The IAA One Minute Blog

Over a 10 year period, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) more than doubled among American adults, new research shows.

ADHD in Adults

Adult ADHD is a mental health disorder that includes a combination of persistent problems.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 5 million Kaiser Permanente Northern California patients, and found that the percentage of adults with a diagnosis of ADHD rose from 0.43 percent in 2007 to 0.96 percent in 2016.  

Scientists believe that this growth may have to do with the growing recognition of ADHD in the adult population by doctors and service providers.

The study was published online in JAMA Network Open.

Signs and Symptoms of Adult ADHD

Adults can have more subtle symptoms of ADHD. This means many adults struggle with ADHD and may not know they have it. Though it is called adult ADHD, symptoms start in early childhood and continue into adulthood. In some cases, ADHD is not recognized or diagnosed until the person is an adult.  

Some potential warning signs of adult ADHD include:

• Extremely distractible: ADHD is a problem with attention, so adult ADHD can make it hard to succeed in today’s fast paced world. Many people find that distractibility can lead to a history of career under-performance. If you have adult ADHD, you might find that phone calls or emails derail your attention, making it hard for you to finish your tasks.
• Lateness: Adults with ADHD are often distracted on a way to an event. People with adult ADHD also tend to underestimate how much time it takes to finish a task.
• Poor listening skills: Problems with attention result in poor listening skills in adults with ADHD, leading to a lot of missed appointments and misunderstandings.
• Prioritizing issues: Often, people with adult ADHD mis-prioritize, failing to meet big obligations, while spending countless hours on something insignificant.  
• Outbursts: ADHD often leads to problems with controlling emotions. Many people with adult ADHD are quick to explode over minor problems.  Often they feel as if they have no control over their emotions. Many times their anger fades as quickly as it flared.
• Restlessness, trouble relaxing: While many children with ADHD are “hyperactive,” this ADHD symptom often appears differently in adults. Adults with ADHD are more likely to be restless or they find they can’t relax. If you have adult ADHD, others might describe you as edgy or tense. 
• Trouble getting organized: The responsibilities of adulthood can make problems with organization more obvious and more problematic than in childhood.
• Trouble starting a task: Just as children with ADHD often put off doing homework, adults with ADHD often drag their feet when starting tasks that require a lot of attention.

Adults with other mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety disorders, were likely to have ADHD.

What IAA has to Say

Insurance Administrator of America understands that living with adult ADHD can be difficult. Today’s world is full of distractions, but it is possible to succeed. IAA knows that adults with ADHD can be successful!

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Soda can be a daily part of people’s lives—from having a cup with lunch and/or dinner, to watching ads on TV. But can a person really become addicted to soda?

Soda Addiction

So how can soda be addictive? There are a few key factors:

• Caffeine fix: When consumed regularly, people often start to rely on caffeine to increase attentiveness, alertness and energy. A person may experience signs of withdrawal such as headaches and poor concentration, when they do not have soda.
• Carbonation: Another element that plays a significant role in soda’s attraction is fizz. Carbonation makes any drink much more addictive. The bubbles add a small amount of acidity, which when combined with sugar intensifies the “reward” feeling.
• Sugar rush: The rush of sweetness that sugar provides appears to activate the same reward centers in the brain as drugs. It triggers the release of the brain chemical dopamine and as a result we feel euphoria. The more soda a person drinks, the more likely it will be to lead to larger cravings. Although diet sodas replace real sugar with artificial sweeteners, these may have their own addictive characteristics.

The big question, however, is why do some people crave soda and others can have one and be ok? It might have to do with the ritual aspects of soda drinking, which also play a role in our brain’s chemistry. Everything from hearing the pop and the fizz of carbonation can increase the activity of dopamine cells.

