United States
Lori Miller Kase, a Connecticut-based freelance writer, specializes in health and also writes frequently about the arts, food and parenting. A journalist for more than 30 years, she has been published in a wide range of national and local publications, including Discover, Vogue, The Atlantic, Aeon, The New York Times, Leaps, Self, Eating Well, Parents, The Boston Globe Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Reader’s Digest, Health, The Hartford Courant and Hartford Magazine. She has been awarded for "Excellence in Journalism" by the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists. She is Health Editor at Large for CoveyClub, a website geared toward women over 40.
Lori also writes fiction, and is currently seeking representation for her debut YA novel, The Accident. Her fiction and creative nonfiction has appeared in literary journals including Literary Mama and Brain,Child, and she teaches creative writing to elementary and middle school students.
About 80 percent of older adults suffer from at least one chronic disease - and 68 percent have two, according to the National Council on Aging. It's no wonder that we associate aging with physical and cognitive decline.
Annie Fenn, doctor, chef, and founder of Brain Health Kitchen, a cooking school focused on preventing cognitive decline, didn't retire after 20 years as an Ob/Gyn practicing menopausal medicine with the intention of taking a deep dive into brain health.
According to psychiatrist and brain researcher Daniel Amen, MD, a healthy brain is a happy brain - literally. "Brain health (the actual physical functioning of the organ) is the most important foundational requirement of happiness," Dr. Amen, founder of Amen Clinics, writes in his book You, Happier: The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type.
Health
More than 20 percent of American adults suffer from chronic pain. And as many as one in four of those prescribed opioids to manage that pain go on to misuse - or abuse - them, often with devastating consequences. Patients afflicted by both chronic pain and opioid addiction are especially difficult t...
How long could we extend the human lifespan if geriatric problems like diabetes and heart disease were a thing of the past? Riding a wave of growing interest in longevity research, scientists in Japan recently developed a vaccine that targets the body's senescent cells - aging cells that no longer divide but can still cause chronic inflammation and disease as they accumulate in our tissues.
Could taking a dropperful of CBD oil under your tongue each night alleviate menopause symptoms, reduce pain, and prevent cognitive decline? Will slathering on CBD-infused cream fight acne, eczema - or even skin aging? Increasingly ubiquitous CBD storefronts hawk products ranging from lollipops to lubricants, and CBD is being added to everything from smoothies to shampoos.
I recently decided it was time to edit the ever-expanding collection of skin- and hair-care lotions and potions fighting for real estate on my bathroom vanity. Not to mention the mostly expired eye shadow compacts, tubes of mascara and lip glosses crowding my tiny makeup drawer. What spurred me into action?
When COVID-19 boosters were first approved in September, the federal government's vague guidelines left many of us confused about whether we were eligible. Now that the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is urging all adults to get booster shots, it's less a question of who should get a booster, and more a question of which one to get.
As I get older, I'm finding it more and more difficult to read the fine print - or any print, for that matter.
If you're like me, and you've put off your preventive health exams until after COVID vaccination, there's something you should know before you schedule your next breast imaging exam. A common side effect of the vaccine can be misinterpreted as cancer on a mammogram.
Even before the pandemic, I worked from home, occasionally writing from a not-very-ergonomic armchair next to my fireplace, on a porch swing, or even while reclining on my bed. But in my pre-COVID days, I was often in motion, and my frequent bursts of activity balanced out my back-compromising work habits.
More than 50 million Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), with healthcare workers administering more than 1.8 million shots per day. And while this is definitely reason to be optimistic, health officials warn that vaccination is "not a free pass" to disregard public health measures and throw caution to the wind.
During the early months of the pandemic, I found myself working out more than usual. I don't know if it was my way of counterbalancing the increased number of gourmet meals and baked confections coming out of my kitchen, which was suddenly flooded with additional chefs sheltering at home with me - or that my fitness regimen felt like the only thing I could control as COVID-19 transformed the world around us.
Back in early March, when I actually left the house and went to stores, I found myself scouring the shelves of local pharmacies and supermarkets for zinc lozenges. I had set out on this quest after reading an email by pathologist and coronavirus expert James Robb, MD, suggesting that these lozenges were effective in blocking coronavirus from multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx.
In the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harvard University dream researcher Deirdre Barrett, PhD, dreamed she was inside a beautiful library in a centuries-old house. The library, filled with leather-bound volumes and aglow from gaslights, had a cozy feel to it, she recalls, but she was aware that something "terrible" was going on everywhere outside.
