longisland

News
12's&nbsp;Elizabeth Hashagen was joined by&nbsp;Dr. Ankita Sager, primary care physician and system vice
president for clinical standards and variation reduction at Common
Spirit Health,&nbsp;for the&nbsp;latest health headlines on COVID-19, cancer and heart disease.

As the
United States enters its third full COVID-19 winter, a top administration
official is warning that the permanence of the coronavirus in the disease
landscape could mean brutal and long-lasting seasonal surges of cold-weather
illnesses for years to come.

This could result in hospitals struggling
to care for non-COVID-19 emergencies and unable to give patients timely,
lifesaving treatments.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish
Jha said the American health care system may not be able to withstand
the continued viral onslaught, straining the system's ability to care for other
serious illnesses

COVID-19 is the third-leading cause of
death in the United States behind heart disease and cancer, according to
preliminary data released from Johns Hopkins University.

That
is despite early data suggesting there were significantly fewer COVID-19 deaths
in 2022 than there were in the first two years of the pandemic.

<a href="https://longisland.news12.com/guide-common-symptoms-of-gynecological-cancers">Guide: Common symptoms of gynecological cancers</a>

<a href="https://longisland.news12.com/learn-about-the-common-symptoms-and-signs-of-breast-cancer">Learn about the 7 common symptoms and signs of breast cancer</a>

<a href="https://longisland.news12.com/march-is-national-colon-cancer-awareness-month-signs-and-symptoms-of-colorectal-cancer">March is National Colon Cancer Awareness Month. 7 signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer.</a>

<a href="https://longisland.news12.com/guide-tips-to-help-you-stop-smoking">Guide: Tips to help you stop smoking</a>

News 12's Elizabeth Hashagen was joined by Dr. Ankita Sager.

Long Island

LI | Weather

LIFORECAST

All right back in the weather center with rich now underrated, part of all the different weather aspects today it's cold out there. Yeah, it's turning colder rich. We had temperatures yesterday in the fifties and sixties. And now with the cold front past Long Island, we're looking at temperatures feeling like the thirties down to 30 in Hempstead. With that gusty wind reach 20 to 30 MPH. The colder weather is with us, the rain tapering off, still some drizzle and residual moisture left over Long Island right now. Going towards noon time, better weather conditions drying out coming your way for this afternoon. The evening rush hour looks quite nice. So you can see the heaviest rain is now east of Long Island. The cold front is east of Long Island. We have those north to northwest winds at around 15 to 30 MPH. Still some wet roads. So give yourself some extra travel time. And with that gusty wind two hands on the steering wheel for today. So by noontime, here's that sunshine through the afternoon, we get towards the evening rush hour at 5 p.m. 41 but a wind chill around 29 degrees. So colder weather for the evening rush hour clear skies tonight, tomorrow morning, temperatures around 27 to 32 degrees. So we'll keep an eye to the sky for the sunshine on the way, the drier conditions coming in. And as we go through the next several days and several hours here, we're looking at dry weather conditions through this evening. So the weather is getting better and it's also turning a little colder. You can see here at 1245 some clouds but otherwise dry weather conditions a bit breezy and temperatures in the mid forties, dry weather for the evening rush hour overnight, colder weather coming in towards the morning hours of your Tuesday, temperatures will be in the up twenties to low thirties and with the wind, it will feel more like around 20 to 25 Tuesday afternoon, lots of sunshine, a bit of a chill temperature around 44 degrees dry weather heading into Tuesday night, more dry weather into Wednesday and then Thursday, Friday, most of our work week now will be dry and you can see that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, dry. We'll watch the threat of some showers developing late Sunday into Monday. Recapping your hyperlocal forecast today. Mid-forties for today, the rain giving way to sunshine. It's gonna feel colder around the island. Tonight, sun goes down at 425 your overnight lows twenties and thirties. It's cold to start off Tuesday morning. Then Tuesday afternoon, you're going to deal with sunshine at 4445 Wednesday. Colder on Thursday, dry Friday, Saturday, rain coming in late Sunday into Monday.