Quit the Habit

Many believe we should cut back on our intake of the two sweeteners used in soda: fructose and sugar. Here are some ways you can kick the habit:

1. Make up your mind: You have to make up your mind to give it up. Even if you are just trying to cut back on soda consumption, it can take a firm commitment to make this happen.
2. Go caffeine free: The fact that caffeine is mildly addictive is part of the reason soda is a hard habit to break. Gradually decrease the number of caffeinated drinks you have each day as you work toward kicking the soda habit completely.
3. Stock up on alternatives: Keep plenty of tasty non-soda drinks on hand to make giving up soda as convenient as possible. Milk and water are great healthy alternatives.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2011-2014, 63 percent of youths and 49 percent of adults drank a sugar-sweetened beverage on a given day.

What IAA has to Say

Insurance Administrator of America knows that people love soda. But it may be time to evaluate how much you are consuming. IAA is giving you the knowledge to help you make healthy decisions!

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Scientists have found the strongest evidence yet that a virus is to blame for a mysterious illness that can start like the sniffles, but quickly paralyze children.

Virus Causing AFM

Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a rare, but serious condition. It affects the nervous system, specifically the area of the spinal cord called grey matter, which causes the muscles and reflexes in the body to become weak.

Since the first reports from California in 2012, the United States has experienced an increasingly bigger outbreak every other year, from late summer into early fall. 

Researchers checked patient’s spinal fluids for signs the immune system had fought an invading virus. Kids who got sick harbored antibodies that target enteroviruses. This is what the specialists believed was causing AFM, but had no proof.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that AFM spikes coincide with seasons when certain strains of enteroviruses named EV-D68 and EV-A71 were causing respiratory illnesses.  Doctors rarely found those viruses in the patient’s spinal fluid, leaving them unsure of the link. Antibodies programmed to track specific germs only wind up in spinal fluid if they fought infections there. 

Researchers customized a Harvard-developed tool to search for evidence of hundreds of viruses simultaneously. Add some spinal fluid and any antibodies present would stick to their target, able to be identified.

In tests of spinal fluid from 42 AFM patients and 58 children with unrelated neurological illnesses, only enterovirus-targeting antibodies emerged. Nearly three-fourths of patients harbored them, compared to less than 10 percent of other children.

Further work is underway to narrow it down to specific strains.

The findings were reported on October 21, in “Nature Medicine.”

Symptoms of AFM

AFM symptoms may seem like the common cold at first, but it becomes serious fast. Symptoms include:

• Drooping eyelids and trouble moving eyes
• Face may feel weak
• Hard time swallowing or speaking
• Loss of muscle tone
• Pain
• Slurred speech
• Sudden weakness in arms and legs
• Trouble breathing 

According to the CDC, if your child exhibits these symptoms it is important to seek help right away.

What IAA has to Say

New discoveries are being made every day and Insurance Administrator of America thinks you should stay up to date! Stay tuned to this blog for the latest on health and science. Remember, with IAA one call does it all.

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 Alternative meat products are rising in popularity as consumers look to eat a more sustainable diet.

Types of Products

Generally alternative meat products fall into two categories: plant-based protein and cell-based protein:

1. Plant-based protein products: Protein is extracted and isolated from the plant, then combined with other plant-based ingredients with the goal of making the product as meaty as possible. An example includes the Beyond Burger.
2. Cell-based meat: An animal cell is extracted from an animal and grown in a lab culture to create a piece of meat. In the six weeks it takes to grow a chicken for slaughter, the cell culture based process provides the same amount of meat. These products have not been released into the mass market.

At this point in time, there is no industry wide term for these types of products.

Alternative Meats, Your Health and the Environment

Based on calories alone, plant-based protein is healthier than animal-based meat. Cell-based meat also has the potential to be healthier than regular animal meat because it can be engineered to contain more protein, essential amino acids and vitamins, while reducing the amount of saturated fat and minimizing the chance of animal-borne illnesses contaminating the meat.