High HDL levels don't always mean a lower risk of heart attack. Annabelle Rodriguez's research suggests that the "good cholesterol" may not be so good for everyone.
Dozens of companies offer direct-to-consumer tests on saliva, urine, blood or cheek swabs that can indicate either the presence of or the genetic susceptibility to disorders ranging from diabetes to cancer. Are these medical testing companies the new Ubers of healthcare, poised to disrupt the industry and usher in an age of patient-driven, on-demand medicine?
The last thing I expected when my doctor sent me for a bone density scan after a too-easily sustained foot fracture last year was to receive a diagnosis of osteopenia. I shouldn't have been surprised; after all, as many as half of women over 50 are afflicted with osteopenia or lower-than-normal bone mass.
Researchers are finding that music instruction not only improves children’s communication skills, attention, and memory, but that it may even close the academic gap between rich and poor students.
Though Connecticut boasted the lowest rate of COVID-19 transmission in the country at one point this summer, the novel coronavirus is still with us. As flu season approaches and colder weather forces people indoors, experts warn that it will be more important than ever to take the proper precautions to prevent the spread of both respiratory illnesses.
Recent reports of serious vaping-related illnesses have stirred concern among healthcare providers in Connecticut and across the United States. As of November 20, the Centers for Disease Control had reported more than 2290 cases of e-cigarette or vaping related lung injury, 47 of which resulted in death.
Scientists are discovering that your gut health impacts so much more than just your digestion. The billions of bacteria in your gut can impact your entire body. "Gut bacteria are connected to aspects of health we never suspected," says Rob Knight, Ph.D., co-founder and principal investigator of the Human Gut Project.
Concussions have always been a known risk factor in contact sports, but increasing evidence suggests that kids are returning to play too soon after sustaining these mildly traumatic brain injuries.
Thanks to Angelina Jolie, who went public in a 2013 New York Times editorial about her decision to undergo a preventive double mastectomy, most of us are familiar with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
The microbes living in your gut may explain how diet affects colorectal cancer risk.
Hartford Hospital's $3 million Depression Initiative offers hope and healing for people with mood disorders.
Pam Lacko considered herself lucky: After a hysterectomy and six rounds of chemotherapy, she survived ovarian cancer. Then she learned that she carried a gene that put her at high risk of breast cancer. First, she cried. Then she did what she does best: She laughed.
A blitz of medical breakthroughs may end this deadly disease once and for all.
Mammograpy -- the standard for breast cancer -- misses 10-15 percent of cancers, more in young women. Lori Miller Kase explores the benefits and limits of this imperfect science and investigates promising new techniques.
When she entered the world four months too soon, Amanda McTighe was no bigger than her father's hand. Miraculously, she's alive and thriving, thanks to medical breakthroughs unheard of even a decade ago.
Over the last 100 years, our affair with the scale has intensified. But despite reports that dieting is not good for us, we remain hooked. Lori Miller Kase examines the history of this dangerous addiction.
Brain tumor: the very words bring us face to face with our worst fears. But new treatments and surgical techniques bring new hope -- or at least, more time.
How it makes you happier, healthier, sexier -- even skinnier.
How to achieve perfect timing (and have more fun doing it)
Several companies plan to offer mail-in testing kits for the AIDS virus, stirring concern among public health officials and drawing criticism from many doctors and groups working with AIDS patients.
Food and Nutrition
The impressive structure protrudes from the side of a snowy mountain on the Svalbard Archipelago, a cluster of islands about halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Art installations on the building's rooftop and front façade glimmer like diamonds in the polar night, but it is what lies buried deep inside the frozen rock, 475 feet from the building's entrance, that is most precious. Here, in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, are backup copies of more than a million of the world's...
INSIDE THE KITCHEN OF COPPA, chef Jamie Bissonnette's trendy South End enoteca, sous-chefs pause during food prep to pull out cellphones or scraps of paper and jot down notes about the dishes they are making.
Philip Wong and Ann Yang are Fighting Food Waste, One Bottle of Juice at a Time
Proponents of such regimens say these diets may improve sleep and blood sugar control; reduce risk factors for chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes; and may even help you live longer. The appeal is that unlike typical daily diets, part-time dieting plans allow you to eat freely for a few days a week so you don't feel as deprived.
The demand for locally-grown artisanal products has never been higher, and Connecticut farmers are rising to the challenge.
New studies suggest that front-loading calories might actually help you to lose weight.
