Do You Really Need a Water Filter?

All sorts of nasties—lead, mercury, radium, nitrates, norovirus, agricultural runoff, PFAS, and more—can lurk in your water. No surprise, then, that about 40% of U.S. homes filter theirs.

But the options are endless, from simple $20 charcoal-filter pitchers to reverse osmosis, point-of-entry, or ultraviolet filters. Depending on what you choose, a water filter can cost you tens of dollars, or thousands.

Here’s what to know if you’re considering a water filter—and how to tell if you need one.

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How do you know if you need a water filter?

Plenty of public systems produce impressively pristine water. New York City, for example, puts out a billion clean gallons of water a day, says environmental health scientist David Nadler of the New York Institute of Technology. But the water that leaves the reservoir and treatment plant is not necessarily the same water that comes out of your tap.

In cities, water is typically pumped up to rooftop tanks, which feed the flow down to spigots via gravity. If the tank is not kept clean, the water will suffer too. Older buildings may still have lead pipes or asbestos in the walls, which can contaminate water as well.

“Your supply company could send you the purest water in the world. But if your pipes are old and have lead in them, there’s really no protecting you,” says Nadler. “You’re at the mercy of your plumbing.”

Read More: 8 Ways to Stay Hydrated if You Hate Drinking Water

In cities, suburbs, and rural areas, periodic flooding can contaminate otherwise-clean water with industrial or agricultural runoff or sewer overflow. Algae and fungi, which bloom in the spring and summer, can pose a danger too. “There can be differences caused by the seasons and by weather, in addition to those caused by plumbing,” says registered dietitian Mindy Haar, assistant dean at the New York Institute of Technology’s School of Health Professions. The Safe Water Drinking Act, signed into law in 1974, provides certain nationwide minimum standards for water cleanliness, but, says Haar, “there can be variety from place to place.”

Everybody is susceptible to contaminants in water, but older people and those with compromised immune systems are especially at risk. Knowing how clean your water supply is can take some doing. A provision of the Safe Water Drinking Act requires water suppliers to release an annual water quality report to the community. This is typically mailed to households, but can also be accessed online, says Nadler. People who live off the water grid—such as those with their own wells—do not have the benefit of an annual report and must test their water on their own. And again, even when an annual report is released, it only reveals the state of the water when it left the supplier, not when you consume it or bathe in it.

“As a homeowner or a renter, the only way to know unequivocally [the state of your water] is to have it tested by a professional,” says Haar. That, in turn, is the only way to know what kind of filter—with what level of protection—you should buy. 

What kind of water filters are out there?

Water filters come in all makes and models. Pitcher versions (like a Brita) filter water by running it through a block of charcoal, a piece of mesh, or both as you fill the reservoir. Most pitchers use physical barriers like these and are effective at screening out chemicals like benzene and chlorine, metals like lead and mercury, and particulates, including asbestos. They do not, however, filter out viruses and bacteria.

Other filters need a plumber or a home handyperson to install. They sit either on the countertop or under the sink, at just a single faucet (so-called “point-of-use” systems), or outside the home, filtering all water as it enters the house (“point-of-entry” systems). These provide much higher quality—and more expensive—filtration, and they typically use one of several technologies, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Depending on the type of filter, the barrier provides either microfiltration, ultrafiltration, or nanofiltration. Microfiltration has an average pore size of 0.1 microns—or millionths of a meter. (The period at the end of this sentence measures about 500 microns.) Ultrafiltration has a pore size of about 0.01 microns. Nanofiltration weighs in at just 0.001 microns.

The smaller the filter pores, the smaller the pathogens and toxins that can be strained out of your water. Microfiltration (found in some higher-end pitchers), is highly effective at eliminating protozoa, moderately effective at screening out smaller bacteria, and not effective against viruses or chemicals, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nanofiltration—also found in some pricier pitchers, as well as in reverse osmosis and distillation systems—is highly effective against protozoa, bacteria, and viruses and moderately effective against chemicals.

Read More: What’s the Most Refreshing Drink That’s Not Water?

Reverse osmosis filters, which are installed under the sink or on the countertop, use a different technology from that of pitchers, forcing water across a membrane that strains out impurities. Distillation systems, which are also both countertop and undersink devices, work by yet another technology, heating water to the boiling point and collecting and condensing the vapor, leaving contaminants behind. Reverse osmosis and distillation systems are more effective and costly than charcoal and mesh filters.

Finally, there are ultraviolet systems, which kill pathogens using UV light. They are highly effective against microorganisms, but not against chemicals, and are available in both point-of-use and point-of-entry configurations.

