Electric-shock drowning happens most often around marinas and docks; here are tips on how to avoid it

A sign warns boaters and swimmers at the
marina at Lake Barkley State Resort Park.

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Electric shock in water can't be seen or heard, but it can be deadly.

Electric-shock drowning occurs when electricity from faulty wiring, equipment or damaged cords on a boat or dock seeps into water where people are swimming. The electricity can paralyze muscles, causing drowning, and in some cases is strong enough to electrocute, says a Kentucky State Parks news release.

The Electric Shock Drowning Prevention Association notes that while shock drowning can happen anywhere electricity is provided near water, most deaths occur near marinas and docks. Shock drowning is called a "silent killer" because there are no visible warning signs to indicate when water has electricity.

The association was created by Kevin Ritz, whose son Lucas was electrocuted while swimming near a dock in 1999.

Electric Shock Drowning Prevention Association

The association explains that water may be safe when a swimmer enters the water, but electricity on a dock or boat can trigger an electric fault, causing the swimmer to become paralyzed and drown. And unless a witness is nearby to experience and report the sensation of electric shock in the water, the death is usually judged to be a common drowning.

More than 3,000 people drown each year from non-boating related drownings, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is unclear how many of those drownings are caused by electric shock.

Here are tips to prevent electric-shock drowning:

• Never swim around marinas, boats or docks that use AC electrical power for any purpose;
• Make sure all electrical devices on your boat are working properly, have problems repaired immediately. To locate a certified electrical inspector near you, see https://ky.joportal.com/License/Search;
• Have your boat and dock inspected annually by an electrician with a current American Boat and Yacht Council electrical certification;
• If you suspect an electric shock drowning is taking place, turn off the power, throw a life ring to the victim and call 911. Do not jump in the water! You could become a victim;
• Make sure there is a ground fault circuit interrupter at the dock;
• Know where the power cutoff is and make sure those not in the water also know where it is;
• Plastic or wooden ladders are preferable to metal or aluminum ones;
• Turn off the power to your dock when you are swimming;
• Wear a life jacket.

The ESDPA adds that it's important to share the dangers of electric shock drowning with marina operators and others, because most people have never heard of it.

Tips were gathered from a variety of sources including: the Kentucky State Parks, ESDPA , the U.S. Cost Guard Auxiliary and a University of Alabama news release.

Trump meets with 'victims' of Obamacare, one from Louisville

President Trump talks about healthcare at Cincinnati Municipal
Lunken Airport on Wednesday. Dan Withrow and his family, of
Louisville, at right, met with Trump.(AP photo by Andrew Harnik)

President Donald Trump, during his June 7 visit to Cincinnati to talk about infrastructure, met with a Kentucky businessman to discuss how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act had harmed his business.

Trump said Dan Withrow, president of Louisville-based CSS Distribution Group, was one "of the many victims of the Obamacare catastrophe created by congressional Democrats."

A White House news release says Obamacare made it harder for Withrow's company, which distributes packaging materials, to afford health insurance for its employees because the plans became so costly.

"Before Obamacare, his 11 employees enjoyed multiple options for high quality, affordable health care," Trump said. "Then came Obamacare, and now they have fewer choices. Premiums are 150 percent higher. It's amazing. . . . And creating new jobs is no longer really an option for Dan because the health insurance is so expensive."

Many policies sold before Obamacare didn't comply with the standards it mandated. It requires all plans to offer 10 essential benefits, such as mental health care, prescription drug coverage and maternity and newborn care. Plans that don't cover such services typically have lower premiums.

Darla Carter of The Courier-Journal reports that Louisville Mayor Greg Fisher tweeted in response to Trump, "100% wrong, @realDonaldTrump. Numbers don’t lie. ACA is good for the health of Louisvillians AND good for jobs in our city."

Trump blamed Democrats for obstructing a new health plan, though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and could pass a health-care bill if they could agree on one. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a procedural move Wednesday to lay a fast track for a bill even though he hasn't said he has the votes to pass it. "McConnell is already racing to vote on repealing the healthcare law by the end of June," Politico reports.

