Alexis Jones

Niecy Nash-Betts is hot. Yes, her career is on fire (did you see her iconic Emmy's speech last year?). But she also quite literally feels hot, she tells me during our conversation at the Pendry Hotel in New York at the end of March. Donning a blazing red suit, the "Dahmer" actor admits that she is in her menopause era and owning it. But while the hot flashes weren't a surprise, just about everything else about menopause was. Growing up, Nash-Betts didn't understand what menopause was or how it impacted the body. "My mama failed me without giving all the information," she tells PS. "But you don't know what you don't know." In her 50s, Nash-Betts would become more familiar with the other life changes tied to menopause, including hair thinning, skin dryness, and fatigue - although she didn't immediately realize that last symptom was related to menopause. "I'm a hard-working Black woman, I'm always tired," Nash-Betts tells PS. Her first-hand experience with a lack of knowledge about the life stage is why she's partnered with Versalie, a digital-first platform offering support and resources for all things menopause. One key aspect of getting educated about the realities of menopause is breaking apart misconceptions - like that there's no fun after menopause. Nash-Betts is living proof that that's not true. When asked about how she likes to stay healthy these days, she tells PS, "My health routine these days looks like skinny-dipping." It's something that she and wife Jessica Betts love doing together, and often. "Right after I won my my Emmy...[we went] skinny-dipping. We went straight to the pool, trophy and all," she says. Not only does it feel good - "you're swimming back and forth, kiss a little bit in the middle, and then you swim a little bit more" - skinny-dipping also a total-body workout, Nash-Betts says. In terms of other fitness trends, she tries to stay away from the ones that don't quite make sense to her. "I don't understand people working out with goats, and lambs, and baby pigs. I don't know what they're doing in there," Nash-Betts tells PS. As far as she's concerned, if she wanted to go to the farm she would - and the same goes for yoga. "When you put the two of them together, it's just a lot going on," she says. She'd rather invest her time in something that she knows will yield benefits: therapy. "We live there," she tells PS, admitting it's a non-negotiable of being in a relationship with her. "My better half and I go separate and together - it's a necessary evil." That said, finding the right therapist hasn't been without its hurdles. But she encourages everyone to stick it out, likening the journey to dating. "You have to try [therapists] on for size," she tells PS. And just like finding a potential partner, "a referral from a friend is usually the best way to go," she adds. Which brings her back to the menopause conversation. When it comes to navigating the life stage, Nash-Betts hopes to be a kind of referral for other women - and particular Black women, who often aren't privy to the conversation and may find themselves silenced in their own health journeys. "I hope that people see themselves," Nash-Betts says of her partnership with Versalie. "Let me let me be a part of the conversation and the solution." Alexis Jones is the senior health editor at POPSUGAR. Her areas of expertise include women's health, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, diversity in wellness, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining POPSUGAR, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.

Spring has sprung, and with it, so has the bird flu. A viral strain of avian influenza arrived in the United States in early 2022 and has since affected more than 58 million commercial poultry and backyard flocks, according to the CDC. More recently, on March 25, the virus officially reached cattle, with unpasteurized milk testing positive for avian influenza in Texas, Kansas, and possibly New Mexico, per the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Although USDA officials say commercial milk is still safe to drink (thanks to pasteurization), and the risk to humans is reportedly low, dairies are still only using milk from healthy cows. "At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health," the USDA confirmed in an online statement. "Milk from impacted animals is being diverted or destroyed so that it does not enter the food supply." As for the sick cows, which were most likely infected by "wild migratory birds," bird flu is leading to symptoms like decreased lactation and low appetite. Officials say that farmers and veterinarians are being encouraged to closely monitor any additional cattle illnesses or potentially new cases. Reuters reports that so many birds died from the disease in 2022, it became the worst avian-flu outbreak in US history - and if this cattle outbreak is any indication, it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. After experiencing a brief decline in cases, The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota confirmed its first case of the bird flu since January on March 25, 2023. Michael Crusan, public information officer with the Minnesota Board of Animal Health told KSTP News in Minneapolis, "It's just a matter of when it would have returned." In terms of the other animals affected by bird flu, a pet dog died from the virus in April 2023, according to a statement from the Canadian government. The news came as a solemn reminder to keep your pets away from dead wild birds and refrain from feeding them any raw meat from game bird and poultry. The avian flu has spread nearly worldwide, also impacting animals in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Reuters reports. Avian flu predominantly affects wild birds (especially waterfowl) and poultry (e.g. chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, domestic ducks, geese, and guinea fowl), according to the USDA. Direct exposure of farmed birds to wild birds (which are permanently infected) is a likely transmission route of the virus, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health. While humans are not typically infected by the virus, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said "we cannot assume that will remain the case," at a 2023 press conference. To stay informed and protected, experts say we should be aware of a few key pieces of information. Here's everything you need to know about bird flu. What Is Bird Flu? The CDC defines bird flu as "the disease caused by infection with avian (bird) influenza (flu) Type A viruses." In animals, bird flu is deadly and contagious, and it naturally spreads "among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species," per the CDC. The virus is transmitted through bird saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Birds can also become infected if they make contact with a surface that's been contaminated with the virus from another infected bird. Can Humans Get Bird Flu? Infectious-disease expert Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center For Health Security, tells POPSUGAR, "There is no current threat from bird flu to humans." But that's not to say that it couldn't become a threat in the future. "We must prepare for any change in the status quo," Ghebreyesus said during the WHO press briefing. After all, there have been a few instances in world history in which the virus has spread among humans. "The concern is that some strains of avian influenza will have or develop the capacity to spread efficiently between humans in the manner of the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic, which was an avian-origin influenza virus," Dr. Adalja says. An estimated 500 million people, or one-third of the world's population, became infected with the virus and roughly 50 million people worldwide died from it, per the CDC. In April 2022, the US reported its first human case of bird flu, according to NBC News. Still, Dr. Adalja notes that when it comes to bird flu, "most