Consumer Reports recommends a handful of under-sink models that use a range of different types of filters and are certified to remove PFAS, but advises checking the brand you’re considering with the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), the Water Quality Association (WQA), or the International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials (IAPMO). The system you buy should depend on just which impurities are in your water.

“You can buy a filter and include a lot of different add-ons,” says Nadler. “But there is no magic box that does everything.”

Like Consumer Reports, the CDC recommends turning to the NSF to check the make and model of any filter you’re considering buying to determine its effectiveness against various contaminants.

How often should you change your filter?

A dirty filter does not do you a fraction of the good a clean filter does. The CDC recommends checking the manufacturer’s recommendation for changing filters and following that guidance. Brita calls for changing pitcher and faucet charcoal filters every two to six months, depending on make and model and how much water is used. Culligan recommends changing its charcoal filters every two to six months; reverse osmosis filters every three to five years; and whole-home systems every several years.

When it comes to ultraviolet systems, Nadler recommends changing the lights every year or so. “If they’re running 24/7, you get maybe 9,000 to 10,000 hours out of them, “ he says. For any filter, Nadler urges consumers to know the manufacturer’s guidelines and comply with them. “If you don’t change the filters, eventually they’re going to fail,” he adds.

Apart from the danger posed by contaminants, Haar recommends using filtration systems if only to make water taste better and smell better—and to wean people away from sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages which, as a dietitian, she sees as a scourge. 

“If somebody’s got a Brita pitcher on the table,” she says, “and it’s perceived that the water might taste better and be more pure, people would likely drink more. That’s going to be a good idea.”

source https://time.com/7009156/do-you-need-water-filter/

Segregated Beaches in Chicago; the History of the Freedom Waders at Rainbow Beach

Freedom Waders is a short documentary by Alex S. Hinton about Velma and Norman Hill, who confronted mob violence to integrate Chicago’s beaches at the height of the civil rights movement.

source https://time.com/7008124/history-segregated-beaches-chicago/

Do You Really Store Stress in Your Body?

If you get enough back aches, someone will eventually tell you that’s where your body stores stress. If your stomach hurts, you’ll hear the same thing: Your emotions are trapped in your belly.

But what does that mean? Is your anxiety about work or money really coursing through your body and nestling into your organs and limbs?

In short, no. “We can and do manifest stress physically. There’s no question about it,” says Steven Tovian, a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. “But it’s not like there’s a stress reservoir to the left of our kidneys—and when it bubbles over or overflows, we’ve got problems. It’s not that kind of boiling-cauldron analogy.”

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Unfortunately, the truth is that stress lives everywhere inside your body. Here’s what really happens in your body when you’re stressed.

How stress affects the body

The idea that stress is stored in specific parts of the body likely comes from Sigmund Freud’s work more than 100 years ago. “There was this idea that when people repress or deny their emotions, those emotions would appear as physical symptoms instead,” says Camelia Hostinar, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of California, Davis. “And if you acknowledge those emotions, that would treat the symptoms, and the symptoms would disappear.” As scientists have learned more about stress, however, it’s become clear that such thinking is too simplistic, she says. Rather than causing us to store anger in our back, or fear in our stomach, stress triggers a dynamic whole-body response—and it happens not just when people repress their emotions, but even if they’re fully aware of them.

When you encounter a stressor, your hypothalamus (the control center in your brain) starts to orchestrate a hormonal stress response. It triggers a cascade of hormones that are released from the pituitary gland that, in turn, let the adrenal glands know it’s time to release the stress hormone cortisol into the blood supply, says Alicia Walf, a neuroscientist and assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in N.Y. Meanwhile, the hypothalamus also orchestrates the release of adrenaline and noradrenaline from the adrenal glands. “These adrenal hormones have temporary physiological effects in the body, such as quickening of the heart rate, but they also have effects in the brain that alter cognition,” Walf says.

Read More: 4 Signs Your Body Is Telling You It’s Time to Take a Break

Hostinar likes to think of this response as a “stress symphony,” a metaphor coined by neuroscience researchers. “There are multiple stress systems that respond differentially—like musical instruments—to various stressors, some with more or less intensity than others, leading to potentially unique combinations of symptoms in different people,” she says. For example, one person might experience an increase in appetite and cravings for comfort foods, while another reports muscle tension and pain. “There are effects that happen within seconds, minutes, and even days,” Hostinar says. In the first few seconds, for example, you might experience an increase in heart rate or cold, clammy hands. Days later, your high stress load might dampen your immune system. “You could see both immediate and delayed effects from all these different musical instruments that are working at different time scales and different intensities to orchestrate this response,” she says.

