The American Coronary heart Association’s new campaign, Together at the Desk/ Juntos En La Mesa, aims to encourage much healthier life
DALLAS, March 6, 2023 — What people today take in and consume affects heart and brain health and is vital for managing health conditions like blood strain, diabetes and significant cholesterol. Hispanic older people are at greater danger for Style 2 diabetic issues and have some of the optimum prevalence of badly managed blood force,[1] two big danger factors for heart illness.[2] As a champion for health fairness, now the American Heart Affiliation, the major world wide voluntary wellness group focused to preventing coronary heart sickness and stroke for all, launched ‘Together at the Desk/ Juntos En La Mesa.’
The campaign is made to inspire Hispanic/Latino communities to cook and eat a coronary heart-healthful food plan that celebrates their cultural flavors although enhancing their families’ wellbeing. Meals contributes to a person’s physical and mental well-becoming while expressing cultural identification via preparing, sharing and intake[3]. With each other at the Desk/ Juntos En La Mesa will provide suggestions for more healthy cooking, resources and cost-free recipes geared for household foods.
The Hispanic/Latino local community is disproportionately afflicted by heart disorder and associated wellbeing challenges because of to longstanding systemic boundaries, these as a historic lack of accessibility to overall health treatment and healthy foodstuff.
“Coronary heart condition is a person of the foremost will cause of demise in the Hispanic/Latino group, but it is preventable,” stated Sylvia Meléndez Klinger, a nutritionist and volunteer expert with the American Heart Affiliation. “We want to empower people to make much healthier options and celebrate their cultural heritage by delicious and nutritious meals. The ‘Together at the Desk/ Juntos En La Mesa’ campaign will present the bilingual methods and help wanted to make that doable.”
Feeding on healthful is not always easy. With each other at the Table/ Juntos En La Mesa can assistance the Hispanic/Latino local community consume much better devoid of sacrificing taste or society.
“Food items is an expression of society and plays a essential job in our actual physical and mental well-staying,” said Sylvia Meléndez Klinger, a nutritionist and volunteer qualified with the American Coronary heart Association. “The ‘Together at the Table/ Juntos En La Mesa’ campaign will assist households to make small alterations in the kitchen that will lead to major impacts on their health.”
To discover far more about the ‘Together at the Desk/ Juntos En La Mesa’ marketing campaign or to accessibility educational resources and support, pay a visit to coronary heart.org/nutricionytufamilia.
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Supplemental Methods
About the American Heart Association
The American Coronary heart Association is a relentless pressure for a environment of extended, healthier lives. We are focused to ensuring equitable wellness in all communities. As a result of collaboration with various corporations, and powered by hundreds of thousands of volunteers, we fund modern research, advocate for the public’s well being and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based mostly group has been a leading resource of health info for virtually a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Fb, Twitter or by contacting 1-800-AHA-Usa1.
For Media Inquiries: 214-706-1173
Elizabeth Nickerson, Elizabeth.nickerson@coronary heart.org
For General public Inquiries: 800-AHA-Usa1 (242-8721)
The Potential is Canine: A Seem at Trends and Shifts in the Pet Care Field
Considering that the pandemic, there has been a big improve in pet possession, with far more than 70{35112b74ca1a6bc4decb6697edde3f9edcc1b44915f2ccb9995df8df6b4364bc} of homes owning a pet in the U.S., in accordance to the American Pet Merchandise Association. As a final result of this rise in pet possession, People in 2021 put in $123.6 billion on merchandise and solutions to maintain their pets happy and nutritious. Pet franchises current fantastic financial investment possibilities due to economic downturn-resistant shelling out, greater need, and distinctive selling price elasticity. These franchises blanket many distinct verticals, including puppy schooling providers, daycare, and grooming expert services. As with any franchise, much of the appeal lies in the power of a confirmed business model and the availability of unrivaled assist for all facets of enterprise operations.
But to enter the pet sector, it is significant to gauge and think about where by these verticals are headed more than the upcoming few yrs. The pet marketplace is evolving to meet the requirements of contemporary pet entrepreneurs, resulting in a change to far more specialized and hassle-free expert services.
In this article are 5 interpretations of ahead-wanting trends, each individual concentrating on a person of the essential verticals inside pet franchise choices, portray a picture of what the long term retains for these items and services as we enter the new 12 months.
The Foreseeable future of Pet dog Instruction is Favourable and In Individual
As American cities turn into far more pet-welcoming, individuals will recognize that a very well-socialized puppy is as important as the will need for obedience coaching. Although in the course of the pandemic there was a brief flurry of curiosity in distant coaching, apps, and on the web videos, most men and women will comprehend that such experiences cannot review to in-person team courses with other puppies and proprietors. Puppies rely on their feeling of odor and exposure to novel cues to discover, so appropriate socialization can only flourish with in-particular person lessons. As a final result, distant puppy teaching apps will become significantly irrelevant in the coming a long time. In-human being canine trainers will dominate the business, as they can give the greatest feasible support for canine and their owners.
The system of favourable reinforcement training will also continue to change to total dominance in the marketplace, currently being the only scientifically-proven methodology. This embrace is primarily evident in younger generations. In a current review, only People in america about the age of 50 were still working with power-primarily based procedures to teach their puppies. This suggests that the potential of pet schooling is moving toward extra humane techniques. National companies will commence certifying trainers to validate that their procedures are humane and do not use choke chains, shock collars, or aversive regulate, even when supplied underneath the euphemism of so-known as “balanced” training.