of the strains are very constrained in their ability to infect humans, and infections are largely restricted to those who have close contact with bird species such as poultry." What Are Bird-Flu Symptoms in Chickens and Other Animals? Infected cattle are reportedly experiencing low lactation and appetite. "We hadn't seen anything like it before," Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told AP News. "It was kind of like they had a cold." If you're concerned your bird or flock has been impacted by avian flu, here are a few signs and symptoms you should look out for, according to the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): Lack of energy, appetite, and coordination Purple discoloration or swelling of various body parts Diarrhea Nasal discharge Coughing Sneezing Reduced egg production and/or soft-shelled or misshapen eggs Sudden death Are There Signs of Bird Flu in Humans? Again, the risk of humans being infected with bird flu remains low. But symptoms in humans can run the gamut from red eyes or mild flulike upper-respiratory symptoms to fever, shortness of breath, body aches, and even pneumonia, per the CDC. If you come in contact with infected birds and become sick within 10 days of exposure, the CDC advises that you isolate at home and notify the local or state health department. Lab testing is needed to confirm a diagnosis. Treatment typically includes antiviral medicine, such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) or zanamivir (Relenza), according to the Mayo Clinic. The best prevention method against bird flu is to avoid exposure altogether. A few preventative guidelines from the CDC include: Avoid direct contact with wild birds, and observe them from a distance. Avoid unprotected contact with domestic birds that look sick or have died. Do not touch surfaces that may be contaminated with saliva, mucous, or feces from wild or domestic birds. If you must handle sick birds because of your job, use safety measures like gloves, eye protection, and frequent handwashing. Should You Stop Eating Poultry, Eggs, or Milk? No. "This is not something transmitted by ingestion of poultry or eggs," Dr. Adalja says. Avian influenza is not a food-borne illness, meaning poultry and eggs that are properly prepared and cooked are safe to eat, per the USDA. Proper food-handling recommendations include cooking poultry to an internal temperature of 165°F and washing your hands with warm water and soap before and after handling poultry and eggs. Even with the most recent cattle outbreak, USDA officials say pasteurization remains effective at eliminating bacteria and viruses, including avian influenza (although this is a timely reminder to avoid raw or unpasteurized milk). The USDA says testing from the National Veterinary Services Laboratories also did not detect any "changes to the virus that would make it more transmissible to humans, which would indicate that the current risk to the public remains low." While eating these foods may not be a problem, buying them could cost you. The price of eggs has skyrocketed due to the avian flu, so much so that the average cost of a dozen large Grade A eggs in January 2023 was $4.82, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In comparison, in January 2022, eggs were only $1.93 a dozen. The price of milk is not expected to fluctuate this same way, but only time will tell. - Additional reporting by Chandler Plante Alexis Jones is the senior health editor at POPSUGAR. Her areas of expertise include women's health, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, diversity in wellness, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining POPSUGAR, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more. Chandler Plante is an assistant editor for POPSUGAR Health & Fitness. Previously, she worked as an editorial assistant for People magazine and contributed to Ladygunn, Millie, and Bustle Digital Group. In her free time, she overshares on the internet, creating content about chronic illness, beauty, and disability. Related: Kate Middleton Is Undergoing Preventative Chemotherapy - Here's What That Means

Kate Middleton's health and whereabouts have been the topic of societal discussion (read: tasteless gossip) for months since it was announced that she'd be pausing her royal duties after an abdominal surgery in late January. The speculation has since come to an end after the princess herself spoke up in a video on March 22, revealing a cancer diagnosis and detailing her recent health journey. In the video, Middleton didn't go into detail about the type of cancer she was diagnosed with, or the stage. But she did disclose that that she's currently in the "early stages" of preventative chemotherapy. While many people are familiar with chemotherapy as a drug treatment for cancer, preventive chemotherapy is less widely understood. PS spoke with three oncologists, who helped break down exactly what the treatment is, what its benefits are, and what side effects it can cause. What Is Preventive Chemotherapy? Preventive chemotherapy is the use of chemotherapy drugs to reduce the risk of cancer coming back in the future, although it's worth noting that board-certified oncologists in the US don't typically use the term. "We use the term neoadjuvant chemotherapy (chemo given before surgery) or adjuvant chemotherapy (chemo given after surgery)," Madhu Shetti, MD, radiation oncologist and founder of Balmere, a skin-care line for cancer thrivers, tells PS. The type of cancer being treated and its stage will affect which drugs are used and for how long. Dr. Shetti says that adjuvant therapy can last as little as a few weeks for a short course of intravenous chemotherapy to years, like in the case of certain oral tablets for breast cancer. "The benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy can last for many years, reducing the risk of recurrence or improving chances of survival," adds Monique Gary, MD, breast surgical oncologist and medical director of the Grand View Health cancer program. When Is Preventive Chemotherapy Used? Preventive chemotherapy is used in several different instances, Dr. Gary tells PS. It could be used if biomarker testing indicates that the cancer has a high risk of recurrence, for instance, or if the lymph nodes are involved, which indicates the cancer may have spread. "Once surgery has been performed and a tumor has been removed, it will be tested to determine if it has a high potential for recurrence or spread. These are some of the main factors used to determine if chemotherapy would be beneficial after cancer has been removed," Dr. Gary says. Ultimately, preventive chemotherapy is meant to lower the likelihood of cancer recurring down the road. "We often give preventative chemotherapy for several kinds of cancer to try to eradicate microscopic cells that cannot be seen on scans but can grow if left untreated," says Marleen Meyers, MD, medical oncologist and director of the cancer survivorship program at NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center. Even if a cancer is surgically removed, if it's believed to have a high risk of recurrence, this type of chemo may be used. "This may be done in breast, ovarian, and colon cancer, among others," Dr. Meyers says. What Are the Side Effects of Preventive Chemotherapy? Anyone who has been touched by cancer (either through a diagnosis of your own or that of loved one) knows how difficult and grueling treatments like chemotherapy can be. Dr. Shetti says the side effects of adjuvant therapy are similar to those of standard chemo. Patients may experience hair and nail loss, memory difficulty or "chemo brain," bone and muscle pain, hormone dysregulation, weight loss, and more. Alexis Jones is the senior health editor at POPSUGAR. Her areas of expertise include women's health, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, diversity in wellness, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining POPSUGAR, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.

