Showing posts from May, 2019

Amid flood of CBD products, FDA holds first public hearing on cannabis extract

You can buy CBD in oils, supplements, soda, even dog food. But very little of it is legal, prompting concerns over safety and deceptive marketing.

U.S. measles cases in first five months of 2019 surpass total for any year since 1994

If the outbreaks continue, they could reverse an important public health achievement: the elimination of measles as a continuously spreading disease

The Health 202: New report shows dramatic improvement in melanoma survival rates

The National Cancer Institute's annual report also showed cancer deaths overall are declining.

White House runs into health-care industry hostility as it plans executive order

Order seeks to increase hospital cost transparency and position Trump as an ally of consumers.

What is rat lungworm disease? Five people in Hawaii recently found out.

Hawaii’s Department of Health has announced new cases of rat lungworm, a parasitic worm that has infected five people statewide this year.

The Health 202: Democratic 2020 contenders are seizing on wave of antiabortion laws

The restrictions could change voting patterns on the issue.

Oklahoma opioid trial begins as state lays blame for crisis on drug companies

Oklahoma lawyers allege Johnson & Johnson, motivated by greed, flooded the market with prescription painkillers. The company said its business is closely regulated and isn’t tied directly to overdose deaths.

Planned Parenthood could close in Missouri, making it the first state without abortion access

Planned Parenthood says it is suing the state of Missouri in an effort to continue providing abortion procedures at the state's lone clinic, in St. Louis.

A violation of ‘privacy, liberty, dignity’: Civil rights groups sue HHS over religious exemption rule

The challenge to a rule published May 21 is being mounted by Lambda Legal, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, in conjunction with California's Santa Clara County.

The Health 202: There's just one female physician in Congress. We talked to her.

Democrat Kim Schrier doesn't think Medicare-for-all is necessarily the answer.

A good Rx for lowest prices, best service at a pharmacy

Here are tips on how to find the best dispensary for your needs — and how to get the most out of any one that you visit.

Drug company to face first opioid trial in Oklahoma as families of the dead seek recompense

The first test of pharmaceutical companies’ liability in the nation’s opioid crisis is scheduled to open Tuesday in a Norman, Okla., courtroom.

The Big Number: 4,535 people a year go to the ER because of pool chemical exposure

More than half of these injuries occurred at a home swimming pool, the CDC says.

A final comfort for dying children: ‘Palliative transport’ to send them home

Some hospitals help parents move their children out of the ICU, with life support in tow, to let them die in familiar surroundings.

In rare occasions, dark-skinned people can get skin cancer. But sunscreens won’t help.

For black people, melanoma is not associated with UV exposure and develops in such places as the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.

‘When I tell people what happened, they freak out’: A sore arm results in 4 surgeries and 8 days in a hospital

A 39-year-old real estate executive wasn’t sure the midnight ER trip was necessary. Without it, he might be dead.

At 10, I wrote a suicide note. Today, I have an urgent message for that troubled little girl — and others like her.

Trust me, one day you will have a much happier life — no matter how dismal things look now.

Instagram public awareness campaign aims for real talk about mental health

#RealConvo offers graphics, photos and personal stories to help inspire, fight stigma and reframe how people think about the issue.

The price of insulin is surging. This state is the first to make insurance companies eat the cost.

The Colorado law will cap monthly co-payments at $100, but doesn't change how much insulin manufacturers can charge.

Planned Parenthood, other health clinics sue Alabama over near-total abortion ban law

Planned Parenthood and the Alabama Women’s Center on Friday filed suit against the state of Alabama to block the nation’s most restrictive abortion law. The near-total ban, signed by Alabama Gov. Kay...

New Trump administration rule would weaken protections for transgender people in health care

The Department of Health and Human Services on Friday proposed a new rule that civil rights groups worry may be used to deny care to transgender patients. HHS’s director of the Office for Civil Rights...

The Health 202: Momentum is building in Congress to take on surprise medical bills

It's one of several incremental actions on health care that could happen this session.

