Within the first eight months of this year, only 2.5% of homes in the United States changed owners, which marks the lowest turnover rate in the last 30 years.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
According to a new study that analyzed data from over 8,000 individuals, about 1 in 3 Americans might have an undiagnosed iron deficiency. Iron deficiency can cause levels of fatigue, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, heart palpitations, hair loss, and more.
The study itself was published last week in JAMA Network Open. It reported that 14% of the 8,000+ individuals studied had low iron blood levels, known as absolute iron deficiency, and 15% had the “right” iron levels, however, their bodies didn’t know how to use the mineral properly, which is known as functional iron deficiency.
In general, doctors don’t normally screen adults for iron deficiency, which is one of the reasons cited that many people may have it without knowing. Researchers weren’t surprised by the results of their study, as previous data has shown that iron deficiency may be more of a “widespread issue” that doctors know, NBC reported.
“This is a common yet underappreciated public health problem,” said study co-author Leo Buckley, a clinical pharmacology specialist.
“What’s unique about our study is we were looking at regular people who would not otherwise have been screened or tested.”
“[While iron deficiency] is almost never life-threatening, it’s a tremendous quality of life thing,” said Hematologist Dr. Andrew Eisenberger, an associate professor of medicine at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
“Tens of millions of people in the U.S. are basically running on fumes either because there isn’t enough fuel in the tank or because the tank isn’t connecting to the engine well,” said Eisenberger.
“In our society we are hardwired to be at peak performance. With this tremendous prevalence of iron deficiency, so many people can’t do their best.”
One of the biggest hopes of the study is that it will bring greater attention to the issue and ideally raise awareness for both doctors and patients to realize the problem is much more common than we think.
Doctors typically screen patients for anemia during routine blood testing, however, that test simply measures the levels of red blood cells in an individual’s body, and someone can have a “normal” amount of cells while still having iron deficiency.
“This is an incredibly preventable disease,” Eisenberger said.
“So many people come to me who have had this problem for years and years and years, but their doctors have missed it, ignored it or just didn’t know what to do about it. People suffer tremendously. It’s one of the most satisfying things to take care of because people’s quality of life markedly improves.”
The Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers were responsible for the new study and utilized information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey which collected data from the years 2017 to 2021 from 8,021 adults. Participants in the study were on average around 48 years old.
Buckley stated that doctors should focus on individuals who exhibit symptoms of iron deficiency for testing in the future. Additionally, they should pay attention to individuals who are at high risk, such as pregnant women.
“The average pregnant woman needs 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of additional iron,” Eisenberger said.
“Many women don’t have their iron levels checked till late in pregnancy. At that point, there’s not enough time to fix it before the woman delivers and the fetus has spent the entire pregnancy with not enough iron.”
“Low iron levels in a pregnant woman have been associated with long-term cognitive impairment in children, small size at birth and early delivery,” Eisenberger said.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
From the 2023 to 2024 academic year, the US banned more than 10,000 books in public schools, according to a survey report from PEN America, an organization that “stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world.”
As Republican-led states pass new censorship laws, more book bans in public schools have been taking place. PEN America’s survey reported that this year three times the amount of books were banned, from 3,362 books in the previous academic year.
Reports state that of the books banned, at least 13 titles have been banned for the first time in history. PEN America stated that around 8,000 of the book bans took place in Florida and Iowa. Both states have enforced laws that target classroom materials in general.
PEN America stated:
“State legislation was also particularly critical in accelerating book bans, making it easier to remove books from schools without due process, or in some cases, without any formal process whatsoever.”
In 2023, Iowa signed a law that banned any material in schools regarding sexual orientation and gender identity before seventh grade. The specific legislation also explicitly banned all books that depict sexual acts for all grade school (K-12) libraries and classrooms.
PEN America reported that in Florida, any book that potentially includes sexual conduct has been pulled from schools while they go under review. Both Florida and Iowa have faced lawsuits over their controversial book banning laws.
LGBTQ+ identifying teachers, students, parents, and major publishers are suing for the law in Iowa to be overturned.
Six prominent book publishers are also suing Florida over their book bans, calling it “unconstitutional,” as hundreds of books under those publishers were pulled from school libraries.
Other states that enacted book bans this year include Utah, South Carolina, and Tennessee. PEN America stated that Utah specifically has enacted some of the “most extreme” bills. Utah passed law HB 29, which stated that books must be pulled from schools if at least three districts have found the content to be “objectively sensitive material,” according to reports.