Pet Grooming Products and services Shift to Subscriptions
While there are reports of “subscription saturation” among the each Millennials and Gen Z, when it arrives to the relatives pet, a better number of Americans will take pleasure in membership-dependent grooming and plan care solutions for their pets. There is a increasing preference for subscription-primarily based products and services, which provide ease and predictability for fast paced pet homeowners.
At the time pet owners get on a common program, attending to periodic grooming and upkeep needs will be seen as a worthwhile addition to the monthly family membership expenses. This advancement will also be bolstered by an escalating consciousness of the importance of pet wellness, which is driving demand from customers for regime care expert services these kinds of as nail trimming, enamel cleaning, and ear cleansing as preventative treatment to steer clear of more critical health troubles down the road.
The Upcoming of Protein Innovation in Pet Food stuff
As the planet looks for additional sustainable and environmentally-pleasant protein resources, the pet meals sector will likely be just one of the very first adopters of these novel protein resources. When it will come to pet foodstuff, as extensive as there is USDA and Fda approval and strong scientific research demonstrating safety, pet proprietors will be a lot more likely to decide for new protein innovations and integrate them into their pets’ diets. No matter if derived from bugs, algae, lab-developed, or other sources, pet food will stay the front line for viable products achieving the marketplace.
In addition, as we master much more about the intestine microbiome and its connection to overall wellbeing, we will see pet foods producers reformulating their goods to consist of probiotics, prebiotics, and other elements that aid gut wellness.
Pet Retail Goods Shift to Domestic
Massive box and on the internet stores continue to compete for shoppers by featuring decreased rates, and many of the products they provide occur from overseas markets. Having said that, American people are gradually getting additional mindful that the Fda does not examine these solutions for protection. At the exact time, rising nationalist sentiments have also caused American pet house owners to search for nearby pet merchandise manufacturers. Supply chain troubles and merchandise inflation have also resulted in bigger prices and unpredictable delays.
As a end result, there will be a change to a increase of scaled-down American organizations that make large-quality pet toys and treats, making use of locally-sourced elements and American labor to attain high-high quality manage benchmarks. In the past, these products had to fetch bigger rates, but those boundaries will vanish in the coming many years, and American-made pet solutions will experience a sizeable rise in reputation and achievements.
Neighborhood Criteria for Pets
With pet possession turning out to be a lot more considerable in The usa, regulations and laws relating to pets will come to be increasingly pervasive. Much more municipalities will go laws mandating more and improved eco-friendly spaces for people to delight in excellent time with their pets, which includes parks with agility devices and dog-going for walks trails. Accommodations and other corporations will cater to pet house owners with facilities these as pet-sitting and dog-strolling products and services.
Given that seasonality restrictions outside pursuits during pieces of the year, far more metropolitan areas will relax zoning guidelines main to a rise in puppy-welcoming organizations and residential complexes. Much more businesses are recognizing that featuring pet-welcoming workplaces can support recruitment and retention. There will be a larger concentrate on dependable pet ownership, with more training on the value of spaying and neutering, appropriate nourishment, and exercise. Some employers may perhaps even provide staff rewards in pet insurance policy and pet dog coaching to foster a tranquil convey-your-doggy-to-get the job done atmosphere.
Share on PinterestResearchers are analyzing glycoalkaloids, a compound found in nightshade crops, as a possible treatment method for most cancers. Capelle.r/Getty Pictures
Many cancers are treatable, specially if caught early, but there are number of procedure solutions for certain forms of cancer.
The quest for new most cancers treatment plans indicates that researchers seem for new compounds to take a look at that might have anti-most cancers houses.
In a modern research review, experts examined the likely for most cancers treatment method in glycoalkaloids, a compound identified in nightshade crops.
Cancer demise prices have decreased in modern a long time, but most cancers instances have risen general.
As part of the diagnostic procedure, sequencing cancer genomes has helped researchers uncover the pathology of most cancers and detect opportunity strategies to address it.
Continue to, myriad cancer-causing mutations and mechanisms outweigh the selection of acknowledged treatment options, as a 2020 posting in Naturementioned.
To capitalize on the details we have about how distinctive styles of cancers perform, more targeted treatment plans to make improvements to outcomes for persons identified with most cancers are desired.
Some of these new solutions are derived from plant compounds. A single these kinds of team of compounds, recognized as glycoalkaloids, is found in the nightshade family and is presently the focus of significant exploration.
The system by which glycoalkaloids could be used to goal most cancers cells is the topic of a new examine, which was reviewed by a team of researchers in Poland and posted in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
Lead analyze creator Magdalena Winkiel, a Ph.D. applicant at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, mentioned in a press release:
“Scientists all around the world are nonetheless looking for prescription drugs [that] will be lethal to most cancers cells but at the identical time safe for balanced cells. It is not quick despite the innovations in medication and effective development of contemporary treatment method procedures. That is why it could possibly be worthy of likely back to medicinal plants that ended up used many years ago with results in the treatment method of various conditions. I feel that it is value re-inspecting their qualities and perhaps rediscovering their prospective.”
Scientists often seem for new most cancers prescription drugs by studying compounds produced by plants and fungi.
In mother nature, these compounds aid to ward off predators due to the fact they possess a sure diploma of toxicity. Many antibiotics were being initially found in fungi, for illustration.