Rachel Brem, MD already had a plan. She was going to get a prophylactic mastectomy, determined to get ahead of breast cancer this time. When Dr. Brem was just 12, her mother had been diagnosed and told she had six months to live. Though her mom ultimately underwent a successful surgery and lived another 44 years, the experience left a lasting impact. "Our lives were completely turned upside down," Dr. Brem recalls. It's what propelled Dr. Brem into medicine in the first place, and convinced her of the importance of early detection; part of why her mother was able to beat breast cancer was because it had been caught early. Dr. Brem didn't want her own children to go through what she had, so she got tested for the BRCA gene and when the results came back positive, she decided to have a bilateral preventative mastectomy. At the time, Dr. Brem felt more prepared than most to make such a huge decision. She was an MD, working as the director of breast imaging at Johns Hopkins. "You can try to trick [breast cancer], but you can never really be sure that you're gonna get away with it." But, of course, cancer doesn't care about education, experience, or how well someone may understand the disease, and it doesn't adhere to timelines. "You can try to trick [breast cancer], but you can never really be sure that you're gonna get away with it," Dr. Brem says. At 37 years old, she learned that that the hard way. Related: For Breast Cancer Patients, the Scanxiety Is Real Months before her preventative mastectomy, Dr. Brem was testing out ultrasound equipment for different vendors - something she did regularly as part of her job. "After a day of seeing patients, I would try the equipment on on myself, and see which one has the best image quality. And so, that evening, I found out which one has the best image quality, but as I was scanning myself, I also found my own breast cancer." The discovery came with a flood of emotions. On the one hand, Dr. Brem felt "lucky about the power of knowledge." But she was also simply terrified. "I had three young daughters. I didn't know that I was going to survive to raise them," she tells PS. On top of that: "The idea of cancer surgery - which is much more intense than the kind of surgery that I planned to have - and going through chemotherapy, it's terrifying for anybody," Dr. Brem says. Fortunately, breaking the news to her children wasn't as traumatic as her own experience growing up. "My daughters had been had been living with the idea of breast cancer all their life - that's what their mother did [for work]," she tells PS. "That was dinner talk." In many ways, Dr. Brem feels lucky for that. Despite not breaking the generational diagnosis, she was able to break the trauma. Cancer treatment is never easy, but Dr. Brem knows enough about what the journey can look like to appreciate that her experience was relatively seamless. She also knows that often isn't the case. "When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, if it's medically reasonable, they say, 'Do you want to a lumpectomy or a mastectomy?' And the answer is, 'Gee, I really don't want breast cancer,'" she says. "You have to make these crazy profound, life-altering decisions with so little information." Dr. Brem couldn't imagine having to do so without the years of medical training under her belt. Not to mention, breast cancer is not an equal-opportunity disease, Dr. Brem point outs. Ashkenazi Jewish women are 10 times more likely to have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation than the general US population. And Black women die of breast cancer at a much higher rate because they get this more aggressive form of triple negative breast cancer. Couple that with lack of access, socioeconomic barriers, racial disparities in healthcare and the odds of survival can become discouraging. Investing in early detection efforts are crucial, Dr. Brem tells PS. That why she not only co-authored a book, "No Longer Radical," about navigating mastectomies - but also founded the Brem Foundation, an organization dedicated to making early detection possible for more people via access, education, advocacy. Since it's inception, the foundation has launched partnerships like Wheels For Women with Lyft - which provides free rides tomammogram appointments for low-income women - and CheckMate, an online quiz, designed to interpret your risk factors and suggest what you should talk to your doctor about in regards to breast cancer. And personally, as the director of the breast imaging and intervention center at the George Washington Cancer Center, she has made it her mission to invest in and work toward developing new technologies for the early detection of breast cancer. The through-line of it all: early detection. It's been an essential part of Dr. Brem's work and decades-long career. It's what she credits to saving her own life and that of her mom's. And it's what she believes will carry us into the future. "We kind of do have a cure for breast cancer - [it's] early detection," Dr. Brem says. In focusing efforts there, she hopes that for an increasing number of women, breast cancer can be like any other chronic disease, like hypertension or diabetes. "That people can live with breast cancer, even metastatic breast cancer for decades," she says. Alexis Jones is the senior health editor at POPSUGAR. Her areas of expertise include women's health, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, diversity in wellness, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining POPSUGAR, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.

