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Yours Truly: A Heartwarming Romance Inspired by Best-Selling Author Abby Jimenez’s Kidney Disease Diagnosis

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New York Times bestselling author of Part of Your World and Food Network champion Abby Jimenez is back with another smash hit–Yours Truly. In this riveting romance, Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is quickly changing. She gets a divorce, her brother is in kidney failure, and the promotion she wants might go to a new doctor, Dr. Jacob Maddox. Just when she’s decided to hate Dr. Maddox, he donates a kidney to her brother and changes the course of their relationship forever. Read the full Q&A from the National Kidney Foundation.

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How a double-lung transplant affected my body and self-image

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Accepting the scars and a new physique wasn’t easy

By Lara Govendo

After I had a double-lung transplant six years ago due to cystic fibrosis (CF), it was hard to look at myself in the mirror.

I would stare at my stapled chest, and feelings of disbelief and grief would bubble to the surface like never before. Thoughts raced through my mind: What will people say when they see my scars and disfigured chest? How will I ever feel comfortable in my own body again?
Read the complete article in Cystic Fibrosis News Today.

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Any alcohol consumption risk factor for high blood pressure

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By Regina Shaffer

As little as one alcoholic drink per day is associated with a linear increase in systolic BP, even for people without hypertension, data from a meta-analysis of international studies show.

“We found no beneficial effects in adults who drank a low level of alcohol compared to those who did not drink alcohol,” Marco Vinceti, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology and public health at University of Modena Medical School and Reggio Emilia University in Italy, said in a press release. Read the full article in Healio.

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CareDx’s HeartCare Multimodality Service Receives Medicare Coverage for Heart Transplant Surveillance

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AUGUST, 02, 2023

HeartCare Combines Testing Using Both AlloMap Gene Expression Profiling and AlloSure Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA

BRISBANE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– CareDx, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA), a leading precision medicine company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers – today announced Medicare coverage for HeartCare, a multimodality testing service that includes both AlloMap® Heart and AlloSure® Heart, in a given patient encounter, for heart transplant surveillance. Coverage is effective April 1, 2023. AlloMap Heart and AlloSure Heart are also covered by Medicare individually. Read the complete press release on CareDx.com.

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A Million Lives Saved and Counting

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For each organ transplanted in the U.S., Richmond’s UNOS makes it possible.

By Caroline Kettlewell

Heather James spent much of her young life fighting to breathe. Born with cystic fibrosis, she was losing that fight by the time she’d reached 19. In November of that year, with her lung function at barely 15 percent, her doctors “didn’t think I was going to make it to the New Year,” she recalls.

Then a stranger saved her life. Heather would never meet the woman who gave her a new pair of lungs, a liver, and a second chance at life. It was a gift that Heather, now 29, honors every day. Read the full story in
Virginia Living.

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Just a few minutes of vigorous physical activity a day significantly reduces cancer risk

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By Matthew Shinkle

Small amounts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity appeared associated with lower risk for cancer, according to a study published in JAMA Oncology.

“Even though study participants were not doing any structured exercise, about 94% recorded some vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity; 92% was done in very short bursts lasting up to 1 minute,” Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD, MSc, BSc, professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the School of Health Sciences at The University of Sydney, told Healio. Read the full article in Healio.

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Kidney Transplants From HIV-Positive Patients Likely To Save Lives

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By Judy Stone

A new study in Lancet showed that it is safe for HIV + people to be living kidney donors. People living with HIV (PLWH) have long faced stigma and discrimination. The new report shows that donors do not face a higher risk of end-stage kidney disease. This was a concern because PLWH have a higher likelihood of kidney disease from their HIV itself, and antiretroviral (anti-HIV) medicines carry kidney and liver toxicities.
Read the complete article in Forbes.

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How a heart transplant brought 2 moms together — and led them to ‘America’s Got Talent’

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By Lottie Elizabeth Johnson

Most contestants who go on “America’s Got Talent” have the same aspiration: They want to achieve stardom.

For many of the acts on the competition show — whether it’s singing or dancing or ventriloquism or magic — the “AGT” audition is a major stepping stone on the path to success and fame. Read the full story in Yahoo Entertainment.

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UW Medicine surgeons saved a patient with dual-organ transplant

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By Lily Ramsey, LLM

Doctors in Seattle are reporting a history-making case in which a patient received two donor organs, a liver and a heart, to prevent the extreme likelihood that her body would reject a donor heart transplanted alone. In this innovative case, the organ recipient’s own healthy liver was transplanted, domino-like, into a second patient who had advanced liver disease.

The dual-organ recipient, Adriana Rodriguez, 31, of Bellingham, Washington, has recovered well since the Jan. 14, 2023, procedures, said Dr. Shin Lin, a cardiologist at the UW Medicine Heart Institute.
Read the complete article in News Medical Life Sciences.

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Those who engage in creative activities report better mental health

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By Kate Young

A poll found that people who engage in creative activities are more likely to report better mental health, according to a press release from the American Psychiatric Association.

According to July’s Healthy Minds Monthly Poll, which surveyed 2,202 adults from June 15 to June 18, 46% of Americans use creative activities to review stress or anxiety, and those who rate their mental health as very good or excellent are more likely to engage in creative activity more often than those who rate their mental health as fair or poor.
Read the full article in Healio.

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