Meanwhile, The Hill reported that McConnell has "proposed a shorter, three-year phase-out that would end [Medicaid expansion] in 2023," rather than 2020, as the House-passed bill would do.

Uncertainty about federal health law leads Ky. to extend filing deadline again; Anthem exits Ohio; states cut deals with insurers

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Uncertainty continues to surround the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's market for individual heath-care policies. Kentucky has extended for a second time the deadline for insurance companies to file plans and rates for next year, Anthem has pulled out of Ohio's marketplace, and states are making deals with insurers to keep them from leaving.

The Kentucky Department of Insurance initially extended its rate filing deadline for qualified health plans from May 17 to June 7, and has since moved it again to June 21, which is also the federal government's deadline for filing healthcare.gov plans. Qualified health plans are subsidized by tax credits and purchased on the federal or state marketplaces.

"This allows insurers more time to obtain relevant data, such as enrollment and claims data from the beginning of 2017, which is used by company actuaries to determine necessary plan pricing," Ronda Sloan, spokeswoman for the department, said in an e-mail.

Meanwhile, Anthem announced it is dropping out of Ohio's individual marketplace, citing concerns about whether or not the Trump administration will continue to pay cost-sharing subsidies that make coverage more affordable, Rachel Roubein reports for The Hill. Nationwide, these subsidies are estimated at $7 billion.

Insurance companies are also waiting to see what Senate Republicans' health bill will look like and whether it will maintain core Obamacare provisions such as the individual mandate that requires everyone to purchase insurance or pay a fine or continue to require the same amount of coverage.

“The Individual market remains volatile, and the lack of certainty of funding for cost-sharing-reduction subsidies, the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage and an increasing lack of overall predictability simply does not provide a sustainable path forward to provide affordable plan choices for Ohio consumers," Anthem said in a statement.

Anthem's concerns about the uncertainties of the marketplace aren't specific to Ohio, Cynthia Cox, associate director for the Program for the Study of Health Reform and Private Insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Hill in an e-mail.

"This could be the first of more exits," she wrote. "If the company exits nationally, there could be more than 275,000 people with no insurer option."

In Kentucky, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is the only health insurance provider that offers marketplace coverage in every county, and is the sole source in 59 of the state's 120 counties. Baptist Health Plans, United Healthcare and Aetna pulled out of Kentucky's market in 2016, all citing financial reasons.

In some states, insurance commissioners "are pulling out all the stops" and offering "unheard of flexibilities" to keep insurers from leaving their states amid all of this uncertainty, Roubein and Nathaniel Weixel report for The Hill.

They write that California and other states are allowing insurers to file two sets of premiums for different circumstances: continuation or repeal of the Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies, and the enforcement of the individual mandate, which the Trump administration has stopped enforcing.

Insurers say premium increases will range from a 9 percent increase if the provisions remain in place to a 36 percent hike if they are dropped.

Anthem's departure from Ohio will leave at least 18 of the state's 88 counties without an insurer on the exchange for 2018. The news fueled the partisan divide on this issue.

“How many times does this have to happen before Democrats concede that Obamacare is an absolute and total failure? This is further evidence that government mandates, taxes, and penalties make it more difficult to provide Americans with reliable and affordable health insurance," U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, said in a statement.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement, “Anthem’s decision to pull out of the Ohio marketplace is yet another example of the devastation wreaked on American families by the Trump administration’s efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act."

Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler told the Hill that his state was considering tax relief for insurance companies that agree to sell plans in rural counties, and requiring that they offer plans in both urban and rural areas. It is also considering creating a program to help subsidize insurance companies' payments on high claims with a mix of state and federal money, like Alaska's program.

Senate health plan would extend Medicaid expansion past 2020; McConnell sounds more optimistic; aide says Paul's mind is open

The health bill being drafted by Republican senators would extend the Medicaid expansion beyond 2020, the ending date in the health bill the House passed last month, some of them told reporters after meetings on the issue.

