Background:
Many chronic conditions, including heart disease, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis, are associated with underlying chronic inflammatory processes. Literature reviews have analyzed a ...variety of integrative therapies and their relationships with chronic inflammation. This systematic review is unique in reporting solely on yoga’s relationship with inflammation. Its purpose was to synthesize current literature examining the impact of yoga interventions on inflammatory biomarkers in adults with chronic inflammatory–related disorders.
Method:
Searches of several electronic databases were conducted. Inclusion criteria were (a) English language, (b) sample age >18 years old, (c) yoga interventions involving postures with or without yoga breathing and/or meditation, and (d) measured inflammatory biomarkers.
Results:
The final review included 15 primary studies. Of these, seven were rated as excellent and eight as average or fair. There was considerable variability in yoga types, components, frequency, session length, intervention duration, and intensity. The most common biomarkers measured were interleukin-6 (n = 11), C-reactive protein (n = 10), and tumor necrosis factor (n = 8). Most studies reported positive effects on inflammatory biomarkers (n = 11) from baseline to post yoga intervention. Analysis of the dose showed higher total dose (>1,000 min) resulted in greater improvements in inflammation.
Conclusion:
This review suggests that yoga can be a viable intervention to reduce inflammation across a multitude of chronic conditions. Future studies with detailed descriptions of yoga interventions, measurement of new and well-established inflammatory biomarkers, and larger sample sizes are warranted to advance the science and corroborate results.
Substance use, mental disorders, and arrest are markers of increased firearm injury risk. It is unclear how these markers vary by intent. Examining these interrelated factors together can clarify ...their associations with assault-related, self-inflicted, unintentional, and legal intervention firearm injuries, informing intent-specific interventions.
In 2017–2018, 2-year diagnosis and arrest histories of intent-specific firearm injury cases were compared with those of unintentionally injured motor vehicle collision passenger controls. Fatal and nonfatal firearm and motor vehicle collision injury records in Seattle (2010–2014) were linked to statewide hospitalization and arrest records. Multinomial logistic regression models compared odds of prior arrest, substance use, and mental disorder diagnoses among intent-specific firearm injury cases relative to controls, adjusting for age, race, and gender.
A total of 763 cases and 335 controls were identified. Unintentional and self-inflicted cases did not differ significantly from controls in arrest history. Legal intervention cases resembled assault-related cases in their arrest history, and self-inflicted cases in their hospitalization history. The legal intervention cases were more likely than controls to have a prior felony arrest (OR=7.72, 95% CI=2.63, 20.97), and diagnoses involving alcohol (OR=4.06, 95% CI=1.04, 15.84); cannabis (OR=11.00, 95% CI=1.01, 119.36); depression/anxiety (OR=7.22, 95% CI=1.89, 27.67); psychosis (OR=6.99, 95% CI=1.35, 36.24); or conduct disorder (OR=22.01, 95% CI=1.44, 335.93).
Individuals with intent-specific firearm injuries have distinct patterns of prior substance use, mental disorder, and arrest. Many injuries occur after a series of encounters with institutions meant to help individuals during crises that can fail to provide longer-term solutions.
The Nottingham Grading System (NGS) developed by Elston and Ellis is used to grade invasive breast cancer (IBC). Glandular (acinar)/tubule formation is a component of NGS.
To investigate the ability ...of pathologists to identify individual structures that should be classified as glandular (acinar)/tubule formation.
A total of 58 hematoxylin-eosin photographic images of IBC with 1 structure circled were classified as tubules (41 cases) or nontubules (17 cases) by Professor Ellis. Images were sent as a PowerPoint (Microsoft) file to breast pathologists, who were provided with the World Health Organization definition of a tubule and asked to determine if a circled structure represented a tubule.
Among 35 pathologists, the κ statistic for assessing agreement in evaluating the 58 images was 0.324 (95% CI, 0.314-0.335). The median concordance rate between a participating pathologist and Professor Ellis was 94.1% for evaluating 17 nontubule cases and 53.7% for 41 tubule cases. A total of 41% of the tubule cases were classified correctly by less than 50% of pathologists. Structures classified as tubules by Professor Ellis but often not recognized as tubules by pathologists included glands with complex architecture, mucinous carcinoma, and the "inverted tubule" pattern of micropapillary carcinoma. A total of 80% of participants reported that they did not have clarity on what represented a tubule.
We identified structures that should be included as tubules but that were not readily identified by pathologists. Greater concordance for identification of tubules might be obtained by providing more detailed images and descriptions of the types of structures included as tubules.
In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in local food systems-among policy makers, planners, and public health professionals, as well as environmentalists, community developers, ...academics, farmers, and ordinary citizens. While most local food systems share common characteristics, the chapters in this book explore the unique challenges and opportunities of local food systems located within mature and/or declining industrial regions. Local food systems have the potential to provide residents with a supply of safe and nutritious food; such systems also have the potential to create much-needed employment opportunities. However, challenges are numerous and include developing local markets of a sufficient scale, adequately matching supply and demand, and meeting the environmental challenges of finding safe growing locations.
Interrogating the scale, scope, and economic context of local food systems in aging industrialized cities, this book provides a foundation for the development of new sub-fields in economic, urban, and agricultural geographies that focus on local food systems. The book represents a first attempt to provide a systematic picture of the opportunities and challenges facing the development of local food systems in old industrial regions.
This chapter presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers the policy implications associated with urban food deserts and specifically ...focus on assessing empirically observed access to food retailers within urban centers, such as Toledo. It presents a novel framework for understanding urban farming as a response to the technological hazards of an industrial economy in the extreme environment of Detroit. The book interrogates local food plans to understand how each promotes distinct and unique definitions of sustainability as economic, environmental, or social. It examines the production potential and overall sustainability of complex agricultural systems that support urban and suburban populations. The book demonstrates how the built environment, local markets, and the financial limits of social programs frustrate the food security of the most vulnerable populations. It investigates food security in Lewiston, Maine and the unique challenges facing single parent households to access and economically afford nutritional food.
This chapter presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book proposes a systems approach whose objective is to integrate sustainable ...agriculture and local food security. It recognizes the inherent complexity of wicked problems in suggesting that Food System Assessments are useful because they allow one to view the food environment as a piece of larger whole and can lay the groundwork for future collaborations and policy recommendations. The book discusses differing cultures that exist between first generation farmers and multi-generational farmers and the need for community policies that both protect the land and support the creation of new food sources. It characterizes the city as constituting an extreme environment, one that has become the poster child for urban decay. The book addresses a range of sustainability themes, including economic, capacity, and ecology.
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