All posts by Kenneth Dantzler-Corbin

I am a writer, editor, adjunct professor of Religion and Philosophy, English as a Second Language, Genealogy, Educator in Ambulatory Care, and Spiritual Support Specialist, Singer, Musician, and Social Justice Advocate for Human Rights.

2,500 weekly fatalities had been connected to Covid-19

By late May, almost 2,500 weekly fatalities had been connected to Covid-19. More over half of the population in the United States has gotten at least one dose of the Covid19 vaccination. People aged 50 to 74 now account for over half of all fatalities, up from barely a third in December. Those aged 50 and above continue to account for the majority of Covids-19 fatalities, with younger persons being the minority. According to specialists, the protracted fatalities are being caused by the remaining uninfected populace.

Dr. Krutika Kuppalli mentioned the virus can still have serious implications for young individuals.

The CDC distributes statistics on Covid fatalities in the United States for the weeks commencing December 5, 2020 through May 22, 2021, including statistics for June 9-21. White people aged 75 and above accounted for more than half of all Covid-19 fatalities. The sharpest losses have been seen in elderly white patients, as well as Asians under the age of 30. The magnitude of the decline in fatalities is not consistent across the board.

The remaining deaths are primarily the result of people who have not been immunized. According to the CDC, the death rate in the United States remains a seven-day average of fatalities per 100,000 persons. According to the organization, the number of deaths caused by the virus in nursing homes has decreased by more than 90% since December. According to C.D.C. demographic statistics, the death rate among Black and Hispanic populations continues to fall below that of Asian and white people. In the United States, over 200 individuals per week are still dying in the institutions, accounting for 7% of all virus-related deaths countrywide. According to the report, the national death rate remains the highest in the United States, with more than 1,200 fatalities each week.

White Americans are leading the changes in mortality patterns within this group. “If we don’t get to 75 percent, 70 percent of people vaccinated, we’re going to die.”

Reference

Which Groups are still dying of Covid-19 in the U. S. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/10/us/covid-death-patterns.html

CDC COVID-19 Response Team and colleagues

Mark Thompson of the CDC COVID-19 Response Team and colleagues also demonstrated that the vaccines were highly efficient at lowering the viral load, febrile symptoms, and the duration of illness in people who acquired breakthrough infections despite being vaccinated. Full immunization was found to be 91% effective in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection in a large prospective study of approximately 4,000 people, whereas partial vaccination was found to be 81 percent effective. According to the researchers, if more evidence shows that these vaccines reduce viral load and, as a result, limit SARS-CoV-2 infectivity, it could mean that the vaccinations are not only efficient in preventing infection but also in reducing the effects of breakthrough infections. The researchers compared the viral RNA burden of vaccinations that had a breakthrough infection to unvaccinated infected individuals to determine the efficiency of partial and complete vaccination in avoiding SARS-CoV-2 infection. Vaccinated individuals got either the BNT162b2 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech or the mRNA-1273 vaccine from Moderna, and efficacy was estimated after adjusting for geography, occupation, and local virus circulation. The vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection was estimated to be 91 percent for complete vaccination and 81 percent for partial vaccination. Following at least partial immunization, an adjusted analysis revealed a 40.2 percent decreased viral RNA load.

Reference

New data from CDC on effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210606/New-data-from-CDC-on-effectiveness-of-Pfizer-and-Moderna-COVID-19-vaccines.aspx