"Republicans were reluctant to disclose all the details of the bill but said it would protect those with pre-existing conditions and would keep the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid for several years, even beyond 2020," Susan Ferrechio reports for the Washington Examiner.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, a physician who chairs the Republican Policy Committee, "said the Senate GOP is looking at a 'glide path' lasting beyond 2020," Bloomberg News reports. “We’re having a good productive discussion about a glide path to help states get to a point where they can get back to [lower funding levels] without an abrupt cutoff,” Barrasso said, according to The Hill.

The Hill reported Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has "proposed a shorter, three-year phase-out that would end [Medicaid expansion] in 2023," and moderate Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia seemed open to the plan.

The expansion of Medicaid covers more Americans than private policies subsidized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In Kentucky, the Medicaid expansion covers 470,000 people. Under the House bill, starting in 2020, there would be no more enrollments in the expansion, and those who no longer qualified for it would be unable to regain coverage.

Barrasso, McConnell and Cornyn (Reuters photo by Aaron Bernstein)

Barrasso "said Republicans are discussing a plan, first pitched in a reform bill authored by Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would set up an auto-enrollment system for basic health-care coverage," Ferrechio reports.

Cassidy "said he was feeling increasingly comfortable and 'very encouraged' by Republicans' plans," report Burgess Everett, Jennifer Haberkorn and Adam Cancryn of Politico.

Cassidy dislikes the House bill's authorization for states to waive rules preventing people with pre-existing conditions from being charged more, and the Senate bill would not include that provision, reports Peter Sullivan of The Hill, but "Staffers said the bill would allow states to waive Obamacare rules requiring insurers to cover a range of healthcare services, known as essential health benefits."

Sullivan says some health experts "warn that pre-existing conditions would not be protected even if a state were only allowed to waive the essential health benefits. Sick people could be forced to pay exorbitant prices for a plan that covers their conditions under that scenario."

McConnell, who said two weeks ago that he didn't know how he would get enough votes to pass the bill, sounded more optimistic Tuesday. He told reporters, "We've had plenty of time to discuss this issue. We are getting close to having a proposal to whip and to take to the floor. . . . We'll bring it up in the near future."

McConnell told President Trump that the Senate may vote on the bill before July 4, but set no firm deadline, CNN reports. Reflecting Republicans' impatience with the issue, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said, "There had better be."

McConnell's chief deputy, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, has said the Senate will act on a bill before it leaves for its August recess. He said Tuesday that there have been no agreements about what will be in the bill. Republicans are trying to draft a bill on their own without involving Democrats; that means they can afford to lose only two of their 52 members on a floor vote.

"I think it's more likely to fail than not with the Republican Party only," Graham told Politico, which notes that he "prefers that the law collapse and force a bipartisan solution." But after the Republican lunch Tuesday, Graham sounded more optimistic, calling the options discussed “promising proposals.”

Graham told The Hill that Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky can't be counted as a vote for the bill and is “irretrievably gone” because he opposes the tax credits that subsidize Obamacare insurance. Paul spokesman Sergio Gor had a tart reply: “While we do have a press assistant opening in the communications department, Senator Graham has not applied, and should not make public statements on behalf of Senator Rand Paul. Senator Paul remains optimistic the bill can be improved in the days ahead and is keeping an open mind.”

Lisa Desjardins of PBS NewsHour reports, "If a bill gets a majority of votes in the Senate, big questions remain about how and if the Senate and House could agree on a final version. That would take several more weeks, or possibly even months. One important date to keep in mind in the health care fight: Sept. 30. Republicans must pass a bill by then in order to use the budget reconciliation process, which would allow the GOP to evade a filibuster attempt.

Most skin cancers are caused by exposure to the sun; here are some tips to protect yourself

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention photo shows protection

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Tanning is not healthy. Despite the perception that a tanned person looks "healthy," tanned skin is actually damaged skin that has been exposed to ultraviolet rays. And it doesn't really matter if the exposure comes from the sun, or a tanning bed, or happens in the winter or the summer; UV exposure is the number-one cause of skin cancer in the United States, says WebMD.

