The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is urging people who can get this season’s flu shot to do so.

So far, the agency says about 20% of those eligible to receive the vaccine have been immunized.

New strain appears in the UK

Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian is the state’s chief medical executive. She says a new variant of H3N2 influenza is causing severe cases of flu in England.

“What’s happening in Europe and England is sometimes a harbinger of what’s to come in places like Michigan,” she says. “And what we’ve been seeing [there] is an early flu season and a more severe flu season.”

Early studies have shown that this season’s flu vaccine offers some protection against the new variant.

“In England, they’ve seen that in folks under 18, the vaccine is about 75% protective in terms of keeping them out of the emergency department and the hospital,” Bagdasarian says. “It’s about 40% effective in those over 18.”

While the vaccine does not prevent all cases, Bagdasarian says it does reduce one’s chances of getting really sick.

“What we’re trying to do here is not stop all cases of the flu, but we want to keep people out of the hospital, the ICU, and stop them from dying,” she says.

Vaccinations have been declining since COVID

As for the low vaccination rate this season, Bagdasarian says it’s a trend. Fewer people have been getting annual flu shots since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. She worries that an outbreak of severe flu might overwhelm Michigan’s hospitals.

“When our health systems are full of people with influenza, that means there’s less care to go around,” she says. “None of us want to see a health system that’s overwhelmed with flu cases.”

Bagdasarian says fewer children are receiving routine vaccinations for other diseases such as measles and polio. She fears that recent developments at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could make that worse.

Skeptics turn health policy on its head

For example, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently recommended that children should only receive the hepatitis B vaccine if their mothers have tested positive or their status is unknown. Decades of research have shown that immunizing newborns against the virus is safe and has drastically reduced childhood cases of hepatitis B and other liver disease.

Bagdasarian attended the ACIP meeting virtually. She questions the qualifications of many who spoke.

More: The Hepatitis B Foundation warns new guidance could undo decades of progress

“There were not enough scientists,” she says. “There were not enough health professionals, pediatricians, physicians.”

Instead, Bagdasarian notes that some of the presenters had non-medical backgrounds and don’t understand health care. She says that jeopardizes America’s health policies.

“The recommendations they voted on are liable to cause increased confusion and hesitancy and maybe put obstacles in people’s place when they’re trying to get vaccines,” she says.

Bagdasarian’s specialty is infectious disease. She says she’s treated patients with end stage liver disease, measles, and other preventable illnesses. She does not want the U.S. to go back to the time when these things were common.

“Many of these vaccines are things that we took when we were kids,” she says. “To deprive our own children of these life-saving benefits is sad.”

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By Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News

The United States is poised to lose its measles-free status next year. If that happens, the country will enter an era in which outbreaks are common again.

More children would be hospitalized because of this preventable disease. Some would lose their hearing. Some would die. Measles is also expensive. A new study— not yet published in a scientific journal — estimates that the public health response to outbreaks with only a couple of cases costs about $244,000. When a patient requires hospital care, costs average $58,600 per case. The study’s estimates suggest that an outbreak the size of the one in West Texas earlier this year, with 762 cases and 99 hospitalizations, costs about $12.6 million.

America’s status hinges on whether the country’s main outbreaks this year stemmed from the big one in West Texas that officially began Jan. 20. If these outbreaks are linked, and go on through Jan. 20 of next year, the U.S. will no longer be among nations that have banished the disease.

“A lot of people worked very hard for a very long time to achieve elimination — years of figuring out how to make vaccines available, get good vaccine coverage, and have a rapid response to outbreaks to limit their spread,” said Paul Rota, a microbiologist who recently retired from a nearly 40-year career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Instead of acting fast to prevent a measles comeback, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a lawyer who founded an anti-vaccine organization before taking the helm at the Department of Health and Human Services, has undermined the ability of public health officials to prevent and contain outbreaks by eroding trust in vaccines. The measles vaccine is safe and effective: Only 4% of more than 1,800 confirmed U.S. cases of measles this year have been in people who had received two doses.

Kennedy has fired experts on the vaccine advisory committee to the CDC and has said, without evidence, that vaccines may cause autism, brain swelling, and death. On Nov. 19, scientific information on a CDC webpage about vaccines and autism was replaced with false claims. Kennedy told The New York Times that he ordered the change.

“Do we want to go back into a prevaccine era where 500 kids die of measles each year?” asked Demetre Daskalakis, a former director of the CDC’s national immunization center, who resigned in protest of Kennedy’s actions in August. He and other scientists said the Trump administration appears to be occupied more with downplaying the resurgence of measles than with curbing the disease.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement that vaccination remains the most effective tool for preventing measles and that the “CDC and state and local health agencies continue to work together to assess transmission patterns and ensure an effective public health response.”

Looking for Links

CDC scientists are indeed tracking measles, alongside researchers at health departments and universities. To learn whether outbreaks are linked, they’re looking at the genomes of measles viruses, which contain all their genetic information. Genomic analyses could help reveal the origin of outbreaks and their true size, and alert officials to undetected spread.

Scientists have conducted genomic analyses of HIV, the flu, and COVID for years, but it’s new for measles because the virus hasn’t been much of a problem in the U.S. for decades, said Samuel Scarpino, a public health specialist at Northeastern University in Boston. “It’s important to get a surveillance network into place so that we could scale up rapidly if and when we need it,” he said.

“We are working with the CDC and other states to determine whether what we’re seeing is one large outbreak with continued spread from state to state,” said Kelly Oakeson, a genomics researcher at the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.

At first glance, the ongoing outbreak in Utah and Arizona, with 258 cases as of Dec. 1, seems linked to the one in Texas because they’re caused by the same strain of measles, D8-9171. But this strain is also spreading throughout Canada and Mexico, which means the outbreaks could have been sparked separately from people infected abroad. If that happened, this technicality could spare the U.S. from losing its status, Rota said. Being measles-free means the virus isn’t circulating in a country continuously year-round.

Canada lost its measles-elimination status in November because authorities couldn’t prove that various outbreaks from the D8-9171 strain were unrelated, said Daniel Salas, executive manager of the comprehensive immunization program at the Pan American Health Organization. The group, which works with the World Health Organization, includes health officials from countries in North, South, and Central America, and the Caribbean. It makes a call on measles elimination based on reports from scientists in the countries it represents.

Early next year, PAHO will hear from U.S. scientists. If their analyses suggest that measles has spread continuously for a year within the U.S., the organization’s director may revoke the country’s status as measles-free.

“We expect countries to be transparent about the information they have,” Salas said. “We will ask questions, like, ‘How did you determine your findings, and did you consider other angles?’”

In anticipation of PAHO’s assessment, Oakeson and other researchers are studying how closely the D8-9171 strains in Utah match others. Instead of looking at only a short snippet of genes that mark the strain, they’re analyzing the entire genome of the measles virus, about 16,000 genetic letters long. Genetic mutations occur naturally over time, and the accumulation of small changes can act like a clock, revealing how much time has ticked by between outbreaks. “This tells us the evolutionary history of samples,” Oakeson said.

For example, if one child directly infects another, the kids will have matching measles viruses. But measles viruses infecting people at the start of a large outbreak would be slightly different than those infecting people months later.

Although the Texas and Utah outbreaks are caused by the same strain, Oakeson said, “more fine-grained details are leading us to believe they aren’t super closely related.” To learn just how different they are from each other, scientists are comparing them with measles virus genomes from other states and countries.

Ideally scientists could pair genetic studies with shoe-leather investigations into how each outbreak started. However, many investigations have come up dry because the first people infected haven’t sought care or contacted health departments. As in West Texas, the outbreak in Utah and Arizona is concentrated in close-knit, undervaccinated communities that are leery of government authorities and mainstream medicine.

Researchers are also trying to learn how many measles cases have gone undetected. “Confirmed cases require testing, and in some communities, there’s a cost to going to the hospital to get tested: a tank of gas, finding a babysitter, missing work,” Andrew Pavia, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Utah, said. “If your kid has a measles rash but isn’t very sick, why would you bother?”

