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Category: Life
This week’s cartoon … June 12/15
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This week’s cartoon … June 5/15
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Early detection is key
Left to right: Dr. Alon Friedman, Jayson Dzikowicz, Dr. Michael Ellis and Benedict Albensi. (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa)
It has been known for years that there is a connection between brain injuries and diseases like Alzheimer’s, autisms and epilepsy, but early detection and possible prevention still elude us.
This was the message Ben-Gurion University’s Dr. Alon Friedman relayed at a recent brain-injury panel discussion, hosted by the Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University in Winnipeg. A professor in the medical faculty at Dalhousie University, Friedman was joined by Dr. Michael Ellis of the Pan Am Clinic Concussion Program; Dr. Benedict Albensi of the University of Manitoba and St. Boniface Hospital; and Jayson Dzikowicz of the Blue Bomber Alumni Association. The discussion was moderated by Charles Laflèche of St. Boniface Hospital Foundation.
Friedman opened with remarks on the work being done in the field of brain injuries at BGU and broke the discussion into two topics: traumatic brain injury and brain deterioration due to age.
“The money that we as a community spend on traumatic brain injury and on the outcome is tremendous,” said Friedman. “Sport injury is only one small part of it. Mostly, it’s road accidents and falls.
“We are getting into the 21st century and the average [life] expectancy in Western countries is around 80-to-90-years-old. Most of us will live at least until 90 or 100. The price is that we will all probably die with a brain disorder.”
According to Friedman, what is clear with all of the diseases is that we lose a lot of brain tissue before we see any symptoms. “The main problem is that we don’t understand how the diseases are generated. [Over] the last decade, we are trying to look differently at the brain.”
Researchers are now starting to look at the brain as a whole entity, including different cells that interact and communicate with one another all the time.
“While the brain gets the most blood to supply it with the elements it needs, blood does not enter into the brain tissue normally,” said Friedman. “The brain has its own environment protected by what researchers call ‘the blood-brain barrier.’ This separation allows the nerve cells in the brain to act in a very accurate and stable condition, regardless of what’s happening in the blood. A brain injury occurs when this barrier is broken.”
BGU learned more about this barrier by studying a group of football players in Be’er Sheva. “The reason we did it with football players is we knew it would attract the media much more than others, unfortunately,” said Friedman.
To help the audience grasp what football players face, Dzikowicz, who is a former player, shared his experiences with the panel. He has had approximately nine concussions. “Usually, one is more than enough to take people out of sports,” he said. “In business, if you’re faulting, it’s a long process to replace you. In sports, your replacement is standing 30 feet away…. You’re heavily motivated to stay on the field despite injury.
“When it became an issue with me … if you ever rub your eyes a lot and you see those circles … when I had those circles permanently, and when I got hit in the head and they’d be pulsing and flashing for weeks on end, that’s when I got the message that maybe I should stop playing.”
In the 1990s, when Dzikowicz played the game, his coaches’ main reaction was to say that he had “had his bell rung.” Dzikowicz went on to explain, “You got two plays off, you got some smelling salts and you got tapped on the butt and sent back on the field.”
Run by Ellis, the Pan Am Clinic Concussion Program treats children who have had concussions – the program focuses on kids with head injuries. “It’s a very unique partnership between Pan Am, the Children’s Hospital and our provincial government – multidisciplinary care for the children of Manitoba with mild, traumatic brain injuries,” he said. “Patients with more severe injuries go to the Children’s Hospital. We see 40-60 children a week.
“Fortunately, the vast majority of children who sustain a concussion will recover within two to three weeks, but we know that there’s a certain proportion, about 30-40%, who will have symptoms that will last longer.”
Some kids will have headaches or visual/reading abnormalities, issues with balance or develop mood disorders. The focus of the Pan Am program is to bring together experts from various fields to meet the needs of each individual patient.