In fact, skin cancer is the most common cancer in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the American Academy of Dermatology estimating that one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime.

“Repeated overexposure to the sun can lead to premature aging and skin cancers called basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma, which is the deadliest form of skin cancer.” Dr. Tamar Zapolanski, a dermatologist at the Valley Medical Group in New Jersey, said in a news release.

The CDC notes that basal-cell and squamous-cell cancers, which affect the cells on the outer layer of the skin, are the most common kinds of skin cancer and usually respond well to treatment. Melanoma, the cancer that affects cells that give the skin its color, is much less common, but is more dangerous because it is more likely to spread to other parts of the body if not caught early.

In 2016, 3 percent of new cancers in the United states were melanomas, a rate that has been increasing steadily over the years, says the American Cancer Society, WebMD adds that melanoma causes 75 percent of all skin cancer deaths.

Kentucky Cancer Registry maps show occurrences of skin cancer (left) and deaths from melanoma, by county

In 2013, the most recent year with data available, the CDC reports that almost 72,000 Americans were diagnosed with melanoma, and more than 9,000 died from it. Between 2010 and 2014, 41 out of every 100,000 Kentuckian was diagnosed with a melanoma, and 33 Kentuckians out of every million died from it.

Anyone can get skin cancer, regardless of their skin color, but the risk is greatest for people with fair or freckled skin, light eyes and blond or red hair. Other risk factors include having a family history of skin cancer, having an outdoor job and living in a sunny climate. A history of severe sunburns early in life and having a large number of moles are also risks, says the CDC.

"Cumulative sun exposure causes mainly basal-cell and squamous-cell skin exposure, while episodes of severe sunburns, usually before age 18, can raise the risk of developing melanoma," says WebMD.

Not all skin cancers look the same. Experts say the most common warning sign of skin cancer is a change on the skin, like a new mole or skin lesion, or a change in an existing mole.

info-graphic: American Academy of Dermatology

They also recommend a simple rule to assess for melanoma, called the A-B-C-D-E rule:

• Asymmetry--Does the shape of one half match the other?
• Border--Are the edges of the mole irregular or jagged?
• Color--Does the color have uneven shades of brown, black, tan, red, white or blue?
• Diameter--Is the mole or spot larger than the size of a pea?
• Evolving--Has the mole or spot changed during the past weeks or months?

The CDC offers some tips to protect yourself from the sun:

• Stay in the shade, especially during the midday hours.
• Wear protective clothing on arms and legs.
• Wear a hat with a wide brim.
• Wear sunglasses that wrap around and have UVA and UVB protections.
• Use sunscreen with sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher, and both UVA and UVB protection, even on cloudy days.
• Reapply sunscreen every two hours and after swimming, sweating or toweling off.
• Avoid indoor tanning.

“Sunscreen protects against harmful radiation from the sun by absorbing, reflecting or scattering the sun’s rays on the skin,” said Zapolanski, adding that skin cancer is very treatable if caught early.

Oral-health experts agree on need for higher Medicaid payments, disagree on need for different kinds of dental care providers

Attendees at the meeting to update Kentucky's Strategic Plan
for Oral Health hear top priorities developed by workgroups.

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Kentucky needs to increase Medicaid reimbursement payments for oral health providers if it expects more of them to practice in the under-served areas of the state.

That was a consensus of the 130 dental advocates and stakeholders who came to Lexington May 31 and June 1 to help the state Department of Public Health's update the its Strategic Plan for Oral Health. The last strategic plan was done in 2006.

Deputy Health Secretary Tim Feeley, whose wife, Sue Feeley, is a practicing dentist, agreed that reimbursement rates are too low. "The Medicaid reimbursement rate for dental is so low that in many places it doesn't cover your fixed costs . . . so we have to work on the reimbursement rates," he said.

M. Raynor Mullins, professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry, noted that fewer than one in four Kentucky dentists take Medicaid in any meaningful way. He also called for improving Medicaid reimbursement rates. "If we are going to address oral health in the state of Kentucky, we are going to have to figure out how to solve that issue," he said.

