“National Foot Health Awareness Month is observed in April to raise critical awareness regarding our foot health. Understanding the value of healthy feet is essential. Below, our experts share important tips, tricks and fascinating facts on one of the most important parts of our body–our feet!
Step Into April On A Good Foot With These Tips and Tricks
Inspect your feet regularly and pay attention to changes in color, texture or appearance.
Maintain good foot hygiene, including washing and drying between the toes.
Hydrate the skin. Southern California weather and open shoes can cause rapid loss of moisture from the skin and may result in cracking or the formation of fissures. It is helpful to replace the moisture content by using lotions or creams on a regular basis.
Don’t ignorefoot pain. Symptoms that increase or do not resolve within a reasonable period of time need to be evaluated by your podiatric physician.”
Feet First Foot Care Specialists LLC-conservative and surgical foot care – posted: Mar. 31, 2023-Dr. A. Mucinska
“A good laugh has great short-term effects. When you start to laugh, it doesn’t just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body.
Laughter or humor in short term changes it does this to the body:
Stimulate many organs. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
Activate and relieve your stress response. A rollicking laugh fires up and then cools down your stress response, and it can increase and then decrease your heart rate and blood pressure. The result? A good, relaxed feeling.
Soothe tension.Laughter can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation, both of which can help reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.
Laughter or humor in Long Term Effects it does this to the body:
Improve your immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. By contrast, positive thoughts can actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses.
Relieve pain. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers.
Increase personal satisfaction. Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. It also helps you connect with other people.
Improve your mood. Many people experience depression, sometimes due to chronic illnesses. Laughter can help lessen your stress, depression and anxiety and may make you feel happier. It can also improve your self-esteem.”
MAYO CLINIC (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456)
“Thrombocytopenia-absent radius (TAR) syndrome is a rare disorder that is present at birth (congenital). It is characterized by low levels of platelets in the blood (thrombocytopenia) and absence (aplasia) of the long, thin bones of the forearms (radii) but with presence of thumbs. Other abnormalities are often present including additional skeletal defects such as absence or underdevelopment of the other bone of the forearm (ulna), structural malformations of the heart (congenital heart defects) and kidney (renal) defects.”
NORD National Organization For Rare Diseases (https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/thrombocytopenia-absent-radius-syndrome/)
“Cotard’s syndrome is a relatively rare condition that was first described by Dr. Jules Cotard in 1882. Cotard’s syndrome comprises any one of a series of delusions that range from a belief that one has lost organs, blood, or body parts to insisting that one has lost one’s soul or is dead.”
NIH National Library of Medicine (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695744/)
Cotard delusion, also known as or nihilistic delusion or walking corpsesyndrome or Cotard’s syndrome , is a rare mental disorder in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that they are already dead, do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs.
Signs and Symptoms:
One of the main symptoms of Cotard delusion is nihilism. Nihilism is the belief that nothing has any value or meaning. It can also include the belief that nothing really exists. People with Cotard delusion feel as if they’re dead or rotting away. In some cases, they might feel like they’ve never existed.
While some people feel this way about their entire body, others only feel it in regard to specific organs, limbs, or even their soul.
Depression is also closely related to Cotard delusion. A 2011 review of existing research about Cotard delusion notes that 89% of documented cases include depression as a symptom.
Other symptoms include:
anxiety
hallucinations
hypochondria
guilt
preoccupation with hurting yourself or death
Researchers aren’t sure what causes Cotard delusion, but there are a few possible risk factors. Several studies indicate that the average age of people with Cotard delusion is about 50. It can also occur in children and teenagers. People under the age of 25 with Cotard delusion tend to also have bipolar depression. Women also seem to be more likely to develop Cotard delusion.
In addition, Cotard delusion seems to occur more often in people who think their personal characteristics, rather than their environment, cause their behavior. People who believe that their environment causes their behavior are more likely to have a related condition called Capgras syndrome. This syndrome causes people to think their family and friends have been replaced by imposters. Cotard delusion and Capgras syndrome can also appear together.
Other mental health conditions that might increase someone’s risk of developing Cotard delusion include:
bipolar disorder
postpartum depression
catatonia
depersonalization disorder
dissociative disorder
psychotic depression
schizophrenia
Cotard delusion also seems to be associated with certain neurological conditions, including:
1-“Since 1996, evidence has been increasing for a causal relationship between the outbreak in Europe of a disease in cattle, called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or “mad cow disease”), and a disease in humans, called “variant” Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).
Both disorders are invariably fatal brain diseases with unusually long incubation periods measured in years, and are caused by abnormally folded proteins in the brain called “prions” (pree-ons). ”
Cattle affected by BSE experience progressive degeneration of the nervous system. Signs usually don’t appear until about 3–6 years after initial infection.
