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Caregiving director Chris Durrance says that when his team announced they were making a documentary about caregiving in the United States, they were inundated with letters, emails and messages from people who wanted to describe their own experiences and urge the filmmakers to act. “It was a story crying out to be told," he says.
If you consider the statistics, that should come as no surprise. According to data from AARP, family caregivers spend an average of $7,242 out of pocket each year. They also miss out on an average of $43,500 in income due to the demands of adult care, according to the Department of Labor. Caregivers report high rates of loneliness, anxiety and depression.
The film, which is streaming now on PBS.org and will air Tuesday, looks at care for older adults and disabled people who need help, dating back to the early 20th Century. It shows how caregiving has been marginalized over time, even as programs like Social Security and Medicare expanded the country’s safety net. It also tells the story of activists who are working to craft new caregiving policy. Kat McGowan has more on the film.
Also: How cutting Medicaid would affect long-term care and family caregivers |
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Meet the women shaping the future of abortion
In the last few years, abortion restrictions in the U.S. have grown. In response, women are finding ways to end their pregnancies without a clinic.
On The Network, a new three-part series from NPR’s Embedded podcast and Futuro Media, witness how a network of activists and midwives, grandmothers and friends changed abortion access as we know it.
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Some ready-to-eat chicken fettuccine Alfredo meals sold at Kroger and Walmart are being voluntarily recalled following a nationwide listeria outbreak linked to 17 illnesses and three deaths as well as one fetal loss, as NPR’s Vanessa Romo reports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture traced the outbreak to products made by FreshRealm, Inc. under the Home Chef brand at Kroger and the Marketside brand at Walmart. FreshRealm says they have “not received any direct reports of illness associated with the product."
Consuming food contaminated with listeria can cause symptoms including fever, muscle aches, headache, loss of balance and convulsions. Sometimes those symptoms can be preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal issues. It is most dangerous in pregnant women, as the infection can cause miscarriages, or life-threatening infection of the newborn. It can also cause fatal infections in older adults and people with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics.
Read more to learn the specific products and expiration dates to avoid.
ICYMI: USDA report finds Boar's Head listeria outbreak was due to poor sanitation practices |
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Patricio Nahuelhual/Moment RF/Getty Images |
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After her breast cancer diagnosis, Cynthia Cherish Malaran went through chemotherapy and surgery. Then she tried a so-called "miracle drug” that was supposed to be her best chance at remaining cancer-free. But it turns out she was allergic to the treatment and had to stop.
When she asked her oncologist what she should do, she got a prescription she didn't expect. Her doctor said “Be happy.”
Malaran took that advice to heart. "I realized if I can manage my stress and my emotions, that I would have the best chances of surviving,” Malaran says. She signed up for a music therapy program, where she co-created songs about her cancer experience with her therapist.
Music therapy is as effective as traditional cognitive behavioral therapy, according to a new study. Through conversation and music creation, patients access another way to process their emotions, says integrative medicine specialist Kevin Liou.
With rates of both cancer diagnosis and survivorship increasing, alternative treatments such as music therapy are gaining mainstream acceptance, as NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.
Plus: Art and music therapy seem to help with brain disorders. Scientists want to know why |
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Getty Images/VYCHEGZHANINA |
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The United States keeps track of how many humans live in each town, and even how many cows, chicken and pigs there are. But there’s no dog census. Researchers at the Dog Aging project want to change that. Since 2019, they’ve enrolled over 50,000 dogs, and they’re tracking data including their breeds, their diet, exercise level, medications and environmental exposures.
Researcher Audrey Ruple, a veterinarian and data scientist at Virginia Tech, says the goal is to better understand what makes a dog live a healthy, long life, and also what that says about the health of their human buddies.
Dogs share the same environments as their human companions. But their life spans are shorter. That makes them a sort of a bellwether for humans, or a “sentinel species,” says Ruple. For example, if there's a chemical or a mold in your home that's making your dog sick, that's a warning that humans in the household could get sick, too. Studying a large sample of dogs over the course of their lives can also help scientists understand how genes predispose individuals to health and disease – both dogs and humans.
Short Wave host Regina Barber spoke with Ruple about what the Dog Aging Project has learned already – like how many US dogs are purebred and how many are mutts and what people are feeding their dogs – and what they hope to learn over time.
Also: From dogs to rabbits, NPR readers share how adopting shelter pets impacted them |
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We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism online.
All the best,
Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors |
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