Mullins said a "solid reimbursement model" that supports all providers would resolve concerns among dentists about competition from mid-level providers, who he and other speakers said should be given more authority, to increase access to oral-health care.

M. Raynor Mullins

"I'd flood the market with dental auxiliaries. I'd have a public health hygienist in every county in Kentucky. I'd add [dental] therapists to the workforce. I'd add community dental health coordinators," said Mullins, who worked in public-health dentistry for more than 50 years. "We need every possible option in our tool box. We may not need them in every community, but in some communities we need them."

Attendees overwhelmingly endorsed expanding the role of public-health hygienists, who can already independently provide some preventive services, like applying dental sealants or fluoride treatments, in limited settings.

Both keynote speakers said dental therapists should be added to the state's oral-health team to increase access to care, but none of the eight work groups tasked with developing strategies mentioned this as a solution to the state's oral-health issues.

Dental therapists are midlevel dental-care providers who are similar to physician assistants in medicine. They are able to provide both preventive and restorative care, like filling cavities.

Larry Hill, the executive director of the American Association of Community Dental Programs, also recommended using therapists, though he too noted that a better reimbursement model is necessary.

"If you look at most of the dental therapy models, you are going to find that the evidence says that they provide high-quality, cost-effective care," said Hill, who was dental director for the Cincinnati Health Department for 30 years and the director of a non-profit dental agency for 24 years. He added that there is no evidence to support opponents claims that dental therapists are "under-trained, unsupervised and dangerous."

The Kentucky Dental Association, along with the American Dental Association, oppose adding this new category of providers to dentistry because they say there are enough dentists to fill the existing need and evidence does not support that therapists increase access to care at a lower cost.

"Right now we do not have a shortage of dentists," said Ansley Depp, first vice president of KDA. "We may have a bit of a redistribution problem with areas in the state. Bringing in a whole other group of practitioners is not going to solve that distribution problem. You are still going to have the same issues with people not wanting to go to certain areas of the state."

Depp added, "The best thing, we think, would be to increase the reimbursement for Medicaid so that then you have more dentists involved and willing to do the treatment."

Depp, who is slated to become the KDA president in August, added that tax credits for dentists willing to work in under-served areas and student loan-reimbursement programs would go a long way to get dentists to under-served areas.

Both those ideas were also recommended by the workgroups. They also joined KDA in supporting a tax on sugary drinks, to be used toward prevention and improving oral health-care access.

"Another thing that was mentioned here today was the possibility of a soda tax, and that is something our board has been discussing and talking about maybe promoting and finding a champion or sponsor for," KDA Executive Director Richard Whitehouse said.

The workgroups also called for more education to improve dental health literacy for all Kentuckians, especially medical-care providers, who may recognize the connection between the mouth and overall health but don't make a habit of asking their patients about their oral health.

Laura Hancock Jones, a general dentist and chair of the Kentucky Oral Health Coalition, stressed that an overarching message from the meeting should be, "Oral health is essential to overall health."

The workgroups will meet through the summer. The final strategic plan is to be revealed in October.

Bardstown newspaper's editorial criticizes one-for-one mandate for state-funded syringe exchanges

New syringes with clean needles

State and local officials need to get politics out of public health when it comes to establishing and funding syringe exchanges for intravenous drug users, The Kentucky Standard of Bardstown said in an editorial Sunday.

"Once again, politics has ruled over expert recommendations," the thrice-weekly paper said in an editorial about the state's rule for syringe exchanges it funds: after the first visit, one clean needed for every used one turned in. Nelson County officials starting an exchange told the Standard that they favored the rule.

"According to health experts, these conditions are not optimal for the intended purpose of the program, which is to reduce needle sharing and slow the spread of disease," the editorial notes. "But in Frankfort, many times, politics trumps the experts, and this is one of those cases. Politicians fear the perception that they will be supporting legislation that enables drug users and is morally wrong."