Making Affirmations to Improve Mental Health

Many of us have unpleasant thoughts like this regularly. When we think in this manner, our confidence, attitude, and perspective may all deteriorate.
The issue with negative thoughts is that they become self-fulfilling. We convince ourselves that we are not good enough. These ideas have a detrimental effect on our personal life, relationships, and employment.
However, if we intentionally do the reverse and think positively about ourselves, the impact may be just as strong but considerably more beneficial.
This post will look at how affirmations may help you achieve an incredible transformation in your job and life.
What Are Affirmations, and How Effective Are They?
Affirmations are positive remarks that may assist you in confronting and eliminating self-defeating and negative ideas. When you say them often and with conviction, you might see wonderful improvements.
You may see affirmations as irrational “wishful thinking.” However, consider affirmations in this way: many of us engage in repeated workouts to enhance our physical health, and affirmations are like mental and emotional workouts. These positive mental repeats may rewire our thinking habits, causing us to think – and behave – differently.
For instance, research shows that affirmations may improve one’s performance at work. According to studies, spending a few minutes before a high-pressure meeting – such as a performance review – focusing on your greatest traits may help calm your nerves, boost your confidence, and raise your chances of a favorable result.
Self-affirmation may help minimize the consequences of stress. According to one research, a brief affirmation exercise improved the problem-solving ability of “chronically stressed” individuals to the same level as those with minimal stress.
Affirmations have been effectively used to help those who suffer from poor self-esteem, depression, and other mental health disorders. Further, they have been showing to activate the parts of our brains associated with an increased likelihood of effecting favorable changes in our health.
According to the latter research, having a more incredible feeling of self-worth increases your likelihood of improving your well-being. Thus, if you are concerned that you overeat and do not exercise enough, using affirmations to remind yourself of your beliefs might motivate you to improve your behavior.
There is evidence that affirmations are more helpful when your self-esteem is high. However, this study discovered that if you have poor self-esteem, positive affirmations might make you feel worse by creating a contradiction between the desired happy state and the present unpleasant sensations you are experiencing. If this is the case for you, begin by Boosting Your Self-Esteem before attempting to employ affirmations.
How to Effectively Utilize Positive Affirmations
Affirmations may be used in any scenario when you want to see a positive change in your life. These may involve instances when you want to:
Convince yourself before presentations or critical meetings.
I must manage negative emotions, such as frustration, rage, or impatience.
Enhance your sense of self-worth.
Complete projects that you have begun.
Increase your output.
Conquer a nasty habit.
Affirmations may be more effective when combined with other techniques for positive thinking and goal setting.
For instance, affirmations function very well with visualization. Therefore, rather than only seeing the change you want, you might write it down or speak it out using a positive affirmation.
Affirmations may also be beneficial for establishing personal objectives. Once you have identified the goals you wish to accomplish, affirmative statements can assist you in remaining motivated to achieve them.
The strength of affirmations comes from regularly repeating them to yourself. It is beneficial to repeat your affirmations many times during the day (have them flash up in your alerts!). You must repeat your affirmations immediately after engaging in the negative thought or behavior you wish to overcome.
How to Write an Acknowledgement Statement of Affirmation?
Affirmation words are often directed at a particular region, habit, or belief with which you are dealing. The following factors might assist you in crafting the affirmation statement that is most appropriate for your circumstances.
Consider the areas of your life that you want to improve. For example, do you wish you had more patience? Or do you want to develop stronger bonds with your friends and colleagues? Alternatively, would you want a more productive workday?
Make a list of many areas or habits that you want to improve. Find out that they align with your core values and the things that truly matter to you so that you will be genuinely motivated to accomplish them.
Find out that your assertion is credible and realistic. Rely on a sober assessment of the facts. For instance, suppose you are dissatisfied with your current salary. You might use affirmations to boost your confidence before approaching your boss for a raise.
However, it is not prudent to declare that you will double your pay: for most individuals and businesses, doubling one’s pay in one go is not achievable. Maintain a realistic perspective! After all, affirmations are not magical spells; if you lack faith in them, they are unlikely to affect your life.
Positively transform negatives. If you are having difficulty with negative self-talk, make a list of the persistent thoughts or beliefs causing you distress. Then choose an affirmation that is diametrically opposed to that notion or viewpoint.
For instance, if you frequently believe, “I am not talented enough to advance in my career,” replace this belief with a positive affirmation such as “I am a skilled and experienced professional.”
It would be best if you wrote your affirmation in the present tense. As if your affirmation has already occurred, write it down and speak it aloud—this aids in your belief that the statement is true at the moment. For example, “I am well-prepared and well-rehearsed, and I am capable of delivering an excellent presentation” is an excellent affirmation to employ if you are apprehensive before speaking in front of a group.
Say it with conviction. When affirmations carry emotional weight, they can be more effective. It would be best if you wanted this transformation, which is why each affirmation you repeat should be a sentence that is significant to you. For instance, if you are concerned about a new assignment, you could tell yourself, I am excited about taking on new challenges.