“In part due to the targeting of sexual content, the stark increase includes books featuring romance, books about women’s sexual experiences, and books about rape or sexual abuse as well as continued attacks on books with LGBTQ+ characters or themes, or books about race or racism and featuring characters of color,” PEN America said.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
Robert Redfield, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently stated that the next pandemic could be caused by the bird flu.
Additionally, the World Health Organization recently announced the first human death from bird flu in Mexico, and the virus itself has been found in cattle across dairy farms in the US, according to reports.
“I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time, it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,” Redfield said to NewsNation last week.
He also discussed that the mortality rate will likely be much higher in a bird flu pandemic versus what the world experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic had a mortality rate that was 0.6%, and Redfield predicts the mortality “for the bird flu would probably be somewhere between 25 and 50%.”
The Hill reported that by late May, the CDC had found the third case of an individual diagnosed with bird flu within three months. Each case was found in a farmworker, but were unrelated to each other. The main symptoms included a cough and pink eye.
As of right now, there is no direct evidence that suggests the virus is spreading amongst humans right now.
Health experts and researchers found that in order for the bird flu to be able to connect to a human receptor, five amino acids have to change their key receptors. If that does occur, the virus would spread like Covid-19 did.
“Once the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor and then go human to human, that’s when you’re going to have the pandemic,” Redfield said.
“I think it’s just a matter of time.”
While Redfield stated that it’s hard to predict how long it would take for the amino acids to change, but the fact that it’s been detected in cattle across the US is concerning.
The CDC reported that more than 40 herds of cattle have been infected with the virus. They’ve been following wastewater treatment sites to track where the virus is originating from, and said that there’s low risk of the virus spreading throughout the public.
The cattle infected live in the vicinity of pigs, which could allow the virus to evolve from pigs to humans, however, Redfield stated there’s more of a severe risk that the virus will be grown in a lab and spread that way.
“I know exactly what amino acids I have to change because in 2012, against my recommendation, the scientists that did these experiments actually published them. So, the recipe for how to make bird flu highly infectious for humans is already out there,” he said.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
When it comes to buying a new home, there are a lot of factors that come into play. Housing market experts and real estate agents recently spoke to the media about the current state of the US real estate market, detailing some of the worst states to buy a property in within the next 5 years, to hopefully provide some clarity.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
The US government is trying to change auto emissions standards so that automakers sell more electric vehicles, combatting the high levels of fossil fuel emissions in our atmosphere. With this new plan, the government is hoping that electric vehicles will make up two-thirds of all new car sales by 2032.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
Last week, a key house committee introduced and approved a bill that is targeting the social media platform TikTok. The full House is set to vote this week potentially, and the White House has stated that President Joe Biden is also prepared to sign it, according to reports from CNN.
The bill itself, if fully approved, would give TikTok about five months to separate from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. If they refuse, app stores in the US will be prohibited from hosting the app on their platforms.
Besides TikTok, the bill will also restrict other apps that are allegedly controlled by foreign adversaries like China, Iran, Russia, or North Korea. The bill would also set up a process for Biden, and future presidents to identify apps that should be banned under the specific legislation.
Any app store that violates said legislation could be fined based on the number of users of the banned apps; specifically a fine of $5,000 per user of the banned app. For example, if the bill passes and Apple or Google decide to keep TikTok on its app stores, they could face fines up to $850 billion.
One of the bill’s lead cosponsors, Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, says “the bill does not ban TikTok; it simply offers TikTok the choice to be divested.”
TikTok has responded to this recent bill’s momentum, stating that it’s an attack on the First Amendment rights of its users, according to CNN. It’s even launched a call-to-action campaign within the app itself, urging users to call their states representatives in Washington to oppose the bill. Multiple congressional offices have already stated that they’ve been “flooded” with calls.
In a statement, TikTok said:
“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
Lawmakers have long been alleging that TikTok poses a national security threat because the government in China can use its intelligence laws against ByteDance to force them to hand over the data of US TikTok users. If done, that information can then be potentially used to identify intelligence targets or enable disinformation or propaganda campaigns.
The US government has not yet presented any evidence that China has accessed user data from TikTok, and according to reports, cybersecurity experts have stated that it still remains a hypothetical scenario.
During the Trump administration, there was a major effort to ban TikTok, however, others debated whether or not the president had the power to ban a foreign-owned social media app. With this new congressional legislation, the president would have clear, new authorities to do that.
With the speed in which House leaders are promising a floor vote, it can be assumed that they’re confident in the bill’s clearance. There is still not a lot of information regarding if the bill will have a chance in the Senate.