Another sort of public perception, the stigma of drug use, figures into the issue. "Health officials caution that not all addicts will visit the needle-exchange facility for fear of being recognized, so they warn that if you only allow a one-for-one exchange, the addicts who come in aren't going to share dirty needles," the newspaper says. "It really is defeating the true intent of the program, which is reducing the spread of disease. And that comes not only from needle sharing, but from discarded needles, the editorial notes, before defending syringe exchanges in general.

"Research shows that these types of programs, when allowed to operate effectively, don't increase drug activity but do keep diseases from spreading. They also allow for free and confidential testing for hepatitis C and HIV, which can, in turn, help addicts obtain earlier treatment for the diseases and help build awareness." (Read more)

Southern Kentucky weekly starts a column from a recovering addict in the same week it publishes another health testimonial

Clinton County (Wikipedia map)

From 2012 to 2015, the last year for which figures are available, 25 people died of drug overdoses in Clinton County, a community of 10,000 people on the Tennessee border south of Lake Cumberland. This spring, a local doctor was indicted on charges of illegally prescribing painkillers to six people, three of whom died in 2014. The county is among the 54 in Kentucky, out of 220 in the U.S., considered most at risk from an outbreak of HIV or hepatitis C from intravenous drug use. Clearly, Clinton County has a drug problem.

Last week, on an inside page of the weekly Clinton County News, a new column appeared, with a standing headline, "An Addict's Corner," with the subhead "the Journey of an Addict." It was written by local resident Phillip Lee, who told how he became addicted to crystal methamphetamine, lost his wife, cars and homes, lost contact with his children and grandson, and put him behind bars again and again for 17 years. "I'll get down to specific details in later articles," he wrote. "I'll tell you all I remember going through." Lee credits his religious faith for his recovery.

Alan Gibson, editor and publisher of the paper, said in an email that Lee "came to me a few weeks ago with a hand-written article in his hands. He was proposing the column in an effort to help others who might be facing addiction problems, as well as families who were dealing with problems with other loved ones. He wanted to submit the column on a weekly basis under a pen name, or either anonymously. I told him he should be able to own up to his writings and be proud of his message to others as well as his accomplishments. He pondered about 10 seconds and signed the column and left it with me." He has submitted two more. "I also offered to put his photo in the header like we do some of the other regular headers, but he opted out of that," Gibson wrote. "If it helps just one person, I'm glad to offer up the space." To read Lee's first column, click here.

In the same edition of the paper, recent high-school graduate Thomas Holsapple wrote a column for the Twin Lakes Wellness Center, describing how his family had turned its health around after the death of his grandmother, who was overweight and had been a smoker, and how he took the next step by exercising regularly at the center in Albany. "Even after the first night I could feel the energy it gave me and how it entirely lifted my spirits. . . . Keeping myself in shape and eating healthy has changes my life, and the lives of my friends and family." For his column, headlined "Health and Fitness: My Story," click here.

The Clinton County News is a hotbed of testimonials about health, which can be an effective motivator for others to get healthier. The Clinton County Healthy Hometown Coalition, funded by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, has had a regular column that often featured articles by local residents saying how they made themselves healthier. One of those was from Julie Holsapple, the mother of Thomas Holsapple.

Vigorous exercise keeps aging cells biologically younger, but resistance training is what may help seniors stay in their homes

Everyday Health

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

If you are willing to exercise regularly at a "high level," you may be able to slow down the aging process in your cells, according to a study.

"Just because you're 40 doesn't mean you're 40 years old biologically," Larry Tucker, a professor of exercise science at Brigham Young University, said in a BYU news release. "We all know people that seem younger than their actual age. The more physically active we are, the less biological aging takes place in our bodies."

The study, to be published in the journal Preventive Medicine, found that "People who have consistently high levels of physical activity have significantly longer telomeres than those who have sedentary lifestyles, as well as those who are moderately active."