It's no secret that the pregnancy and postpartum period are filled with tons of changes - physical, emotional, and mental. From pregnancy nose to postpartum depression, the symptoms can run the gamut. But one lesser-talked about consequence of bringing life into this world is postpartum body odor. Put simply: you may smell different after giving birth. New moms on TikTok have brought about a sense of radical honesty to the symptom, admitting that postpartum B.O. can be brutal. "Why do I ALWAYS smell like an onion?" one creator captioned under a reaction video sniffing her underarms. Other parents hopped in the comments section to join in solidarity. "I'm no joke putting deodorant on 6 times a day," one person wrote. "I smelled my armpits that first time and was like 'THIS IS COMING FROM ME???!,'" another states. While a quick glance through a comment section can reassure you that you're not alone, you may still be wondering why body odor changes postpartum - and whether you'll smell different permanently, or if things will eventually go back to normal. So we asked an MD. Here's what to know. Postpartum Odor: Why Does It Happen? If you smell a little stronger (or even a lot stronger) postpartum, it's not typically cause for concern. It can happen for a number of reasons, says Shieva Ghofrany, MD, ob-gyn, cofounder of Tribe Called V and advisory board member for POPSUGAR's Condition Center. Hormonal Changes For starters, "the drop in estrogen postpartum changes your body's thermoregulation and triggers more sweating," Dr. Ghofrany explains, adding that the same thing can happen during menopause. In other words, when estrogen and progesterone levels drop it signals to your brain that you're hot and your body starts to sweat in response, according to the Cleveland Clinic. As you sweat more, you might find that you smell more, too. It could also be your nose and hormones playing tricks on you, though. These hormone dips, coupled with the increased sense of smell that may occur postpartum, can lead one to think they smell more than they actually do, Dr. Ghofrany says. In reality, you're just sweating more than normal and your sense of smell is heightened. Breastfeeding If you're breastfeeding, you've got a whole new body fluid you're getting used to: breast milk. Babies aren't known for their neatness in eating, and even if you're exclusively pumping, as your supply regulates, you may experience breast milk leakage. Milk has an odor, especially if it gets trapped near the skin (like beneath or between one's breasts), Dr. Ghofrany says. So what you may suspect is a change in your body odor may just be some spilled milk. What's more, prolactin, the hormone that stimulates the production of milk, can also suppress estrogen levels, contributing to increased sweating, and possibly increased odor. Lochia Lochia is the vaginal discharge that occurs after giving birth and is a mixture of blood, mucus, tissue, and uterine tissue, per the Cleveland Clinic. It's often characterized as smelling similar to a period, but others find that the odor is stronger or just different. It's been described as sour, metallic, or musty. (If you're unsure whether the odor you're smelling is normal, it's always worth checking with your doctor to make sure you don't have a UTI, BV, or other infection that could be responsible.) Hygiene and Self-Care The days, weeks, and months after having baby can be overwhelming. Parents are caring for a new human and a lot is required of them, meaning they may not have much time to shower. Additionally, some people may be reluctant to bathe or give themselves a thorough cleaning right after giving birth because they're still healing from labor and are afraid of hurting or even injuring themselves. So they may simply be dealing with a little more body odor than they're normally accustomed to. How Long Does Postpartum Odor Last? If the smell you notice is truly body odor, it's likely related to hormones. This type of postpartum B.O. won't last forever - but it may last a little longer than you'd expect. The Cleveland Clinic notes that it can begin to taper off as early as one to two months postpartum as the hormone swings behind the odor begin to even out. But Dr. Ghofrany says people who are breastfeeding may notice their body odor smells a little different until they stop nursing, when their hormone levels return to pre-childbirth levels - and that could be any time between a few weeks to a couple years or more. Ultimately, every body is different. If the smell is more related to lochia, postpartum bleeding typically tapers off around six weeks, and you'll notice the scent leaving with it. If it's related to lifestyle, it'll last until you get into the swing of your new routine - which, we promise, will happen eventually! How to Manage Postpartum Odor There's nothing "wrong" with postpartum odor changes, and there's no need to "treat" it, beyond keeping up with regular hygiene practices. But while it's fine to use soap, don't douche or put soap inside the vagina, and don't over-wash the vulva, as that can throw off the skin's pH and cause yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis. If you're concerned that the odor you're experiencing isn't normal, contact your ob-gyn to ask for their input. When to Worry About Postpartum Odor You can always reach out to your doctor to ask for them to weigh in on the symptoms you're experiencing, and it's better to err on the side of caution when you're postpartum - you've just been through a major health event. But definitely consider talking to your healthcare provider if the odor you're noticing is very strong or foul, and/or accompanied by pain, fever or chills, body aches, or fatigue, as these can be signs of an infection. Alexis Jones is the senior health editor at POPSUGAR. Her areas of expertise include women's health, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, diversity in wellness, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining POPSUGAR, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.