Taxol (generic title: paclitaxel) is in all probability the most perfectly-identified plant-derived cancer treatment. Paclitaxel was derived from a compound found out in the bark of the Pacific Yew Tree during the 1960s.
First authorized to handle ovarian and breast cancer by the Food items and Drug Administration (Fda) in the 1990s, paclitaxel is now applied to take care of several most cancers sorts.
Today, the drug is incorporated on the Globe Health Organization’s Crucial Medicines, a checklist of the most vital drugs essential to help a simple wellbeing treatment system.
Sherif El-Khamisy, Ph.D., director and associate dean of the School of Pharmacy and Health care Sciences at the University of Bradford, United Kingdom, explained to Clinical News Now that the biggest problems in building most cancers medicines from plant-derived compounds are minimizing toxicity and focusing on the tumor additional exclusively.
“We place a chemical on the compounds to make it non-toxic,” Dr. El-Khamisy explained.
“And then that compound is cleaved off as it is taken off by a protein secreted by the cancer cells — and then they become activated after they achieve the tumor web sites.”
Nevertheless, Dr. El-Khamisy pointed out there’s a whole lot of hope for anti-most cancers therapies derived from plant compounds.
“One of the positive aspects is it’s currently been verified to be extremely helpful and they are truly created,” he mentioned. “We really don’t want to synthesize them — you just will need to modify the chemistry to make them both more certain or a lot less toxic.”
Glycoalkaloids have a sturdy inhibitory result on cancer cell advancement, which is thought to be driven by mechanisms that lead to the mobile to die via apoptosis.
For the present analyze, scientists reviewed studies that appeared at the anticancer attributes of vegetation like tomatoes and potatoes, which are observed in the nightshade loved ones. They studied the pursuing glycoalkaloids and their extracts:
solanine
chaconine
solasonine
solamargine
tomatine
The evaluation highlights the variety of in silico, in vitro, and in vivo scientific studies carried out on the compounds.
The analysis demonstrates that glycoalkaloid compounds target numerous cellular pathways, which could be made use of to target particular mechanisms in cancer cells.
According to the researchers, glycoalkaloid compounds could be utilised in conjunction with other most cancers remedies, to broaden the scope of their usefulness.
Cancer remains a single of the main brings about of dying in the world and research on effective treatments is ongoing.
Despite the promising findings of glycoalkaloid compounds, the correct mechanisms by which they goal and handle cancer cells are not fully comprehended.
The researchers so known as for far more scientific studies that could “explore new, a lot more selective, and much less harmful most cancers therapies, or enhance the efficiency of utilized procedure solutions.”
“It’s significant to anxiety that lots of of these compounds will not be suited as medicines, possibly due to the fact they aren’t helpful ample or simply because they’re not secure plenty of to give to folks. It is vital that we examine each individual possible avenue to explore new therapies, which is why it’s very important that researchers look into these substances to see if they have the likely to grow to be new medicine.”
Dr. Evans included he is hopeful that plant-derived compounds could a single working day demonstrate helpful for acquiring new most cancers treatment plans.
“Plants produce a large and diverse assortment of attention-grabbing and understudied chemical substances,” he claimed.
“Some of these chemicals have anti-cancer consequences when examined in the lab and some, these as Taxol, have even come to be medicines that we use in most cancers therapy today.”


Our neighborhood is pretty big—we are an Army—so, we are a household. These classes are going to bring you a physical fitness cohesion with people today outdoors your device, and basically make camaraderie and new partnerships.”
Military 2nd Lt. Meagan M. O’Leary
It can be not unusual to come across troopers repeatedly doing their individual exercise session routines even though deployed. The U.S. Army’s new Army Battle Fitness Test proceeds to serve as the fitness necessity for all Army factors, and troopers stationed abroad are performing every thing they can to continue to keep physical fitness expectations in check across their formations.
Many soldiers will also go the extra mile to assistance others access their health and fitness and conditioning plans, turning health and fitness issues into possibilities for accomplishment.
Military 2nd Lt. Meagan M. O’Leary, platoon chief from 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment, Normal Help Aviation Battalion, 36th Battle Aviation Brigade, Texas Army Nationwide Guard, shares about her initiative in supporting fellow troopers with their energy instruction workout routines at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.
“This is my 1st deployment, and on my first day here—not even 24 several hours on ground—I sort of ‘barged’ into the foundation commander’s office and stated, ‘I want to volunteer!'” stated O’Leary. “I introduced myself and said I required to be a coach. So, now I coach Olympic weightlifting.”
O’Leary previously competed as an Olympic figure skater for in excess of 19 a long time. Ten years in the past, she expanded her very own health and fitness journey in CrossFit instruction, and then transitioned to Olympic weightlifting for the previous 5 a long time.
“My objective is to qualify for nationals when I get residence,” she extra. “I have had it in my brain to do additional with the deployment than just my occupation. So, in addition to executing own and professional growth like using online lessons, I desired to perform on my techniques and volunteer to give back again.”
Due to the fact September, O’Leary runs one particular-hour weightlifting classes throughout her off-duty hrs at the camp’s armed forces-affiliated CrossFit gymnasium. Each and every weekend you can locate her instructing and motivating teams of contributors to correctly workout compound movements with barbell weights. Every participant achieves a workout immediately after training fundamentals of the snatch, cleanse and jerk, and clean and press part lifts. Class dimensions fluctuate just about every 7 days, but she has managed to fill out the overall gymnasium in quite a few of her classes.