Type of stress matters—and so does who you are

The type of stress you’re dealing with—and its frequency, duration, and intensity—plays a role in determining how it might manifest in your body. There are a number of different types: acute (sitting in a traffic jam), episodic (work projects that pop up occasionally), chronic (losing a job, getting divorced, or dealing with a long-term illness), and traumatic (childhood abuse). “Stress is not one entity,” Tovian says. While acute stress, for example, is typically fleeting and can be resolved by calming regimens like deep breathing, leaving no lingering effects in its wake, other types of stress require more vigilance.

Your overall health status, age, genetic profile, and past experiences also influence how your body reacts to stress. As you get older, you might feel the effects of stress more harshly—or in a mitigated way, thanks to learned experience, Tovian says. And if you have a history of lower back pain because of a slipped disc, you’ll have a greater-than-average chance of stress-related symptoms appearing in your lower back. Likewise, if digestive problems run in your family, that might be how your stress shows up. “Like any adversary, the effects of the stress are going to attack the weakest parts of your system,” Tovian says.

Our bodies are equipped to deal with a certain amount of stress based on all these factors, he adds. When stress exceeds our personal threshold—usually over a period of months or years—it’s more likely that it will cause physical harm.

What are the symptoms of stress?

Research suggests that stress can lead to problems with the musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems. It’s called somatization—the medical term for expressing stress as physical symptoms.

Some of the most common stress-related symptoms include headaches, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, heart palpitations, and chest, back, or abdominal pain, says Dr. Ashwini Nadkarni, associate medical director of Brigham Psychiatric Specialties at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Stress can contribute to inflammation in the circulatory system, including the coronary arteries; trigger migraines; throw off menstrual cycles; lead to stomach ulcers; and more.

Read More: How to Get Real Rest

Somatization affects plenty of people, Nadkarni says. “One-third of symptoms people report in a primary care visit are medically unexplained,” she says. “There’s no objective evidence to support a biological explanation. Or somebody might have a medical condition, but they’re reporting a set of symptoms that are out of proportion to that condition.”

Still, doctors treat stress as a diagnosis of exclusion. That means conducting a thorough physical exam and running tests to rule out medical conditions. That helps them ultimately determine if stress is the root cause of whatever’s going on. As Tovian puts it, “I can get a headache from too much stress, but I can also get a headache from a brain tumor.” It’s essential, he adds, not to diagnose yourself as suffering from stress and decide not to seek medical care for symptoms you’re experiencing.

Recovery is crucial

If your doctor determines your symptoms are stress-related, they’ll likely recommend mindfulness-based stress reduction, Nadkarni says. It’s a meditation therapy that helps people feel centered in the present moment—and it can encourage those experiencing somatization to adopt a non-judgmental acceptance of their physical pain or psychological distress. “You’re reducing that tendency to have hypervigilance about the symptoms or catastrophize about the symptoms,” she says. “It’s thought to reduce pain, reduce symptom severity, reduce any depression or anxiety that might be associated with somatization, and also improve people’s quality of life.”

It’s also important to find healthy ways to recover after a high-stress event; doing so can prevent symptoms from flaring up. One of Hostinar’s favorite ways to bounce back from stress is tapping into social support. “It can lower stress in real time and over the years,” she says. “People recover more easily and have a more muted stress response if they have someone to talk to or a hand to hold.” Plus, it’s universally beneficial across all ages, cultures, and backgrounds. 

Given that stress is inevitable, it’s also important to boost resilience, Tovian says. Sound easier said than done? Focus on understanding yourself and your body, getting enough sleep, exercising, and eating well. The key, he says, “is being able to manage stress, so it doesn’t manage you.”

source https://time.com/7008130/where-do-you-store-stress-in-body/

Making Sense of the Connection Between Vaccines and Lupus Flares

In 1978, a team of Harvard Medical School researchers examined whether people with lupus responded to the influenza vaccine differently from the way a group of “normal” control subjects did. They looked at vaccine side effects, as well as post-vaccination lupus symptoms and autoantibody activity. 

“Symptoms after vaccination were somewhat more frequent in the [lupus] patients than in the normal subjects,” they reported. “However, all symptoms were minor and no major flare of illness occurred. No significant induction or increase of pre-existing autoantibodies among the patients was detected after vaccination.”

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Flash forward almost 50 years, and the story remains much the same. When experts have gone looking for evidence that vaccines lead to flares among people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease, they’ve usually found that a small minority of patients experience an uptick in disease activity, but that uptick tends to be mild or moderate. In many cases, it’s not clear that the vaccine is to blame at all.

“This is a big concern we hear from patients—whether their rheumatic disease will flare after a vaccine,” says Dr. Medha Barbhaiya, a rheumatologist and assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City. “What the data suggests is that most people do well, and severe flares are very uncommon.”

A vaccine-flare connection?