Subtle Surveillance

Pavia is part of a nationwide outbreak surveillance network led by the CDC. A straightforward way to figure out how large an outbreak is would be through surveys, but that’s complicated when communities don’t trust public health workers.

“In a collaborative setting, we could administer questionnaires asking if anyone in a household had a rash and other measles symptoms,” Pavia said, “but the same issues that make it difficult to get people to quarantine and vaccinate make this hard.”

Instead, Pavia and other researchers are analyzing genomes. A lot of variation suggests an outbreak spread for weeks or months before it was detected, infecting many more people than known.

A less intrusive mode of surveillance is through wastewater. This year, the CDC and state health departments have launched efforts to test sewage from households and buildings for measles viruses that infected people shed. A study in Texas found that this could function as an early warning system, alerting public health authorities to an outbreak before people show up in hospitals.

The quiet research of CDC scientists stands in stark contrast to its dearth of public-facing actions. The CDC hasn’t held a single press briefing on measles since President Donald Trump took office, and its last publication on measles in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report was in April.

Rather than act fast to limit the size of the Texas outbreak, the Trump administration impeded the CDC’s ability to communicate quickly with Texas officials and slowed the release of federal emergency funds, according to investigations by KFF Health News. Meanwhile Kennedy broadcast mixed messages on vaccines and touted unproven treatments.

Daskalakis said that as the outbreak in Texas worsened, his CDC team was met by silence when they asked to brief Kennedy and other HHS officials.

“Objectively they weren’t helping with the Texas outbreak, so if we lose elimination, maybe they’ll say, ‘Who cares,’” Daskalakis said.

Nixon, the HHS spokesperson, said Kennedy responded strongly to the Texas outbreak by directing the CDC to help provide measles vaccines and medications to communities, expediting measles testing, and advising doctors and health officials. The U.S. retains its elimination status because there’s no evidence of continuous transmission for 12 months, he added.

“Preliminary genomic analysis suggests the Utah and Arizona cases are not directly linked to Texas,” the CDC’s acting director, Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill, wrote on the social platform X.

Given Kennedy’s distortions of data on vitamin A, Tylenol, and autism, Daskalakis said the Trump administration may insist that outbreaks aren’t linked or that PAHO is wrong.

“It will be quite a stain on the Kennedy regime if he is the health secretary in the year we lose elimination status,” he said. “I think they will do everything they can to cast doubt on the scientific findings, even if it means throwing scientists under the bus.”

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Seeking mental health care is complicated for many American Muslims due to cultural expectations and stigma. Oftentimes, Muslims believe troubling issues should be resolved within the family or through an imam.

Mosques around the U.S. are working toward destigmatizing therapy in Muslim communities to make it more accessible.

Danish Hasan, health director at the MY Mental Wellness Clinic in Detroit, says part of that work requires overcoming barriers to access.

“We have a little bit more stigma than some of the other communities,” he says.

When praying isn’t enough

Sabrina Ali is a stay-at-home mother and former teacher who grew up in a South Asian home in Canton, a multicultural suburb of Detroit.

She learned from a young age that she couldn’t talk about all her problems with her immigrant parents.

“It was like they just came from a totally different world… and for them it was like, ‘Well, what do you have to be depressed about? Like, you’re 13, you have a good home, you have a good family, like you have food on the table,’” she says.

Ali says her parents meant well, and suggested she pray more to resolve her internal struggles, “to be more religious, essentially, quote, unquote, whatever, whatever that meant to them,” she shares.

Ali says over the years when she felt distressed, she would pray. But one day, she realized she needed to go to therapy after having recurring nightmares.

So she started going to a free counseling program at the University of Michigan, Dearborn – the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), which offers free counseling services for full-time students. Ali says she learned about the program through her work with student groups on campus.

She says that although Muslims may feel “God is testing them” with a struggle, challenge, or test, it’s also important to take action.

“Maybe God is testing is me, but even my decision, the path towards making the decision to seek professional help, I think, in a way, was also a test, you know, because what is the saying, ‘trust in God, but tie your camel’, right?”

For many young Muslims, accessing CAPS is a private entryway to seek counseling services without having to tell your parents.

Destigmatizing therapy

Many American Muslims have grown up learning going to therapy is shameful and problems should be kept private. When there is conflict, they usually go to an imam first for advice.

Imam Mohamed Maged, resident scholar of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, also known as the ADAMS Center, says he realized 25 years ago some people needed more support.

“Sometimes they ask for us to pray for them, and we do provide that spiritual support, but I realized that some of them really might be suffering from mental health issues and they need somebody to help them,” he says.

To bridge this gap, ADAMS Center opened a Mental Health Program about 13 years ago. The program offers some mental health services inside the mosque, but also contracts to 17 providers through subsided services for 12 sessions.

They also serve the community at large.

Magid says showing people that imams and therapists are working together goes a long way.

“When you tell them this is a partnership between me and a mental health provider, both of us who can help you, they feel relief,” he says.

In partnership with existing community

In California, there are similar services provided at the Maristan clinic. It’s a holistic mental health clinic that is a part of The Muslim Community Center- East Bay, a faith based organization and mosque.

Founder Rania Awaad, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, School of Medicine, says mosques are community gathering spaces.

“To have the mental health services is a major pro. It’s built in. It’s within the same institution that they’re already attending and that they trust,” she says.

Awaad says her research shows that many American Muslims want mosques to have mental health centers, while others want counseling services in a stand alone space for more privacy.1

Along with therapy provided by a Muslim therapist, in some cases people can request Islamic psychology, or the integration of faith into therapy.

Religion can provide structure for mental well being

For example, a patient who has obsessive-compulsive disorder exploring an Islamic psychology session might include learning about Islamic regulations for wudu or ablutions as a way to cope with religious compulsions.

“How much time, and how many limits of how much to wash, how many times to pray or redo your prayers,” Awaad explains.

Providers can point to a hadith, or a teaching of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, to draw the point home.

“Bringing in, well here’s the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu Salam, that says no more than three washings in wudu,” she says.

This concept of having therapists placed inside the mosque is gaining traction.

MY Mental Wellness Clinic

Last year, the Islamic Center of Detroit began offering mental health services through the new program called the MY Mental Wellness Clinic, a youth-led initiative that began in 2016 through psychoeducation workshops.

Last year Hasan welcomed a crowd of state dignitaries and community members during the opening ceremony.

“We’re gathered here today to celebrate a vital initiative that has the power to transform lives in our community, the launch of our new mental health clinic,” he says.

Hasan says the clinic hopes to remove barriers and normalize taking care of ones’ wellbeing. He says the clinic began through youth initiatives to tackle mental health. Now, about half of the patients are the youth.

“The idea with this project is to be visible, to be present, to be accessible in an affordable for those that we serve,” he shares.

The clinic offers free mental health services to area residents, mosque attendees and has branched out to work with local institutions.

Similar clinics can be found around the U.S.

As more people seek therapy, Muslim providers are finding new ways to meet people where they’re at.

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By Craig Mauger, cmauger@detroitnews.com

Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall said Friday he’s considering pursuing a new state commission or fee schedules to limit what hospitals can charge for their services, as part of a bid to lower health care costs.

The Kalamazoo County Republican made the comments during an appearance on WKAR’s “Off The Record” overtime segment while discussing his caucus’s priorities for the upcoming year. The speaker referenced the Michigan Public Service Commission, which currently gets to approve or alter rate increases proposed by gas and electric utilities that have monopolies within their service territories.

“I am looking at potentially proposing a new … public service commission, but for the hospitals, to regulate their price increases,” Hall said.

He added later, “We might need fee schedules.”

Hall’s comments came amid reports of rising health care costs nationwide and a push by some political candidates to focus on lowering medical bills and insurance premiums paid by their constituents. However, a new government panel to intervene in hospitals’ financial decision-making would represent a significant change for an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents.

Annual health spending in the U.S. increased by 62% from about $3 trillion in 2014 to about $4.9 trillion in 2023, according to data tracked by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, said Friday that his group “is always willing to engage in discussions that can improve affordability and reduce government intervention.”