Accompanying O’Leary as her assistant teacher through the weightlifting lessons is Army Spc. Megan Caffey, CH-47 Chinook helicopter repairer assigned to the 449th Aviation Support Battalion, 36th Taxi.
“I also did the identical detail [2nd] Lt. O’Leary did when I arrived listed here working day one—I wished to be a mentor,” reported Caffey. “I have been able to coach and instruct troopers pretty considerably every single day, and I like it simply because I have actually had people thanking and demonstrating me with ‘hey, you corrected me on my workout routines, now I can elevate 50 lbs. far more than I have at any time done before’—that has been very worthwhile.”
Caffey serves in the Army Reserve again home, and considering the fact that July, she volunteers as a useful physical fitness coach at Camp Buehring. She stands by her perception in how group CrossFit routines can reward troopers coaching to max the ACFT.
“To me, CrossFit is like a spouse and children. In all places I go, no make a difference in which I live or provide, I usually close up discovering my physical fitness help group at the closest CrossFit health club,” she extra. “I like how CrossFit workouts and the ACFT coincide with each individual other, introducing extra purposeful actions for all soldiers. This presents them the ability use all ranges of their bodily physical fitness, alternatively of just concentrating on push-ups and sit-ups. So, which is been actually excellent.”
Army Lt. Col. Chris Nohle, commander of the Foundation Support Battalion, Army Aid Group – Kuwait, for Camp Buehring, participated in his 1st session with the Olympic weightlifting class.
“The method of instruction furnished by [2nd] Lt. O’Leary and her crew is just phenomenal,” Nohle remarked. “I’ve been lifting for in excess of 25 yrs and was humbled by the training. Her concentration on kind and mobility is the good quality of instruction that will help our troopers securely see people gains.”
Nohle actively supports all service members at Camp Buehring to grow on their physical fitness journeys and choose benefit of the many work out classes presented. Together with the Olympic weightlifting course, Camp Buehring provides a selection of volunteer-primarily based instruction for practical physical fitness, such as CrossFit, spinning, and Jujitsu courses. CrossFit classes run 4 moments a day, Monday via Friday, although spinning and Jujitsu courses run 3 evenings per week at the aerobics tent.
“These soldier-led courses effortlessly max out each working day and have some of the best participation figures for the set up,” he extra. “Whilst our camp’s inhabitants is continuously revolving, the [BSB] performs alongside Morale, Welfare, and Recreation physical fitness groups to continually evaluate our community’s needs and direct sources to fulfill them. Troopers will see new classes and choices in excess of the up coming several months.”
Nohle also experienced some information for soldiers conducting their to start with ACFT diagnostics even though stationed in Kuwait.
“The new ACFT presents our soldiers with an prospect to develop practical health and fitness abilities and are basically made to make improvements to their daily lives,” stated Nohle. “Some of the test’s activities do have to have practice but need to not be viewed as daunting. I persuade all soldiers at our camp to use the possibility to educate and discover from some of the other 7,000 support members stationed here. That is what these courses and MWR services do – they make a local community of soldiers creating soldiers to get superior and stronger.”
Caffey recalled witnessing troopers accomplishing overall body transformations when sharing their workouts with neighboring assistance associates at Camp Buehring.
“We’ll acquire service associates in our classes who get right here and haven’t experienced good exercise session routines in rather a when or truly feel like they really don’t know what to do with them selves when it arrives to conditioning because they are unmotivated,” mentioned Caffey. “But simply because of our neighborhood help, we have witnessed fellow troopers experience favourable changes in their exercise. I experienced the honor of performing out with a soldier who dropped from 265 lbs. down to 185 lbs. All he did was show up and sign up for a course on a constant basis. His transformation was remarkable.”
O’Leary more emphasised how sticking with a exercise group will generate final results.
“Our local community is quite big—we are an Army—so, we are a spouse and children. These classes are going to carry you a exercise cohesion with men and women outside the house your device, and essentially construct camaraderie and new partnerships,” she included. “You will always have a harmless spot to go, and a healthy outlet to arrive exercising, burn up off steam, and be with like-minded people outside the house your place of work. All it requires is placing on your training shoes and showing up!”
If you’ve ever lost a dog to disease. It may well have been cancer. Some 4 million dogs in the U.S. are diagnosed with it every year, often the same kinds of cancers humans get.
We share many of the same genes with our canine companions. And for cancer research, that’s an opportunity scientists are trying to make the most of. It’s called comparative oncology. Now funded in part by the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative, doctors and scientists are studying naturally developing cancers, mostly in dogs, and using what they learn to speed potential treatments to them and us.
A dog show might seem like an odd place to conduct cancer research, but this summer in Norwalk, Connecticut, that’s where we met scientists from the National Institutes of Health, swabbing and collecting DNA samples from all sorts of breeds.
They’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years and have collected about 40,000 samples so far.
Leading the team is Elaine Ostrander, a senior geneticist at the NIH.
Elaine Ostrander
Anderson Cooper: I always thought that the National Institutes of Health studied human diseases. Why is there a scientist at the NIH studying dogs?
