(Family Features) It may not be something you like to talk about, but if you have gastrointestinal (GI) problems, your symptoms may be far more common than you think. According to data from the American Gastroenterological Association, 60-70 million people living in the United States have gut health concerns.

Two common conditions are irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They’re often confused for one another, but these are actually two different GI disorders.

IBS is a syndrome; it is defined by a group of symptoms, does not cause inflammation and rarely requires hospitalization or surgery. IBD, on the other hand, is an umbrella term used to describe disorders that cause chronic inflammation of your GI tract.

The disease is more common than you may realize; a study led by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation found nearly 1 in 100 people living in the U.S. have IBD. The two most common forms of IBD are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Understanding IBD Symptoms
Because it poses serious health risks and can cause permanent damage to your intestines, it’s important to be aware of what IBD is and recognize the symptoms. Your primary care doctor or gastroenterologist can help if you have concerns about these symptoms:

• Intense, crampy pain that doesn’t go away in a day or two or has been present on and off for weeks or longer
• A notable change in bowel movement frequency, whether more or less often
• Frequent diarrhea over several weeks, or loose stools multiple times a day
• Frequent constipation, or constipation alternating with diarrhea
• Urgency on a regular basis or inability to hold back the bowel movement before reaching the bathroom
• Blood with bowel movements
• Mucus in your stool regularly or paired with pain or other symptoms
• Always feeling as though you aren’t fully emptying your bowels

Other symptoms that may have a variety of causes but need extra attention especially if you notice them along with any of the symptoms above include pain outside of the gut, fatigue, loss of appetite and weight loss. In addition, children with IBD may have delays in growth and the onset of puberty.

Diagnosing IBD
No single test can confirm a Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis diagnosis. Your medical history and information obtained from diagnostic testing can exclude other potential causes of your symptoms, since gastrointestinal symptoms are common and can have a variety of causes.

Your first tests will likely include blood and stool laboratory tests. Further testing could include imaging studies of your gastrointestinal tract or a look inside your GI tract through an endoscope.

Identifying Treatment Options
Once an IBD diagnosis is confirmed, you can partner with your doctor to manage your disease. Treatment plans are highly personalized, as what works for one person may not for another. Medication and managing your diet and nutrition are two common treatment recommendations. In some cases, surgery can help improve your quality of life.

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Clinical trials may also be an option for treating your IBD. Through clinical trials, researchers find new ways to improve treatments and quality of life. In fact, clinical trials represent the final stages of a long and careful research process to make new and improved treatment options for patients available.

However, an important part of clinical trials for IBD is patient participation. Without the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, new treatment options for IBD can be delayed or never become available.

Equally important to this process is having a diverse representation of patients that considers race, age or other categories. This helps researchers develop treatments that meet the needs of a vast IBD patient community.  

If you’re interested in participating in a clinical trial, ask your doctor to help you find a trial that is right for you, and visit crohnscolitisfoundation.org to learn more about IBD and treatment options, including clinical trials.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock

SOURCE:
Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation

Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/

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(Family Features) More than 4.2 million Americans live with glaucoma, a leading cause of vision loss in the nation. Although there is no cure for glaucoma, early detection and treatment can stop this condition in its tracks.

“Glaucoma is a leading cause of vision loss and blindness in the United States, but it’s estimated that half of people with glaucoma don’t know they have it,” said Michael F. Chiang, M.D. “Glaucoma has no early symptoms, and the only way to check if you have it is to get a comprehensive dilated eye exam. There’s no cure for glaucoma, but starting treatment as early as possible can help stop vision loss.”

Regular eye exams are among the best lines of defense because symptoms may not appear until the disease has progressed significantly. Knowing more about how to spot the condition and what you can do about it may help protect your vision in the long run.

Glaucoma is actually a group of eye diseases that damage the optic nerve in the back of the eye and cause vision loss and blindness. The most common type in the United States is open-angle glaucoma. Other, less common, types include angle-closure glaucoma and congenital glaucoma.

Learn more about glaucoma from the experts at the National Eye Institute in honor of Glaucoma Awareness Month.

