“Heat is a great stressor to the human body,” said Dr. Jay Lemery, professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is also the director of the climate and health program at CU. “The first thing to do is to be aware that heat is a risk,” said Dr. Lemery. “And of course the times of the day to avoid the heat start in the late morning and go into the early evening.”
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. public health system must focus on critical questions of accountability, politicization and updating data systems if it is to do its job well and maintain the trust of the American people, according to a new report from the Colorado School of Public Health.
"This is the big challenge with cannabis: How do we facilitate the beneficial medical applications, allow for what society has determined is acceptable recreational use and also guard against the very real harms?" Gregory Tung, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, tells USA TODAY. "This is difficult and will likely require a mix of policy, rules, regulations and education."
Colorado is doing relatively well in addressing the kinds of deaths that people can prevent through healthy habits and routine screenings, and medical advances are allowing people to live longer with diseases like cancer, said Cathy Bradley, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health. Those same strategies don’t work as well in preventing deaths from drugs or alcohol, she said. “It’s very different,” she said.
“Extreme heat kills,” said Dr. Jay Lemery, an emergency medicine physician and co-director of the Climate and Health Program at CU Anschutz Medical Campus. “It's a force multiplier for preexisting medical conditions like diabetes or COPD, asthma or coronary artery disease.” When people with these preexisting conditions are stressing themselves in the extreme heat that can put them into crisis. When they come to the emergency room, they may have shortness of breath or chest pain but not symptoms of a classic heat stroke.
As the crisis continues, a close-up shot shows Dion's face glistening with silent tears as she wails in pain. In the scene, she receives benzodiazepine nasal spray, her physician Dr. Amanda Piquet, director of the autoimmune neurology program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, tells TODAY.com. It is a depressant drug that relieves anxiety and reduces muscle spasms.
Dr. Amanda Piquet, who serves as director of the autoimmune neurology program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and is the physician who diagnosed Dion, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that the disease is widely unknown — even in the medical community. Stiff-person syndrome (SPS) is an incurable neurological disorder that affects the central nervous system, specifically the brain and spinal cord. It’s associated with slurred speech, double vision and painful muscle contractions that can become so severe that patients lose their ability to walk or speak.
The Celine Dion Foundation has pledged $2 million to create the Celine Dion Foundation Endowed Chair in Autoimmune Neurology. The announcement was made during the New York special screening of her upcoming documentary, I Am: Celine Dion. According to a press release, Amanda Piquet, MD, who is the director of the Autoimmune Neurology Program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, will be the inaugural chair holder.