Elaine Ostrander: We are studying human disease, and we’re doing it through dogs. And so dogs live in our world. They get all the same diseases we do. They eat our food. They’re exposed to the same environmental pollutants. But they also have all the same genes that we do. And they have mutations in those genes that make them susceptible to everything you and I get – whether it’s diabetes or cancer or neuromuscular diseases. Everything humans get, dogs get.
Ostrander says it’s easier to study genes in dogs than humans because for the last 200 years, they’ve been bred to emphasize specific traits. That’s why they have all these distinct noses and tails and sizes, from great danes to chihuahuas.
Anderson Cooper: So before Victorian times, dogs were pretty much the same?
Elaine Ostrander: So there was some variation. We know that from fossil and archaeologic records, but almost all the variation you see running around in– in the rings today, that’s all happened in the last 200 years.
Anderson Cooper: That’s really incredible that there’s so much variety in that short of time.
Elaine Ostrander: Right. So that means it’s probably gonna be a really small number of genes responsible for most of the major differences.
It turns out just one gene determines if a dog has cream colored hair, or black. Other genes determine long hair or short. And Ostrander’s team at the NIH has discovered some physical traits in dogs, like ear position, hold surprising clues about human health.
Elaine Ostrander: This was a study looking at prick ears versus floppy ears. And that’s due to a mutation in– in one gene called MSRB3.
Anderson Cooper: So just a mutation in one gene–
Elaine Ostrander: One gene. Isn’t that amazing?
Anderson Cooper: –Makes the difference between pointy ears and–
Elaine Ostrander: Yep.
Anderson Cooper: –floppy ears.
Elaine Ostrander: Isn’t that amazing? But what’s really interesting about this story is that when this gene is perturbed or more dramatically mutated in humans, we get a form of deafness.
Anderson Cooper: Really?
Elaine Ostrander: Yeah.
Ostrander told us some of the most promising genetic research in dogs involves cancer.
Some breeds get certain types of cancers more often — making it easier for researchers to locate some of the genes responsible. Scottish terriers, for instance, are about 20 times more likely to get bladder cancer than the average mixed breed dog.
Elaine Ostrander: Now, if I were to look at a group of humans with bladder cancer, the story would be so much more complex. There would be different genes in different populations. There’d be different mutations. Different contributions of environmental effects. So when I look in one breed, I get much simpler stories.
Dr. Nicola Mason
Dogs are diagnosed with many of the same cancers found in humans – lymphoma, melanoma, brain and breast cancer, and the deadly bone cancer osteosarcoma.
University of Pennsylvania professor and veterinarian Nicola Mason oversees a national network of comparative oncology trials funded by the White House’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. She showed us just how similar osteosarcoma looks in dogs and people.
Nicola Mason: So, what you can see, there’s lots of purple dots here. These are the nuclei of the cancerous cells. They look identical.
Anderson Cooper: Yeah. Even a professional looking under a microscope would not be able to tell the difference between a dog with osteosarcoma and a human?
Nicola Mason: Correct. Incredibly similar.
Osteosarcoma is aggressive and malignant. More than 10,000 dogs in the United States are estimated to get it each year. But only about ,1000 people are, mostly children and young adults. Krystie Gomes was diagnosed in 2020, when she was 11.
Anderson Cooper: Which was the leg that was hurting?
Krystie Gomes: It’s the left.
Anderson Cooper: So it was hurting up in your thigh.
Krystie Gomes: It was up in, like– yeah, here.
Krystie Gomes with her dog, Benny
Krystie was used to getting bruised on the soccer field, so she and her mom, Kathy Feder, chalked it up to a sports injury. But after months of physical therapy, her doctor discovered osteosarcoma had eroded most of Krystie’s thigh bone.
Kathy Feder: She comes in and she goes, “Krystie has a cancerous tumor in her femur.” And I was like, “What?”
Krystie Gomes: And I was– I’m not, like, a crier. So I, like– I think I was processing it. And as I was processing it, I saw her cry. So then I started crying.
Kathy Feder: And then she was like, “Wait. I have cancer?”
Doctors removed the remaining bone and replaced it with a 9-inch metal rod. Months of grueling chemotherapy withered Krystie to 72 pounds. But her pediatric oncologist, Dr. Elyssa Rubin, told us, the cancer came back – this time in Krystie’s lungs.
Dr. Elyssa Rubin: Patients, once their tumor comes back, are at a really high risk, probably 80{35112b74ca1a6bc4decb6697edde3f9edcc1b44915f2ccb9995df8df6b4364bc} of the time will get new tumors.
Anderson Cooper: Have there been a lot of new treatments for osteosarcoma?
Dr. Elyssa Rubin: Unfortunately, no. We’ve been using the same chemotherapy for about the last 60 years or so.
Anderson Cooper: Really?
Anderson Cooper: Is that because it’s a rare form of cancer?
Dr. Elyssa Rubin: Yeah. It’s harder to study ’cause there’s smaller number of patients to, you know, study in large trials. And also since it’s rare, not a lot of funding of– goes to a lot of trials for it.
Dr. Nicola Mason and Sandy
But there were trials in pet dogs of an experimental immunotherapy treatment for osteosarcoma that began in 2012, led by Dr. Nicola Mason, using the bacteria listeria.
Dr. Nicola Mason: This is listeria, causes food poisoning. This particular listeria has been genetically modified so that it is far less virulent.
The listeria has also been modified to contain a specific protein — called HER2 — that’s found on some osteosarcoma cells. Once injected into the dogs’ bloodstream, the listeria awakens their immune systems, making them feel sick. It also triggers killer immune cells to patrol the body and destroy the cancerous cells.