Causes
For some people, glaucoma is the result of another medical condition, but that’s not always the case. While experts still aren’t sure exactly what causes open-angle glaucoma, it’s believed to be related to the pressure that builds in the eye when fluid doesn’t drain fast enough. Over time, the pressure causes nerve damage, which then leads to vision loss.

Risk Factors
Glaucoma is not preventable and can affect anyone. However, some groups of people are at higher risk, including those over age 60 – particularly Hispanic or Latino individuals. African American individuals over age 40 are also at greater risk, as are people with a family history of glaucoma.

Symptoms
Early on, most people do not experience any symptoms of glaucoma. Over time, you may start to notice disruptions to your vision, such as blind spots or decreased peripheral vision (what you see from the sides of your eyes) in one or both eyes. This loss may be especially prevalent closest to your nose. Symptoms typically progress so slowly that people get used to it and don’t realize their vision is changing, which is why so many people with glaucoma don’t know they have it.

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Intense eye pain, nausea, red eyes and blurry vision are all potential signs of angle-closure glaucoma, and immediate emergency treatment is necessary.

Diagnosis
The only way to properly diagnose glaucoma is through a dilated eye exam, including visual field testing to check your side vision. This routine test is painless and involves looking straight ahead while your doctor checks how well you can see objects off to the side or at the top or bottom of your field of vision.

Treatment
Without treatment, glaucoma can eventually lead to blindness. Treatment won’t undo any vision damage, but it can stop it from getting worse. Treatment may involve prescription eye drops to reduce eye pressure. Other treatment options include a laser procedure or surgery to help fluid drain. Vision rehabilitation services and devices may help if vision loss affects your everyday activities.

Find more information about glaucoma and eye health at nei.nih.gov/glaucoma.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

SOURCE:
National Eye Institute

Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.

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Katarzyna Kordas, University at Buffalo

Spices bring up feelings of comfort, cultural belonging and holidays. They can make our homes smell amazing and our food taste delicious. They can satisfy our cravings, expand our culinary horizons and help us eat things that we might normally dislike. Spices have health-enhancing properties and, in medicine, have been used to heal people since the ancient times.

Recently, however, spices have been getting a bad rep.

In September 2024, Consumer Reports, a nonprofit organization created to inform consumers about products sold in the U.S., investigated more than three dozen ground cinnamon products and found that 1 in 3 contained lead levels above 1 part per million, enough to trigger a recall in New York, one U.S. state that has published guidelines for heavy metals in spices.

The Food and Drug Administration issued three alerts throughout 2024, warning consumers about lead in certain brands of cinnamon products. Such notices rightfully put consumers on alert and have people wondering if the spice products they buy are safe – or not. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QxAwznMht8M?wmode=transparent&start=0 A Consumer Reports investigation of more than three dozen ground cinnamon products found that 1 in 3 contain lead levels above 1 part per million.

As an environmental epidemiologist with training in nutritional sciences, I have investigated the relationship between nutritional status, diets and heavy metal exposures in children.

There are several things consumers should be thinking about when it comes to lead – and other heavy metals – in cinnamon.

Why is lead found in cinnamon?

Most people are familiar with cinnamon in two forms – sticks and ground spice. Both come from the dried inner bark of the cinnamon tree, which is harvested after a few years of cultivation. For the U.S. market, cinnamon is largely imported from Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India and China.

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One way that lead could accumulate in cinnamon tree bark is when trees are cultivated in contaminated soil. Lead can also be introduced in cinnamon products during processing, such as grinding.

When ground cinnamon is prepared, some producers may add lead compounds intentionally to enhance the weight or color of the product and, thus, fetch a higher sale price. This is known as “food adulteration,” and products with known or suspected adulteration are refused entry into the U.S.

However, in the fall of 2023, approximately 600 cases of elevated blood lead levels in the U.S., defined as levels equal to or above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter – mostly among children – were linked to the consumption of certain brands of cinnamon apple sauce. The levels of lead in cinnamon used to manufacture those products ranged from 2,270 to 5,110 parts per million, indicating food adulteration. The manufacturing plant was investigated by the FDA.

More broadly, spices purchased from vendors in the U.S. have lower lead levels than those sold abroad.