Growing up, Ty Lewis only saw one side of her mom: the strong one. "She was always a hero," she tells POPSUGAR. In their small town of Meridian, GA, or what Lewis calls the "backwoods country," everyone was considered family. And her mom, Gertrude Jordan, took that seriously as both an educator and a neighbor. "My mom was known in the community as the woman who would always give her shirt off of her back, who took care of other people's children - and if a child in her classroom didn't have something, she always gave," Lewis recalls. She wasn't the type to lean into her emotional side. But while the words "I love you" didn't come easy, her care was shown through her actions. "She was always a provider," Lewis says. Lewis, 44, has only seen her mother cry twice in her life: once at her mother's funeral and then again when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2014. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gertrude Jordan (@iamgertrudejordan) "Watching [my mom] lean over and sob uncontrollably was traumatic to me," Lewis recalls. It also changed the dynamic of their relationship forever. Now as a caregiver to her mother, Lewis gets to see a more vulnerable side to Jordan. "I didn't get that as a child. So to see that transformation - it's such a beautiful thing." The bond between the two of them is palpable on @iamgertrudejordan, the Instagram page Lewis created to provide a more diverse representation of Alzheimer's and caregiving. "This is an arduous journey and so many people want to make it like gloom and doom," Lewis says. "But I can find joy in my present circumstances and still live. Just because Mommy has a dementia diagnosis doesn't mean that it's death. No, we're going to live." When she started the IG page in 2019, Lewis had just joined a dementia support group, but she felt less than supported. "It was a bunch of 'Our loved ones are about to die,'" Lewis says. "And I knew that I could not do that." So, Lewis sought to create content that offered a different representation of caregiving. A staple of Lewis's IG page and her life with "Mommy" has become her fashion Friday series - a take on the popular "get ready with me" videos. Only in Lewis's videos, it's not some 20-something influencer showing off her outfit of the day. It's Jordan, happily dancing, shimmying, two-stepping, and showing off her look, which most days includes a pair of slacks, a nice top, loafers or flats, and a signature black wig that she loves to throw off. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gertrude Jordan (@iamgertrudejordan) "People come to our page and see, yes, Mommy has a diagnosis. But we're still living and finding joy in this," Lewis says. You'll also find her two girls - who Lewis homeschools - helping out, singing to their grandmother, and openly talking about how the diagnosis has impacted them. As a sandwich caregiver (those who simultaneously care for elderly loved ones and dependent children), Lewis says it was important to create these conversations early on. "One thing that people don't understand is that when you have children and you're a sandwich caregiver, they don't understand this journey. They're just trying to figure out 'Why can't I just go to the park?' And you're like, well, Grandma's not feeling it today." Inviting them in on the journey and allowing them to share their thoughts in order to process the change is easier than just assigning them a task and telling them they have to help, Lewis tells PS. In embracing their new reality, Lewis also relied on tools from organizations like the healthcare company Otsuka, which creates resources to help families process dementia diagnoses. In the beginning, Lewis says, she cried a lot - and often. But when Jordan started to forget who Lewis was, calling her by Lewis's aunt's name, Dolores, it caused a major change in perspective. "I can no longer be her child, even though in the flesh and on paper I am," Lewis recalls thinking. "I had to step into her world and I had to stop saying, 'Come into my world,' because she's no longer there. Being who she wants me to be gives her peace. And so if she wants me to be Dolores, that is who I'm going to be," Lewis says. This shift in thinking revolutionized the way she tackled caregiving and Alzheimer's in general. Now, she doesn't blame the diagnosis or fall victim to it. Instead, she finds the little wins within the journey. "I think that's one of the things that we need to continue to relay to other caregivers: that when you know your loved one feels comfortable and safe, it doesn't matter who you are to them, or what the environment is," Lewis says. Alexis Jones is the senior health editor at POPSUGAR. Her areas of expertise include women's health, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, diversity in wellness, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining POPSUGAR, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.