Telomeres are tiny caps on the ends of human chromosomes that protect them from deterioration and progressively shorten with age. They are often compared to the plastic tip on the end of a shoelace that keeps your shoelace from fraying.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 5,800 adults in a multi-year Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey and found that the adults with high physical activity levels had telomeres that were biologically nine years younger than the adults who were sedentary, and seven years younger than those who were moderately active. High activity was defined as 30 minutes of jogging a day for women and 40 minutes a day for men, five days a week.

The study found that there was "no significant difference in telomere length between those with low or moderate physical activity and the sedentary people," says the release.

"If you want to see a real difference in slowing your biological aging, it appears that a little exercise won't cut it. You have to work out regularly at high levels," Tucker said.

The release notes that it is not yet known how exercise preserves telomeres, but researchers think it may be tied to inflammation and oxidative stress, which exercise is known to suppress. "We know that regular physical activity helps to reduce mortality and prolong life, and now we know part of that advantage may be due to the preservation of telomeres," Tucker said.

A similar study at the University of California San Diego that analyzed telomere length and activity levels in 1,500 older women found that older women who had less than 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day and were sedentary for more than 10 hours a day were biologically eight years older than women in the study who were more active.

Resistance training could help keep seniors in their homes

National Institute on Aging

Another study found the best exercise for seniors to help them live independently includes some resistance training because "a decline in muscle strength due to age and a sedentary lifestyle is often what undermines older adults' ability to live independently," says an Indiana University news release.

"Exercise, in general, is good for older people," said Chiung-ju "CJ" Liu, an associate professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "It's good for their health and good for their independence. But when we were helping older people become more independent, just exercise didn't seem so efficient."

With the goal of helping older people remain independent, Liu, an occupational therapist, created a 10-week "3-Step Workout for Life" exercise program that uses what people already had in their homes to do the exercises. And the exercises were always able to link back to senior's daily living activities.

The first step in the program involves resistance exercises like bicep curls; the second step links these exercises to the participant's activities of daily living; and the third step challenges the senior to increase their resistance activities.

Liu's study found that "the results at the end of the 10-week three-step workout program were similar to that of a 10-week resistance-only exercise program.But older adults retained the benefits of the 3-Step Workout for Life when they were tested six months later, while the benefits of the resistance exercise program had significantly decreased."

Click here for some strength exercises for seniors that can be done at home.

Heroin gets the headlines, but meth is Ky.'s biggest illegal drug

Heroin has been getting the headlines, because of overdoses, but the resurgence of a near-pure form of methamphetamine has made meth the most common illegal drug in Kentucky, reports Miranda Combs of Lexington's WKYT-TV: "One out of three cases studied at the state lab is crystal meth."

Jeremy Triplett, a supervisor at the state forensic laboratory, told Combs, "It's all crystalline now. You never see just the really junky meth we used to see. You can clearly see there's a bigger industry at play. Meth is clearly the number one drug in Kentucky right now."

Richmond Police Commander Bob Mott told Combs that crystal meth from Mexico has "driven the price down and put the lab people out of business." He said his department seizes twice as much meth as heroin.

Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird told Combs that the drug is "more addictive than the stuff we saw years ago," and is called "ice" because it looks like ice crystals.  "He said it makes users paranoid," Combs reports. "In the last year, the number of foot pursuits and car chases skyrocketed for Williamsburg police."

McConnell asks Ohio and Pa. senators to craft compromise on Medicaid, a key to addiction treatment in their states and Ky.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(Photo by Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has asked fellow Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania "to come up with a compromise between GOP conservatives and moderates on capping Medicaid spending and rolling back the ACA's Medicaid expansion to low-income adults," Harris Meyer reports for Modern Healthcare. "That's a key disagreement holding up Senate Republicans' version of ACA repeal-and-replace legislation."

Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky were among the states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, extending coverage to more than 700,000 low-income adults in the larger states and 470,000 in Kentucky. That expansion has enabled an estimated 150,000 Ohioans and 63,000 Pennsylvanians to get addiction treatment, Meyer reports.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services said it didn't have current data available on short notice, but a recent report for the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky said 41,146 Kentuckians on the Medicaid expansion had received substance-abuse treatment through the second quarter of 2016.