While collaborative research on brain tumors and Alzheimer’s is being conducted, less is known about the connection between concussions and epilepsy. About the connection between brain trauma and epilepsy, however, Albensi said, “There’s certainly very good evidence that head trauma can lead to neurodegenerative disease…. The question is how many patients with TBI [traumatic brain injuries] develop epilepsy?”
At BGU, the focus is on using MRI to get better pictures of brain injuries and comparing them with images of normal brains. At Pan Am, researchers are developing an MRI brain stress test and looking at blood flow within the brain.
All the panelists agreed that treatment would be more effective with early detection. “Unfortunately, if someone has full-blown Alzheimer’s, the chances of reversing and changing the situation is almost impossible,” said Friedman. “The only chance … is early diagnosis.”
One of the biggest hurdles is getting those who are experiencing memory loss to see a doctor early enough and for the doctor to send them to a specialist without dismissing the memory loss as “normal.”
“There is a lack of awareness, because people don’t think that there’s something to do,” said Friedman. “Patients can go to early diagnosis in every large hospital today. There is general advice to be made and practice for detection, for treating.”
“I think that what we agree on is that there is some risk in families,” added Albensi. “It’s basically impossible to predict if a parent had Alzheimer’s whether his/her son or daughter will have it. Early diagnosis is more important.”
Albensi explained, “What we study in my laboratory as far as the inflammatory response are transcription factors, which are specialized proteins involved long term in the inflammatory process. And, it’s getting the brain to turn off this inflammatory process, in my view, that is key to reducing the risk for these neurodegenerative disorders.”
“The brain can change itself any time in our life,” said Friedman. “The fact that we can learn means the brain can change, at any age. In any condition basically after a trauma, whether emotional or physical, I don’t think it’s that important, but it’s possible.
“Inside a person, stress is a very important factor against brain plasticity. If we are motivated to change our brain, we can find ways to do it and help ourselves.”
Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
Fueling your workout
With the arrival of warm weather, many Canadians take their workout outside. Whether you’re a recreational runner or an Ironman competitor, nutrition plays a vital role in your performance. Five-time Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser has said, “Good nutrition accounts for 50% of my performance, with 40% being mental and 10% being physical.”
For improving either endurance or strength training, carbohydrate is the key nutrient. Our bodies rely primarily on carbs to provide the fuel needed during aerobic, power and strength-based activities. If you are gluten-intolerant, like 12% of Canadians, it is important to find gluten-free carb sources.
Pre-workout: Eating prior to physical activity allows us to exercise harder and longer, and recover more quickly. Include a small low-fat, moderate-protein, high-carbohydrate meal or snack 30-60 minutes prior to activity, such as a fruit smoothie, toast (gluten-free breads are readily available) and nut butter, or cereal and yogurt. Wickenheiser’s favorite pre-game meal is chicken, quinoa and steamed vegetables.
During: If you’re working out for less than 60 minutes, there is no need to have anything but water during your workout. For longer workouts, choose an electrolyte-based beverage containing carbohydrates. Small portions of gluten-free bagels or cereal bars can also be quick and effective. Dehydration causes fatigue and cramping, and impairs performance, so drinking adequate fluid before, during and after exercise is important. While hydration needs vary from one person to the next, a good starting point is having one to two cups of fluid before, during and after activity.
Post-Workout: Within 30-60 minutes after physical activity, the goal is to replace the water lost in sweat, restore the muscle fuel (carbs) and promote muscle repair with protein. Great post-exercise meals and snacks include flavored dairy, soy or almond milk, stir fry with lean meat, rice and vegetables, a wrap with hummus and vegetables or trail mix.
Tristaca Curley is a registered dietitian in Kelowna. She is a member of the Sport Nutrition Advisory Committee of Canada and can be found at fuelingwithfood.com.
Mystery photo … May 29/15
Group of B’nai B’rith men, circa 1950. (photo from JWB fonds, JMABC L.12152)
If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting [email protected].
This week’s cartoon … May 22/15
For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.
Vegan food from Silk Road
Silk Road Vegetarian: Vegan, Vegetarian and Gluten Free Recipes from the Mindful Cook by Dahlia Abraham-Klein (Tuttle Publishing Co., 2014) contains 121 recipes in eight chapters, several of which would be ideal for Shavuot.
