The Washington Post - USA (2020-07-28)

TUESDAY, JULY 28 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E3

HEALTH SCAN

More education and higher incomes are associated with a lower risk of depression and discrimination for white people and black women. But for high-achieving black men, more success actually in- creases the likelihood they will experience symptoms of depression and anxiety. That’s the conclusion of Shervin Assari and T. J. Curry, researchers who have spent dec- ades studying depression in, and discrimination against, black men in the United States. In an article in The Conversa- tion, they discuss the results of six

studies that show an inverse effect between black men’s achieve- ment and adverse mental health outcomes. One long-term study followed 681 black youths over 18 years. For black male participants, an increase in perceived racial discrimination between ages 20 and 23 was correlated with increased

anxiety and depression symptoms as they g rew older. Another, which compared black men with black women, white men and white women over the course of 25 years, found that men with higher educational credentials also experienced more depressive symptoms. “A ccording to our studies, re- gardless of their economic success and personal ambitions, black males are still perceived as more threatening and dangerous than their female counterparts,” Assari and Curry write. “Race alone may not be the issue here. Instead, it is an issue of race and

gender, that may stem from hope- lessness, inequality and blocked opportunities.” Successful black men are not the only ones at risk, they said. But they challenge views that mere attainment can improve mental health outcomes for black men, whose success is attained in a world rife with personal and systemic biases and discrimination. To learn more about the studies — and how racial and gen- dered bias affect black men’s mental health — visit bit.ly/race- andgender. — Erin Blakemore

RACE AND MOOD DISORDERS

For black men, higher education and incomes don’t lower risk of depression, researchers say

Black men face high discrimination and depression, even as their education and incomes rise Shervin Assari and T. J. Curry

E

ven regular exercisers can see their workout routines veer off-course when unexpected changes occur. That’s what happened this past spring when millions of Americans were under stay-at-home orders because of the corona virus pandemic. Fitness centers closed, and walking outdoors was more difficult because of concerns about being around too many people. But it’s still important to stay active. “The older you are, the more quickly you lose physical fitness,” says LaVona Traywick, an assistant professor in the depart- ment of occupational therapy at the University of Central Arkan- sas. “Deconditioning can start in as little as one week.” In a ddition to the many proven health benefits of working out, exercise can help your immune system work better, too. Though it might take time to get used to working out in your living room, shifting to an at- home exercise routine isn’t difficult. Online classes and connect- ed exercise equipment, such as stationary bikes and treadmills, were already growing in popular- ity. After everyone was forced to stay home, even more options started springing up. Individual instructors from gyms, community centers and yoga studios began offering live workouts on social media and via Web conferencing tools, such as Zoom. To find the best option for you, follow these tips.

Set some goals Experts say you should aim for 150 minutes of moder- ate-intensity aerobic exercise per week (half that amount if it’s vigorous intensity), two or three resistance-training and stretch-

ing sessions weekly that target the entire body (arms, shoulders, chest, back, abs, glutes and legs), and regular balance-enhancing activities. (Any exercise is better than none, however.) You can find workouts for all of these online, and brisk walking counts as aerobic exercise.

Pick something you enjoy Though being tethered to your house may be the perfect impetus to finally invest in a piece of exercise equipment, make sure it’s something you’ll actually use. “I hear so many people say, ‘I have to go do such and such,’ and they’re dreading it,” Traywick says. “If you hate biking, don’t b uy a stationary bike.” If equipment isn’t your thing, you can easily find something to fit your taste, given the variety of

on-demand workouts. Prerecorded classes give you flexibility, b ut if you go t o a fitness center mainly for the social en- gagement it provides, try a “live” workout, which may allow you to see your fellow classmates and even get feedback from the instructor.

Check the credentials “Credible sites should tell you what the instructor’s credentials are,” Traywick says. Classes tar- geted to an older population should ideally be developed by people with expertise in senior fitness. This is the case for programs like Go4Life (search Go4Life on YouTube for videos), from the National Institute on Aging, and SilverSneakers, which is a free benefit of many Medicare Advan-

tage and supplemental health plans. “Our classes ensure that the exercises are accessible to people with varying levels of fitness abili- ties,” says Elizabeth Rula, execu- tive director of research at Tivity Health, which runs SilverSneak- ers. There are more than 200 on- demand videos via the website and the SilverSneakers GO app, and the group’s Facebook page runs live workouts twice a week. The program’s research shows that those who participate regu- larly report fewer days of poor physical and mental health, Rula says.

Consider the features Look at the amount of equipment required (such as dumb- bells or resistance bands) and the cost. Streaming workout programs can run between $10 and $20 a month. Each workout should also have a distinct warm-up and cool- down. “The warm-up raises your heart rate slowly and makes muscles more pliable,” Traywick says. “A t the end, you want to stretch out muscles to prevent soreness later and bring the heart rate down slowly — so you don’t have blood pooling in your extremities, which can lead to dizziness and fainting.”

FROM CONSUMER REPORTS

Choosing a home exercise routine

ISTOCK You might need some time to get used to working out in your living room, but shifting to an at-home exercise habit isn’t difficult.