Sandy, a 9-year-old golden retriever, joined a nationwide trial in 2018. She’s had her front leg amputated because of osteosarcoma. We met her this past August with her owner, Matt Olson. During the trial, Dr. Mason told us, Sandy’s immune system reacted to the listeria just as she’d hoped.
Nicola Mason: Her body temperature started to increase, peaked around about four hours, and then started to drop down again. We sort of want to see that because it tells us that the immunotherapy is in fact stimulating her immune response, which is what we want to happen.
When Sandy was first diagnosed, her life expectancy with the standard care of amputation and chemotherapy, was around a year. But that was four years ago.
Anderson Cooper: There’s no sign of cancer?
Nicola Mason: No.
Anderson Cooper: And you’ve had four great years with her?
Matt Olson: Yeah.
Anderson Cooper: Did she get, like, extra treats once she got through it all?
Matt Olson: She got everything. She still does man.
Anderson Cooper: She does? I bet she does.
Mason, Matt Olsen, Sandy and correspondent Anderson Cooper
Dr. Mason believes studying and treating naturally occurring cancers in pet dogs is more promising compared to using lab mice, which have to be artificially given cancer.
Nicola Mason: What we’re trying to do is find a better way to determine which are the best treatments to take forward into the humans.
Anderson Cooper: This is not giving dogs rare forms of cancer and then studying them and testing them in a lab?
Nicola Mason: Exactly. So these are naturally occurring cancers. These are clinical trials, just as you or I would go onto a clinical trial if we had a cancer. And we do exactly the same in the veterinary field.
Results from the first listeria trial in pet dogs were encouraging — showing the dogs “tolerated” the immunotherapy and that it “significantly increased duration of survival time.” Those results were submitted to the Food and Drug Administration.
Last year the FDA approved a phase II clinical trial using modified listeria to treat young adults and children like Krystie Gomes who have recurrent osteosarcoma that’s spread to their lungs.
We were with Krystie in August at Children’s Hospital of Orange County when she received her third listeria infusion.
First, she was given medications that made her sleepy.
Krystie Gomes before her treatment
Anderson Cooper: When the infusion’s actually happening, do you remember it afterward? Or, do you basically sleep through it?
Krystie Gomes: Just sleep. And then when I wake up, it hits like a truck.
Anderson Cooper: Is that right?
Krystie Gomes: Yeah.
Anderson Cooper: You get a headache?
Krystie Gomes: Uh-huh (AFFIRM). Bad headache and nauseous. And I hate nau– nauseous and headache, two things I don’t like. And it’s two things guaranteed.
Once she was dozing, the listeria started dripping into Krystie’s IV.
Anderson Cooper: It’s kind of amazing to think that you’re both on the cutting edge of medicine.
Kathy Feder: I know. And I don’t think she, I don’t think she realizes how important this is.
An hour later, that truck Krystie told us about hit her. Hard.
But similar to what happened to Sandy — the golden retriever — the listeria appeared to awaken Krystie’s immune system. And after ten minutes her headache got better. A few hours later, she was able to leave the hospital.
Anderson Cooper: It’s so amazing to me how similar humans’ and dogs’ immune response is.
Nicola Mason: We’re very similar. You know, I think perhaps more so than we might like to admit.
The National Cancer Institute is spending more than $20 million to analyze cancer samples from pet dogs all over the country and oversee comparative oncology trials to improve treatments in humans and dogs.
Otto
One of their targets is brain cancer. This is Otto, a 7-year-old boxer who belongs to Dan Heffron. Otto was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor in 2021.
Julie Hinseth
And this is Julie Hinseth, who is 59, she was diagnosed in 2020 with a similar nearly incurable brain cancer – glioblastoma. She’s had surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, but the cancer came back. Julie and Otto enrolled in clinical trials at the University of Minnesota that used virtually the same experimental treatment.
A neurosurgeon and veterinary surgeon teamed up to treat and operate on Otto and other dogs with brain cancer and then shared their data about safety and dosing with a neuro-oncologist treating Julie and others.
Julie, along with her husband, Doug, and daughter, Kelly, met Otto for the first time last spring. Two patients, similar cancers, different species.
Anderson Cooper: What’s it like to meet Otto?
Julie Hinseth: Ah. I’m crying now.
Inflammation in Julie’s brain makes it difficult for her to speak.
Anderson Cooper: I never thought I would be having a conversation with a person and and a dog who were having the same treatment.
Anderson Cooper: It’s incredible.
Julie Hinseth: I didn’t realize that until now.
Dan Heffron: Yeah, and I didn’t until after his first surgery. You know, what sort of an impact that he was gonna have. You know, not only for him but other dogs and humans.
The Hinseths meet Otto
But two months after that meeting, Otto’s symptoms worsened, it appeared his cancer returned. Dan took him for a final swim in his favorite river and then said goodbye to the dog he called his best friend and a medical pioneer.
Julie Hinseth’s symptoms have now worsened as well, she’s stopped taking part in the trial and is spending time with her family. She told us she is grateful to have been a part of an innovative, inter-species battle to find new treatments.
Julie Hinseth: I helped fight cancer.
Anderson Cooper: It gives you satisfaction to know that you helped fight cancer.
Julie Hinseth: Yeah.