Officials fighting U.S. measles outbreaks threaten to use rare air travel ban

The CDC operates a Do Not Board list to prevent people believed to be a public health risk from getting on planes.

The Health 202: There are still a lot of questions about Medicare-for-all

The deputy CBO director answered a lot of them with 'it depends.'

The Health 202: Single-payer health care gets a second Captiol Hill hearing today.

The House Budget Committee will examine what it would take to start such a system.

A cadet died in tragedy. Now his parents can use his sperm to create his child, a judge rules.

Supreme Court Justice John Colangelo ruled that the parents of dead cadet Peter Zhu may use his sperm for “procreative purposes.”

Two dozen states, municipalities, sue over Trump’s ‘conscience’ rule

The lawsuits challenge policy that gives health care providers and insurers greater ability to deny services if they have religious or moral objections.

The Health 202: Rape exemptions for abortion are dividing Republicans

The exemption had been a rare point of agreement.

Healing Updates + Waking Back Up to My Soul’s True Nature

Hellllooo my loves! Wow, it’s been almost a month since my last blog post. I have been loving micro-blogging on Instagram and basically making every caption a blog post so I guess that’s where I’ve been. But I have also been doing deep, deep healing work and I have been feeling like it’s time for a bigger update on my healing journey here.

Close to a month ago I decided to start telling myself that not only am I healing, but I am HEALED. I know this might sound interesting because in many ways my body does not feel healed at all, but I have believed for a while now that I have reached a level of consciousness in my mind where sickness and chronic illness do not exist.

My work for the last several months has been to bridge the gap between that level of consciousness that I’ve reached in my mind and where I am / how I feel in my body. My mind has been feeling so strong, happy, and healed, and my body has still been feeling so sick, so exhausted, so worn down, and so at a loss as to how to move forward.

As my girl Elizabeth Gilbert says, “I’ve never seen any life transformation that didn’t begin with the person in question finally getting tired of their own bullshit.”

What she means by that is that true transformation takes place when we are gravely honest with ourselves. When we are brave enough to say, “This same old storyline isn’t working for me anymore. I am done with it and I want out.” And that, my friends, is not easy. It requires us to take accountability for our lives and in essence, take back the reins of our own existence. And that can be scary AF.

Reaching My Own “Sick & Tired” Breaking Point //

I can definitely say, I have reached a point in the last month or so that I have become so SICK & TIRED of being SICK & TIRED. Of perpetuating my own bullshit & stuck-ness in this chronic illness life that is keeping me in a place where I can’t possibly heal.

I could tell you a million and one stories about how Lyme disease has protected me from a lot of things in my life. It has been the hardest experience of my entire life, the most miserable in so many ways, and yet also it has shielded me from everything I no longer wanted to be or to do in this world. So when I say that chronic illness is our greatest gift, I mean that. Chronic illness is our GREATEST gift, a present from the Universe, something handed to us at our feet to wake us back up to who we are inside.

Trust me when I say this is a scary thing to realize. It’s taken me over a year to open up to this idea fully. When I was first diagnosed with Lyme disease last June, I was so overwhelmed and terrified but I was also so self-righteously HAPPY. I finally had an answer and a label for everything that had been causing me such extreme and immense pain for so long.

A few people (including my beloved fiancé) tried to tell me that if I identified too heavily with Lyme disease, I would be sticking myself in the story of being a sick person and it wouldn’t ever allow me to get better. I was annoyed by these people. I thought they didn’t get it at all. I thought they were telling me that I wasn’t allowed to associate with Lyme, something that finally gave a name to my ailments, something I was so, so happy to finally be able to hold onto and something that made me feel UNDERSTOOD and taken care of,

I needed to be a sick person with Lyme disease for a while. Not only because I was (and still am) a sick person with Lyme disease, but because my soul needed to be validated after a decade of having no clue on earth what was wrong with me — after having doctor after doctor after doctor after doctor tell me that I was COMPLETELY FINE & HEALTHY when I absolutely was not.