The names Alejandra Gurtman, MD, and Barbara Pahud, MD, probably don't ring a bell. But they should. Both Dr. Gurtman and Dr. Pahud work for Pfizer and played a major role in the creation of Abrysvo, the first and only maternal vaccine to help protect infants and babies from respiratory syncytial virus - aka RSV - at birth and through 6 months of life. The work they've done to get the RSV vaccine to market is personal, both doctors say, as RSV tends to impact the Latine community at much higher rates. In fact, a study that examined the burden of all common respiratory infections from January 2016 to December 2022 found that 59 percent of the burden of respiratory infections was distributed among Black and Hispanic people (the identifiers used in the study), despite these population groups being ethnic minorities in the US. The hospitalization rate among Black and Hispanic people also accounted for 55.5 percent of all cases. And in 2022, the peak RSV incidence rate in Black and Hispanic children was two to three times that in white children. Dr. Pahud, a native of Mexico, is a trained pediatric and infectious disease specialist and Pfizer's director of clinical vaccines. She led the project to recruit diverse clinical trial participants for Pfizer's RSV vaccine trial before it was approved to ensure that the pool of participants was reflective of those most impacted by the disease. Dr. Gurtman, an Argentine infectious disease specialist, led on the research and development side as senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer. Both doctors say the journey to an RSV vaccine was a challenging one. It's a feat years in the making. Coupled with a global pandemic and medical mistrust among the prime demographic the virus most impacts, there were several hurdles to overcome. So what led these two to break the decades-long spell? They spoke to PS about the process. PS: Obviously, the RSV vaccine has been a long time in the making. But given the past few years, especially with the tridemic, what kind of pressure did you face to get something to market? Dr. Pahud: The pressure has been like a pressure cooker for a long time now. For the past 60 years, people have been clamoring [at] pediatricians, begging to get a vaccine for this. Pfizer continued working on RSV vaccine even through the pandemic. The [Maternal Immunity Study for Safety and Efficacy (MATISSE)] maternal study marks one of the first vaccines that was studied in pregnant woman to be administered to pregnant woman. So we're breaking open this path of doing things the right way - not the backward way of, 'Oh, we have this vaccine, wouldn't be nice if we give it to pregnant woman?' No, this was designed from the very beginning to be given to pregnant woman. But that also meant figuring a lot out along the way. Dr. Gurtman: Fortunately, when the tripledemic broke out, the race toward an RSV vaccine was well underway, and we could move quickly to get something to market. RSV has always been a seasonal disease, and in 2013, when the NIH discovered the configuration for the virus, we immediately started to look at what vaccine candidates we could develop. By 2018, we had a vaccine candidate, by 2019/2020 we were testing the vaccine on pregnant individuals, and by 2023 the vaccine was FDA-approved. It wasn't as quick as our COVID vaccine, but still we moved pretty fast to bring a vaccine to market that could be given to protect from the first breath - so the moment of the baby's born all the way to the first six months. The first 90 days of life are super important because as the babies grow, and the airways get bigger, the disease tends to be less severe. PS: Tell me about some of the hardships that occurred during the RSV development process. Dr. Pahud: Recruiting Black and Hispanic populations is tough, and it was at the front and center of my work. When I came to Pfizer from working on COVID vaccines, I had just left a study where my priority was enrolling African American and Hispanic minorities in research. We were doing mobile units and doing enrollment in ways we had never done it before with COVID. So I joined Pfizer with that mentality of nothing is getting in my way. We are getting this population, no matter what. From the very beginning, even our materials showed Black, white, and Hispanic individuals. It was translated in different languages. We had investigators and coordinators that looked like the population, that spoke their language. Because at least for me, I used to be a pediatrician, I used to recruit participants and if I approached a Mexican mom, as a Mexican mom, and told her, 'Señora, here's how this works,' it's a completely different story. We also made sure that our in-field recruiters knew that if you're working to bring in a participant that is from minority population, and it takes you longer to bring them in, that's OK. Don't just give that slot to the easiest participant. We are okay with you waiting to get them in here to do what you need to do, because these participants are harder to recruit. And that means we need to make them a priority, or it's just not gonna happen. Dr. Gurtman: Once we got the right participants recruited (20% of our participants in the study were Black and almost 28% [Latine], which is pretty amazing), the hardest part was waiting for the results. I shed tears when we got the data back showing 82 percent efficacy and could move forward and apply for FDA approval. But now we face an uphill battle as vaccine rates continue to be low among these populations. PS: How did you get into this work? Dr. Pahud: I was born and raised in Mexico City. I did medical school in Mexico City where we do a year of social service. So when you graduate from medical school, you need to give a year back to the country and that's how we get doctors in rural areas - which I think the United States should do, by the way. So in that year of social service you need to go and volunteer to be part of the national vaccination campaign. So when I was a doctor, in my little rural town, I knew my population of 15,000 people. I knew had been vaccinated and who wasn't. And I would send out my nurses to immunize. We would also do an end-of the year vaccine sweeps for even more rural towns - I'm talking middle-of-nowhere places with very low income. My first time doing that, I went to this very, poor rural area with dirt ground. I put my little site in a corner with a little stool and a table, and everybody came out and offered me coffee, chocolate, bread. They kept checking in on me because they were so grateful that we came out there to vaccinate their children - and I was just blown away by that. After that, I was like, I don't care what I do, but I'm going to be working on vaccinations when I grew up. And I did just that. I ended up doing pediatrics because I figured that's who gets the most amount of vaccines. And then within pediatrics, I did infectious diseases, because that's where vaccines are made. And then I did a vaccine safety fellowship with the CDC. Then I worked in clinical trials, teaching about vaccine hesitancy and vaccine education in academia. And then landed at Pfizer, where I'm seeing a completely different view from the vaccination process, which is the how these vaccines make it through all these stages and into the FDA, which was the piece that I was missing. Dr. Gurtman: I'm trained as an adult infectious diseases physician who spent my first half of my career doing medicine and caring for patients, most of them minorities. I worked at Mount Sinai in New York area, and by virtue of where that is located, I had a lot of patients who were Latinos. I saw the disparities firsthand. Unfortunately, the Black community and Latinx community has less access to medical care with more mistrust. Vaccination rates in general are lower and prenatal visits are lower. And that's something that, I take very seriously and always have. I've been at Pfizer for 18 years and I've always worked on vaccines. PS: When it comes to vaccine hesitancy among Black and Hispanic populations, what is your hope for the future? Dr. Pahud: I am saddened to say that at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, I thought we would see lower vaccine hesitancy after it was over. But we've only an increase. As we are starting to tackle less severe diseases (i.e. RSV vs. polio), people become more comfortable with skipping out. That said, the developing world still clamors for these vaccines. So we're going to continue to deliver them. We're currently working on a multi-dose vial study to bring the RSV vaccine to the developing world as quickly as we can. And as for the US, we're hoping as more people become educated about the RSV vaccine, they're realize how much good it can do. Continuing to cover this information in the news is crucial. It's one of the primary ways that mothers will understand what they're up against. Dr. Gurtman: I think we need to educate pregnant individuals, their partners, and develop education, not only with the obstetrician, but midwives and healthcare providers in general. There's a lot of work to be done for these communities. Look what happened with COVID, right? No community was more affected. And yet they have vaccination rates sometimes 20% to 30% lower than when you compare it to the white person. I think that the medical community needs to do a lot of work to gain the trust those patients. I would hope that in the next few years we have more and more physicians and healthcare workers that are representative of you and me. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Alexis Jones is the senior health editor at POPSUGAR. Her areas of expertise include women's health, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, diversity in wellness, and chronic conditions. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more. Alexis is currently the president of ASME Next, an organization for early-career print and digital journalists.