Intuitively, it makes sense that a vaccine—something that is designed to stimulate an immune response—may occasionally trigger a reaction in people who experience overactive or disordered immune activity, such as those with SLE. 

This intuitive connection has been explored in dozens of formal studies since that old Harvard Medical School analysis. Most have found some evidence that, yes, heightened disease activity or symptomatology can occur following a vaccine, but this happens in a minority of patients and tends not to be severe.

For example, a 2022 research review of 13 studies assessing the relationship between influenza immunizations and subsequent lupus flares found that anywhere from zero to 43% of lupus patients experienced a flare following the flu shot. Such a wide spread of findings makes it difficult to nail down the true frequency of post-shot flares. However, all of those studies agreed that severe flares were uncommon. One study found that 7% of patients experienced a severe flare, but all of the other studies found severe flares occurred in five percent or fewer of patients. 

These sorts of findings turn up again and again in analyses of vaccinations and lupus flares. For example, studies of flares among people with lupus receiving the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine have found that between zero and 13% of patients experienced a flare, but that flares tended to be mild or moderate. Another study, this one looking at hepatitis B vaccinations among people with SLE, found that 11% experienced flares, but this was similar to the number experiencing flares the year before (when they did not receive the hepatitis vaccination).

Such disparate data makes it difficult to identify the true risk of a flare following a vaccine. Further complicating matters is the fact that flares must be separated from adverse vaccine reactions, which are common among both people with lupus and the general population. For example, those who receive a vaccination may experience injection-site pain or soreness, headaches, fatigue, and other adverse reactions in the days following their shot. These reactions tend to be mild and temporary, but in rare situations can be severe.

Read More: The Most Exciting New Advancements in Managing and Treating Lupus

People with lupus are at risk for these adverse events just like anyone else. Are they at greater risk? That doesn’t seem to be the case. “There is no substantial evidence that patients with lupus have adverse events beyond what’s reported in the general population,” Barbhaiya says. 

What is it about vaccines that could cause a flare? Some researchers highlight the adjuvant components of vaccines as a likely culprit. “The adjuvants are used in vaccines to enhance the reaction against a virus or bacteria,” says Dr. Yehuda Shoenfeld, professor of medicine and chair for research of autoimmune diseases at Tel-Aviv University in Israel. “Subjects who develop SLE are, a priori, belonging to a group that are prone to a very high level of immune system reactivity, and so are likely to react more strongly to these adjuvants, which may induce flares.” 

There’s also some evidence that vaccines containing live, attenuated viruses may be risky for people with lupus. “In SLE patients taking significant immunosuppressive medications, live vaccines are usually avoided due to the risk of excessive viral replication, leading to severe and life-threatening infections,” wrote the authors of a 2021 research review in the journal Lupus. However, the use of live vaccines (such as for herpes zoster or polio) are no longer commonplace in the U.S., and so this risk is unlikely to be a consideration for most people with lupus. 

Taken together, the existing research suggests that flares are possible, but usually not severe. When one considers that people with lupus are often at elevated risk for severe infections, the benefits of vaccinations often outweigh the dangers.

“Vaccines have been proven to be safe in SLE,” says Dr. Michelle Petri, a professor of medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins University Lupus Center. 

Lessons from the pandemic

In 2021, Barbhaiya and colleagues, including Dr. Lisa Mandl, a rheumatologist and associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell and HSS, conducted a study of COVID-19 vaccination responses among people with SLE. “The COVID pandemic offered this unique opportunity where we could assess vaccine outcomes in real time on a very large scale,” Mandl says. 

Their group’s study of 183 patients found that roughly 8% of SLE patients experienced a flare within two weeks of vaccination with one of the three available SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. “These results were very reassuring,” Mandl says. “Of the few who did report a flare, most were mild or moderate.” In fact, only one patient in the study experienced a severe flare following vaccination. Furthermore, most of the flares resolved themselves within seven days. 

“Our findings were consistent with some other studies looking at the effect of the COVID-19 vaccines on lupus,” she says. To her point, a study from a group of European researchers, the results of which appeared in the journal Lancet Rheumatology, likewise found that the number of SLE patients who experienced flares following the COVID-19 vaccine was in the single digits. Another study, this one from a French team, found that even among lupus patients with active SLE, the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines did not appear to cause a worsening of symptoms. 

While these studies suggest that, yes, some people with SLE may flare following the COVID-19 vaccine, it’s still not certain that the vaccine itself is to blame. “It’s tough to say for a fact that the vaccines caused the flares, or whether the patient would have flared as part of their normal disease course, because the percentage of those who flared was so small and there were also other potential factors we couldn’t control for,” Barbhaiya says.