Although Abraham-Klein grew up in New York, her parents trace their ancestry to the Babylonian Exile (now Iraq) and Persian conquest (now Iran) of sixth century BCE. Her ancestors traversed Persia, Afghanistan and Bukhara (capital of Uzbekistan), speaking Farsi and Judeo-Persian. In the early part of the 19th century, they settled in Afghanistan, in the middle of the Silk Road, which was an extensive, interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent.
The author’s great-grandfather owned a vineyard in Uzbekistan; her grandmother moved to the United States in the 1950s and grew her own grapes to make wine. The author’s mother and siblings grew up in Kabul, then moved with the family to Israel in 1949. The author’s father, who had grown up in Kabul, lived in India and visited Israel, where he met and married her mother in 1952; they lived in India until 1956.
Abraham-Klein’s family were merchants, absorbing the culture, languages, tastes and cuisines of all the places in which they lived. However, she grew up in New York and, as a teen, became unable to eat wheat, dairy and sugar. She has a master’s degree in education and a degree in naturopathy.
Silk Road Vegetarian contains recipes for bases, condiments and dips such as hummus, tomato paste, za’atar and mango chutney; appetizers including vegan chopped liver, stuffed grape leaves and Italian zucchini fritters; soups like Persian bean and noodle, and pumpkin. Among the salads are minted beet, and Middle Eastern lemon potato. Afghan squash goulash and Bengali potato and zucchini curry are among the main dishes; Bukharan green-herbed and Greek-inspired spanakorizo are among the rice dishes, and sides include sesame noodles and shawarma-spiced potato wedges. The desserts chapter has, for instance, orange blossom date balls and orange zest almond cookies.
The book is enhanced by 174 color photographs. Among these are ones that show how to prepare slivered orange peel, fold stuffed cabbage and remove coconut meat. Because Abraham-Klein has no formal culinary education, she has produced a cookbook that is easy to follow, with interesting cultural and historical notes about each recipe, bold-faced ingredients and numbered instructions. There is also an essay on the spice pantry; others on tofu and legumes; an article on grains; and a feature on food preservation.
COCONUT MILK
Can be used as a substitute base for curries, in lieu of cream, and for dairy in desserts.
2 cups water
2 cups grated fresh or frozen coconut
Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in the coconut and then remove from the heat. Cover and let cool.
Purée with an immersion blender. Line a sieve with cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Pour the purée into the sieve and squeeze the cloth to extract the liquid. Remove the cheesecloth and use the coconut milk right away or store it in the refrigerator for up to two days (shake before using). Makes two cups.
PERSIAN SPINACH AND YOGURT DIP
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large thinly sliced onion
1 minced clove garlic
small pinch saffron
1 tbsp hot water
3 cups stemmed, washed and chopped fresh spinach
2 cups thick plain yogurt
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a large skillet and sauté onions for 15 minutes or until they are soft and beginning to color. Stir in garlic and sauté for one minute or until fragrant.
Steep the saffron in a small bowl with hot water. Let sit until water is tinted.
Add spinach to the skillet and sauté for five minutes or until wilted. Add saffron water and stir to combine. Cool completely. Fold in yogurt, season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for several hours to allow the flavors to meld. Makes six to eight servings.
BAKED LEMON RICE PUDDING
1/2 cup short-grain rice
2 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
grated zest of 1 small lemon
1 tbsp chopped vegan butter
fresh strawberries or any seasonal berries
Wash and soak the rice according to instructions. Combine rice and coconut milk in an ovenproof casserole dish and set aside for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 150˚F. Add sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and butter to rice mixture and whisk gently to combine. Bake uncovered for 2 to 2.5 hours or until top of pudding is lightly browned.
Allow pudding to cool, then gentle peel off skin at the surface and discard. Chill in refrigerator for about an hour or until pudding thickens. Garnish with strawberries or seasonal berries and serve. Makes four servings.
