5 September 2017.
<http://neurosciencenews.com/ketogenic-diet-aging-7419/>.

Abstract

Ketogenic Diet Reduces Midlife Mortality and Improves Memory in Aging Mice

Highlights
•Feeding isoprotein ketogenic diet to mice every other week (Cyclic KD) avoids obesity
•Cyclic KD reduces midlife mortality with no change in maximum lifespan
•Cyclic KD prevents memory decline with modest other healthspan effects
•Gene expression of KD is similar to high-fat diet, except for activation of PPARα targets

Summary
Ketogenic diets recapitulate certain metabolic aspects of dietary restriction such as reliance on fatty acid metabolism and production of ketone bodies. We investigated whether an isoprotein ketogenic diet (KD) might, like dietary restriction, affect longevity and healthspan in C57BL/6 male mice. We find that Cyclic KD, KD alternated weekly with the Control diet to prevent obesity, reduces midlife mortality but does not affect maximum lifespan. A non-ketogenic high-fat diet (HF) fed similarly may have an intermediate effect on mortality. Cyclic KD improves memory performance in old age, while modestly improving composite healthspan measures. Gene expression analysis identifies downregulation of insulin, protein synthesis, and fatty acid synthesis pathways as mechanisms common to KD and HF. However, upregulation of PPARα target genes is unique to KD, consistent across tissues, and preserved in old age. In all, we show that a non-obesogenic ketogenic diet improves survival, memory, and healthspan in aging mice.

“Ketogenic Diet Reduces Midlife Mortality and Improves Memory in Aging Mice” by John C. Newman, Anthony J. Covarrubias, Minghao Zhao, Xinxing Yu, Philip Gut, Che-Ping Ng, Yu Huang, Saptarsi Haldar, Eand ric Verdin in Cell Metabolism. Published online September 5 2017 doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2017.08.004

Sugarcane helps with sleep

Can’t Sleep Due to Stress? Here’s the Cure

Summary: According to researchers, octacosanol, an active compound found in sugarcane can help reduce stress and allow people to achieve a sound sleep.

Source: University of Tsukuba.

Everyone empirically knows that stressful events certainly affect sound sleep. Scientists in the Japanese sleep institute found that the active component rich in sugarcane and other natural products may ameliorate stress and help acheive sound sleep.

In today’s world ever-changing environment, demanding job works and socio-economic factors enforces sleep deprivation in human population. Sleep deprivation induces tremendous amount of stress, and stress itself is one of the major factors responsible for sleep loss or difficulty in falling into sleep. Currently available sleeping pills does not address stress component and often have severe side effects. Sleep loss is also associated with certain other diseases including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, depression, anxiety, mania deficits etc.

The research group led by Mahesh K. Kaushik and Yoshihiro Urade of the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS), University of Tsukuba, found that octacosanol reduces stress and restores stress-affected sleep back to normal.

Octacosanol is abundantly present in various everyday foods such as sugarcane (thin whitish layer on surface), rice bran, wheat germ oil, bee wax etc. The crude extract is policosanol, where octacosanol is the major constituent. Policosanol and octacosanol have already been used in humans for various other medical conditions.

In the current study, authors made an advancement and investigated the effect of octacosanol on sleep regulation in mildly stressed mice by oral administration. Octacosanol reduced corticosterone level in blood plasma, which is a stress marker. The octacosanol-administered mice also showed normal sleep, which was previously disturbed due to stress. They therefore claim that the octacosanol mitigates stress in mice and restores stress-affected sleep to normal in mice. The sleep induced by octacosanol was similar to natural sleep and physiological in nature. However, authors also claimed that octacosanol does not affect sleep in normal animals. These results clearly demonstrated that octacosanol is an active compound that has potential to reduce stress and to increase sleep, and it could potentially be useful for the therapy of insomnia caused by stress. Octacosanol can be considered safe for human use as a therapy, because it is a food-based compound and believed to show no side effects.

Octacosanol/policosanol supplements are used by humans for functions such as lipid metabolism, cholesterol lowering or to provide strength. However, well-planned clinical studies need to be carried out to confirm its effect on humans for its stress-mitigation and sleep-inducing potentials. “Future studies include the identification of target brain area of octacosanol, its BBB permeability, and the mechanism via which octacosanol lowers stress,” Kaushik says.

ABOUT THIS NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH ARTICLE

Source: Masataka Sasabe – University of Tsukuba
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Univetsity of Tsukuba.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Octacosanol restores stress-affected sleep in mice by alleviating stress” by Mahesh K. Kaushik, Kosuke Aritake, Atsuko Takeuchi, Masashi Yanagisawa & Yoshihiro Urade in Scientific Reports. Published online August 21 2017 doi:10.1038/s41598-017-08874-2

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University of Tsukuba “Can’t Sleep Due to Stress? Here’s the Cure.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews,5 September 2017.
<http://neurosciencenews.com/sleep-stress-7417/>.

Abstract

Octacosanol restores stress-affected sleep in mice by alleviating stress

Octacosanol, a component of various food materials, possesses prominent biological activities and functions. It fights against cellular stress by increasing glutathione level and thus scavenging oxygen reactive species. However, its anti-stress activity and role in sleep induction remained elusive. We hypothesize that octacosanol can restore stress-affected sleep by mitigating stress. Cage change strategy was used to induce mild stress and sleep disturbance in mice, and effects of octacosanol administration on amount of sleep and stress were investigated. Results showed that octacosanol did not change rapid eye movement (REM) or non-REM (NREM) sleep compared to vehicle in normal mice. However, in cage change experiment, octacosanol induces significant increase in NREM sleep at doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg (75.7 ± 14.9 and 82.7 ± 9.3 min/5 h) compared to vehicle (21.2 ± 5.1 min/5 h), and decreased sleep latency. Octacosanol induced sleep by increasing number of sleep episodes and decreasing wake episode duration. Plasma corticosterone levels were significantly reduced after octacosanol (200 mg/kg) administration, suggesting a decrease in stress level. Octacosanol-induced changes in sleep-wake parameters in stressed-mice were comparable to the values in normal mice. Together, these data clearly showed that, though octacosanol does not alter normal sleep, it clearly alleviates stress and restore stress-affected sleep.