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Weather

LINewNormalABlock_2023-01-18-09-54-20

NEW NORMAL: The latest on COVID-19, cancer and heart disease

And welcome to our live conversation on your health. The latest data shows that cancer deaths have declined 33% since 1991. Advances in treatment early detection less smoking all helped to save an estimated 3.8 million lives. Unfortunately though the rates of advanced prostate cancers are on the rise. So we're going to take a look at what's causing that spike plus if you're sitting all day at work, science shows us how to undo the health risks associated with not moving around with your health checkup. Today we are joined live by Dr Ankara Saga. She's a primary care physician system, Vice president for clinical standards and variation reduction at common spirit health and associate clinical professor of medicine at Creighton University School of Medicine. So do you remember we want to hear from you for the next half hour we answer your questions so you can submit them now under the live stream of the show on our facebook pages, I do have to start with with what this winter has been like. You know, a lot of people were talking about some of those long waits and and you know, typically during the winter hospital see a lot of influenza, a lot of respiratory you know, issues coming in. But this winter seems to be so much worse agreed agreed. And I think part of it is what we're all feeling everybody around us has some sort of a bug, whether it's one type of virus or another. I think at one point we were talking about and we're still talking about the quad dramatic, which is four different viruses circulating and even more in some cases. So we are seeing a lot more in our hospitals and our ers and urgent cares. But also with the vaccine rates being low for a flu as well as pneumococcal and Covid. Um we are seeing much more advanced disease come through so people need a lot more care than we probably anticipated initially. When we take a look at Covid, it's still a leading cause of death. It looks like now for a third year in a row coming in just behind heart disease and cancer. That's the preliminary data that we're getting now from johNS Hopkins University. Absolutely. I think Covid remains one of the causes of death. And specifically when we think about those folks who are otherwise not expected to have a high mortality rate. You know, those healthy people, younger folks. But we are seeing that as we go farther away from the initial vaccine series, so shot one and two, the farther away we go, the more likely we are to have adverse effects. And to add on to that if they're doing okay long Covid is still very much present. So they may not need hospitalization but they still need to be seen in the doctor's office because they have a lot of remnant of their Covid infection that's ongoing. But one really bright spot is this data that's you know, just come out about cancer and this continuous decline over the past three decades of information coming from the american cancer society. Absolutely. And there's nothing better for a physician or an A p p to say to somebody, your cancer is cured. Like that is our favorite thing to say and celebrate. So this is definitely worth a celebration. Um, but it's also worth looking into to make sure that we are treating everybody with equity and making sure everybody has access to that excellent care that we have available. Now. I know the american cancer society also, you know, pointed to HPV vaccinations as a connection to that reduction in cancer deaths. Right? So January cervical cancer awareness month and it is so important to think about HPV vaccine, you know, within our generation, within one generation we've been able to have a vaccine that prevents cancer. That's tremendous. And we think that everybody who is between the age of 11 and 12 Up to 26 should definitely be vaccinated if they are eligible and able to have the vaccine against HPV. But I know the one thing that we're all that we're seeing that incline, you know, the increase in numbers is prostate cancers and it seems that people are coming later. So it's progressed so much more. Right? So there's two ways to think about it. One is, you know, we are we are screening based on risk. So, somebody has a risk factor. We will go ahead and screen them. So we are finding cases much later in life. The other is people are living longer now. Right, We are better at taking care of health and we are preventing other cancers. So that longer age we are diagnosing prostate cancers that before we're unlikely to be diagnosed to begin with. There's definitely something to be said about early screening in this whole story about cancer prevention. Because if we can find it early, it is treatable. We have gotten all this new data in that um you know, in in many different ways coming at it from different directions is what we eat being linked to how healthy we are. Which really makes sense. But I know a typically in january people do take a look at their diet. One of the things that came out is not being Was bacon and sausage and the nitrates in our food. But there was also this really large study that came out um you know from health professionals over you know, 36 years really taking a look at cardiovascular health and what we eat and and why that makes a difference. Absolutely. And you know, I tell people whatever you put in your body is how your body is going to be. So if you are eating healthy, nutritious food, that includes fruits, vegetables, less processed foods. The healthier you're going to feel because your body is able to process it much easier much quicker and without having to struggle. The study that you mentioned is really key because this study is tremendously helpful in thinking about four different ways that you can pick a nutrition plan, right? So it doesn't always have to be only one specific way, but you have options to be healthy. And I do love that. And I think the other takeaway to um you know, this is this was a large long term study and and I think the you know, the kind of punch line was, it's never too late to start eating healthy. It's not as though okay, I've made those bad choices well, you know, I was never a healthy eater. You can start today. Absolutely. You know, habits can be changed and it is within our power to try to change them and it doesn't have to be this huge, big, monstrous change where you throw out everything that's in your fridge, start small and persist with that habit across week after week after week and then build on top of it. And I do think recently, um you know, in a connection between all the things we've been talking about is that heart health has really been in the spotlight. So, if people are wondering about their own heart health, there's really a simple blood test, right? That that you can you can get to see how you're doing. So yeah, there is a blood test that you can get what I tell people is, it gives you a portion of the story. Um But really having a conversation with your physician or your nurse practitioner or P. A. And saying that this is how I eat. This is what my genetic risk factors might be. Let's work up a plan. How are we going to detect heart health early? One of the things we have learned from Covid is people have missed their heart health visits to make sure that we are screening early and changing treatment plans accordingly. So there is a newer tests available and people should definitely ask about if it's the right test for them. Yeah. And and you know for people at home knowing the difference between an event like a cardiac arrest and a heart attack which is you know the heart attack more being that circulation problem it's blocked, it's cut off and and that's what the causes. Right? Absolutely. So I think of the heart as sort of like a pump that has two parts to it. One is the plumbing and the other one is electrical. So the heart attack is what blocks the plumbing and then it burned out the electrical pump right? Versus a sudden cardiac arrest? Is the electrical shortage or short circuiting within the heart. It is really important if you are experiencing shortness of breath you experience chest pain, you're having any symptoms, you get to your doctor as soon as possible. If not the er that's likely going to be a heart attack. When we think about cardiac arrest, it happens suddenly it happens as a response to what we call an arrhythmia, meaning the short circuiting in the heart is causing the heart not to prompt properly. That usually happens suddenly. And if given CPR on time it could definitely save people because we are mechanically pumping the heart when we're giving CpR. So it allows blood and oxygen to continue going to the brain, to the heart, to the lungs of the kidney, which are vital organs that we want to protect. Absolutely, all right, coming up next, we're going to talk about everybody who's sitting at work and obviously what you need to do to really kind of change what's going on with your body throughout your workday. We're gonna have the the new data, the new research that supports really just getting up our conversation on your health continues on news 12 dot com. Right now, we have information on how to get you to stop smoking. You can scan that QR code on your screen and we'll get you right to the area on the site and you can submit your health questions on social media right now.

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