Cabbage vs Kale – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing cabbage to kale, we picked the kale.
Why?
Here we go again, pitting Brassica oleracea vs Brassica oleracea. One species, many cultivars! Notwithstanding being the same species, there are important nutritional differences:
In terms of macros, kale has more protein, carbs, and fiber, and even has the lower glycemic index, not that cabbage is bad at all, of course. But nominally, kale gets the win on all counts in this category.
In the category of vitamins, cabbage has more of vitamins B5 and choline, while kale has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B7, B9, C, E, and K. An easy win for kale!
When it comes to minerals, it’s even more decisive: cabbage is not higher in any minerals, while kale has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. Another clear win for kale.
Adding up the sections makes it very clear that kale wins the day, but we’d like to mention that cabbage was good in all of these metrics too; kale was just better!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
21 Most Beneficial Polyphenols & What Foods Have Them
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Kiwi vs Lime – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing kiwi to lime, we picked the kiwi.
Why?
Looking at the macros first, kiwi has more protein, more carbs, and more fiber. As with most fruits, the fiber is the number we’re most interested in for health purposes; in this case, kiwi is just slightly ahead of lime on all three of those.
In terms of vitamins, kiwi has more of vitamins A, B2, B3, B6, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while lime has a tiny bit more vitamin B5. As in, the vitamin that’s in pretty much anything and is practically impossible to be deficient in unless you are literally starving to death. You may be thinking: aren’t limes a famously good source of vitamin C? And yes, yes they are. But kiwis have >3x more. In other big differences, kiwis also have >6x more vitamin E and >67 times more vitamin K.
When it comes to minerals, kiwi has more calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, while lime has more iron and selenium. Another easy win for kiwis.
In short: enjoy both; both are good. But kiwis are the more nutritionally dense option by almost every way of measuring it.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Top 8 Fruits That Prevent & Kill Cancer ← kiwi is top of the list; it promotes cancer cell death while sparing healthy cells
Take care!
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Dodging Dengue In The US
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Dengue On The Rise
We wrote recently about dengue outbreaks in the Americas, with Puerto Rico declaring an epidemic. Cases are now being reported in Florida too, and are likely to spread, so it’s good to be prepared, if your climate is of the “warm and humid” kind.
If you want to catch up on the news first, here you go:
- UN health agency cites tenfold increase in reported cases of dengue over the last generation
- Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic following a spike in dengue cases
- Dengue fever confirmed in Florida Keys as US on watch for rise in mosquito illness
Note: dengue is far from unheard of in Florida, but the rising average temperatures in each year mean that each year stands a good chance of seeing more cases than the previous. It’s been climbing since at least 2017, took a dip during the time of COVID restrictions keeping people at home more, and then for the more recent years has been climbing again since.
What actually is it?
Dengue is a viral, mosquito-borne disease, characterized by fever, vomiting, muscle pain, and a rash, in about 1 in 4 cases.
Which can sound like “you’ll know if you have it”, but in fact it’s usually asymptomatic for a week or more after infection, so, watch out!
What next, if those symptoms appear?
The good news is: the fever will usually last less than a week
The bad news is: a day or so after that the fever subsided, the more serious symptoms are likely to start—if they’re going to.
If you’re unlucky enough to be one of the 1 in 20 who get the serious symptoms, then you can expect abdominal cramps, repeat vomiting, bleeding from various orifices (you may not get them all, but all are possible), and (hardly surprising, given the previous items) “extreme fatigue and restlessness”.
If you get those symptoms, then definitely get to an ER as soon as possible, as dengue can become life-threatening within hours of such.
Read more: CDC | Symptoms of Dengue and Testing
While there is not a treatment for dengue per se, the Emergency Room will be better able to manage your symptoms and thus keep you alive long enough for them to pass.
If you’d like much more detail (on symptoms, seriousness, at-risk demographics, and prognosis) than what the CDC offers, then…
Read more: BMJ | Dengue Fever
Ok, so how do we dodge the dengue?
It sounds flippant to say “don’t get bitten”, but that’s it. However, there are tips are not getting bitten:
- Use mosquito-repellent, but it has to contain >20% DEET, so check labels
- Use mosquito nets where possible (doors, windows, etc, and the classic bed-tent net is not a bad idea either)
- Wear clothing that covers your skin, especially during the day—it can be light clothing; it doesn’t need to be a HazMat suit! But it does need to reduce the area of attack to reduce the risk of bites.
- Limit standing water around your home—anything that can hold even a small amount of standing water is a potential mosquito-breeding ground. Yes, even if it’s a crack in your driveway or a potted bromeliad.