Magnesium is a perplexing vitamin

Because of the difficulty of maintaining a balanced diet, it is commonplace for individuals to take supplements to ensure their bodies get the nutrients they need. While supplements might help correct specific significant vitamin deficits, they may also cause complications. Magnesium is a perplexing vitamin because this supplement is involved in an array of body activities. It may be harmful to have too little or too much magnesium in your system, so achieving the optimal balance is critical. Continue reading to learn about some unexpected adverse effects of magnesium supplements, as reported by dietitians, and for more information on eating healthy, be sure to check out 7 Healthiest Foods to Eat Right Now. Magnesium, as an electrolyte, interacts with sodium levels in the body, resulting in some significant effects. Gastric motility refers to the flow of food from the mouth to the intestines; hence, supplementing with magnesium may speed up digestion to the point of experiencing loose bowel movements. If you are taking drugs, antibiotics, Wirtz advises against taking magnesium supplements since they may interact with the medicine. According to 2019 research, magnesium may impair the absorption of some medications, reducing their effectiveness. To be cautious, you may always supplement your diet with magnesium-rich foods.
Reference:
Surprising Side Effects of Taking Magnesium Supplements, Say, Dietitians.https://www.eatthis.com/side-effects-taking-magnesium-supplements/?fbclid=IwAR3bNHpJcFq8yj2vo8R2kr8ouV84acgTrsXhwAb67BhmGX-TnjnUS7mcv7I

Empowering Yourself with Positive Thoughts

Accept responsibility for your thoughts, actions, and emotions. Empower yourself to alter what is under your control – you – and you are ready to embrace the power of positive thinking in these seven ways. Positive thinking is as much a matter of the body as it is of the mind. The more optimism you project and the more positively people perceive you, the simpler it gets to think, establishing a positive feedback cycle. Take charge of your physiology by taking pleasure in your appearance and projecting positive thoughts, as well as demonstrating to others that you are feeling strong and optimistic.

When you are scowling and unpleasant, people will avoid you, and you will draw more bad circumstances – and when you are furious and aggressive, you will attract more bad scenarios. Consider the good and ask three critical questions to determine how you and others can make the world a better, more positive place.

Creating a positive attitude entails cultivating an optimistic and present-oriented frame of mind. By conditioning your mind to replace negative ideas with good ones, you may quit thinking negative thoughts.

Positive self-talk has been shown to enhance psychological states, aid in emotion regulation, and more. Your choice of words in the conversation affects how others react to you, generating another positive or negative feedback loop. When you can interrupt a negative thinking pattern before it becomes entrenched, you may change your focus to remember good affirmations. Even better if the person you admire is someone you know and regard as a mentor. Call them and request that they share some good thoughts with you.

Be aware of how you identify and characterize things in the discussion, especially your feelings, to reframe your opposing views. You cannot afford to remain pessimistic; therefore, harness the power of positive thought to alter your behaviors and attitudes. The more optimistic you are about yourself, the happier people will be about you.

Drinking green tea

Researchers note, in healthy people, drinking green tea has been shown to increase brain function. Many researchers are trying to discover if the calming and energizing effects of tea directly result from the various compounds or whether they result from the place where it is consumed. Antioxidants such as epigallocatechin gallate (found in tea leaves) and L-theanine (found in tea leaves) are most essential. These two antioxidants are accompanied by caffeine, an alkaloid found in tea leaves. People drink 100 million cups of tea every day. Tea remains part of the national psyche even though the popularity of other hot beverages in the U.K. Coffee has long been the dominant beverage, tea consumption is increasing, with Americans drinking about 14 ounces of tea leaves per year compared to 12.7 ounces in 2007, according to the United Nations.