23

percent

Y oung children with family dogs were
23 percent less likely to have social
interaction problems than children whose
households do not have a dog, some recent
research suggests. The finding comes from an
analysis of data from a three-year study of
1,646 households with preschool children
ages 2 to 5. S pecifically, the researchers found
that children who had a dog were 30 percent
less likely to engage in antisocial behavior and 40 percent less likely
to have problems interacting with other children than were
youngsters from homes that did not include a dog. In addition,
children who had dogs were 34 percent more likely to engage in
considerate behaviors, such as sharing or helping others. And the
more time they spent playing with their dog the more a child was
likely to be considerate — those who had three or more play sessions
with their dog each week were 74 percent more likely to be
consistently considerate compared with those who played less often.
One of the researchers said that the “mere presence of a family dog
was associated with many positive behaviors and emotions.” The
study also noted that the “findings suggest that the benefits from
owning a pet (dog) may commence early in childhood.” The research
did not, however, prove a cause-and-effect link between a dog and a
child’s behavior, stating that it could be coincidental that youngsters
with good social and emotional development have dogs or that the
families of children with dogs may offer more nurturing
environments.
— Linda Searing

THE BIG NUMBER

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. CR has no financial relationship with advertisers in this publication. Read more at ConsumerReports.org.

BY RONG-GONG LIN II

A

s health experts urge
the public to wear
masks to slow the
spread of the coronavi-
rus, they continue to
get pushback. Among the argu-
ments of skeptics: If masks can’t
fully protect me against covid-19,
what is the point of wearing
them?
Scientists’ counterargument is
that masks can help reduce the
severity of the disease caused by
coronavirus even if you get in-
fected.
There’s now mounting evi-
dence that silent spreaders are
responsible for the majority of
transmission of the coronavirus,
making universal masking essen-
tial to slow the spread of the
highly contagious virus, experts
say.
This makes the coronavirus
different from the seasonal flu.
With seasonal flu, peak infec-
tiousness occurs about one day
after the onset of symptoms. But
with the coronavirus, even
among people who do end up be-
coming visibly sick, peak infec-

tiousness can occur before they
show symptoms.
In fact, experts say, significant
amounts of virus can start com-
ing out of people’s noses and
mouths even when they feel well.
This is a key reason, they say,
why tactics to deal with the coro-
navirus must be markedly differ-
ent than with the seasonal flu.
And the universal wearing of
masks is key. Here’s a Q&A based
on research and interviews with
medical experts.

Q: What’s the point of wearing a
cloth face covering if it doesn’t
filter out everything?
A: Cloth face masks still provide
a major protective benefit: They
filter out a majority of viral parti-
cles.
As it turns out, that’s pretty
important. Breathing in a small
amount of virus may lead to no
disease or a more mild infection.
But inhaling a huge volume of vi-
rus particles can result in serious
disease or death.
That’s the argument Monica
Gandhi, professor of medicine at
the University of California at
San Francisco and medical direc-
tor of the HIV Clinic at Zucker-
berg San Francisco General Hos-
pital, is making about why — if
you do become infected with the
virus — masking can still protect
you from more severe disease.
“There is this theory that fa-
cial masking reduces the
(amount of virus you get exposed
to) and disease severity,” said
Gandhi, who is also director for
the Center for AIDS Research at
UC San Francisco.

Q: What evidence supports this
theory?
A: The idea that a lower dose of
virus means less severe illness is
a well-worn idea in medicine.
Even going back to 1938, there
was a study showing that by giv-

ing mice a higher dose of a dead- ly virus, the mice were more likely to get severe disease and die, Gandhi said. The same principle applies to humans. A study published in 2015 gave healthy volunteers varying doses of a flu virus; those who got higher doses got sicker, with more coughing and short- ness of breath, Gandhi said. And another study suggested that the reason the second wave of the 1918 -1919 flu pandemic was the deadliest in the United States was because of the over- crowded conditions in Army camps as World War I wound down. “In 1918, the Army camps [were] characterized by a high number of contacts between people and by a high case-fatality rate, sometimes 5 to 8 times higher than the case-fatality rate among civilian communities,” the study said. Finally, a study published in May found that surgical mask partitions significantly reduced the transmission of the coronavirus among hamsters. And even if the hamsters protected by the mask partitions acquired the coronavirus, “they were more likely to get very mild disease,” Gandhi said.

Q: What happens if a city dra- matically masks up in public? A. If Gandhi is right, it may mean that even if there’s a rise in coronavirus infections in a city, the masks may limit the dose of virus people are getting and result in less severe symptoms of illness. That’s what Gandhi said she suspects is happening in San Francisco, where mask wearing is relatively robust. Further ob- servations are needed, she said. There’s more evidence that masks can be protective — even when wearers do become infected. She cited an outbreak at a seafood plant in Oregon where employees were given masks, and 95 percent of those who were infected were asymptomatic. Gandhi also cited the experience of those aboard a cruise ship that was traveling from Ar- gentina to Antarctica in March when the coronavirus infected people on board, as documented in a recent study. Passengers got surgical masks; the crew got N95 masks. But instead of about 40 percent of those infected being a symptomatic — which is what would normally be expected — 81 percent of those testing positive were asymptomatic, and the masks may have helped reduce the severity of disease in people on board, Gandhi said.

Q: What has happened in other countries where residents have masked up? A: The protective effects are seen in countries where masks have been universally accepted for years, such as Ta iwan, Thailand, South Korea and Singapore. “They have all seen cases as they opened... but not deaths,” Gandhi said. The Czech Republic moved early to require masks, issuing an order in mid-March, Gandhi said; that’s about three months before Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom did so statewide in California. But in the Czech Republic, “ev- ery time their cases would go up

... their death rate was totally
flat. So they didn’t get the severe
illness with these cases going on.”
By May, the Czech Republic
lifted its face mask rule. “A nd
they’re doing great,” Gandhi said.
— Los Angeles Times

Masks might help you

even if you get covid-19,

medical experts say

“There is this theory

that facial masking

reduces the (amount of

virus you get exposed

to) and disease

severity.” Monica Gandhi, professor of medicine

Now more than everNow more than ever,,,

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We’re managed by Erickson Living,® a leader in senior living

and health care. Despite social distancing, our residents

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