“Hospitals remain committed to addressing rising healthcare costs,” Peters said. ”Insurance premiums are ultimately determined by insurance companies, not hospitals, while independent analyses show that prescription drug costs and administrative expenses are driving insurance premium inflation.”

The website of McLaren Health Care, which has 12 hospitals, describes billing, costs and charges as “very complex.”

“The price a patient sees on their hospital bill reflects not just the specific care team who treated them, but also overall operational costs that keep the hospital running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” the McLaren website says.

The Detroit News reported in October that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan was hiking its small group insurance premiums an average of 12.4% next year for its Blue Care Network HMO plans. In the individual market, state regulators allowed Blue Cross to hike its premiums by 24%, as three insurers stopped selling so-called “Obamacare” plans in Michigan.

In an interview in October, Tricia Keith, Blue Cross’s CEO, referenced a study by the RAND Corp. that concluded hospital mergers gave the health systems more negotiating power with insurers, increased patient volume for services, reduced competition and contributed to increased health care spending.

“We are concerned with (hospital) consolidation because there are a number of studies that have come out and shown — the RAND study, for instance — that hospital consolidation does drive up prices,” Keith said.

More: Q&A: Blue Cross CEO Tricia Keith on what’s driving double-digit health insurance increases

During his public television interview on Friday, Hall said something has to be done to lower health care costs.

“We see these big Taj Mahals they’re building,” Hall said of new facilities built by Michigan hospital systems. “I’m just saying it’s out of control.”

Some hospital executives, including Henry Ford Health CEO Bob Riney, have defended new medical facilities. Henry Ford Health is currently erecting a new $2.2 billion hospital across West Grand Boulevard from its flagship Detroit hospital, where the tower dates back to 1915.

“I would ask people to think about the inefficiencies in the design of a building that was designed to be a hospital over 100 years ago,” Riney said. “… If anyone has shown a great use of a building for a hundred-plus years, it’s us.”

More: Q&A: Henry Ford Health executives defend rising costs of care, new Detroit hospital

Democrats in the Michigan Senate have approved bills to create a new state board with the power to study prescription drug costs and set maximum caps on prices if they’re determined to be too expensive for patients.

The Senate voted in favor of those bills in April, but the Republican-controlled House has not acted on them.

Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, said the ideas Hall floated Friday seemed somewhat similar to the Senate’s plan for the Prescription Drug Affordability Board.

“We have a great plan that’s sitting in the House chamber and that’s been sitting there for many months,” Camilleri said.

Camilleri added that Hall has continued to attack Michigan’s hospitals. In September, Hall called for the ouster of Brian Peters, the leader of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, after the group criticized the House GOP’s budget plan.

Health isn’t just influenced by the choices we make. It’s also determined by public policy.

That’s the message of a new report that examines how health in Michigan is limping behind others around the country. On average, resident lifespans are shorter, infant mortality rates are higher, and Michiganders are more likely to suffer from cancer and other diseases. 

Why is this the case? And, what is the state’s role in getting us to move our bodies more, and to expand our minds so we can live longer, healthier lives?

Karley Abramson is a health policy research associate for the Citizens Research Council, which published the report. She spoke with host Robyn Vincent.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

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The post The Metro: Why the health of Michiganders lags behind others around the nation — and how we can catch up appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

In this episode of CuriosiD, we begin to answer the question:

What happens to the Campus Martius tree after the holidays? 

… By first looking into where our Christmas trees come from.  

At Hillside Christmas Tree Farm in southern Michigan, the work of growing holiday trees begins long before December.

Tony Stefani runs the multi-generation family operation, and also serves as president of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association. He first became involved with the organization more than a decade ago, after his father brought him to a growers’ meeting.

“I had no idea how large this industry truly is,” he says. “There’s a farm in Michigan that sells a million trees annually. It’s quite astonishing when you consider the scale of this business.”

What customers want to know

Customers at Hillside Christmas Tree Farm often ask how long their trees will last. Stefani says a fresh-cut tree should hold up through the holidays. “I’ve received photos in mid-February showing trees still standing and even beginning to sprout new growth,” he says.

Another category of questions has to do with ornaments. “I’m very detail-oriented,” Stefani says. “If you have heavy decorations, I recommend certain species based on their characteristics.”

Tree height is also a growing topic, especially as more homes are built with vaulted ceilings. He says, “There is a strong market for tall trees…but taller trees are generally older [and take] more time in the ground, more effort, and higher costs.”

Better for the environment?

Questions about sustainability are becoming increasingly common, and Stefani believes the benefits of real Christmas trees are clear.

“We offer a product that spends seven to ten years growing in nature, supporting various microecosystems, ” Stefani says. “One acre of trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people.”

He contrasts that with artificial trees, which are “manufactured on assembly lines from petroleum-based materials,” arguing that there’s no environmental case in their favor.

Real trees are also biodegradable. He says that after the holiday season, a tree can be recycled and mulched. “On our farm, we recycle the waste and return it to the land, something that can’t be done with artificial trees,” Stefani says.

A Michigan tree heads to the White House

This year, Michigan earned national attention in the industry. “For the first time in 38 or 40 years, Michigan won the national competition,” Stefani says. Corson’s Tree Farm  will send a roughly 15-foot concolor fir to the White House.

“If you win the state competition, you can compete nationally,” he explains. “And if you win nationally, your tree is presented to the president and the first lady.”

Beyond the holidays

Hillside has become a hub for other members of the community. Beekeepers place hives on the property during the summer. Search-and-rescue teams train their dogs on the acreage. Falconers and professional photographers also make use of the farm.

“We’ve hosted hives for supporting pollination,” Stefani said. “Search and rescue training, falconry activities, and collaborations with photographers seeking scenic backgrounds are also part of what we do.”

It takes time to grow 

Stefani says one of the biggest misconceptions about the industry is how much time it takes for a Christmas tree to grow to commercial height. “I wish people understood how long these trees are actually in the ground,” he said. “The trees we harvested this year were planted back in 2016.”

As president of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association, Stefani says many growers worry about how difficult it is to enter the business, mainly because trees take years to mature before they can be sold.

“Our biggest competitor is the artificial tree,” he says. “Entering this business can be quite difficult for new growers. You’re typically looking at a 7 to 10-year period before you start recouping your investment.”

As the holiday season approaches, he says one of the things he wants those searching for the perfect Christmas tree to understand is the time, energy, and effort it takes to bring this holiday centerpiece to your home.

 

Stay tuned for the next CuriosiD, where we answer what happens to our Christmas trees after the holidays.

WDET’s CuriosiD series answers your questions about everything Detroit. Subscribe to CuriosiD on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

We want to hear from you! 

Have a question about southeast Michigan’s history or culture? Send it our way at wdet.org/curiosid, or fill out the form below. You ask, we answer.
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The post CuriosiD: From seed to star, a Christmas tradition takes root appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

In America, we have a lot of very big problems, including climate change, income and wealth inequality and hyper partisanship.

How should we tackle these problems? 

Paul Fleming is an associate professor of public health at the University of Michigan. He believes we need to focus more on preventing problems from occurring in the first place.

It’s that mindset, detailed in his book, “Imagine Doing Better,” that he hopes will help us get to the root of the problems we seek to resolve before they turn into crises.

WDET’s Sam Corey spoke with Professor Fleming. They began by talking about why policy is important to focus on at all.

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

Donate today »

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The post The Metro: The power of preventing problems instead of responding to them appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

Birthing is a fragile process. That’s why, with new life coming into the world, it’s the responsibility of a lot of people — doctors and nurses and caregivers and family members — to ensure that such life is properly cared for. 

But in order to do that well, we have to care for pregnant women. In this state, we’re being told that we’re not doing a great job of that task, specifically for Black mothers. 

A new report shows that about 1 in 6 babies born in Detroit were born prematurely. And this issue is directly related to that of infant mortality and maternal health. Two years ago in our country, over 20,000 babies died before their first birthday, with the highest rates occurring in the South and Midwest regions. 