Gallagher stated that the bill will likely fall to the Senate Commerce Committee. Senator Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Commerce Committee, told CNN that she will be talking to her “Senate and House colleagues to try to find a path forward that is constitutional and protects civil liberties.”
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said that “passing a nationwide privacy law regulating how all companies, not just TikTok, handle Americans’ data would lead to the same result without raising First Amendment concerns.”
“By that precedent, it would be unconstitutional for the government to ban TikTok even if it were blatantly a direct mouthpiece for the Chinese government,” Jaffer said.
“If you give the government the power to restrict Americans’ access to propaganda, then you’ve given the government the power to restrict Americans’ access to anything the government deems to be propaganda.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
The US State Department has issued a travel advisory for Jamaica among an influx of crime and health concerns. The department issued the advisory last week, stating the following:
“Violent crimes, such as home invasions, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and homicides, are common. Sexual assaults occur frequently, including at all-inclusive resorts. Local police often do not respond effectively to serious criminal incidents.”
The State Department also added to their advisory that in the event of an emergency, “high level or specialized” healthcare options may not be available throughout the entire island nation, and patients would likely be required to pay for medical care.
Travelers are only being asked to reconsider visiting Jamaica, especially with Spring Break and the summer season coming up quickly. While they have not advised Americans to avoid the nation altogether, they did outline specific high-risk areas in which certain US government personnel are prohibited from traveling due to its risk of crime.
Montego Bay, downtown Kingston, part of St. Ann’s Parish by Ocho Rios, and certain neighborhoods in Negril are some of the areas mentioned in the advisory to be cautious of visiting, according to USA Today.
Americans who will be traveling to Jamaica and/or the previously mentioned areas specifically, are being advised to always be aware of their surroundings, keep a relatively low profile while you’re there, and avoid public transportation, walking, and/or driving at night.
Situations where one may find themselves secluded increases their risk of being potentially robbed or susceptible to other violence. If one does find themselves in a dangerous situation, the best thing to do is comply, especially in cases of robbery.
The State Department is also encouraging Americans who are traveling to Jamaica to enroll in the department’s free Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, and to plan emergency contingency plans in case something were to happen.
“We strongly encourage you to obtain traveler’s insurance, including medical evacuation insurance, before traveling to Jamaica,” the advisory added in bold font to emphasize the importance of these procedures.
Insurance and medical evacuation insurance is especially important, as the Department warned that many health care providers overseas will not accept US health insurance, and neither Medicare nor Medicaid benefits apply overseas.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
An updated study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that although obesity rates in children were dropping last decade, it’s now on the rise.
National data suggests that around 2.5% of preschool aged children were severely obese during 2020. Heidi Blanck of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one of the study’s authors, spoke on these discouraging findings:
“We were doing well and now we see this upward trend. We are dismayed at seeing these findings.”
The study itself collected data from 2 to 4-year-old children that are enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children program through the US Food and Nutrition Service. This particular program helps provide healthy foods and other services to low-income families with preschool children. As a part of the program and study, the children were both weighed and measured, according to the AP.
The researchers have collected data from the current and past decade from more than 1.6 million kids within the program. It found that in 2010, 2.1% of the children in the program were severely obese. In 2016 that percentage dropped to 1.8% but rose up to 2% by 2020; that’s roughly 33,000 out of the 1.6 million.
20 states across the country saw the most significant increases, with California having the highest rate at 2.8%. Among different racial and ethnic groups, Hispanic kids saw the highest increase as well at 2.8%.
Blanck stated that it’s not totally clear why these increases occurred. The initial drops in obesity rates were attributed to 2009 policy changes, including removing juice from infant food packages, reducing saturated fats in foods, and increasing accessibility to fruits and vegetables.
“The daily hardships that families living in poverty are facing may be harder today than they were 10 years ago, and the slight increases in the WIC package just weren’t enough,” said Dr. Sarah Armstrong, a Duke University childhood obesity researcher.
Compared to last decade, the number of children in the WIC program has declined, and the data was also impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, as researchers were still analyzing obesity rates when fewer parents were taking their children to the doctors.
“Despite its limitations, it was a very well done study. It gives you a hint of what’s going on,” said Deanna Hoelscher, a childhood obesity researcher at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, concluding that the researchers are “thinking it’s going to get worse.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
Famous singer Elton John has stated that gay rights are moving backwards in the US in response to the slew of anti-LGBT+ legislation being brought up throughout the nation’s governments.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.