The average American consumes 105 pounds of sugar each year. While experts debate how much this overdoes is harming our bodies, one thing is certain: Cutting out the stuff altogether would be impossible, not to mention joyless. Self serves up a solution.
Each year, far more people are sickened by fruit and vegetables--the very food we are being urged to consume in greater quantity--than by beef and poultry combined. Here, the food safety scandal you haven't heard about.
The Arts
Last spring, The Washington Post declared that "poetry is going extinct," citing a recent report by the Census Bureau that showed a marked decline in poetry readership. But to the thousands who flock to the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, hosted annually in the legendary Beatrix Farrand-designed garden at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, reports of poetry's death would seem, in the immortal words of Mark Twain, to be greatly exaggerated.
Book-lovers in the region are likely aware that Samuel Clemens - a.k.a. Mark Twain - penned such classics as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on the top floor of a Victorian home which still stands at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Forest Street in Hartford.
Brick and mortar bookstores are increasingly a relic of the past, yet Connecticut still boasts a number of independent sellers that attract die-hard devotees of the more traditional - and more intimate - book-browsing experience. Some readers' favorites: Atticus Bookstore Café , 1082 Chapel Street, New Haven.
These imaginative Connecticut entrepreneuers turned their love for the arts into unique businesses that celebrate creativity
The third smallest state in the nation, Connecticut is a star on the national theater scene...
On a weekday morning at the oldest American art museum in the country, some of the nation's youngest art patrons followed a docent on a tour through the contemporary art galleries.
Five local artists share the gardens they've transformed into living masterpieces.
The landmark Palace Theater in Waterbury has evolved from a silent movie house and vaudeville venue in the 1920s, to a rock concert destination in the 1970s, to a regular stop on the national Broadway tour circuit today.
Frequent visitors to the New Britain Museum of American Arrt may be familiar with its masterworks. Here's a guide to the institution's other great asset -- the team that makes the place tick.
From Winsted to West Hartford, murals beautify, celebrate and strengthen communtiies.
Every child is a star at Unified Theater, a nonprofit that taps students of all abilities for community productions.
SPREAD out on the kitchen table of painter David Webster's rented SoHo studio are the blueprints for the Centrum, a $75 million office complex that is being developed in Dallas. Two paintings that he did at the request of the project's developers hang on the studio wall, and are indicated by yellow markings on the plans.
LAST spring, Chase Manhattan Bank's SoHo branch ranked 48th in growth among the huge bank's 50 Manhattan branches. The situation was critical, recalls Terry Baker, the branch's assistant treasurer. The choice, he says, was ''close the branch or participate in the neighborhood.''
After six years of showcasing top American theater, ''American Playhouse,'' the weekly public television series, is branching out into theater production. The New York-based program plans to commission works from emerging playwrights, plays that would then be adapted for television only at the end of the stage runs, according to the executive producer of the dramatic series, Lindsay Law.
The public got its first look at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new rooftop sculpture garden yesterday and found a bonus for art lovers. Visitors wandered among the nine 20th-century pieces showcased in the museum's latest installation - the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden.
LEAD: Carl Solberg slouched over an old typewriter, pounding out notes for his work-in-progress on the China lobby, while in a nearby carrel, John Demaray, a medieval scholar, put the finishing touches on his most recent opus, ''Dante and the Book of the Cosmos.''
Literary Journals - Fiction/Creative Nonfiction
Carli watches him from above his crib as he screams inconsolably. She studies how he screws his face up like a little prune, his eyes squinched tight, his face so red she thinks it might explode. She tries to feel something, but no feeling comes.
In theory, sharing a 14-hour drive with my daughter sounded like a reasonable idea. But as soon as she takes her first curve, I reflexively grab for the door handle like I used to do when she had her learner's permit.
Personal Essays
Forgetting is my new norm. It happens more and more often — bits of memories lost. Pieces of my brain shut off from access. The thoughts, words, recollections I try to retrieve are there — on the edge of remembrance — but they are blocked and cannot be called up.
Though I was less than enthusiastic about the outcome of the presidential election, I couldn't help being swept up by the excitement of the recent inaugural ceremony, especially because it was the first changing of the guard that either of my children had ever witnessed.
She may be guilty of teddy bear abuse, but when it comes to empathy, this toddler is full of surprises.
There's a place inside every parent that secretly savors separation anxiety.
Parenting
Share that playlist! Introducing your baby to tunes is an easy and enjoyable way to interact with your baby in his first year and can help set the stage for lifelong musical development. Plus, playing together with music can brighten his mood, benefit his brain, and boost his language skills.