Read More: How Changing Your Diet Could Have a Major Impact on Managing Lupus Symptoms

For example, she points out that, during the early stages of the vaccine rollout, when her study took place, some lupus patients were being advised to discontinue their immunosuppressant medications in order to ensure they would mount an appropriate response to the vaccines. It’s possible that the discontinuation of medication caused the symptom flares—not the vaccine. Sheer coincidence is also a factor: It may be that a person’s lupus flare just happened to align with their vaccination, and that the two had nothing to do with each other. 

While these factors can’t be ruled out, the consistency of the relationship between COVID-19 vaccines and lupus flares indicates that some low percentage of patients will experience an increase in symptoms. 

How could these vaccines instigate a flare? “Type 1 interferon is a cytokine thought to be involved in lupus pathogenesis and flares,” Barbhaiya says. “There was some concern that the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines could potentially induce this interferon and cause disease flare.” While that potential mechanism has not been thoroughly proven, researchers have found evidence that interferon activity may shift among people who experience flares following the COVID-19 vaccine. But again, that work found that just over one in 10 SLE patients (11.4%) experienced a flare following the vaccine, and within that group only about 1% of flares were severe. 

While flares don’t seem to be a major concern, experts point out that non-flare adverse events are commonplace among people with SLE—just as they are among the wider population. For example, some analyses found that three out of four people with SLE experience some kind of adverse event (AE) following the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. But these AE figures were in line with the experiences of non-SLE patients receiving the vaccines.

A patient-by-patient approach

People with lupus may be at heightened risk for life-threatening infections, which means they may benefit more from a vaccine than those who have normal and healthily functioning immune systems. On the other hand, the risk of flare activity following a vaccination appears to be a legitimate concern. Because of these competing considerations, lupus clinician-researchers say they often assess the need for a vaccine on a case-by-case basis. 

“By and large, I think physicians believe all their patients should be vaccinated, but personally I refer to each case individually—analyzing past history, and analyzing risk and benefit,” says Shoenfeld. 

Barbhaiya says she takes a similar patient-by-patient approach. However, she adds that she leans toward vaccinations in most situations. “We have substantial data showing that patients benefit from getting standard vaccinations—like flu vaccinations—so I think the risk-benefit is usually in favor of getting vaccinated,” she says.

Read More: The Link Between a Mother’s Lupus and a Child’s Autism

In an era of widespread vaccine hesitancy—or in some cases rampant misinformation—talking about vaccines with lupus patients can be a delicate proposition. Acknowledging and explaining the potential risks of a vaccine—risks that may include adverse reactions or flares—could ultimately deter some patients from going ahead with a shot. But experts say that being upfront about any risks—and also contrasting these with the well-studied benefits—is the most honest and often efficacious approach. 

Vaccinations save lives. They can help protect people with lupus from numerous life-threatening viral and infectious diseases. The research to date suggests that these benefits may all come coupled with some risks. Fortunately, those risks seem to be small for most patients.

source https://time.com/7009084/vaccines-lupus-risk-flares/

How U.K. Immigration Lawyers Became a Target of Far-Right Riots

On Monday, Harjap Singh Banghal got an unexpected call from the police, who warned him that he had become the target of far-right activist groups amid ongoing riots across the U.K. A renowned immigration lawyer whose offices in London and Birmingham regularly assist asylum seekers with their claims, Banghal’s work landed his name on a list—which includes up to 60 names of individual lawyers, law offices, immigration centers, and refugee shelters—being circulated on social media platforms with the phrase, “no more immigration.”

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The 49-year-old lawyer from Romford, Essex, says he shut down his offices on Tuesday after the police advised him to stay home. “It’s been a mixture of anxiety and concern for my employees because our company feeds 15 families,” he says. “There’s also concern for my clients, who are coming into the office with their children, so I didn’t want anything happening to any of them.” 

The U.K. is facing its worst riots in 13 years as far-right groups lead anti-immigration uprisings across the country, sparked by the spread of misinformation that a Muslim asylum seeker had stabbed three young girls in Southport on July 29. A U.K. judge eventually revealed the suspect as Axel Rudakubana, who is not a Muslim, but by Monday night, a Telegram group had grown to 15,000 members, with the lawyer hit-list reposted several times since.

Read More: How Online Misinformation Stoked Anti-Migrant Riots in Britain

More than 400 rioters have been arrested in connection so far. On Tuesday, authorities braced for more violence with police chiefs saying they would deploy an extra 2,200 riot-trained officers to combat any unrest spreading across the country. Those targeted on the list have been offered extra security measures to prevent potential attacks, particularly in instances where offices are based inside residential homes.