Anderson Cooper: I’ve had two dogs who have had cancer. And the idea that cancer can be studied and treated, and it can have an impact on humans, is incredible.
Julie Hinseth: Might be the key, right?
Anderson Cooper: Yeah, dogs may hold the key.
Krystie Gomes, who’s now well into her freshman year in high school, says she agrees.
Krystie Gomes: We have to have more common things than we think.
Anderson Cooper: It’s not just that they need us for food and that–
Krystie Gomes: It’s not just that we’re besties.
Anderson Cooper: there’s really a connection.
Krystie Gomes: It’s that we have to have, like, more connection than that.
Krystie’s last scan showed no signs of cancer. She continues to get immunotherapy every three weeks. Between treatments and homework, you’ll find her with her yorkie, Benny — a gift from her mom. One more dog that’s helping her in her recovery.
Produced by Denise Schrier Cetta. Associate producer, Katie Brennan. Broadcast associate, Annabelle Hanflig. Edited by Matthew Lev.
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper, anchor of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” has contributed to 60 Minutes since 2006. His exceptional reporting on big news events has earned Cooper a reputation as one of television’s pre-eminent newsmen.
How to limit babies’ exposure to toxic heavy metals
Some popular baby foods have higher levels of toxic heavy metals than others. Charlotte Brody, the national director of Healthy Babies Bright Futures, discusses how parents can limit their children’s exposure.
WASHINGTON – Ongoing food monitoring by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of toxic heavy metals like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury revealed some concerning levels in the U.S. food supply — with certain baby foods having the most detectable levels of arsenic and lead.
These heavy metals are found naturally in the Earth’s crust and are also released into the environment as pollution that gets into the water and soil used to grow food, according to the AAP. The toxins can also get into food from food manufacturing and packaging.
Exposure from all sources “should be minimized,” the AAP states.
The FDA’s Total Diet Study Report, released on July 15, summarizes the findings after sampling over 3,200 food and beverage products between the fiscal years 2018 through 2020. It found that almost one-third (32{35112b74ca1a6bc4decb6697edde3f9edcc1b44915f2ccb9995df8df6b4364bc}) of the foods tested contained toxic elements lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury.
Of all the foods tested, the highest levels of lead were found to be in baby food sweet potatoes and teething biscuits, in addition to sandwich cookies and white wine.
Roughly 51{35112b74ca1a6bc4decb6697edde3f9edcc1b44915f2ccb9995df8df6b4364bc} of the baby food samples analyzed had detectable levels of “total arsenic” found in infant cereals and snacks like teething biscuits and puffed snacks.
Arsenic is a naturally occurring element. Inorganic forms of arsenic are dangerous and associated with more severe health effects than organic arsenic, although the toxicity of organic arsenic is also being actively studied, the FDA notes.
Foods with the highest levels of inorganic arsenic noted in the report were foods babies and children eat, including crisped rice cereal, baby food rice cereal, puffed snacks, white rice, and baby food mixed multi-grain cereal.
Six baby foods containing rice and/or juice “exceeded” the specific level of total arsenic and were being further analyzed to determine the levels of the dangerous inorganic arsenic.
Rice is often served to infants in the form of infant rice cereal, which is the most commonly consumed infant instant cereal in the U.S., according to the FDA.
Canned tuna had the highest concentrations of mercury, followed by baked cod and baked salmon, the report noted.
FILE IMAGE – A 9-month-old baby girl at meal time. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
The FDA’s recent report is part of its ongoing Closer to Zero action plan to reduce exposure to arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury from foods eaten by babies and young children. This young age group was prioritized because “their smaller body sizes and metabolism make them more vulnerable to the harmful effects of these contaminants,” the FDA says on its website.
U.S. congressional investigators requested internal documents and test results from seven of the largest manufacturers of baby food in the U.S. and found that many top baby foods carried dangerous levels of inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury.
The FDA’s Closer to Zero action plan was announced in April 2021 to drive down levels of heavy metals in food. Charlotte Brody, the national director of Healthy Babies Bright Futures, noted how there has been some progress, but more needs to be done.
“The few steps that have been taken, when the FDA has acted, the levels do drop,” Brody said, noting how inorganic arsenic levels in infant rice cereal have dropped in recent years. “They need to be acting quicker and more strongly to keep those levels going down.”
What are the standards for toxic heavy metals in baby foods?
“We recognize that Americans want zero toxic elements in the foods eaten by their babies and young children. In reality, because these elements occur in our air, water and soil, there are limits to how low these levels can be,” the FDA says on its website.
Therefore, the FDA’s goal is to reduce the levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in baby foods to “the greatest extent possible.”
“We are also sensitive to the fact that requiring levels that are not currently feasible could result in significant reductions in the availability of nutritious, affordable foods that many families rely on for their children,” the agency adds.
As a result, the Closer to Zero action plan is a multi-phase approach to achieving this goal over time. It is evaluating the scientific basis for “action levels” or standards for toxic metals in various baby foods, as well as other foods commonly eaten by young children. These proposals and finalized decisions are expected to happen through at least 2024.
To date, the FDA has set action levels for lead in apple juice (10 parts per billion, or ppb) and in chocolate and hard candy (100 ppb). It has also set a standard for inorganic arsenic in apple juice (10 ppb) and infant rice cereal (100 ppb).
Additionally, it has established bottled water standards: 5 ppb for lead, 10 ppb for arsenic, 5 ppb for cadmium,and 2 ppb for mercury.