Further reading
You might also like to check out:
Stickers and wristbands aren’t a reliable way to prevent mosquito bites. Here’s why
…and in case dengue wasn’t bad enough:
Mosquitoes can spread the flesh-eating Buruli ulcer. Here’s how you can protect yourself
Take care!
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How the HHS impacts your community’s health
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for programs that impact every community in the country. But most Americans aren’t aware of the department’s scope.
“Most of the power in the agency, most of the administrative authority comes from laws that Congress has passed,” former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told NPR. She added that the HHS secretary “could redefine terms that had a huge impact on people. And that could be done all administratively, not by going back to Congress.”
HHS is comprised of 13 agencies, all of which play an important role in promoting the health of all Americans. These are just some of the ways that HHS affects people’s lives and health.
Vaccines
One of HHS’s most salient roles is developing, approving, and monitoring vaccines after they are on the market. The National Institutes of Health funds and conducts research to develop new vaccines and improve existing ones. The NIH’s Vaccine Research Center spearheads research to develop vaccines against deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for overseeing clinical trials that test product safety and effectiveness, approving new vaccines, and monitoring the safety of all vaccines before and after approval. In conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA also manages the national surveillance systems that record and flag potential vaccine side effects.
In addition to safety monitoring, the CDC conducts research on vaccine safety and effectiveness and issues vaccination guidance. The agency’s recommended immunization schedule guides school and child care vaccination requirements and health care provider recommendations nationwide.
Although the CDC does not have the authority over school and childcare vaccination requirements at the state level, changes to the agency’s recommendations could have wide-ranging impacts.
“If this recommendation changes, there’s downstream effects, like insurance companies could stop covering them. And adding cost could easily deter uptake,” epidemiologist and creator of the Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter Katelyn Jetelina told PBS.
However, CDC vaccine recommendations are just that: recommendations. The agency cannot dictate, for example, vaccine requirements for school enrollment. Those standards are set at the state level, with the possible exception during a national public health emergency.
Drug safety
The FDA oversees all clinical trials in the United States. Every prescription drug and many medical products undergo a rigorous, closely regulated, multistep trial to test their safety and effectiveness. At the end of that process, the FDA determines whether a drug meets its standards for approval. Without FDA approval, a drug cannot be sold in the U.S.
Like with vaccines, the FDA monitors potential safety concerns related to over-the-counter and prescription medications, medical devices, and other products the agency regulates. Health care providers, FDA-regulated companies, and patients can report suspected safety issues to the agency, which evaluates each report for further investigation.
The FDA also alerts the public to safety concerns related to medical products by releasing safety notices, adding warning labels, and issuing drug recalls.
Pandemic and public health emergency response
Several HHS agencies are tasked with preventing, preparing for, and responding to disease outbreaks. This responsibility includes tracking potentially dangerous infectious diseases in the U.S. and globally, developing pandemic response strategies, and issuing guidance to contain ongoing outbreaks.
Both the CDC and FDA inform the public about public health concerns, including pandemics. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response works with communities, medical facilities, local and state governments, and industry partners to enhance responses to disasters and public health emergencies.
The CDC also tracks pathogens like the flu, norovirus, and sexually transmitted infections to better understand where diseases are spreading, how they are evolving, and how best to prepare for outbreaks.
In the event of a public health emergency, the CDC may issue guidance on how to stay safe and minimize health impacts. For example, in January, the agency released tips on how to protect against smoke during the wildfires affecting southern California and how to avoid frostbite and hypothermia, as extreme cold weather affected much of the country.
The FDA can issue emergency use authorizations, which allow the use of “unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical products … to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases … when certain criteria are met” during public health emergencies. These authorizations help ensure that the standard FDA approval process is not a barrier to the public receiving lifesaving medical products, such as authorizing specific vaccines during a pandemic.
Food and water safety
The FDA, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, plays an important role in regulating food safety. The agency approves and monitors the safety of food additives, like sweeteners, dyes, and preservatives. It also regulates how food is prepared, packaged, and stored, including conducting inspections of food facilities and farms.
FDA food safety testing detects dangerous foodborne illnesses like salmonella and E. coli. For example, in late December 2024, the FDA began testing raw (unpasteurized) milk products for bird flu contamination. The CDC investigates outbreaks of foodborne illnesses and, along with the FDA and USDA, provides the public with information about food safety.
The FDA also regulates most food labels, including nutrition facts, ingredient lists, and health claims on food packaging. In January, the agency proposed new front-of-package nutrition labels that highlight sugar, fat, and sodium content in packaged food products.
HHS and the USDA are responsible for updating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are updated every five years. These guidelines are the basis of all federal food assistance programs for children, older adults, and low-income families.