Immigration has become a heated debate in the U.K. after it was reported that almost 45,000 people crossed the English Channel in 2022—the highest number since the government began collecting data in 2018. In response, the Conservative Party-led government under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak engaged in a prolonged but unsuccessful battle in the courts and in Parliament to pass legislation that would allow the country to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. The plan cost nearly £220 million, but no migrants were ever deported to the East African country.  Since coming into power in July, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated he plans to curb small boat arrivals to the U.K. by taking tougher measures to “smash” criminal people-smugglers. 

Read More: How Online Misinformation Stoked Anti-Migrant Riots in Britain

Banghal, the immigration lawyer, says that comments made by members of the last government have nevertheless contributed to the far-right threats he now faces. Last August, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman vowed to “root out” “crooked immigration lawyers” in response to reports that some law firms were offering to submit false asylum claims for a fee. 

“The last government was very clear that it was anti-immigration lawyers, and when you start validating that, it becomes an unsafe zone,” says Banghal. “I’m just doing my job, just like doctors, nurses, and teachers are doing theirs.”

One immigration lawyer on the hit-list was repeatedly threatened and eventually forced to take her website down and cancel all her face-to-face appointments. “People have been calling up my office to threaten and insult me,” she told the BBC.

The Law Society of England and Wales said it was continuing to support any members on the target list to ensure their safety after its president, Nick Emerson, wrote to Starmer, Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood, and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to express concerns. 

“These threats against our legal profession were an attack on our democratic values,” Emmerson said in a statement to TIME. “Now is the time for our country and our leaders to reaffirm their commitment to the rule of law. They must ensure that all those who have committed crimes in recent days face swift justice.”

Another professional association, the Law Society and Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), released a statement saying it had personally contacted all the organizations on the target list to make them aware of recommended safety measures, including working from home where possible.

“The planned targeting of immigration lawyers, and the individuals they represent, is the natural inheritance of a climate of hostility fuelled by divisive, anti-migrant, and populist rhetoric from senior politicians in previous Governments and certain parts of the media, upon which the far-right have latched,” ILPA Legal Director Zoe Bantleman said. 

On Tuesday, Starmer convened a second Cobra crisis response meeting to take “all necessary action” to end the unrest spreading across the country after the government set up overnight courts to deal with the flood of cases arising from the riots. 

Banghal, who reopened his legal offices on Wednesday morning, says the riots seem like a way to “play off marginalized people against each other to suit a narrative.” But he adds that he has also received a wave of support from the local authorities and his community. “I’m cautious and alert, but I’m not going to live my life in fear for doing my job,” he says.

source https://time.com/7009130/uk-riots-immigration-lawyers/

How to Get Your Partner to Stop Snoring

We’ve all been there: You’re snug in bed, moments away from drifting off, only to be jolted back into a state of annoyed wakefulness by a loud, persistent sound coming from the other side of the bed.

Snoring is a pervasive problem, with around 40% of men and 30% of women sawing logs at least some nights of the week, according to the Sleep Health Foundation. And while it can be linked to a variety of health risks in those who are affected, snoring also takes a toll on bed partners who struggle to get some shuteye in the midst of a cacophony of snorts and rumbles.

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When chronic snorers seek a doctor’s help, it is usually at the urging of their partner, says Dr. Megan Durr, associate professor in the department of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. “I see so many patients that are ending up in different bedrooms than their partners, which is impacting their relationship and just their quality of life,” Durr says.

The good news is that she and other experts say that people can take a number of steps to help reduce or even eliminate snoring from their—and their partners’—nighttime routine, ranging from lifestyle changes to surgical interventions in more extreme cases.

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Watch the scale, hold the wine

When we sleep, the muscles at the back of the throat relax. Some people, such as those who are older or overweight, are more likely to have tissue that relaxes too much, or to have excess tissue in their throat, which can cause their airway to narrow too much during sleep. When the person breathes, the loosened throat muscles and smaller airway lead to vibrations that cause the unmistakable snoring sound. While it can be harmless, snoring can also be a sign of a more serious condition called sleep apnea, which is why many physicians urge people to visit a sleep medicine specialist if they’re worried about snoring. 

While it can happen to anyone, snoring is more common as people age. If people are carrying extra weight or have consumed alcohol, the effects of snoring tend to get worse, says Dr. Michael Howell, division director of sleep medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

Read More: Is Bed Rotting Bad for You?

People who are overweight or obese can experience more compression on their airway due to the extra pounds they are carrying, which is why it can cause snoring or make an existing problem worse. Losing weight is one of the first interventions physicians turn to when a patient seeks help with snoring because it can be highly effective at getting the problem under control, Howell says. “Even five or 10 pounds can make a difference,” he says.