I needed that label. That label saved me from all my prior years of torture and hell when it came to western medicine. And because of it I was finally able to get on a protocol and treatment plan for Lyme. In many ways it was a huge gift.

But when I reached the point of getting sick and tired of my own bullshit… I was ready to begin to think about what letting go of that label might mean for me. I was ready to connect to that higher level of consciousness I had experienced so blissfully on Mother Ayahuasca, where I knew that my soul of all souls is HEALTHY and radiates nothing but bright, shiny, beautiful health!! I was ready to DROP MY STORY and do the hard, grueling inner work of getting to the ROOT of my illness and what exactly its been protecting me from for all this time.

And once I realized what it was protecting me from (all of the things that I do not want to do and that no longer serve me in this life) I realized that now I no longer need to be sick because I can have healthy boundaries and protect myself from those things as a HEALTHY person.

Reconnecting to my Soul’s Path //

No I am not saying that we, as chronically ill patients, have chosen to be sick. No I am not saying that as sick people it is OUR FAULT that we are sick. It’s so, so, so far from that and it’s really quite the contrary. What I’m saying that I believe is that our souls chose this path long before we came here. Long before we ever incarnated into these bodies. Our souls are on a karmic path that we as a human species are conditioned to completely forget. But I have been on an absolute spiritual awakening journey where I am remembering my path, and why I came here, and who I am as an eternal being and not just Jordan Younger in this physical body and incarnation.

I did not choose to be sick. I did get a tick bite that infected me with Lyme and I do have genetic mutations that make detoxing nearly impossible and I did live in a mold-infested apartment for three years that wreaked havoc on my immune system and I did develop parasites that ripped apart my gut and I have been suffering for a very long time. But I am also a soul having an eternal experience, and I CHOSE this.

Lifetimes upon lifetimes of pain have manifested in my body as chronic illness in this lifetime. My ancestors pain has manifested in my body as chronic illness. Pain I went through as a child, conditioning that was imposed upon me to “work harder” and focus on all outer material things (and money) to inform my success and happiness… all of this has manifested as sickness in my body.

I could go on & on and I will, as I am working on a book (!!!!) all about my experience to waking back up to my soul’s eternal existence and becoming my own healer.

If you are chronically ill I promise I am not telling you that being sick is your fault. What I am telling you is that your soul is powerful beyond measure. In some realm, by some karmic destiny that’s beyond our wildest dreams, you CHOSE this. Or your karmic path chose it for you. It’s meant to wake you back up to who you are.

I am realizing so many things about the new me, and I am realizing that returning to my old life is NOT what defines health. Letting go of that limiting belief is exactly why I am now finding healing and why I am finally able to turn my life around.

I am having to let go of so much. Nearly everything I’ve known and that I thought was true. I am micro-dosing various forms of plant medicine to continue getting back in touch with my soul’s eternal cosmic being — and nature is a huge part of this. The plants have been speaking to me and waking me back up to who I am.

Becoming Our Own Healer //

You can do this too! It is as simple as taking off your shoes and grounding your feet into the soil or into the sand if you live by the ocean. It doesn’t need to be a soul-remembrance experience in order to be powerful. The earth charges us up with negative ions and re-calibrates us back into our very being-ness, whether or not we think too much about what it is doing and whether or not we speak to the earth the way that I like to.

I can hear my dad saying, “I am never going to be a barefoot hippie even though some of these ideas make a lot of sense,” as he said to me this weekend after reading Michael Singer’s autobiography The Surrender Experiment! And I know there are a lot of people out there who feel this way, and I get it. So you don’t have to seek out a full blown spiritual awakening in order to get back in touch with your true natural essence.

We are from the earth. Nature heals. Bathing in the forest, grounding our feet into the earth, eating a more plant-based diet, swimming in the ocean, watching the sunset, laying naked under the full moon… all of these things heal us. There is a universe inside of each of our bodies.

Waking back up to who I am is the greatest gift I ever could have imagined or hoped for in this lifetime. I am so excited about it and everything the earth and my soul has to teach me. I have been channeling my highest self more and more lately, and have been integrating this part of myself into my podcast and basically into every experience I am having lately.