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly shuk walks in English in Jerusalem’s market.
Torah, grain … a lady
As a famous Jewish comedian used to kvetch, “I don’t get no respect.” I feel we treat Shavuos similarly. In Temple days, how would you compare the Holy of Holies to a Jerusalem tavern down the street? Silly question, yes? Then why does Shavuos get such minor league attraction?
We got the Torah! The cradle of Western civilization! So, some of us go to shul (compare it to Yom Kippur attendance) and we study, or nap, through the night over an open Chumash. We eat dairy and read the Book of Ruth. No bugles blare and no rabbis make two-hour presentations.
Even books designed to explain Judaism’s beauty give it short shrift: 10 pages to the Jacob/Esau rivalry, a page and a half to this modest holiday. I’m only a scribbler, not a sage, but I don’t get it. Then, there’s the fact that our reception of the Torah is combined with a harvest celebration. What’s the connection? The relationship between barley and Torah seems odd. Maybe one is food for the body, the other for the soul. Are we trying to economize on holidays? Two for the price of one?
And why do we read the Book of Ruth, which is a tract featuring intermarriage – a practice loudly condemned by dozens of statements in the Torah? It seems to be written by someone who favored fraternization with our deadly enemies, the Moabites. Remember that the path to the Promised Land goes through Moab. We fought our way through it. How did this book get chosen? Did they take a vote on Purim after a day of gorging on the grape?
The Book of Ruth is a book in which everyone is gentle, even the Moabites. Everyone is supportive of their fellow characters. If it were a play, this story would run for years on Broadway.
Ruth, a Moabite, is loyal to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Her first husband, Naomi’s son, has died. Naomi – remember, a Jew – strategizes with Ruth to win the heart of Boaz, also a Jew. A famine stalks the land. Perhaps the agricultural setting explains the use of the holiday as a harvest celebration, but not its connection with the Torah. I consider this every time I think of Shavuos, one of the three special occasions, along with Sukkot and Pesach, when all Israel flocked to the Temple. With the destruction of the Temple, I think we lost the grandeur of Shavuos.
They shouldn’t have named it Shavuos, Hebrew for weeks. Indeed, seven weeks after Pesach comes Shavuos. Like in a Jewish wedding ceremony – seven times the bride (Israel) circles her groom (the Creator), thereby remembering and reenacting our covenant. We rest on the seventh day and, for seven years, the land must lie fallow. Even today, that ancient poetic number still glows with luck – from the sublime to the ridiculous, the seven wins initially for the dice shooter and excites the roar of the winners.
I can see it now. It’s 1000 BCE and the annual meeting of the Israelite holiday commemoration committee. “We need a special day to honor and commemorate that fateful day when God gave us the Torah,” said the chairman. A chorus of agreement rocked the room. Done. Then that guy in the back of every room (yes, he was around even then) shouted, “Yeah, but what about the grain harvest?” Puzzled, the committee men looked at each other in bewilderment. The grain harvest?
The chairman spoke: “Look, we got enough holidays now – nobody’s working. Let’s save a holiday and throw it in with Shavuos. [And they hadn’t even made Tu b’Shevat yet!] After all, the grain harvest lasts seven weeks, and the Holy One gave us Torah seven weeks after we paraded out of Egypt. We’ll make Shavuos celebrate both events, thereby economizing on holidays. Done.”
Shavuos, for all its importance, doesn’t get its due. No big feasting, no dramatic breast-beating, no triumphant chauvinism; only the satisfaction that more than three millennia ago in the darkest of the dark ages we were chosen to receive from the Hand of God a solemn covenant that we would be a light of civilization to the nations of the world.
No matter how many weeks after Pesach it falls, let’s face it: “Weeks” doesn’t do it justice. They should have called it Yom Torah or something like that. If I were a member of the holiday naming committee, I’d have called it Independence Day.
Ted Roberts is a freelance writer and humorist living in Huntsville, Ala.
This week’s cartoon … May 8/15
For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.