HHS sets the guidelines for the maximum fluoride level in drinking water and periodically makes recommendations about fluoride levels. However, the department has no authority to require or ban fluoridation, which is regulated at the state and local level. U.S. cities began adding fluoride to drinking water in the 1940s to improve dental health and reduce cavities by 25 percent.
Health care access
The HHS secretary regulates the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which provides health insurance to adults 65 and older, people with disabilities, low-income families, and eligible children through the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Together, Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP insure over 145 million Americans, or roughly 42 percent of the U.S. population. Changes to either of these programs could impact health care access and quality for millions of Americans.
This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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How Exercise Rewires Your Brain for Better Mental Wellbeing
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Dr. Tracey Marks, psychiatrist, explains what happens immediately, and what happens over the long term:
For now and for later
First of all, a single workout can already alter brain chemistry and protect against stress. In the longer term, exercise promotes neurogenesis, primarily in the hippocampus, improving memory and reversing brain aging. It also strengthens the prefrontal cortex, which is critical for decision-making, focus, and emotional regulation.
In more general terms, exercise boosts brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels, which in turn boost neuron growth and connectivity.
Exercise also promotes angiogenesis (blood vessel construction), improving oxygen and nutrient delivery to the brain.
Timeline of benefits:
- Immediate: increased blood flow and temporary BDNF spike.
- Weeks: new neurons, connections, and blood vessel growth.
- Months: visible brain volume changes and better brain connectivity.
Dr. Marks’ Timing Tips
- Morning: boosts energy and helps regulate the circadian rhythm.
- Midday: resets stress levels (specifically: to low)
- Evening: helps process emotions (but it’s still recommended to avoid high-intensity exercise close to bedtime)
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Wondering what kind of exercise is best?
You might also like to read:
The Neuroscientist In The Gym: Dr. Wendy Suzuki Explains The Exercise That Protects Your Brain
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Navigating the health-care system is not easy, but you’re not alone.
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Hello, dear reader!
This is my first column for Healthy Debate as a Patient Navigator. This column will be devoted to providing patients with information to help them through their journey with the health-care system and answering your questions.
Here’s a bit about me: I have been a patient partner at The Ottawa Hospital and Ottawa Hospital Research Institute since 2017, and have joined a variety of governance boards that work on patient and caregiver engagement such as the Patient Advisors Network, the Ontario Health East Region Patient and Family Advisory Council and the Equity in Health Systems Lab.
My journey as a patient partner started much before 2017 though. When I was a teenager, I was diagnosed with a cholesteatoma, a rare and chronic disease that causes the development of fatty tumors in the middle ear. I have had multiple surgeries to try to fix it but will need regular follow-ups to monitor whether the tumor returns. Because of this, I also live with an invisible disability since I have essentially become functionally deaf in one ear and often rely on a hearing aid when I navigate the world.
Having undergone three surgeries in my adolescent years, it was my experience undergoing surgery for an acute hand and wrist injury following a jet ski accident as an adult that was the catalyst for my decision to become a patient partner. There was an intriguing contrast between how I was cared for at two different health-care institutions, my age being the deciding factor at which hospital I went to (a children’s hospital or an adult one).
The most memorable example was how, as a teenager or child, you were never left alone before surgery, and nurses and staff took all the time necessary to comfort me and answer my (and my family’s) questions. I also remember how right before putting me to sleep, the whole staff initiated a surgical pause and introduced themselves and explained to me what their role was during my surgery.
None of that happened as an adult. I was left in a hallway while the operating theater was prepared, anxious and alone with staff walking by not even batting an eye. My questions felt like an annoyance to the care team; as soon as I was wheeled onto the operating room table, the anesthetist quickly put me to sleep. I didn’t even have the time to see who else was there.
Now don’t get me wrong: I am incredibly appreciative with the quality of care I received, but it was the everyday interactions with the care teams that I felt could be improved. And so, while I was recovering from that surgery, I looked for a way to help other patients and the hospital improve its care. I discovered the hospital’s patient engagement program, applied, and the rest is history!
Since then, I have worked on a host of patient-centered policy and research projects and fervently advocate that surgical teams adopt a more compassionate approach with patients before and after surgery.
I’d be happy to talk a bit more about my journey if you ask, but with that out of the way … Welcome to our first patient navigator column about patient engagement.
Conceptualizing the continuum of Patient Engagement
In the context of Canadian health care, patient engagement is a multifaceted concept that involves active collaboration between patients, caregivers, health-care providers and researchers. It involves patients and caregivers as active contributors in decision-making processes, health-care services and medical research. Though the concept is not new, the paradigm shift toward patient engagement in Canada started around 2010.