“Fake burgers” however, are higher in sodium than beef and turkey burgers.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, livestock accounts for 14.5 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activity. Cattle alone produce 65 percent of livestock emissions. This happens because carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when forests are cleared to make room for animal feed production and livestock grazing.  Animals also release methane through burps and flatulence when digesting their food. Animal manure and rice paddies are also huge sources of methane.

When it comes to the environment, meat alternatives don’t offer the best emissions solution. Cellular-based meat alternatives release five times the emissions as chicken, putting their emissions just under beef.  Plant-based meat alternatives produce the same amount of emissions as chicken, which is about five times the emission of legumes and vegetables. 

Alternative meats may not necessarily be good for the environment, but they can help.  With the global population expected to rise to 9.7 billion by 2050, meat alternatives could be effective in creating a more substantial food supply without forcing people to change their diet too drastically.

Alternative meat products are still more expensive than regular meat products.

What IAA has to Say

Beef burger or plant-based burger? Insurance Administrator of America wants you to order the meal that you (and your doctor) think is best for your overall health. Remember, with IAA one call does it all. 

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Famed singer Sia opened up to fans about living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS).

What is EDS?

On October 4, Sia discussed on Twitter that she is living and dealing with EDS.

EDS is a disorder that deals with the connective tissue. The disorder causes a severe defect in the production of collagen. Collagen is responsible for providing your muscles and skin with elasticity and firmness. When collagen degenerates or stops being produced properly, the body starts to resemble a “limp sack.” Collagen deficiency can lead to muscle and joint problems, as well as other skin mutations.

Those with EDS may experience the following symptoms:

• Bruising easily: Caused by narrow blood vessels. Blood vessels are likely to be extremely delicate and require constant monitoring to ensure that the individual doesn’t rupture a vein or develop an aneurysm. 
• Cardiovascular problems
• Dental crowding
• Loose joints: Patients’ fingers and toes are likely to be extremely flexible. It is often paired with loose joints that are prone to breaking or sprains.
• Osteoarthritis: Early onset osteoarthritis is a common problem.
• Soft, spongy skin: Patients often have extremely soft, spongy skin. Their muscles are weak and undefined, and their skin may be easily pulled and “putty” like. Wounds may be difficult to heal, which will result in deep and obvious scarring.

It is an inherited syndrome and it cannot be passed on any other way.

Types of EDS

There are multiple forms of EDS, the most common are:

1. Hypermobility: The most common form, this type of EDS makes your joints bend further than they should. This makes them more likely to be dislocated or sprained. Up to one in 1,000 people may have this form of EDS.
2. Classical: In this type of EDS, your skin is smooth, extremely stretchy and fragile. People with this form of EDS often have scars over their knees and elbows and bruise easily. They are also likely to have sprains, dislocations, or conditions like flat feet as well as problems with a heart valve or artery. This form of EDS happens in about one in every 20,000 to 40,000 people.
3. Vascular: About one person in 250,000 people is born with the vascular type of EDS. This type weakens the blood vessels and makes your organs more likely to have a tear.

There are other rare types of EDS:

1. Kyphoscoliosis: About 60 cases of this type of EDS have been found worldwide. This is when babies are born with weak muscles and bones. They often have unusually long limbs or fingers and a curved spine that gets worse as they grow. They also often have eye problems, like shortsightedness or glaucoma.
2. Arthrochalasia: Babies are born with their hip joints out of place. Their joints are extremely loose, and they have the same kind of curved spine as those with kyphoscoliosis. About 30 cases of this type have been diagnosed.
3. Dermatosparaxis: Only about a dozen cases have been reported, making it the rarest type. People with this form have extremely soft, doughy skin that is easily bruised and scarred. They are also more likely to have hernias. 

What IAA has to Say

When a celebrity speaks out on their personal diagnosis and/or disorder, it allows for a better understanding of certain health conditions. Insurance Administrator of America wants you to have this information on certain diseases and conditions through these blog posts. Remember, with IAA one call does it all.

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