Healthy Babies Bright Futures and other food safety advocates have called on the agency to act quicker in establishing these stands across baby food categories. Brody questioned why bottled water has stronger protection limits than apple juice and infant rice cereal, commonly served to more vulnerable, younger children.
The FDA said in a statement to FOX Television Stations that the agency’s action levels for toxic metals reflect levels at which it “may regard the food as adulterated.”
“Our consideration of appropriate action levels may take into account various factors, including whether they may result in reductions in exposure to toxic elements and whether the action levels are achievable,” the FDA said in the statement. “To the extent that you are comparing water and apple juice, it is important to realize that consumption of water is greater than apple juice. Additionally, it is important to realize that processors can take steps to reduce lead in bottled water more easily than apple juice.”
The FDA’s Closer to Zero timeline aimed to have proposed lead draft action levels for categories of foods consumed by babies and young children by April 2022. While these standards were indeed proposed for apple juice (as well as chocolate and hard candy), no other lead action levels on baby foods have been proposed.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has led a coalition of several state attorneys general calling on the FDA to speed up the plan’s timeline. James called the delay on lead action levels for baby foods “both a public health concern and a matter of environmental justice,” noting how low-income children and children of color are disproportionately impacted by lead.
In its own response, the FDA said it is “actively working” on draft action level guidance for lead in these foods.
“The FDA is committed to moving as quickly as possible,” the agency told FOX Television Stations. “The Agency is on track to fulfill the commitments in the FDA’s ‘Closer to Zero’ plan and met our first-year goals. In April, we issued the proposed action levels for lead in juices. In addition, we are actively working on guidance for an action level for arsenic in apple juice and draft action level guidance for lead in foods marketed for infants and young children.”
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‘No requirement to test the finished product’
In issuing its guidance for standards of lead in juice (10 ppb for apple juice, 20 ppb for other fruit and vegetable juices), the FDA noted that even low lead exposure can harm children’s health and development — specifically the brain and nervous system.
But the agency also said it’s committed to setting standards to the “extent feasible” by the juice industry.
“Though not binding, these action levels are intended to encourage manufacturers to maintain lead levels in juices below the action levels, thus reducing risks associated with dietary lead exposures,” the FDA states on its website.
For Brody and other advocates, concern continues to grow for other baby food categories awaiting agency standards on lead and other toxic metals. And again, these standards are not binding but rather recommendations from the FDA for manufacturers.
“There’s no level, there’s no illegality to having an enormous amount of lead in sweet potatoes. That’s not one of the foods that are regulated at the present time,” Brody noted.
She added: “There’s no requirement now that you actually test the finished product. There should be.”
The 2021 Congressional report found that most baby food manufacturers did not test their finished products at all. Instead, they tested only individual ingredients and used those results to estimate the toxic heavy metal levels in their finished products.
After the 2021 congressional report, the Baby Food Safety Act of 2021 was also introduced by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Il.), which would establish the maximum levels allowed of inorganic arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium in baby food and increase monitoring and enforcement of those levels.
The bill would require facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold infant and toddler food to have certain controls and plans to ensure that their food complies with the toxic metal limits, including finished product testing, and make results from these tests publicly available.
In addition, the bill would expand the FDA’s authority to require a recall of adulterated or misbranded food to include infant and toddler food that exceeds limits on toxic elements, among other changes.
The Baby Food Safety Act was introduced in the House in March 2021 but has stalled.
How to limit heavy metals in baby foods
FILE IMAGE – A toddler walks along a path in nature. (Photo by Lisa Wiltse/Corbis via Getty Images)
Some popular baby foods have higher levels of toxic heavy metals than others, like rice-based snacks, juice, and sweet potatoes.
Rice is a leading source of arsenic exposure for young children, the Healthy Babies Bright Futures guidance states. Instead, parents can serve other grains like oats, wheat, and barley to help cut their family’s exposure.
Cooking rice in extra water that is poured off before eating can cut down arsenic levels by as much as 60{35112b74ca1a6bc4decb6697edde3f9edcc1b44915f2ccb9995df8df6b4364bc}, according to FDA studies. Basmati rice grown in California, India and Pakistan has been found to have the lowest levels of arsenic, and white rice has less arsenic than brown rice, Healthy Babies Bright Futures guidance states.
“There are some foods that just have less heavy metals than others, and relying more on those foods is a better option,” Brody said, noting how Healthy Babies Bright Futures offers shopping guides on safe products for parents online.
“Shopping organic doesn’t address heavy metals,” Brody added.
Infant rice cereal is the No. 1 source of arsenic in infant diets, Healthy Babies Bright Futures says in its guidance. Parents are encouraged to choose other cereals like oatmeal and multi-grain.
Instead of teething biscuits and rice rusks, parents can opt for items like frozen bananas, peeled and chilled cucumbers, a clean, cold wet washcloth, or a spoon, while always monitoring for choking.
“Some grains, some fruits, and vegetables pull up more heavy metals than others. So a banana is a better choice of a teething snack, especially if it’s frozen, than a teething biscuit,” Brody said. “I would say a variety matters… mix it up, and be especially careful about the most contaminated foods.”
“We also actually need the government to take care of this problem for us,” she continued. “Closer to Zero is a very promising program. It needs to live up to its promise and make this one less thing that parents need to worry about.”