Why is maternal healthcare, particularly for Black mothers, so bad in the U.S. and worse in the Midwest? And what can we do about it?

Tamika Jackson is a reproductive justice and maternal health organizer for Mothering Justice. She spoke with Robyn Vincent.

 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

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By Miriam Fauzia, The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — The saying goes that you should stay out of the kitchen if you can’t take the heat, but new research suggests otherwise — for the sake of your blood pressure.

In a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers at UNT Health Fort Worth found at-home heat therapy may hold the key to lowering blood pressure. A group of older adults wore heated pants for an hour a day, four days a week. After eight weeks, their blood flow improved and their systolic blood pressure, which measures blood flow when the heart beats, dropped by around 5 points.

The study comes at a time when nearly 120 million American adults have high blood pressure, but only one in four of those adults has it under control. In Texas, about 32% of adults report being told by a health care professional they have high blood pressure. And in 2023, high blood pressure was a primary or contributing cause in over 664,000 deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Exploring ways to reduce the risks of high blood pressure — like stroke and heart attack — is crucial, and “this is an important proof-of-concept study,” said Dr. Amit Khera, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, who was not involved in the research.

Khera doesn’t see heat therapy “as a replacement for blood pressure medicine,” he said, but he does find it intriguing. “It could be a potential adjunctive treatment for other heart diseases and problems.”

Crank up the heat

Anyone who’s stepped out of a sauna or settled into a hot tub knows heat can feel good. Research backs that up: A 2025 study found soaking in hot water can lower blood pressure, stimulate the immune system and, over time, improve how the body handles heat stress.

Other studies similarly found heat therapy can improve cardiovascular function in middle-aged and older adults — whether or not they have chronic diseases — and that its benefits can be comparable to aerobic exercise, said Scott Romero, an associate professor of physiology and anatomy at UNT Health, who led the study.

“The crazy thing is, the cardiovascular responses to heat exposure are almost identical to exercise,” Romero said. “Heart rate changes, blood flow changes, muscle changes. It’s almost identical, which is one of the reasons why we think that heat therapy is efficacious, especially in a clinical population, because it almost mimics exercise.”

Raising your core temperature with heat therapy usually means regular time in a sauna or hot tub — tough if you don’t have either. To make heat therapy more accessible, Romero and Ysabella Ruiz, the study’s first author and a graduate student in Romero’s lab, tested whether pants lined with tubes that circulate hot water could deliver similar cardiovascular benefits. (The pants, Romero said, were adapted from suits developed by NASA to study cardiovascular function during heat stress.)

The researchers recruited 19 adults, aged 55 to 80, without a diagnosed condition of high blood pressure and split them into two similarly aged groups. One wore heated pants circulating water at nearly 124 degrees Fahrenheit, which raised skin temperature to about 104 degrees. (Romero and Ruiz chose that setting based on earlier work showing it nudged up core body temperature by about one to two degrees Fahrenheit over an hour in older adults.) The other group wore pants that were mildly warm, with the water heated near 88 degrees Fahrenheit and skin temperatures just over 90 degrees. Romero said these pants would feel pleasant but wouldn’t make people sweat like in the heat therapy group.

Participants had their blood pressure checked three ways: at the start of the study, during the day while active and after eight weeks. The researchers also used ultrasound before and after the treatment to see how well it helps widen the endothelium, or inner lining, of a blood vessel to let blood flow. Problems with this lining are among the earliest signs of aging in the circulatory system and can appear even without the usual risk factors for heart disease. When the lining stops functioning normally, the risk of clogged arteries, cardiovascular disease and complications such as stroke or death goes up.

The participants kept their normal routines, setting aside an hour a day, four days a week, to wear the pants. After eight weeks, when they returned to the lab for final tests, the results stood out: systolic blood pressure was about 5 points lower for the heat therapy group, and on ultrasound, the inner lining of the blood vessels among those group members seemed much improved, dilating better than before.

Further studies needed

Romero and Ruiz aren’t sure why the heated pants led to these results. One possibility, Romero said, is that the brain adjusts how tense or springy blood vessels are in response to heat. Another is that the vessels change and improve with repeated heat exposure.

“We think that some of those things are actually changing long term,” Romero said. “We didn’t actually measure the mechanisms,” since the study focused on whether the therapy would be effective in this population.

Khera is curious how the results would translate to people with diagnosed hypertension. There’s also a question of the clinical significance of a modest drop in blood pressure when treating patients one on one.

“On a population level, if you treated 100,000 people, 5 points help,” Khera said. “But on an individual level, [blood pressure] pills are much stronger than that. … If your blood pressure is modestly high and you want to start with this as a feasible first step, as they continue to do more studies, this could be a potential treatment.”

Khera added it’s unclear how long the benefits of heat therapy last. Romero and Ruiz acknowledged that’s something they hope to determine as they investigate the underlying biology behind the results.

The researchers’ longer-term goal with at-home heat therapy is to create an accessible way for older adults to acclimate to heat.

“We know that older folks are most at risk for heat-related illnesses, especially in Texas, where we have really hot summers,” Romero said. “Those older folks are the ones who are getting sick and the ones that are dying during heat waves. Our idea is to be proactive about these heat waves and have individuals heat acclimate themselves at home.”

Romero said preliminary data from his lab suggests that at-home heat therapy can help older adults build better resilience to heat stress. That matters because heat-related deaths disproportionately affect older adults, and research from 2024 projects that as many as 246 million more people in this demographic will face dangerous levels of heat by 2050.

Miriam Fauzia is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.

©2025 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY, Associated Press

After carefully choosing the freshest produce at the market, people face even more choices with vegetables, fruit, meat and dairy products at home that can help prolong freshness, minimize waste and prevent foodborne illnesses.

There are several methods to store and preserve food, such as canning and pickling produce, freezing leftover ingredients and storing food in the refrigerator. Although refrigeration is effective and most households have the appliance, experts say it is safe to say most families simply set it and forget it.

“Storing perishable items in refrigerated conditions is the first step, but it is necessary to stay aware of how long certain foods have been prepared, exposed to the air, and stored. Refrigerated items are still able to develop mold and dangerous microorganisms like listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli, so consumers must stay alert and take necessary precautions,” said Emily Hilliard, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This is especially important during the holiday season, when people buy more and expect meals to last. Planning recipes, buying less and being creative with extras and leftovers can help reduce food waste, said Diane Beckles, professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies the quality of fruits and vegetables. She said these steps can also help stretch shopper’s budgets, especially with inflation on the rise and federal food aid under threat as the government shutdown continues.

Preparing your groceries for refrigeration

Experts say proper food storage starts before groceries even reach a refrigerator. Buy products before their expiration or “sell by” dates — which tell stores how long to display their products, and are not safety dates. Follow handling instructions and place foods in the refrigerator within two hours of being at room temperature. Other tips include keeping appliances clean by wiping spills, especially from thawing meat, and discarding spoiled food. The Department of Energy recommends keeping refrigerator temperatures between 35-38 degrees Fahrenheit (1.7-3.3 degrees Celsius).

Social media offers seemingly endless tips to make food last longer, such as cleaning fruits before refrigerating and storing everything in plastic or glass containers. But experts say there isn’t just one right way to properly store many foods.

It comes down to understanding temperature and relative humidity when storing produce, said Wyatt Brown, emeritus professor at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. After that, “it becomes more refined” and includes considerations like storage space, timing of meals and personal preference.

For Beckles, the most important thing is to eat more fruits and vegetables — not worrying so much about how they are stored. “I recommend not storing tomatoes in the fridge, but there are people who feel better doing so,” she said. “It’s not going to taste as good, but if they eat them and get the nutrients, who cares.”

Fruits and vegetables

Most produce, including fruits, vegetables, leafy greens and herbs, is alive. Experts say refrigerating produce can slow spoilage, if done correctly. Brown, who studied post-harvest technology and taught for 31 years, said refrigeration can also maintain nutrition and extend shelf life.

Experts recommend using your fridge’s crisper drawers to separate fruits and vegetables and control humidity. Keep berries dry and wash them just before eating. Refrigerate broccoli, carrots, and green beans, and store leafy greens in plastic or paper bags to prevent wilting.