The highest quality beef comes from animals that are under 36 months of age. Old cows produce highly acceptable beef if properly fattened and processed but know there is testing cows for it before making it food on our table.
Know this BSE belongs to a family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies that includes, among others, scrapie in sheep and goats; chronic wasting disease in deer, elk, and moose; and classic and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.”
1-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/prions/index.html)
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2-CHICAGO (Reuters) states – On May 19,2023 they stated “The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Friday an atypical case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called mad cow disease, in an older beef cow at a slaughter plant in South Carolina.
USDA stated “the animal never entered slaughter channels and the agency did not expect any trade impacts as a result.
It was the seventh detection of BSE in the United States since 2003 and all but one have been atypical”
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a statement “This finding of an atypical case will not change the negligible risk status of the United States and should not lead to any trade issues,”.
3-“We know that the earliest point at which current tests can accurately detect BSE is 2-to-3 months before the animal begins to show symptoms. The time between initial infection and the appearance of symptoms is about 5 years. Since most cattle that go to slaughter in the United States are both young and clinically normal, testing all slaughter cattle for BSE might offer misleading assurances of safety to the public.
The carcasses from the tested animals are held and not allowed to enter the human food chain until test results show the samples are negative for Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or Mad Cow Disease).”
3-U.S.D.A US Dept of Agriculture (https://www.usda.gov/topics/animals/bse-surveillance-information-center)
“Currently, there is no test to detect the disease in a live animal or in muscle meat products. BSE can only be confirmed by microscopic examination of brain tissue from the animal after its death using sophisticated laboratory techniques.”
Their is no standard testing before each cow including other wild life animals listed at the top that go on our plate sold in stores for food? Another thought, In the United States and the European Union, cows are typically slaughtered for beef between the ages of 18 months and 30 months. In the United States, most cows are slaughtered at around 24-30 months of age, although some may be slaughtered as young as 18 months; cows are about 5 yrs old when symptoms start showing. No regular testing on all cows used for meat for BSE no matter how low the incidence in US due to spreading can occur; really? Quite interestingbut know based on statistics you have a 1 in a million chance getting this & it seems by history you have more of a chance in the mid to mid west area of US.
“The word BSE is short but it stands for a disease with a long name, bovine spongiform encephalopathy. “Bovine” means that the disease affects cows, “spongiform” refers to the way the brain from a sick cow looks spongy under a microscope, and “encephalopathy” meaning that it is a disease of the brain. BSE is commonly called “mad cow disease.
Cattle affected by BSE experience progressive degeneration of the nervous system. Signs usually don’t appear until about 3–6 years after initial infection.
Here’s what to look for:
Changes in temperament (nervousness or aggression)
Abnormal posture
Coordination problems and difficulty in rising
Weight loss
Decreased milk production
Loss of condition without noticeable loss of appetite
After signs appear, the animal’s condition deteriorates until it dies. This usually takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months.”
U.S.D.A. US Dept or Agriculture (https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/cattle/bse)
“Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It can be caused by a number of infectious agents including viruses and bacteria. The type of meningitis and its cause can only be determined by conducting laboratory tests.
Viral meningitis (also called aseptic meningitis) is the most common type of meningitis and is less severe than bacterial meningitis. In Illinois, an average of 600 cases of aseptic meningitis is reported annually, with most occurring in late summer and early autumn. The majority of cases of aseptic meningitis are due to viruses called enteroviruses that can infect the stomach and small intestine. A small number of cases are caused by different viruses, which can be transmitted by infected mosquitoes; these are called arboviruses. Fatal cases of viral meningitis are rare and complete recovery is the rule.
Bacterial meningitis is often more severe than aseptic meningitis, particularly in infants and the elderly. Before antibiotics were widely used, 70 percent or more of bacterial meningitis cases were fatal; with antibiotic treatment, the fatality rate has dropped to 15 percent or less. Bacterial meningitis is most common in the winter and spring. Three bacteria cause the majority of cases: Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitidis or Streptococcus pneumoniae.”
Illinois Dept. Public Health-IDPH (https://dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/diseases-and-conditions/diseases-a-z-list/meningitis.html)
“With the onset of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, animals that hibernate are waking up from a long-period of deep sleep. They spent the winter hibernating to conserve energy when food was scarce. Animals that hibernate include bats, black bears, Arctic ground squirrels, and common poorwill birds. Many other species such as raccoons and skunks go into a state of torpor during the cold weather, which is a type of light hibernation. Most hibernators wake up during the months of March and April, but some do so as late as May.”