Hangover symptoms suck - there's no debate there. And despite being fully responsible for our own alcohol intake, after a night of heavy social drinking, many of us look for someone or something else to blame for the aftermath. According to new study, you may be able to point a finger at long COVID. Long COVID continues to be an offshoot of the pandemic that experts are trying to unpack. Also known as post-COVID or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), long COVID is typically marked by a range of lingering symptoms lasting months after an initial diagnosis or infection. Some people have complained of debilitating symptoms years later. As of late, people are complaining of harsher hangovers as a result of long COVID. In a peer-reviewed study out of Stanford University, it was suggested that SARS-CoV-2 may actually lead to increased alcohol sensitivity. "The patients highlighted in this report, despite varying demographics and health backgrounds, share a new-onset sensitivity to alcohol post-COVID-19 infection, triggering unprecedented symptoms at similar or lower alcohol consumption levels," the study reports. "Responses to alcohol varied among patients. Some experienced individual symptoms like headaches or a delayed emergence of symptoms resembling a typical 'hangover,' while others experienced a general worsening of their PASC symptoms." That said, the study only included four individuals, three women and one man within in the 36-60 age range. So we tapped two trusted infectious disease specialists to weigh in. Can Long COVID Actually Lead to Increased Alcohol Sensitivity? Probably not, our experts say. "I am always cautious about drawing too many conclusions from case reports, especially when the sample size (in this instance) is only four people," says Andrea C. Love, PhD, an immunologist and microbiologist, founder of ImmunoLogic, and advisory board member for POPSUGAR's Condition Center. On top of that, the data being summarized are from personal accounts; there is no biological or clinical data involved, Dr. Love points out. "I don't think anything close to definitive can be established by a case series of just four patients self-reporting their own sensitivity to alcohol," adds infectious-disease expert Amesh Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Even the study authors admit that "a definitive causal link between PASC and alcohol sensitivity cannot be established based on a limited case series," Dr. Adalja emphasizes. "Additionally, because there are no defined clinical or biomarker criteria to diagnose PASC, it makes attributing symptoms, especially self-reported symptoms, to viral infection itself challenging," Dr. Love tells PS. Psychological factors can also impact patient recall of symptoms, making it harder to draw reliable conclusions. Why Might Alcohol Sensitivity Increase After Infection? Again, there is no proven connection between alcohol sensitivity and long COVID. But there are a few reasons why someone may have decreased alcohol tolerance after a viral infection, says Dr. Love. The liver, for example, which is responsible for metabolizing alcohol, may have damage of inflammation as a result of infection. "While this is not common in the context of COVID-19, if individuals already have medical conditions that compromise liver function, it could be exacerbated due to viral infection," she explains. "Similar with gastrointestinal function, if a viral infection or the subsequent immune response impacted absorption of alcohol, this could impact how alcohol is processed. Similar to liver injury, this is not considered common pathology with SARS-CoV-2," Dr. Love adds. Residual inflammatory response after infection, dehydration, and certain medications can also impact how alcohol is metabolized. But none of these factors were measured in the Stanford study. There are tons of additional biomarkers needed for conclusive results, both experts agree. "Some people have reported these types of reactions to alcohol, but it is going to take some time to untangle whether or not this is a true signal and what the physiology may be," Dr. Adalja says. You'd have to do studies that control for alcohol level, type of alcohol, volume of alcohol, other medications a patient might be on, and more, he tells PS. Dr. Love also says factors like how much sleep participants received, their level of hydration, and physical activity - all of which can increase someone's sensitivity to consuming alcohol - would need to be accounted for. Ultimately, according to Dr. Adalja, "The entire article is just anecdote with speculation about what mechanisms could be involved and there is not a physiological link given. It would be arbitrary to postulate any kind of physiological mechanism because there can be many factors at play." What Should You Do If You Think Your Hangovers Are Associated With Long COVID? For starters, never try to self-diagnose or use people on the internet to diagnose, Dr. Love advises. "If you think you have legitimate medical issues associated with PASC (or any medical condition), you should always seek trained and accredited healthcare providers for further evaluation and treatment," she tells PS. And separately, if you have adverse effects from consuming alcohol, consider limiting or reducing your consumption while simultaneously trying to evaluate a causal relationship, Dr. Love adds.