Some produce, like tomatoes, pears and apples, emit ethylene gas as it spoils causing the surrounding fruits and vegetables to ripen more quickly, so experts say to get rid of rotting food to keep other items fresh. Onions, garlic, apples, nectarines, citrus fruits and squash can all be left on the countertop.

Brown said to consider storing onions and potatoes outside of the refrigerator to limit roots sprouting from the bulbs. “If you store potatoes in the refrigerator for a long time, the starch will break down into sugar, and the Maillard reaction could cause the sugars to produce dark pigments when cooked,” he said, explaining the reaction causes dark patches on cooked potatoes.

Proteins, including meats, eggs and beans

Uncooked meat should remain chilled and not left at room temperature for more than two hours, or one hour if above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), federal health agencies say. Avoid thawing meats on the counter, and marinate in the refrigerator, experts say. When placed in the refrigerator, meats should be stored at the bottom to prevent cross-contamination from drips or spills.

Food safety guides from the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service suggest storing eggs on the middle or back shelves rather than the door, where the temperature is warmer. Avoid washing eggs because it removes their natural protective outer layer called the bloom. Unwashed farm-fresh eggs can be stored at room temperature, but refrigeration extends their shelf life.

Dairy products, milk and cheeses

Milk, yogurt and cheeses should all be refrigerated. Experts say yogurt is a ready-to-eat product that can be stored on the top shelves in refrigerators. On the other hand, cheeses should not be stored on top shelves or the door where air circulation could dry them out. Experts say soy, coconut and nut milks should also be refrigerated but, depending on the carton, can be stored at room temperature until opened.

Breads, grains and rice

The FDA advises against refrigerating bread, as it can dry out and become stale. However, refrigeration slows mold growth in humid climates, and freezing preserves quality for up to six months. Non-perishable foods like rice, pasta, and flour can be stored at room temperature.

Other

Ready-to-eat meals and leftovers can be stored on the top shelves for quick and convenient access, while dressings, condiments and non-dairy drinks can be kept in the door where it is warmer. The USDA says leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days or frozen for 3 to 4 months. Alcohol storage depends on the type, whether it’s opened, and if it contains dairy or fruit. Opened wine should be refrigerated on its side to slow oxidation and keep the cork moist.

Mumphrey reported from Flagstaff, Arizona.

By JAMIE DUCHARME, Associated Press

You won’t find dumbbells or weight machines in the gym Sean Keogh runs. At Calisthenics Club Houston, it’s all about training with body weight.

“That’s all we do,” Keogh said — but that’s enough to keep new members coming through the doors, excited to learn moves like handstands and pullups.

Keogh and his members have plenty of company. These days, content creators, independent gyms and megachains alike are promoting calisthenics, an age-old form of fitness that uses little or no equipment and instead relies on body weight for resistance.

In July, President Donald Trump even reestablished the Presidential Fitness Test, intending that youth across the country will again practice old-school exercises like situps, pushups and pullups.

It’s little surprise that these no-frills moves are making a comeback in our over-scheduled society, said Anatolia Vick-Kregel, director of the Lifetime Physical Activity Program at Rice University. “We don’t always have time to go to the gym,” she said. “This is what you can do at home or in your office.”

Another reason might be economic, said Michael Stack, an exercise physiologist and president of the Physical Activity Alliance, a coalition of groups that promote physical activity. With no equipment required, calisthenics-based programs are affordable for exercisers and profitable for gyms that offer them. Plus, people may have gotten used to exercising with few accoutrements during the pandemic.

“This trend has been building,” Stack said. “The pandemic definitely accelerated it.”

How effective are calisthenics?

There’s plenty of research to suggest that calisthenics can improve everything from muscle strength to aerobic conditioning, Vick-Kregel said.

“Body weight is phenomenal,” she said.

But there are limits to its effects, said John Raglin, a professor of kinesiology at the Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington. “It can be effective,” Raglin said. “But I think the idea that it can or should replace the use of even simple equipment is wrong-headed.”

Sometimes, Raglin said, using equipment can actually make exercises simpler or safer to perform. Many people, for example, do pushups with improper form.

“If you’re not strong enough or you have joint issues or arthritis, then lying on a bench and using small hand weights can actually be safer and more practical,” he said.

It all depends what your goal is

Beyond safety, people looking to significantly increase their strength or muscle size will likely see more dramatic results if they use weights, Raglin said. Doing so “utilizes more of your muscle and generates more force than you could otherwise,” he explained.

Lifting weights also damages muscle tissue in a way that can be productive, as muscles grow larger through the body’s repair process. Over time, though, it may take larger amounts of weight to keep seeing gains. Progress plateaus as the body gets used to exercises it’s done before.

It’s not impossible to grow muscle through calisthenics, Vick-Kregel said; it’s just harder to continuously level up exercises for sustained progress without increasing external weight.

“After you’ve done a couple workouts of squatting with your body weight, your body’s going to need external load to get stronger or to build muscle tissue,” Stack agreed.

In other words, if you’re after bulging biceps, you may need more than calisthenics to get there. But if you’re just looking to get moving and improve your health, your body is probably enough.

Particularly for the roughly 75% of Americans who aren’t meeting federal physical activity guidelines — which call for at least 75 minutes of vigorous or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, plus two strength-training sessions — calisthenics are a great option, Stack said.

“Body weight is the simplest apparatus you can use,” Stack said. “I would encourage anyone who’s not exercising to start exercising with just their body.”

How to begin a calisthenics routine

First, assess your current fitness and mobility, Vick-Kregel said. With the help of a mirror, workout buddy or trainer, see if you can do exercises like planks, pushups and squats with correct form. If not, look for modifications, such as doing pushups from your knees.

Once you feel confident with the fundamentals, aim to perform calisthenics in 10- to 30-minute chunks, two to three times a week, she suggested. (For a little more structure, you can consult the The Five Basic Exercises Plan, or 5BX, a classic calisthenics program developed by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s.)

Progressively increase the duration and intensity of your workouts as you get fitter. “Gradual progression is critical,” Vick-Kregel emphasized.

As you get more experienced, though, calisthenics can be performed at high intensity. Keogh maintains that these exercises are not just for beginners. There are plenty of ways to increase the difficulty of body-weight exercises over time, making them both highly challenging and effective, he said.

For doubters, Keogh has a blunt message: “Try it.”

Arthur Allen, KFF Health News

VENICE, Fla. — MAGA and MAHA are happily married in Florida, and nowhere more at home than in Sarasota County, where on a humid October night a crowd of several hundred gathered to honor state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, his wife, and an unlicensed Canadian radiologist who treats cancer with horse paste.

The event, titled “The 3 Big C’s: Courage, Censorship & Cancer,” was sponsored by the We the People Health and Wellness Center, a clinic, funded by a Jan. 6 marcher, where patients can bask in red light, sit in ozone-infused steam baths, or get their children treated for autism with an experimental blood concentrate.

In Venice, in Sarasota County, a “medical freedom” movement forged in opposition to COVID lockdowns blends wellness advocates, vaccine-haters, right-wing Republicans, and angry parents in a stew of anti-government absolutism and mystical belief.

Ladapo’s wife, Brianna, a self-proclaimed “spiritual healer” who says she speaks with angels and has prophetic visions, chaired a panel at the event at the Venice Community Center. The keynote speech was by William Makis, a litigious COVID conspiracist who, after losing his medical license in 2019, has made a living treating cancer patients with antiparasitic drugs including ivermectin, which was also championed in some circles as a COVID treatment during the pandemic.

Clinical trials showed that ivermectin didn’t work, but COVID skeptics viewed medicine’s rejection of it as part of a conspiracy by Big Pharma against a cheap, off-patent drug. Some of the patients in his care have what he calls “turbo cancers,” Makis says, blaming alleged impurities in mRNA vaccines that he says have killed millions of people.

For Makis, it’s all one big conspiracy — the virus, the vaccine, and the suppression of his therapies.