From 2014 to 2015, drug-overdose deaths in Kentucky rose 19.3 percent, to 1,297. Meyer notes that the other two states "experienced record spikes in drug overdose deaths in 2015—a 20.5 percent increase in Ohio, to 3,050, and a 30 percent jump in Pennsylvania, to 3,500.

"McConnell's assignment puts Portman and Toomey in a very tough and highly visible spot," Meyer writes. "Substance-abuse providers, lawmakers, and policy experts in Ohio and Pennsylvania warn that phasing out enhanced federal funding for Medicaid expansion would effectively end coverage for hundreds of thousands of people—including many with substance abuse disorders—because the states couldn't afford to continue the expansion on their own." The same is true in Kentucky.

Also, Meyer reports that providers told him "The commercial health plans that Republicans want to offer as a substitute generally don't offer benefits for substance-abuse treatment that are nearly as good as what Medicaid offers."

Nationally, Medicaid provides coverage to more than 650,000 non-elderly adults with addiction, among the estimated 3 million people who are addicted, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Ending the Medicaid expansion "would be nothing short of disastrous for my state," Republican state Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, who chairs the Pennsylvania House's human services committee, told Meyer. "If the expansion goes away, people with drug and alcohol addiction will show up at hospital ERs, go back on the street, and end up tragically dead or in jail."

Andrew Albrecht, CEO of The Counseling Center, a drug- and alcohol-treatment center in Portsmouth, Ohio, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, told Meyer, "The Medicaid expansion is the single biggest thing that's happened to our agency. Prior to expansion, we had to ration care. If the expansion ended, we'd have to make some really tough decisions about how many men we could treat." Since the 2014 expansion, the center has enlarged to 72 beds from 16.

Portman, Ohio's Republican senator, "has called for moderating or at least delaying the repeal" of Medicaid expansion, Meyer reports. "Toomey is pushing for rapid repeal of the extra federal funding" while saying that the House's proposed Medicaid changes "probably" are "a little too sudden" and that he would be open to a "conversation about easing the transition."

The bill passed by the House would end the expansion in 2020 and "allow states to opt out of the ACA's required coverage for essential health benefits such as mental health and substance abuse treatment," Meyer notes. "In addition, it would allow states to let insurers price plans based on applicants' pre-existing conditions, such as drug addiction. These provisions likely would reduce access to addiction treatment, experts say."

Ohio expanded Medicaid in 2014 under Republican Gov. John Kasich; Pennsylvania did it in 2015 under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. Kentucky did it under then-Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, in 2014; Republican Gov. Matt Bevin is seeking a federal waiver to cut back the program.

Meanwhile, McConnell's top deputy, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, told KFYO Radio in Lubbock that the Senate would pass a health bill by the end of July, CBS News reports. But then the House and Senate would have to reach a compromise, and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who dislikes the House bill, told Greensboro and Winston-Salem's WXII-TV, "I think it's unlikely that we will get a health-care deal." Asked if the Senate would pass a health bill, he said, "I don't see a comprehensive health-care plan this year."

A poll May 16-22 by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 55 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of the House bill, while 31 percent viewed it favorably. Asked about Medicaid, 58 percent said the program is either “very” or “somewhat” important to them and their family – including a majority of Democrats (64 percent) and independents (57 percent) and nearly half (46 percent) of Republicans.

AP says to avoid calling people alcoholics or addicts; health advocates give thumbs up for avoiding stigma of addiction

The Associated Press has updated its Stylebook with this:  "Avoid words like 'alcoholic,' 'addict,' 'user' and 'abuser' unless they are in quotations or names of organization," the wire service posted on Twitter. "Instead, choose phrasing like 'He was addicted,' 'people with heroin addiction' or 'He used drugs'."

The update "is winning applause from public health advocates, who say the clarification discourages stigmas around addiction," Politico Pulse reports. "The change spun out of efforts begun under the Office of National Drug Control Policy, with former staffers like Regina LaBelle and Rafael Lemaitre pushing to change the language, Lemaitre posted on Twitter."