This is why I am healing!!!! And it all started with me getting SICK & TIRED OF MY OWN BULLSHIT STORY!!! We all have one! And please don’t let yourself get offended by the notion of having your own story — sometimes we are so undeniably wrapped up in it we can’t see it at all. I couldn’t see my own in its entirety until very recently.

I am making an extremely conscious effort to surround myself only with people who lift me up to no end. I spent the weekend at In Goop Health, surrounded by so many humans on the leading edge of health, wellness, healing, and spirituality. I spent this Sunday with several of the most inspiring women I know, and I spent today with my dear friend Jenna Zoe (3 time podcast guest and Human Design Chart Reader!) getting lost in nature and tapping back into our inner earth goddess selves.

We all have this insane, huge, massive capacity to heal living inside of us and to turn our struggles into our greatest teachers.

To turn our mess into our message.

It’s all here for us. It’s all so powerful, as long as we let it be.

So from my heart to yours, we are healing. And we are doing it together. I am so honored to have you here on this journey with me. My biggest advice is to take yourself out of your story, the storyline that is holding you back. Whatever it is. We probably all have several stories but one big one. And to get back into nature and let it heal you. Let every day be FUN. This is our birthright.

I am so, so, so, so happy to be healing. Happier than I have ever been in my life. I still have days and moments within every day where I struggle immensely and I don’t even mind anymore because I am letting it all be part of the journey…

Don’t forget if you are in pain, I am in pain too. I am not speaking from a place of completely healed or eradicated pain. But I have chosen to view my pain differently now. It’s all a shift in perception. And I believe that as I continue to shift, my pain will continue to dissipate.

Love you all so much. Would absolutely love your thoughts and stories below. So much huge mega healing Reflector-y love. <3

Antivaxxers go viral in communities battling measles

“This is a national movement of people who are nothing but charlatans, conspiracy theorists and people . . . spreading misinformation,” says New York official.

The Health 202: Large employers don't want Medicare-for-all

'Our employers are not calling for Uncle Sam,' said the head of the American Benefits Council.

Trump, Republicans distance themselves from Alabama abortion law

The president said abortion should be legal following rape or incest — exceptions not allowed under Alabama’s new law.

A daily aspirin is good for your heart, right? Actually it’s time to rethink that but here’s why many doctors don’t.

Changing clinical practice also goes beyond integrating new information. It requires unlearning and de-adopting outdated, ineffective clinical practices.

Running and aging usually don’t mix. But at 62, quitting isn’t an option for me.

To do it with much younger friends at this stage of life is a gift I don’t take lightly.

‘This terrible disease’: Ovarian cancer is deadly, but new tests, treatments start to emerge

Compared with other cancer success stories, the disease historically has had a shortage of good news. Until recently, it hasn’t benefited from new treatments for decades.

Life expectancy has increased in the past century, but so have health woes for the elderly

New Yorker article explores how researchers are trying to deal with the aging vs. ailing quandary.

Haven’t been following the abortion ban news? Here’s everything you need to know.

Several states have passed anti-abortion legislation this year. Here's a rundown of what it all means.

The Health 202: Lawmakers push to extend funding for mental health clinics set to end in July

Actress Glenn Close is teaming up with Sens. Roy Blunt and Debbie Stabenow.

House passes legislation to strengthen the ACA, boost generic drugs

Democrats use health-care debate as 2020 warm-up as Republicans accuse them of thwarting bipartisanship

Liver transplant rules spark open conflict among transplant centers

Patients, doctors in less populated parts of the country seek contempt order against HHS and the nonprofit that runs the transplant system

Five more states sue Purdue Pharma for opioid crisis

West Virginia, Maryland, Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin are coordinating their efforts to seek compensation from the company, an official said.

The Health 202: Alabama's abortion clinics planning to stay open despite new law

The state is daring the courts to block its near-total abortion ban.