Roo Powell's day probably looks a lot different from yours. For starters, it often involves pretending to be someone else. She starts out by setting up at an Airbnb, one that has already been staged so that most of the bedrooms look like a child lives and sleeps there. The rooms are often painted bright colors, like purple or blue, with fake gymnastics trophies and plush toys in the background. And when it's time to clock in, Powell doesn't sign on to her email or hop on Zoom for a team meeting. "The first thing you do is you open up your phone and you send a good morning text to all the predators who demand it," Powell tells POPSUGAR in an exclusive interview. Powell is the founder of SOSA, Safe From Online Sex Abuse, a nonprofit that raises awareness about and combats online child sex abuse and exploitation. She works with a dedicated team and law enforcement who work undercover to catch child predators and get them off the internet and into jail, which you can watch take place on the Investigation Discovery (ID) show "Underage Undercover." "From the moment we get up to when we go to sleep, it's [about] acquiescing to all of these requests, not just for the sake of it, but because we need to gauge how dangerous they are. We need to figure out their identities," Powell explains. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SOSA (@sosatogether) SOSA uses decoys, like Powell, and other of-age staffers to pose as underaged girls. They text, call, and sometimes even video chat predators in the hopes of getting them to agree to a meet up where police can arrest them. Doing this kind of work can be draining, Powell admits. "When we're in it, we're in it 16 hours a day. We're communicating around the clock, and we're being bombarded with objectification and abusive language and imagery, and just all these things that - thank God we're receiving - but they're meant for kids," she says. "I consider the mental health of my team all the time," Powell continues. "It's always: 'do you need a break? Do you need to bail? Do you need to stop?' There's no wrong answer." "I started SOSA because I know what it's like to feel like you can't tell someone when something is wrong." But sometimes, the days can feel too tough to process. "The hardest days on the job is when we are are talking to a known perpetrator and we know that they have direct access to kids," Powell says, recalling an episode in season two where she and her team caught someone who works with foster kids for a living. When Powell sat down with him as herself in an interrogation room after his arrest, the predator admitted, "I am who I protect kids from." Powell reiterates it was "a hard day for the team." Still, Powell reassures me that the mental and emotional challenges of the job are worth it. For her, the motivation goes all the way back to her first time experiencing predatory behavior. Powell was 13 at a family friend's picnic, and she'd recently gone through a growth spurt. Her mom's best friend's husband took notice and jokingly made a comment about taking her out on a date while the other men around him laughed and drank beer. "I remember feeling so embarrassed and so ashamed, and like I couldn't say anything because, of course, this is this person that I've known my whole life," Powell says. "At the time, I really was trying to excuse their behavior." But as she sat with it, this feeling of shame lingered and so did the fear of telling someone and having them question what she did to "invite that kind of behavior." That's the same kind of feeling many children who fall victim to online predators experience. "I started SOSA because I know what it's like to feel like you can't tell someone when something is wrong," Powell says. "It's hard to explain, and you don't want to be blamed. And you don't want to feel ashamed or gross. And you don't even want to admit that like maybe you liked one of the compliments in a string of gross things to say." In working in this line of business, Powell has also witnessed the ways in which predatory behavior has evolved. "Now we see that predators don't have to be anywhere near a kid in order to be abusing them," she says. And because of that, those online predators can be even harder to hold accountable. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SOSA (@sosatogether) Her best piece of advice for parents is to keep an open mind when it comes to navigating online safety with your kids. "I think that parents need to understand that it can permeate on any single platform," she says. Just because your kid doesn't have Snapchat or their Instagram is private does not mean necessarily that they're less susceptible to predatory behavior. As she puts it: "It's any platform where two people can communicate." She has seen it on coloring-book apps, gaming apps, Words With Friends, and even FitBit. And you can't plan to take away every app with a communication feature. But what you can do is create a relationship with them that isn't super reactive. For example, think about if your kid(s) were to break a vase. "If immediately I'm like, 'How could you break this vase?' - if I'm going off the rails, flying off the handle because of something that in the grand scheme means nothing, how are they going to think that I'm going to respond if there's a predator talking to them online?" Powell says. They're likely going to be scared that you'll take away their privileges and dish out other punishments. But in instances of dealing with predatory behavior, she emphasizes that it's important to be "more supportive and less punitive." In order to do that, you yourself as a parent, sibling, friend, or cool aunt or uncle should become as knowledgable as possible about the ways in which predatory behavior is occurring today. That could mean watching "Undercover Underage," reaching out to SOSA to learn more, or joining a support group for other parents and caregivers. "I think that every kid deserves a safe adult to share stuff with," Powell says. "And the only way that kids and teens can have a safe adult is if we all know what's happening online." Powell personally makes it a point to talk openly about online safety and predatory behavior in her house. For example, she's taught her kids that safe adults will never ask a child for help. So if somebody approaches them (online or IRL) and asks them to help them find their puppy or do something for them because it would be a big help, that's not right. "They don't need to ask you that. They can just go to the next adult," she tells her girls. Powell also emphasizes that this shouldn't be a one-time conversation, but rather an ongoing dialogue. You wouldn't just have the sex talk once, she says. The same goes for online safety in her house - whether it's a conversation about who it's safe to text or why a certain app is on parental mode. "Ultimately, my girls know that I trust them and they also trust me to help them if they're faced with a bad situation. They know that Mom's in their corner," Powell says. And that's all you can really hope for as parents. New episodes of "Undercover Underage" air Mondays at 9/8c on ID and stream on Max.