Brianna Ladapo has her own take on medicine, based on the idea of good and bad spiritual energy. She wrote in a memoir that as the pandemic began she intuited that it had been planned by “sinister forces” to “frighten the masses to surrender their sovereignty to a small group of tyrannical elites.” She has written that the government hides vaccination’s risks.

She sees “dark forces” all over the place, including, she said in a podcast interview earlier this year, in “chemtrails” shaped like a pentagram. “They’ve been plastering it in the sky right outside our house for the last few weeks,” Ladapo said. The chemtrails “they are dumping on us,” she said, had sickened her and her three sons. “The dark side are no fans of ours.”

(“Chemtrails” are a favorite topic of conspiracy theorists who say they think that contrails, the condensation formed around commercial airplane exhaust, contain toxic substances poisoning people and the terrain. Although there is zero evidence of that, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to look into whether they are part of a clandestine effort to use toxic chemicals to change the weather.)

Ladapo’s husband hasn’t publicly endorsed all her beliefs, but as surgeon general he’s reversing decades of accepted public health practice in Florida and embracing untested therapies. “We’re done with fear,” Joseph Ladapo said after being named surgeon general in 2021. He wants to ban mRNA vaccines in Florida, and on Sept. 3 he announced plans to end childhood vaccination mandates in the state.

A few days after the Venice event, Ladapo said he hoped to support Makis’ work — though his treatments are unproven and potentially dangerous — through a new $60 million cancer research fund created by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey.

Vic Mellor, CEO of a local concrete business, founded and owns We the People. He’s an associate of retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was briefly President Donald Trump’s national security adviser in 2017 before being dismissed for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. Trump later pardoned him, and Flynn since has become a leader of the Christian nationalist movement.

We the People provides vitamin shots but no vaccines. In fact, many of its offerings are treatments for supposed vaccine injuries. Part of the We the People building is a broadcasting studio, where conservatives hold forth on what they see as the villainy of liberals and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Mellor was at the U.S. Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021 — he said he “just knocked on front doors,” according to a Facebook post described by The Washington Post. He returned home and started building a 10-acre complex that hosts weddings and right-wing assemblies, with playgrounds, a butterfly garden, a zip line over a pond visited by alligators, and an attached, separately owned gun range.

Visitors who travel down a dirt road to The Hollow — named for the hollow-core concrete that made Mellor wealthy — can enter the compound through a dark, cavernous passage lined with neon signs illuminating maxims from the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Flynn.

The Hollow has hosted clinics for unvaccinated kids and events for Ladapo, anti-vaccine activist Sherri Tenpenny (who in 2021 told legislators at an Ohio House hearing that COVID vaccine made people magnetic), and other “medical freedom” advocates. Mellor created a medical home for such ideas by opening We the People in 2023.

The year before, three “medical freedom” candidates had won seats on the board overseeing Sarasota’s public hospital and health care system, after protests over the hospital’s refusal to treat COVID patients with ivermectin and other drugs of choice for COVID contrarians.

On a recent afternoon at The Hollow, manager Dan Welch was clearing brush when approached by KFF Health News. As a foe of vaccinations, he welcomed Ladapo’s move to end vaccine mandates. “Maybe in their inception, vaccines were created to prevent what they were supposed to prevent,” Welch said. “But now there’s so much more in there, the metals, aluminum, mercury. Since they started vaccination, the autism rate went through the roof, and I believe these vaccines are part of it.”

The theory that vaccines cause autism has been debunked, and manufacturers removed mercury from childhood vaccines 24 years ago, although Welch said he doesn’t believe it.

Vaccination faces additional challenges in a century-old Sarasota County neighborhood of low-slung bungalows called Pinecraft, home to about 3,000 Mennonites — and double that number when Amish snowbirds arrive in the winter. Pastor Timothy Miller said that while Sarasota’s Mennonites are less culturally isolated than the Mennonite community in West Texas, site of a measles outbreak in January, many in his community also shun vaccination.

His cousin Kristi Miller, 26, won’t vaccinate her 9-month-old daughter or any of the other children she hopes to have, she said, because she thinks vaccines probably cause autism and other harms.

As for vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, she doesn’t worry about them. Like the Ladapos, “I don’t live in fear,” she said. “I have a God who’s bigger than everything.”

(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Seeing a doctor in America comes with numerous costs—the wait for an appointment, the hours on hold with insurance, the pit-in-your-stomach feeling when the bill finally lands and it is a lot more than you expected. 

Now, millions of Americans are bracing for another cost they did not see coming. 

The federal subsidies that have lowered health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act are set to expire next year and if they do, premium costs could rise by hundreds of dollars a month. 

Healthcare subsidies have been a key point of contention during the government shutdown. Last night, seven Democrats and one independent joined Republicans in a Senate vote that paves the way for an end to the shutdown—but not an end to the debate on healthcare subsidies. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune agreed to allow a vote in December on the expiring tax credits. 

Meanwhile, here in Michigan, the uncertainty comes on top of another shakeup: some insurers are leaving the state’s individual marketplace, and thousands of people are suddenly searching for new coverage.

But some doctors are rejecting the traditional insurance model altogether. Their alternative is called direct primary care, a type of subscription-based service where patients pay a flat monthly fee and receive care when needed — no billing codes, no middlemen. 

Dr. Paul Thomas brought this model to Detroit a decade ago with Plum Health. His clinics promise same-day visits, transparent pricing, and time to actually talk with your doctor.

Thomas joined Robyn Vincent to discuss how he believes this model could help heal America’s broken healthcare system.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Harmful algal blooms form in western Lake Erie every summer. Scientists monitor the water for toxic bacteria and caution people not to swim in areas where they see green scum on the surface.

Lake St. Clair has its own algae problem. It has fascinated scientists and frustrated lakeshore residents.

What is it?

Its scientific name is Microseira wollei, but folks in Macomb County have their own name for it—the “muck.”

M. wollei has been a problem in the lake since at least 2010. That’s when large mats of algae were seen floating on the surface of the water near the Lake St. Clair Metropark beach in Harrison Township.

It caught the attention of biologists, including Donna Kashian. She’s the director of Environmental Science at Wayne State University. Kashian and three other scientists went to the beach in 2010 to take water samples and study the algae, which had a different name at the time, Lyngbya wollei. Whatever one calls it, Kashian says it’s not hard to spot.

“It forms these little balls,” she says. “When you’re walking along the beach, you’ll see these ribbons, essentially along where the water’s washing up, where you’ll see the muck accumulating.”

How bad is it?

The muck has spread to other parts of Lake St. Clair over the last 15 years. Steve Dobreff owns the Freedom Boat Club in Harrison Township. He says it has grown so thick in some places that people can’t use their docks.

“That guy over there has a boat launch,” Dobreff says, pointing to an area on Campau Bay near the boat club. “This guy over here used to have a dock…that’s gone.”

Dobreff says the muck has even fouled the water near the lakeshore neighborhood where he grew up near L’anse Creuse Bay. 

“This was beautiful water, and it was all sandy beaches,” he says. “This is where we spent the majority of our time growing up right here on this dock and hanging out right here in this area.”

Now, Dobreff says, the muck has made it unswimmable.

How did it get here?

But where did the muck come from? Prof. Kashian says the explanation is murky. She says it turned up in Lake Erie years before appearing upstream in Lake St. Clair, which is kind of backwards.

“Usually things move downstream, not upstream,” she says. “So we don’t know if it was transported by boats or it was possibly there at some low level.”

However long it’s been there, Kashian says removing the muck won’t be easy. She says warmer water, more frequent storms, sewage discharges, and fertilizer runoff are all variable factors in its growth.

“I think we’re going to see patterns where some years we have more of it, and then other years we won’t see it,” she says.

Cutting off its “food” might help

One way to see less muck might be to reduce combined sewer overflows into the lake. Kashian says the algae trap E. coli, a common cause of beach closures.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller says her department has reduced CSOs by half since she took office and will expand its infrastructure in 2026 to keep more sewage out of the lake.