“Octacosanol restores stress-affected sleep in mice by alleviating stress” by Mahesh K. Kaushik, Kosuke Aritake, Atsuko Takeuchi, Masashi Yanagisawa & Yoshihiro Urade in Scientific Reports. Published online August 21 2017 doi:10.1038/s41598-017-08874-2

How to be an IHSS caregiver provider

These steps will help you be registered as an IHSS caregiver provider in Santa Clara county:

Complete application as In home support provider service – IHSS for Santa Clara county at http://www.pascc.org
Watch 6 IHSS videos
Go to 2115 The Alameda San Jose CA 95126 office to complete the form and get ID picture taken.
Get fingerprinted for $12 at a local UPS.
Attend an hour orientation every Friday, Oct 20 and 27.
Wait for your certification in the mail.
Get trained by Connie as caregiver, text 408-854-1883 and help in marketing to get your first client.

Email motherhealth@gmail.com to start working as a caregiver now. Text 408-854-1883 to get your initial training now and help with marketing.

new business card motherhealth — bay area senior care

How Red Light Therapy Works

Visible red light is capable of penetrating the skin to a depth of about 8 to 10 mm. Once absorbed, the light energy is converted to cellular energy, stimulating the body’s natural processes on a cellular level and kicking off a whole series of metabolic events, including:

Increased circulation and the formation of new capillaries. ¹
Increased lymph system activity.
Increased production of collagen and fibroblasts. ²
Increased release of ATP, or raw cellular energy. ³
Increased phagocytosis, or cellular clean up.
Tissue granulation stimulated. ⁴
Inflammation reduced. ⁵

All of these things work together to produce many benefits for you in the areas of anti-aging, the healing of wounds and injuries, and the relief of pain, as we’ll see below. But no matter what the application, red and infrared light therapy share the same benefits overall.

Red Light Therapy For Your Skin

By far the most popular use for red light therapy is anti-aging of the skin. If that’s why you’re here, please visit this page to learn exactly how red light is going to make you look younger. But before you go, it’s important to know that red light therapy can be used to treat a growing list of skin conditions including:

acne
rosacea
eczema
psoriasis
cold sores and herpes
everyday cuts, scrapes burns & bruises

Visit this page for more information on red light therapy for skin conditions.

The Wavelengths of Red Light Therapy

Red light therapy uses wavelengths of light roughly between 620 nm and 700 nm. Popular wavelengths used in research and in-home products are 630 nm and 660 nm. Regardless of claims of only “specific wavelengths” being effective, the whole range of visible red light wavelengths are effective and beneficial. In fact, many devices today are including two or three of them instead of just one.

Red LED Light Therapy

Red LED light therapy is very popular today, especially for anti-aging, acne and rosacea treatment. What’s so special about it? Red LED light therapy is red light therapy, just using an LED light source instead of incandescent, fluorescent, or laser. But red LED light therapy does have some unique benefits of its own.

LEDs were NASA’s choice for red light therapy when it brought the technique into space around the year 2000. They chose this technology for its low energy requirements, as well as its low heat emission and light weight.

Those same qualities made later research more accurate, and, to date, hundreds of studies from around the world have shown the benefits of red light therapy in the fields of anti-aging, healing, and pain relief.

What makes Red LED Light Therapy different?

1. Tighter Wavelength Span. Red LED light has a tighter wavelength span than other types of bulbs. For example, while a fluorescent or incandescent red light might have a 660nm peak, they could include wavelengths of plus or minus 40nm or more. However, in the case of red LED light with the same 660nm peak, the useful wavelengths are only plus or minus about 10nm. For this reason, some consider LEDs a superior vehicle for delivering the necessary light for a given application.

High Power LED Chip on Board Technology for red LED light therapy. — Newer, High Power LED Chip on Board Technology

2. No heat. There is very little heat generated with red LED light therapy, which makes the technique safer and more pleasant.

3. Durable & Long Lasting. Today’s LED devices use solid state electronics and plastic or metal housing which is much more durable and long lasting than incandescent or fluorescent bulbs made of glass.

4. Compact & Portable. LEDs are tiny little things, so it’s easy to pack them into a small, hand-held, portable device.

5. Earth Friendly. Red LED light therapy is more eco-friendly than using incandescent or fluorescent bulbs because they can produce the same amount of light but do so while using a small fraction of the energy.

That’s it! Those are the major things that make red LED light therapy any different or better than red light therapy from any other light source.

Effective red light therapy can be accomplished with any red light source including incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, LED, low level laser or cold laser. Each type of light has its benefits and drawbacks, but ineffectiveness is not one of them.

408-854-1883 starts at $30 per hr home care

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Parkinson’s Severity Assessed Through Drawing

Parkinson’s Severity Assessed Through Drawing

Ketogenic Diet Improves Lifespan and Memory in Aging Mice

Ketogenic Diet Improves Lifespan and Memory in Aging Mice

Sugarcane helps with sleep

Can’t Sleep Due to Stress? Here’s the Cure

How to be an IHSS caregiver provider

Love Your Beauty Rest? You Can Thank These Brain Cells

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How Red Light Therapy Works

How Red Light Therapy Works

Red Light Therapy For Your Skin

The Wavelengths of Red Light Therapy

Red LED Light Therapy

What makes Red LED Light Therapy different?