Demetria Santillan, of Tucson, Arizona, had been nursing her son, Ramiro, for nearly twelve months when she developed a urinary-tract infection. Her doctor said she needed medication and would have to stop breast-feeding for a week; another doctor agreed. Santillan, who didn't want to stop nursing, consulted a third physician.
Missy Nicholson, of Grafton, Massachusetts, had struggled with depression on and off since age 10, but it wasn't until she became a mother that she realized she wasn't the only one suffering because of her illness. Three years ago, when Nicholson was pregnant with her second child, she sank into a depression so severe that she spent most of each day in bed.
Children are quick to pick up racial biases from family, friends and TV. That's why it's crucial to talk about issues like skin color and to dispel myths about race at an early age. Here's how to get started.
Dismayed that kids are rude, irresponsible and intolerant, teachers are weaving moral lessons into the curriculum--and seeing dramatic results.
When Robert Vaughn's kindergarten teacher asked her students to name something larger than a TV, the precocious 5-year-old answered, "The entire universe." When she asked for something smaller than a TV, Robert replied, "The nucleus of a carbon atom."
Parents.com > Toddlers & Preschoolers > Sleep > Sleep Schedule Here's how to help your kids fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up in their own bed -- no matter what their age.
Most people think of AIDS as a prelude to death, but for these six families, it is more like a refrain in the rhythm of their lives...
Other Feature Stories
It took me forever to write this article. Ironically, as I scoured books about productivity, I was surprisingly unproductive. My emails piled up as I researched how to achieve "Inbox Zero." I procrastinated by reading book after book about how not to.
Whether you are a garden lover or a history buff, Connecticut's many historic gardens offer both inspiration and a unique glimpse into the lives and sensibilities of generations past. With their parterres and pergolas, stately trees and topiaries, perennial borders and old-fashioned kitchen potagers, the meticulously restored gardens in our region span three centuries and represent an array of styles and horticultural trends.
The demand for locally sourced and artisanal products has never been higher, and Connecticut farmers are rising to the challenge. The proliferation of farmers' markets in our region reflects a growing desire on the part of consumers to know where their food - and handcrafted goods - are coming from.
When yoga devotees at Be.Yoga in Avon are not in the studio practicing Sun Salutations or Downward Facing Dog, they convene to feed the hungry, raise money for the homeless or fill backpacks for needy children.
Immigrants from a war-torn region find hope and happiness in their new home: Hartford
For more than 100 years, Greater Hartford businesses have been building a legacy, one sale at a time.
Litchfield County potter Guy Wolff, whose handmade clay pots can be found in the gardens of historic estates (including Monticello and the White House), museums (like the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Met Cloisters), and suburban backyards across the country, draws inspiration for his creations from both master potters in Europe and traditional American craftsmen.
FIVE YEARS ago, Carnegie-Mellon University attracted national attention with its announcement that it would require each student to have a microcomputer. It was the first school to suggest imposing such a rule, and though it has since reconsidered that idea, at least a dozen institutions, including Stevens Institute of Technology and Drew University in New Jersey, and Clarkson University in New York, have adopted the computer-requirement policy.
LEAD: THE brooks that run through the Brookvilles cut across the wooded grounds of vast estates, skirt the well-kept fairways of the area's many golf courses and wind along tree-lined country roads. Years ago, these narrow waterways gave this Long Island community its name; today, they continue to add to its nonpareil beauty.
Profiles/Interviews
Hanging in the waiting room of the Mandell Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital in Hartford is a whimsical painting of a woman, chin up, looking forward, her hair flowing behind her.
The Saint Francis Cardiologist is on a Mission to Educate Women about how to Prevent Heart Disease
Saint Francis Gastroenterologist Aims to "Wallop Those Polyps"
Elite athlete and foot and ankle specialist Christina Kabbash, MD, helps injured triatheltes -- as well as non-athletes -- to get back on their feet.
Through her camera lens, Jane Shauck sees life -- including her own -- in a whole new way
Steven Beeber, associate editor of Condit, was an MFA student at University of Massachusetts when his friend and roommate, William Waltz, started the literary magazine...
Back in the .80s, Linda Swanson-Davies and her sister, Susan Burmeister-Brown, felt that the literary short stories they were seeing in journals were, as Swanson-Davies puts it, "rather cool to the touch." Avid readers, they started their own journal -- Glimmer Train -- in the hopes of bringing a different kind of story to print.