“We’re going to be announcing another project, which will take us really just about to 0%,” Miller says. “I mean, you might have an occasional discharge, but we are doing pretty darn good.”

Miller says she’s working with state and federal agencies to solve the muck problem. The Michigan Legislature set aside $800,000 in its 2026 budget to start the process.

State Representative Alicia St. Germaine sponsored that appropriation. She says that’s how Alabama tackled the problem in its lakes.

“They removed it and then treated it with an algaecide, and they mitigated it by more than 80%” St. Germaine says.

What’s being done about it?

The Army Corps of Engineers published a study in 2023 showing that algaecides are effective at controlling M. wollei. But eradicating the muck is unlikely because it’s so widespread. Instead, the corps has proposed a plan to manage the algae growth and limit its effects.

Rep. St. Germaine says the sooner officials can attack the muck, the sooner people in her lakeshore district can get some relief.

“I have visited several constituents who can’t even go outside and sit on their patio because this algae, this toxic algae, is smelly and gross and even hard to look at,” she says.

Like the algae that grow in Lake Erie, M. wollei can produce toxins that can cause liver and neurological damage. Prof. Kashian says she and her colleagues looked for the gene that produces those toxins and did not find it in this strain of algae.

For now, the muck has given Kashian and her classes at Wayne State plenty to study.

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Melissa Nann Burke, Max Reinhart, Anne Snabes and Ben Warren, MediaNews Group

About 1.4 million Michigan residents eligible to receive federal assistance to pay for food should get 65% of their monthly benefits for November, federal officials clarified Thursday morning.

But hours later, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration must fully cover November benefits, reportedly saying the government had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it moved earlier this week to only partially fund the program.

The competing orders added another day of confusion for Michigan residents who receive government assistance to pay for groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as the ongoing federal government shutdown passed its record-setting 37th day.

“These benefits are a vital lifeline for many Michigan families, especially with the rising cost of food.”

Hertel’s agency said Michigan recipients who normally get their benefits on the third, fifth, or seventh day of the month will receive their partial SNAP allotment on Saturday. All other SNAP recipients would get their partial benefits on their normally scheduled date.

“I would say that that’s wonderful that they will be getting something,” said Christopher Ivey, a spokesperson for Metro Detroit food rescue organization Forgotten Harvest, of the SNAP news. “It’s unfortunate that that won’t be the full amount.”

The update came as local food pantries are tracking a 30% to 50% increase in the number of individuals seeking aid, according to the Food Bank Council of Michigan. Hertel noted that families can find local food pantries as needed by calling 2-1-1.

The USDA had planned to suspend payments starting Nov. 1 amid the federal government shutdown, but federal officials said Monday the program would be partially funded after two judges required the government to keep SNAP benefits flowing.

The reduction in food aid, while a partial restoration, is “diabolical,” said Natasha Bell, a downtown Detroit resident.

“What they give us is not enough already, and then for them to give us partial … it’s just not right, you know,” Bell said Thursday. “It’s just not right.”

Bell said she has cancer, so she can’t work. Amid the delay in SNAP benefits, she said she has been making more side items to accompany the meat in a meal, which allows her to stretch the meat out over more days.

Bell is also relying on food pantries and preparing meals that last more than one day, such as spaghetti or soup, she said.

“Something is better than nothing,” said Bell of the partial November SNAP benefits.

Brother Gary Wegner, executive director of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, said he thinks the USDA announcement is “good news.” Sixty-five percent is “certainly better” than 0%, he said.

“One hundred percent would be even better, but for now, at least, it’s going to give the people we serve who depend upon the SNAP benefits a better chance to fulfill what they need,” Wegner said.

Who is affected?

SNAP serves about 1 in 8 Americans, including about 1.4 million Michiganians. In the state, the average household assisted by the program receives about $335 in benefits a month, or about $5.68 per person a day. SNAP benefits support more than 492,000 Michigan children.

In Wayne County, 22.3% of households received food stamps last year, a figure amplified by the nearly 100,000 households in Detroit that benefit from the SNAP program.

A smaller share of the households in Macomb (11.9%) and Oakland (7.6%) received SNAP benefits, according to the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey, which is the most recent year when full county-level data is available.

Outside of Metro Detroit, Genesee and Saginaw counties outstripped the state average for SNAP participation, with just under 20% of households. On the other end of the spectrum were Leelanau and Livingston counties, which each had 5% or fewer of their households enrolled in the program.

Across nearly every part of Michigan, households with children were far more likely to receive SNAP benefits than households overall. In almost every county, at least a quarter of households with children participated in SNAP, including more than half of those households in counties like Ottawa, Clinton and Gratiot.

About 78% of SNAP households in Michigan are working households, half of households have someone with a disability and 36% of households have seniors, according to state data.

Kate Bauer, a University of Michigan public health professor, said partial funding is better than nothing when it comes to SNAP benefits. It would “ward off, hopefully, the physical experience of hunger,” but leave families already stretched thin to fill the gap, she said.

“Under the current circumstances, what we need to know is that SNAP is critical to our families having enough food, and even the full benefit amounts are not enough,” Bauer said.

“I’m super glad our families are going to get something, but that is not the end of the story,” she added.

SNAP benefits are crucial for families with children, according to Bauer, “because they have more mouths to feed, and mouths that don’t earn an income.” With less money to buy food this month, she said, parents will likely make additional sacrifices, foregoing meals so their kids can eat.

One saving grace for families with children, she said, was free school meals.

“Many families are breathing a sigh of relief that their kid is getting, potentially, up to 10 meals a week.”

Joyce Bowens, a Detroit resident who uses SNAP, said Thursday that she’s “not too happy” with the government’s decision because 65% of benefits is “not enough.” She said some women have seven to 10 children.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right.”

Bowens, who went grocery shopping at the Capuchin Services Center in Detroit on Thursday, said the past week has been “stressful.” The pause in benefits has affected how she plans meals. She said, “Everything changed just that fast.”

“OK, you would normally cook a meal, don’t worry about making it stretch,” she said. “Now, we have to think about making it stretch to the T.”

Eartha Harris, 45, who is friends with Bowens, said she thinks the government needs to give people their “full amounts when it comes to food.”

“But at least you could give somebody food, so no one go hungry, regardless of what’s going on,” said Harris, a Detroit resident.

The state Department of Health and Human Services said new applications for SNAP benefits filed in October and November still will be processed, but it is unclear whether those applicants will receive any benefits for November.

State aid to last 2 weeks

To help feed families amid the government shutdown, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last week said the state would provide $4.5 million to the Food Bank Council of Michigan.

Phil Knight, executive director for the Food Bank Council, said Thursday he expects that $4.5 million released by the state to last about two weeks. The $4.5 million allotment represents roughly 6 million meals, Knight said.

Local pantries have seen between a 30% and 50% jump in individuals seeking aid, he said.

“One of the things I think we kind of miss about this population that’s struggling … is that they’re very resilient,” Knight said. “They’re trying to resolve the problem on their own first. They’re turning inward to themselves, their family, whatever, and then they turn out to find resources.”

Gleaners Community Food Bank reported Thursday that its drive-up mobiles and partner network of 350 local pantries in five counties are seeing an increase of up to 50% in requests for help.

A partial restoration of SNAP support is a “positive development,” Gleaners spokeswoman Kristin Sokul said, “but we expect to continue seeing heightened community need while partial benefits catch up and full benefits remain unavailable, as well as while workers’ incomes are impacted by the prolonged government shutdown.”

Ivey, the Forgotten Harvey spokesman, said the last week has been “very difficult” for his organization. He said Detroit alone gets $58 million a month in SNAP benefits.

“Forgotten Harvest is doing everything they can do to fill that gigantic void that’s out there,” he said. “I mean, we’re never going to be able to be the complete supplement for all of that. It’s just too large for any organization to take on.”

He said Forgotten Harvest is receiving around 600 to 1,000 phone calls a day. Some are from people asking where they can find food. Others are from organizations that partner with Forgotten Harvest or are interested in partnering with it.

Knight of the Food Bank Council said he intends to submit a report next week to the governor and House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, on how the money was used and what might still be needed.