Cutting out alcohol is also another potential solution. Alcohol can make the muscles at the back of the throat even more relaxed, so it “tends to worsen sleep apnea and snoring,” says Dr. Virginia Skiba, a sleep medicine physician at Henry Ford Health in Detroit.

Change your sleep position

If your partner snores, a simple yet effective solution could be finding a way to help them sleep on their front or their side. Back sleeping, especially if a person is lying flat, is known to worsen the effects of snoring, Skiba says, so some people find success with foam wedges or similar products to prevent rolling onto their backs. Being proposed up with pillows can also help, she says.

While there are sleep vests and other similar products on the market designed to keep people from rolling onto their backs during sleep, Durr has developed a DIY solution for her patients. She advises them to find or buy a T-shirt with a front pocket and place a tennis ball inside, securing it with a safety pin. The person who snores puts the T-shirt on backwards when they go to sleep, and it automatically keeps them from rolling onto their back during sleep.

“The ball kind of pokes you into your back, and then it will shift you to your side,” she says. “So it’s not waking your bed partner up, hopefully.”

Read More: How Much Do You Actually Need to Shower?

Durr says there are other things people can try before they go the more drastic route of sleeping in a separate room from their noisy partner, such as using a white noise machine or wearing ear plugs.

“But a lot of this ends up being on the snorer,” she says. “They end up bearing the brunt of trying to fix this for their bed partner.”

CPAP and surgery

In some cases, snoring is a sign of a more serious condition called sleep apnea, which occurs when people momentarily stop breathing when they are asleep. This can lead to fatigue, irritability, and grogginess the next day and, over time, increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease and other health problems.

For a person to figure out if they have sleep apnea, they must undergo a sleep study, during which they are monitored overnight to identify changes in breathing, heart rate, oxygen levels and other health measures. Sleep studies are typically done in a clinic, but can be performed at home. Howell says a diagnosis isn’t necessary for a person to start using a CPAP machine or other therapies, but it is important for doctors and patients to know if snoring is caused by sleep apnea.“Sleep apnea is hugely underdiagnosed,” he says.

Read More: How Often Do You Really Need to Wash Your Sheets?

There are several available treatments for sleep apnea. One of the first treatments doctors will often recommend is an orthodontic device called a mandibular advancement device that can help prop open a person’s airway when they are sleeping, according to Howell.

A continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine is another tried-and-true sleep apnea aid that essentially cures snoring by ensuring a person’s airway is fully open, says Durr. But it can be a lot for some people and their partners to adjust to, and many people simply find it too difficult to tolerate, she says. CPAP machines are notoriously noisy, which can be disruptive to those wearing it as well as their bed partners, and many people find the mask too uncomfortable or wake up with a very dry mouth.

Although it is fairly rare, some patients with severe snoring problems who have had little success with lifestyle changes or other treatments may require surgery to deal with their snoring, such as a minor procedure to remove some of the elongated tissue from the back of their throat, Durr says. But she says in most instances, it doesn’t take such extreme measures for people to enjoy a relatively quiet night in bed.

“The vast majority of people will get the snoring volume to a level that’s acceptable to them and their bed partner by doing some of the lifestyle things,” she says.

source https://time.com/7008163/how-to-get-partner-to-stop-snoring/

It Ends With Us Can’t Quite Turn Trauma into Drama

A movie or book can address a serious, emotionally wrenching subject and still be a thing you can’t help snickering at, a dramatic pileup that leaves you muttering “Oh, come on!” under your breath. It Ends With Us, the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s ferociously popular 2016 novel, works hard to ping all the appropriate notes. This is after all, a story of domestic abuse, a more widely shared experience in real life than most of us want to face up to. (Hoover has said that the book was inspired by her mother, who was physically abused by Hoover’s father.) And the objective reality is that we need movies like It Ends With Us. The classic genre known as the woman’s film—pictures like King Vidor’s 1937 Stella Dallas, or either version of Imitation of Life, filmed first by John Stahl in 1934 and later, in1959, by Douglas Sirk—thrived in the ’30s, ’40s, and beyond by carving out a safe space for emotional catharsis. Women, and sometimes men, often need to cry it all out, and aren’t the movies—a refuge in the dark—the perfect place to do that?

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But It Ends With Us—directed by Justin Baldoni, who also co-stars—doesn’t have the mojo to get the waterworks pumping, not even in a gentle, reserved way. Blake Lively stars as the kookily named Lily Bloom, a thoughtful young woman with a hippie-patchwork wardrobe and a guardedly bright outlook on life. She lives in Boston; she’s about to open her own flower shop, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. In all ways, this is a period of transition. Her father has just died, and she’s not sure what to do with her mixed feelings; as we learn more about the way he abused Lily’s mother, and others, we understand why. Lily has just returned from the funeral, held in her Maine hometown, and with her jumbled thoughts, she has stolen away to a Boston rooftop with a dreamy view. But she doesn’t actually live in the building. And when a handsome neurosurgeon, who is a resident, blusters his way onto that rooftop, you get the sense her life will be changed forever.