I like to conceptualize the different levels of patient engagement as a measure of the strength of the relationship between patients and their interlocutors – whether it’s a healthcare provider, administrator or researcher – charted against the duration of the engagement or the scope of input required from the patient.
Defining different levels of Patient Engagement
Following the continuum, let’s begin by defining different levels of patient engagement. Bear in mind that these definitions can vary from one organization to another but are useful in generally labelling the level of patient engagement a project has achieved (or wishes to achieve).
Patient involvement: If the strength of the relationship between patients and their interlocutors is minimal and not time consuming or too onerous, then perhaps it can be categorized as patient involvement. This applies to many instances of transactional engagement.
Patient advisory/consulting: Right in the middle of our continuum, patients can find themselves engaging in patient advisory or consulting work, where projects are limited in scope and duration or complexity, and the relationship is not as profound as a partnership.
Patient partnership: The stronger the relationship is between the patient and their interlocutor, and the longer the engagement activity lasts or how much input the patient is providing, the more this situation can be categorized as patient partnership. It is the inverse of patient involvement.
Examples of the different levels of Patient Engagement
Let’s pretend you are accompanying a loved one to an appointment to manage a kidney disease, requiring them to undergo dialysis treatment. We’ll use this scenario to exemplify what label could be used to describe the level of engagement.
Patient involvement: In our case, if your loved one – or you – fills out a satisfaction or feedback survey about your experience in the waiting room and all that needed to be done was to hand it back to the clerk or care team, then, at a basic level, you could likely label this interaction as a form of patient involvement. It can also involve open consultations around a design of a new look and feel for a hospital, or the understandability of a survey or communications product. Interactions with the care team, administrators or researchers are minimal and often transactional.
Patient advisory/consulting: If your loved one was asked for more detailed information about survey results over the course of a few meetings, this could represent patient advisory/consulting. This could mean that patients meet with program administrators and care providers and share their insights on how things can be improved. It essentially involves patients providing advice to health-care institutions from the perspective of patients, their family members and caregivers.
Patient advisors or consultants are often appointed by hospitals or academic institutions to offer insights at multiple stages of health-care delivery and research. They can help pilot an initiative based on that feedback or evaluate whether the new solutions are working. Often patient advisors are engaged in smaller-term individual projects and meet with the project team as regularly as required.
Patient partnership: Going above and beyond patient advisory, if patients have built a trusting relationship with their care team or administrators, they could feel comfortable enough to partner with them and initiate a project of their own. This could be for a project in which they study a different form of treatment to improve patient-centered outcomes (like the time it takes to feel “normal” following a session); it could be working together to identify and remove barriers for other patients that need to access that type of care. These projects are not fulfilled overnight, but require a collaborative, longstanding and trusting relationship between patients and health-care providers, administrators or researchers. It ensures that patients, regardless of severity or chronicity of their illness, can meaningfully contribute their experiences to aid in improving patient care, or develop or implement policies, pilots or research projects from start to finish.
It is leveraging that lived and living experience to its full extent and having the patient partner involved as an equal voice in the decision-making process for a project – over many months, usually – that the engagement could be labeled a partnership.
Last words
The point of this column will be to answer or explore issues or questions related to patient engagement, health communications or even provide some thoughts on how to handle a particular situation.
I would be happy to collect your questions and feedback at any time, which will help inform future columns. Just email me at [email protected] or connect with me on social media (Linked In, X / Twitter).
It’s not easy to navigate our health-care systems, but you are not alone.
This article is republished from healthydebate under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Carrots vs Parsnips – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing carrots to parsnips, we picked the parsnips.
Why?
There are arguments for both! But we say parsnips win on overall nutritional density.
In terms of macros, parsnips vary quite a lot from region to another, but broadly speaking, parsnips have more carbs and fiber, and/but the ratios are such that carrots have the lower glycemic index. We’ll call this one a win for carrots.
When it comes to vitamins, carrots have more of vitamins A, B2, B3, B6, and choline, while parsnips have more of vitamins B1, B5, B9, C, E, and K. A small win for parsnips here.
In the category of minerals, carrots are not higher in any minerals, while parsnips are higher in calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc. An overwhelming win for parsnips.
While the overall vitamin and mineral content puts parsnips ahead, it’s still worth noting that carrots have highly bioavailable megadoses of vitamin A.
Another thing to note is that the glycemic index recorded for both is when peeled and boiled, whereas both of these root vegetables can be enjoyed raw if you wish, which has a much lower GI.
In short, enjoy either or both, but parsnips are the more nutritionally dense overall.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Glycemic Index vs Glycemic Load vs Insulin Index
Take care!
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