It has a wide range of benefits on mental health, anxiety, attention, and memory symptoms. We do not yet know which specific compounds in green tea are culpable for the wide range of positive changes in our mental health. Another benefit of tea for those who suffer from depression, dementia, and Down syndrome is reducing symptoms. The research looks at the potential benefits of tea, and its bioactive compounds are often observational, which uses people’s perceptions as a primary source of evidence. Professor Gunter Kuhnle studies the health benefits of flavanols, which are present in tea.


His previous study, which was released last year, showed that flavanol-rich foods, such as berries, apples, and tea, can help reduce blood pressure. It is a popular working-class drink; It is a status symbol in the U.K. There is no real downside to drinking a cup of tea, and certain types of tea can benefit one’s health and overall well-being – which relates to both physical health and physical well-being, as noted by Dr. Benefits of drinking hot tea include weight loss, better heart health, and reduced risk of heart attack and stroke. Green tea is likely a combination of caffeine and L-theanine rather than the other, acting as the sole ingredient. Researchers state that drinking green tea has been shown to increase brain function in healthy people.

The evidence comprises smaller studies, although the results are modest. It is less clear which compounds are efficient for the observed cognitive enhancements, although there is general agreement on the effectiveness of the compounds in tea. Tea is associated with a longer life and can help to minimize cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Reference

Here’s how drinking tea helps improve your mental and physical health. https://www.wtae.com/article/drinking-tea-helps-improve-your-mental-and-physical-health/36516958#

Optogenetic therapy

Tunnel vision is a consequence of several cases where this occurs. In this patient, most patients’ sight is lost. The researchers’ optogenetic therapy was geared toward specific cells in particular. This team developed a viral vector that delivers a gene into ganglion cells responsive to red light, also known as amber light. The patient will have to wear a pair of goggles when undergoing the vision that takes incoming light and transforms it into monochromatic images, which are then projected live onto the re-engineered cells in the retina. When the patient is not wearing the goggles, he is completely blind. After gene therapy, patients had to turn their heads to locate items because they were dispersed in the retina. Scientists have spent decades trying to stimulate or suppress nerve cells with electrical impulses.

Reference
Scientists partially restore blind man’s vision with breakthrough gene therapy. https://www.cnet.com/news/scientists-partially-restore-vision-in-blind-man-using-breakthrough-gene-therapy/

Improve your overall well-being

Approved activities, such as exercise or writing in a journal, can be very safe and beneficial in the morning. You may have a subconscious illusion that completing your morning routine will improve your overall well-being, so you complete it, or you can stop now, Alison Nobrega said. You need to set aside time in the mornings to get your children washed, fed, and ready for school. You can value 30 minutes of extra sleep in the morning before getting ready for work, even if you do not have children. When you get out of bed, snoozing leaves you tired. Many experts would inform you that getting into the habit of writing in the morning is beneficial, and this is real. As a daily routine, forcing yourself to do this first thing in the morning will not suit everybody.

Reference

6 Morning Habits That Seem Healthy But Are Secretly Stressing You Out. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/morning-habits-healthy-stress_l_60a689c3e4b0a24c4f795c34

Studying fossilized human feces

Gut microorganisms live organisms have decreased in number during the last 2,000 years. That is one of the preliminary results from studying fossilized human feces extracted from rock shelters using a genomic approach. Since the atmosphere in this may be a ton, researchers assume it could be effective for microbes to grow and change. There are more antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the modern gut microbiota. The findings may be helpful to us in understanding the implications.

Reference

Mass Extinction in The Human Gut Revealed by Fossil Remains of 2,000-Year-Old Feces. https://www.sciencealert.com/2-000-year-old-feces-fossils-reveal-mass-extinction-in-the-human-gut