His name is Ryle Kincaid—he’s played by Baldoni—and he’s almost criminally handsome, with his sympathetic dark eyes and 10 o’clock shadow, even sexier than the 5 o’clock kind. He’s just got to be a wolf in wolf’s clothing, and in the first minutes of their meeting, it sure seems that way. The two find themselves engaged in the kind of disarmingly frank conversation that can often brew between strangers. He’s had a terrible day; she’s just lost her father, a man she loved despite the fact he might not have deserved it. Ryle listens to her, but he also tells her, “I want to have sex with you,” clearly taken with her haute-hippie-girl breeziness, which glows even through her conflicted grief. And though she calls him out, rightly, on his perhaps overly direct sales pitch, they almost do sleep together—until he’s called away to work. Because a handsome neurosurgeon’s work is never done.

Lily thinks that’s the end of it. A day or so later she gets the keys to her new shop and sets about sprucing it up, both hiring a helper and making a new friend on the same day: rich lady Allysa (the always-wonderful Jenny Slate, who breathes some life into the movie whenever she’s on-screen) just happens to stop in. She wants a job; trusting her instincts, Lily gives her one. The two become fast friends. And guess what? It turns out that semi-scary Dr. McDreamy, AKA Ryle, is Allysa’s brother. What are the odds?

Though Allysa offers a few subtle warnings about Ryle’s romantic history, he and Lily fall in love anyway. Sure, he’s a player. But he makes it clear he wants to try for a real relationship with Lily. She goes for it—and then a love from her teenage years, whom we’ve previously met in flashbacks, unexpectedly steps into the frame. Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), is now a handsome but down-to-earth Boston restaurateur, and when Lily spots him, we can see there’s still a spark between the two. But Lily has already earned Ryle’s trust; she decides to stay the course.

Until this point, It Ends With Us could be your classic but not-too-heavy romantic melodrama, replete with hot but tender sex and dashes of romantic befuddlement. But if you’ve read Hoover’s book, you’ll know what’s coming. Lily herself becomes the victim of domestic abuse, and it doesn’t arrive with loud warning bells. In fact, the first time Lily is injured, resulting in a bruised eye she attempts to conceal with makeup, the event is presented as an accident triggered by a scuffle to remove a burned frittata from the oven. It could happen to anyone. But the second incident is more clear-cut, and the third is unequivocally violent. Still, you look at Ryle, as Lily seems to, as possibly fixable. He’s suffering; his inner turmoil is causing him to act out. The movie is accurate and effective in this sense: for so many abused women, you never know how bad it can get, until it gets really bad.

Yet none of that is enough to make you fully buy what the movie’s selling. Lively has been terrific in other movies: her turn in the 2016 woman-vs.-shark thriller The Shallows was one of the great scream-queen performances of the last decade, and she showed nervy gravitas in Ben Affleck’s The Town. But It Ends With Us lets her down. The men, with their flaws—even kind, stalwart Atlas has a very short fuse, a yellow flag if not a red one—are far more interesting than Lily is. That doesn’t give them the right to inflict violence; but from a dramatic standpoint, it certainly makes them more electric. As Lively plays her, Lily is a blank, glassy surface, the better to reflect the shortcomings of the men around her; that’s not the same as being a person. Even by the movie’s end, she still feels like something of a muted stranger—it’s the men who come off as fully alive, as dangerous as one of them may be.

The problem, maybe, is that It Ends With Us is all about what it’s about, and nothing more. These characters exist to make points about the insidiousness of domestic violence, the way its effects can creep up invisibly even as those who are suffering cloak themselves in protective denial. Admittedly, that’s a lot for a movie to carry. But movies can’t just be efficient feeling-delivery systems; they have to work on us in subtler ways. It Ends With Us makes all its points, all right, but in a way that’s more edifying than moving. And despite the prettiness of its Boston setting, it isn’t as visually alluring as it should be. For one thing, this is a movie about a flower-loving florist that’s embarrassingly low on flowers, except for a few droopy, half-dead Victorian-looking things. It’s OK, even in a story addressing a traumatic subject, to dab a little color here and there. Flowers, their short-lived beauty notwithstanding, can often brighten even the bleakest day. In this movie, they’re treated like something we don’t deserve, a blessing closed up tight, instead of a thing worth living for.

source https://time.com/7008496/it-ends-with-us-review/