There is some evidence that cinnamon sticks have lower lead levels than ground spice. Lead levels in ground cinnamon sold in the U.S. and analyzed by Consumer Reports ranged from 0.02 to 3.52 parts per million. These levels were at least 1,500 times lower than in the adulterated cinnamon.

There are no federal guidelines for lead or other heavy metals in spices. New York state has proposed even stricter guidelines than its current level of 1 part per million, which would allow the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets to remove products from commerce if lead levels exceed 0.21 parts per million.

What does it mean that ‘the dose makes the poison’?

The current FDA guideline on daily intake of lead from diets overall is to limit lead intake to 2.2 micrograms per day for children. For women of reproductive age, this value is 8.8 micrograms.

The lead dose we are exposed to from foods depends on the level of lead in the food and how much of that food we eat. Higher doses mean more potential harm. The frequency with which we consume foods – meaning daily versus occasionally – also matters.

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For spices like cinnamon, the amount and frequency of consumption depends on cultural traditions and personal preference. For many, cinnamon is a seasonal spice; others use it year-round in savory dishes or sauces.

Cinnamon is beloved in baked goods. Take a cinnamon roll recipe calling for 1.5 tablespoons (slightly less than 12 grams) of the spice. If a recipe yields 12 rolls, each will have around 1 gram of cinnamon. In the Consumer Reports investigation, some cinnamon products were classified as “okay to use” or “best to use.”

The highest value of lead in cinnamon products in the “okay to use” category was 0.87 parts per million, and in the “best to use” category, it was 0.15 parts per million. A child would have to consume 2.5 or more rolls made with the “okay to use” cinnamon to exceed the FDA guideline on limiting lead intake from foods to 2.2 micrograms per day, assuming that no other food contained lead. To exceed this guideline with “best to use” cinnamon, a child would have to eat 15 or more rolls.

Can cinnamon contribute to elevated blood lead levels?

Because of lead’s effects on development in early life, the greatest concern is for exposure in young children and pregnant women. Lead is absorbed in the small intestine, where it can latch onto cellular receptors that evolved to carry iron and other metals.

The impact of a contaminated spice on a person’s blood lead level depends on the dose of exposure and the proportion of lead available for intestinal absorption. For several spices, the proportion of available lead was 49%, which means that about half of the lead that is ingested will be absorbed.

Lead absorption is higher after a fast of three hours or more, and skipping breakfast may contribute to higher blood lead levels in children.

People who have nutritional deficiencies, such as iron deficiency, also tend to absorb more lead and have higher blood lead levels. This is because our bodies compensate for the deficiency by producing more receptors to capture iron from foods. Lead takes advantage of the additional receptors to enter the body. Young children and pregnant women are at higher risk for developing iron deficiency, so there is good reason for vigilance about lead in the foods they consume.

Studies show that among children with lead poisoning in the U.S., contaminated spices were one of several sources of lead exposure. Studies that estimate blood lead levels from statistical models suggest that consuming 5 micrograms of lead or more from spices daily could substantially contribute to elevated blood lead levels.

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For occasional or seasonal consumption, or lower levels of contamination, more research is needed to understand how lead in spices would affect lead levels in the blood.

For people who have other sources of lead in their homes, jobs or hobbies, additional lead from foods or spices may matter more because it adds to the cumulative dose from multiple exposure sources.

How to test for elevated blood lead levels

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children at risk for lead exposure get a blood lead test at 1 and 2 years of age. Older children can also get tested. Finger-prick screening tests are often available in pediatric offices, but results may need to be confirmed in venous blood if the screening result was elevated.

Adults in the U.S. are not routinely tested for lead exposure, but concerned couples who plan on having children should talk to their health care providers.

What to consider when using or buying cinnamon or other spices

If the product is on an FDA Alert or the Consumer Reports “don’t use” list, discard it.

Other questions to consider are:

• Does your household use spices frequently and in large amounts?
• Do young children or pregnant women in your household consume spices?
• Do you typically consume spices on breakfast foods or beverages?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then buy good-quality products, from large, reputable sellers. Think about using cinnamon sticks if possible.

And continue to enjoy spices!

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Katarzyna Kordas, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, University at Buffalo

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.

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