May is Mental Health Month, an important opportunity to raise awareness and promote understanding of mental health issues. This year, the theme of Mental Health Month is “Tools 2 Thrive,” which focuses on practical tools and resources that can help individuals improve their mental health and well-being.

Mental health is a critical component of our overall health and well-being, but it is often overlooked or stigmatized. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five adults in the United States experiences a mental health condition in any given year. Despite the prevalence of these conditions, many people still face barriers to accessing the care and support they need.

One of the key messages of Mental Health Month is that mental health is essential to everyone’s overall health and well-being, and that we all have a role to play in promoting mental health and reducing stigma. This year’s “Tools 2 Thrive” theme focuses on a range of practical tools and resources that individuals can use to improve their mental health and well-being.

Some of the key tools and resources highlighted by NAMI this year include:

1. Accepting and acknowledging your emotions – This involves recognizing and accepting your feelings, rather than trying to push them away or suppress them. This can help you develop a greater sense of self-awareness and improve your ability to cope with stress and difficult situations.
2. Connecting with others – Social connections and relationships are important for our mental health and well-being. This can involve reaching out to friends and family, joining a support group, or participating in a community activity.
3. Creating healthy routines – Developing healthy habits and routines can help promote mental health and well-being. This can include getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet, and engaging in regular physical activity.
4. Finding purpose and meaning – Having a sense of purpose and meaning in life can help promote mental health and well-being. This can involve identifying your values and goals, pursuing hobbies and interests, or volunteering in your community.
5. Seeking professional help – If you are struggling with a mental health condition, it’s important to seek professional help. This can involve talking to your primary care provider, seeking out a mental health professional, or accessing community resources.

In conclusion, Mental Health Month is an important opportunity to raise awareness and promote understanding of mental health issues. By focusing on practical tools and resources that individuals can use to improve their mental health and well-being, we can help reduce stigma and promote a more supportive and inclusive society. Let’s all take steps to prioritize our mental health and support those around us who may be struggling.

LONDON: Researchers have built up another technique to measure levels of the medication of hydroxychloroquine in patients with the rheumatic infection foundational lupus erythematosus.

The technique developed by specialists at Uppsala University and Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden may likewise be valuable in different regions, for example, in the treatment of Covid-19.

Hydroxychloroquine was originally used to treat malaria but has also proven effective with SLE and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the researchers said.

Today it is prescribed to all SLE patients since it ensures against flares of the ailment. Tests are currently being led to check whether it can likewise be utilized to treat Covid-19, they said.

A disadvantage of hydroxychloroquine is its side effects which can be avoided, however, if the dosage is adjusted for each patient. To achieve the protective effect against flares in SLE while also minimising the risk of side effects, researchers developed a method that can be used in the medical care system to measure hydroxychloroquine levels in the blood of SLE patients.

The method, described in the journal Arthritis Research and Therapy, is based on high-resolution mass spectrometry.

The researchers went through available data on hydroxychloroquine measurements.

They saw that results from measurements on whole blood, plasma and serum were not comparable with each other.

“It was indicated that there were significant contrasts between various reports, and there appeared to be huge individual contrasts,” said Kim Kultima, Associate Professor at Uppsala University.

They compared the levels of hydroxychloroquine in plasma, serum and whole blood in SLE patients.

The team concluded that the levels in whole blood were about twice as high as in serum and plasma. Whole blood analyses were also the most dependable.

“One striking outcome, and a significant understanding, was that levels in entire blood for patients recommended a similar measurement could vary by up to multiple times between people. This demonstrates a huge individual variety in how the drug is processed,” the specialists said.

One problem pointed out by the study is that the services for electronic information on medicinal products in Sweden (FASS) provides concentrations of hydroxychloroquine in plasma.

The researchers judge that these values provide an inaccurate and inappropriate picture for monitoring medication levels in patients.

“We also have to be very careful about drawing hasty conclusions about whether hydroxychloroquine is effective with Covid-19.

“What we cannot deny is that the examination strategy will ideally prompt better information for giving the correct doses to SLE patients who are endorsed the medicine,” the analysts said.

The team are planning to measure the levels of the medication in the blood of Covid-19 patients if the substance proves effective.

Credit:TimesOfIndia

Why The Humanity Post?

The World Health Organisation has named depression as the greatest cause of suffering worldwide. In the U.S., 1 out of 5 deals with depression or anxiety. For youth, that number increases to 1 in 3.

The good news is that 40% of our happiness can be influenced by intentional thoughts and actions, leading to life changing habits. It’s this 40% that The Humanity Post  help to impact.

Researchers, including one of Indian inception, have concocted another way to deal with sharing ventilators between patients, which they accept could be utilized if all else fails to treat COVID-19 patients in intense respiratory misery. The analysts, including Shriya Srinivasan from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, noticed that as more COVID-19 patients experience intense respiratory trouble, there has been a lot of discussion over sharing ventilators.

This involves splitting air tubes into multiple branches so that two or more patients can be connected to the same machine, said Srinivasan, lead author of the research published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

A few doctors’ affiliations have debilitated this work on, saying it presents hazard to patients, on account of the trouble in guaranteeing that every patient is accepting the perfect measure of air, the analysts said.

Presently, a group at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has thought of another way to deal with parting ventilators, which they accept could address a significant number of these well being concerns.

They have exhibited its adequacy in research center tests, yet they despite everything alert it ought to be utilized uniquely if all else fails during a crisis, when a patient’s life is in question.

“We hope this approach, which requires off-the-shelf components, can ultimately help patients in extreme need of ventilator support,” said Giovanni Traverso, an MIT assistant professor.
“We recognise that ventilator sharing is not the standard of care, and interventions like this one would only be recommended as a last recourse,” Traverso said.
Ventilators are machines that help people breathe by delivering oxygen through a tube placed in the mouth or the nose. Countries around the world have struggled to obtain enough ventilators to handle the Covid-19 outbreak, the researchers said.

The MIT team incorporated flow valves, one for each patient’s branch, that allow them to control the amount of air that each receives.
“These flow valves allow you to personalise the flow to each patient based on their needs,” Srinivasan said.
“They also ensure that if one patient either improves or deteriorates, quickly or slowly, there’s a way to adapt for that,” she said.

The arrangement additionally incorporates pressure discharge valves that can keep a lot of air from going into one patient’s lungs, just as security measures including alerts that go off when a patient’s air consumption changes, the scientists said.

To make their arrangement, the analysts utilized parts that are typically accessible in an emergency clinic.

The parts could likewise be acquired at tool shops and sanitized, they said.

A typical ventilator produces enough air pressure to supply six to eight patients at a time, but the research team does not recommend using one ventilator for more than two people, as the setup becomes more complicated.
The researchers first tested their setup using a ventilator to split airflow between a pig and an artificial lung — a machine that simulates the function of the lungs.

By changing the properties of the artificial lung, they could model many of the changing conditions that might occur in patients; they also showed that the ventilator settings could be adjusted to compensate for them.
The researchers later showed that they could ventilate two animals on one ventilator and maintain the necessary airflow to both.

Credit: TimesofIndia

Why The Humanity Post?

The World Health Organisation has named depression as the greatest cause of suffering worldwide. In the U.S., 1 out of 5 deals with depression or anxiety. For youth, that number increases to 1 in 3.

The good news is that 40% of our happiness can be influenced by intentional thoughts and actions, leading to life changing habits. It’s this 40% that The Humanity Post  help to impact.