Judge blocks new policy for distributing livers for transplant

Federal judge Amy Totenberg had asked the government to hold off implementing controversial new rules until the Supreme Court decides a related case.

Lower-fat diet reduces risk of dying from breast cancer, study says

Women who followed a lower-fat diet rich in fruits, vegetables and grains had a lower risk of dying from breast cancer than those on a higher-fat diet, according to results from a major new study rele...

North Carolina sues Juul, setting up a fresh legal fight for the embattled e-cigarette company

The lawsuit could prompt other states to take similar steps against e-cigs.

The Health 202: Democrats are putting a political pothole in the way of bipartisan drug pricing bills

They're including Obamacare measures Republicans are promising to oppose.

Justice Department says FDA ‘lacks jurisdiction’ over death-penalty drugs

The opinion sides with Texas, which the agency blocked from importing an overseas drug needed in executions.

The Health 202: Democrats demand the Trump administration explain why it won't defend Obamacare

The investigation is just one of many ways House Democrats are probing the executive branch.

A sponsor of an Ohio abortion bill thinks you can reimplant ectopic pregnancies. You can’t.

Doctors are outraged after a state-level bill makes a false claim about a dangerous condition.

The Health 202: Senators want surprise medical bills to be negotiated like baseball salaries

But the White House calls that 'disruptive.'

Drugmaker to donate HIV-prevention pills for as many as 200,000 people

Gilead Sciences’ agreement with the government is part of President Trump’s initiative to nearly wipe out HIV transmission in the United States by 2030.

Got gonorrhea? It may have come from French kissing, study says

Researchers in Australia found that kissing with tongue could be a way to transmit throat gonorrhea, or oropharyngeal gonorrhea, particularly among gay and bisexual men.

Trump pushes to end ‘surprise medical billing’ from hospital care

Trump is trying to position himself on the side of aggrieved health care consumers as surveys show broad concern about unexpected bills — and a belief that the government should do something about them.

After shouting match breaks out, Alabama Senate reverses course and tables controversial abortion vote

After a fight broke out, the Alabama Senate on Thursday voted to table a controversial bill to criminalize abortions by making preforming the procedure a felony punishable by up to 99 years imprisonme...

The Health 202: Trump will call on Congress to protect Americans from surprise medical bills

There's an event today at the White House.

An unvaccinated teen who sued over school ban got chickenpox. His dad says that’s a good thing.

Being exposed to chickenpox naturally is "the best thing to do" to become immune, his father says. Health officials disagree.

‘He is wrong’: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s family calls him out for anti-vax conspiracy theories

Two of his siblings and his niece say his anti-vax advocating "is having heartbreaking consequences."

GOP legislator attacks top vaccine scientist on Twitter, accusing him of self-enrichment, ‘sorcery’

It started with a report which noted the state of Texas saw a 14 percent rise in parents opting out of their children’s vaccinations.

Obesity epidemic is led more by rural than urban populations

Massive study finds obesity rising faster in rural areas than cities, highlighting need for solutions to both.

The Health 202: 'Heartbeat' bills illustrate rise of idealistic wing of antiabortion activists

They're likely to be overturned by the courts.

700 women die each year from pregnancy issues. The CDC says most of the deaths could be prevented.

One-third of the women who died from pregnancy-related complications died weeks or months after childbirth, up to a year after their babies were born, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Georgia governor signs ‘heartbeat bill,’ giving the state one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation

The law bans most abortions once a doctor detects what they call “a fetal heartbeat in the womb,” which is usually about six weeks into a pregnancy.

The Health 202: Meghan Markle delivered her son in a country with better maternal morality rates than the United States

The rates are especially troubling for African Americans.

I'm Taking the Challenge: F45 8 Week Challenge | An announcement of my participation in the latest F45 challenge! Plus the WHY behind my decision to take on this fitness/nutrition challenge and what got me to this point.

An announcement of my participation in the latest F45 challenge! Plus the WHY behind my decision to take on this fitness/nutrition challenge and what got me to this point. Long post today, friends! BUT, I think it will be one that you’ll like because it’s going to answer a TON of the question I’ve been...