Hall said Thursday he and Whitmer will review that report and the federal situation to determine whether to release additional funding to the Food Bank Council for distribution to local pantries.

“We’re going to take this from week to week, working with the governor to assess the need,” Hall said.

The Democratic-controlled Senate last week approved a stopgap proposal that would target $50 million to aid low-income individuals and households in buying food and $21 million to food banks and other assistance programs that are expecting an onslaught of food requests.

The Republican-controlled House has not acted on the legislation.

Hall told reporters last week that the Senate bill was “political” since there was no way to act on the legislation before the Nov. 1 cutoff because of a rule requiring a five-day waiting period between chambers. There is not enough state funding to patch every hole that will develop as the federal shutdown continues, the speaker said.

“There’s a time for disagreements in politics,” Hall said then. “It’s not right now when literally people are about to lose their ability to feed their families.”

Beth LeBlanc contributed to this report.

Thousands of women have been in the initial stages of a legal battle over hair products they believe made them sick.

In 2022, The National Institute of Environmental Health Science, found that women who use hair relaxers frequently increase their risk of developing cancer, and now over 10,000 women who have used the treatment are suing the manufacturers. The findings raise important questions about the risks associated with hair products—risks that are present everyday in a city dubbed the “Hair Capital of the World.”

Aisha Langford, a professor of public health at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine joined the show to explains the important takeaways for consumers and stylists who use relaxers.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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By Paula Span, KFF Health News

Kitty Grutzmacher had contended with poor hearing for a decade, but the problem had worsened over the past year. Even with her hearing aids, “there was little or no sound,” she said.

“I was avoiding going out in groups. I stopped playing cards, stopped going to Bible study, even going to church.”

Her audiologist was unable to offer Grutzmacher, a retired nurse in Elgin, Illinois, a solution. But she found her way to the cochlear implant program at Northwestern University.

There, Krystine Mullins, an audiologist who assesses patients’ hearing and counsels them about their options, explained that surgically implanting this electronic device usually substantially improved a patient’s ability to understand speech.

“I had never even thought about it,” Grutzmacher said.

That she was 84 was, in itself, immaterial. “As long as you’re healthy enough to undergo surgery, age is not a concern,” Mullins said. One recent Northwestern implant patient had been 99.

Some patients need to ponder this decision, given that after the operation, clearer hearing still requires months of practice and adaptation, and the degree of improvement is hard to predict. “You can’t try it out in advance,” Mullins said.

But Grutzmacher didn’t hesitate. “I couldn’t go on the way I was,” she said in a postimplant phone interview — one that involved frustrating repetition, but would have been impossible a few weeks earlier. “I was completely isolated.”

Hearing loss among older adults remains vastly undertreated. Federal epidemiologists have estimated that it affects about 1 in 5 people ages 65 to 74 and more than half of those over 75.

“The inner ear mechanisms weren’t built for longevity,” said Cameron Wick, an ear, nose, and throat specialist at University Hospitals in Cleveland.

Although hearing loss can contribute to depression, social disconnection, and cognitive decline, fewer than a third of people over 70 who could benefit from hearing aids have worn them.

For those who do, “if your hearing aids no longer give you clarity, you should ask for a cochlear implant assessment,” Wick said.

Twenty-five years ago, “it was a novelty to implant people over 80,” said Charles Della Santina, director of the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Implant Center. “Now, it’s pretty routine practice.”

In fact, a study published in 2023 in the journal Otology & Neurotology reported that cochlear implantation was increasing at a higher rate in patients over 80 than in any other age group.

Until recently, Medicare covered the procedure for only those with extremely limited hearing who could correctly repeat less than 40% of the words on a word recognition test. Without insurance — cochlear implantation can cost $100,000 or more for the device, surgery, counseling, and follow-up — many older people don’t have the option.

“It was incredibly frustrating, because patients on Medicare were being excluded,” Della Santina said. (Similarly, traditional Medicare doesn’t cover hearing aids, and Medicare Advantage plans with hearing benefits still leave patients paying most of the tab.)

Then, in 2022, Medicare expanded cochlear implant coverage to include older adults who could identify up to 60% of words on a speech recognition test, increasing the pool of eligible patients.

Still, while the American Cochlear Implant Alliance estimates that implants are increasing by about 10% annually, public awareness and referrals from audiologists remain low. Less than 10% of eligible adults with “moderate to profound” hearing loss receive them, the alliance says.

Cochlear implantation requires commitment. After the patient receives testing and counseling, the surgery, which is an outpatient procedure, typically takes two to three hours. Many adults undergo surgery on one ear and continue using a hearing aid in the other; some later go on to get a second implant.

The surgeon implants an internal receiver beneath the patient’s scalp and inserts electrodes, which stimulate the auditory nerve, into the inner ear; patients also wear an external processor behind the ear. (Clinical trials of an entirely internal device are underway.)

Two or three weeks later, after the swelling recedes and the patient’s stitches have been removed, an audiologist activates the device.

“When we first turn it on, you won’t like what you hear,” Wick cautioned. Voices initially sound robotic, mechanical. It takes several weeks for the brain to adjust and for patients to reliably decipher words and sentences.

“A cochlear implant is not something you just turn on and it works,” Mullins said. “It takes time and some training to get used to the new sound quality.” She assigns homework, like reading aloud for 20 minutes a day and watching television while reading the captions.

Within one to three months, “boom, the brain starts getting it, and speech clarity takes off,” Wick said. By six months, older adults will have reached most of their enhanced clarity, though some improvement continues for a year or longer.

How much improvement? That’s measured by two hearing tests: The CNC (consonant-nucleus-consonant) test, in which patients are asked to repeat individual words, and the AzBio Sentence Test, in which the words to be repeated are part of full sentences.

At Northwestern, Mullins tells older prospective patients that one year after activation, a 60% to 70% AzBio score — correctly repeating 60 to 70 words out of 100 — is typical.

A Johns Hopkins study of about 1,100 adults, published in 2023, found that after implantation, patients 65 and older could correctly identify about 50 additional words (out of 100) on the AzBio test, an increase comparable to the younger cohort’s results.

Participants over 80 showed roughly as much improvement as those in their late 60s and 70s.

“They transition from having a hard time following a conversation to being able to participate,” said Della Santina, an author of the study. “Decade by decade, cochlear implant results have gotten better and better.”

Moreover, an analysis of 70 older patients’ experiences at 13 implantation centers, for which Wick was the lead author, found not only “clinically important” hearing improvements but also higher quality-of-life ratings.

Scores on a standard cognitive test climbed, too: After six months of using a cochlear implant, 54% of participants had a passing score, compared with 36% presurgery. Studies that focus on people in their 80s and 90s have shown that those with mild cognitive impairment also benefit from implants.

Nevertheless, “we’re cautious not to overpromise,” Wick said. Usually, the longer that older patients have had significant hearing loss, the harder they must work to regain their hearing and the less improvement they may see.

A minority of patients feel dizzy or nauseated after surgery, though most recover quickly. Some struggle with the technology, including phone apps that adjust the sound. Implants are less effective in noisy settings like crowded restaurants, and since they are designed to clarify speech, music may not sound great.

For those at the upper end of Medicare eligibility who already understand roughly half of the speech they hear, implantation may not seem worth the effort. “Just because someone is eligible doesn’t mean it’s in their best interests,” Wick said.

For Grutzmacher, though, the choice seemed clear. Her initial testing found that even with hearing aids, she understood only 4% of words on the AzBio. Two weeks after Mullins turned on the cochlear implant, Grutzmacher could understand 46% using a hearing aid in her other ear.

She reported that after a few rough days, her ability to talk by phone had improved, and instead of turning the television volume up to 80, “I can hear it at 20,” she said.

So she was making plans. “This week, I’m going out to lunch with a friend,” she said. “I’m going to play cards with a small group of women. I have a luncheon at church on Saturday.”

The New Old Age is produced through a partnership with The New York Times.

©2025 Kaiser Health News. Visit khn.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. ©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.