Questions surround death of popular Christian writer

Rachel Held Evans’s symptoms suggest she may have had encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.

The Health 202: States aren't taking up the Trump administration's offer of Obamacare 'relief'

The House is also planning a vote on the subject.

35 years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. This year, I’m celebrating my ‘cancerversary.’

Taking ownership of my emotions and enjoying my survivorship has been empowering for me — and many others.

A medical condition or just a difference? The question roils autism community.

The fight causes a major divide that experts say may end up hurting research and funding.

A rising trend in cancer care targets physical, existential threats patients confront

Palliative method targets the “whole-person” using mind-body practices, massage, stress and symptom management: “If I don’t live long, I want to make sure I live my best life.”

I am terrified my newborn girl will inherit my 22-year-long eating disorder

She will be with me at almost every moment, see everything I do, hear everything I say, and her little sponge-brain will absorb it all.

Spotlight shifts to Johnson & Johnson as first major opioid trial nears in Oklahoma

The family-friendly health care conglomerate is not generally associated with the opioid epidemic. But Oklahoma will try to prove its role in the drug crisis.

Documenting intriguing history of the movie industry — in the medical profession

The Medicine on Screen website offers a look at the often-rare films about scientific advances, STDs and health problems.

San Francisco sues Trump administration, calls conscience rule a ‘perversion’ of civil rights mission

City Attorney Dennis Herrera said to the Department of Health and Human Services: "It should be struck down in full."

The Health 202: Trump administration sides with religious conservatives in key new policy

It's all about 'conscience protections.'

West Virginia reaches $37 million opioid settlement with drug shipper McKesson

The company admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to pay a record sum. Officials accused it of sending 100 million doses of narcotics in six years to a state with 1.8 million people.

Trump touts new faith-based protections for health-care workers at National Day of Prayer ceremony

The rule was proposed in 2018.

FDA won’t ban breast implants linked to cancer at this time

A month after a dramatic hearing in which many women called on the Food and Drug Administration to ban a type of breast implant linked to a rare cancer, the agency said it won’t take that action now b...

Caster Semenya ruling uses an unscientific definition of who is female, critics say

The Wednesday decision has prompted an outcry from human rights groups and medical researchers who call the idea “unscientific” and say it sets a dangerous precedent for using biological measures to justify discrimination.

Alabama Democrat on abortions: ‘Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later’

State Rep. John Rogers was speaking against a bill criminalizing abortion in Alabama.

The Health 202: CBO analysis shows single-payer health system would be messy

Medicare-for-all advocates should take note.

Hundreds quarantined on cruise ship in St. Lucia because of measles infection

The vessel was locked down in an attempt to stymie any potential spread of the highly contagious disease that’s sickening people in the United States at a record pace, fueled by anti-vaccination misinformation.

Medicare-for-all plans get a reality check

CBO analysis lays out ‘opportunities and risks’ of moving every American into a single government health plan.

The Health 202: New CBO analysis could torpedo Medicare-for-all proposals

It's the other big news on the Hill today.

Souls Wrapped in Skin- Reintroducing New Foods, Dealing with IBS, & Listening to My Body!

Hello, beautiful friends! Thank you for all of the love on the new site layout — I am so overjoyed about it. I cannot even handle how much I feel it represents my heart and soul now, and the direction that my brand is moving. If ya couldn’t tell from the branding, I feel the brand (and myself!) moving in a very spiritual, ethereal, calming / zen vibes, soul-level-depth kind of direction. Quite a far cry from the vegan food blog I started in 2013! (But always love that too.) Speaking of vegan food blogs… my journey with food has been such a, well, JOURNEY over the years. Being plant-based again has drastically helped to improve my health issues over the last few years as I have been dealing with Lyme, co-infections, mold, parasites, hormone issues, and more. In fact, I even came up with the term intuitively plant-based (I am sure I did not invent it lol- but have been calling myself that for a while now) and have been following that for the last couple of years. Although I shied awa...