Dan Loeb Increases Support of Healthcare Sector

Dan Loeb's Third Point has increased its investment in Baxter.

Dan Loeb’s Third Point has announced an increase in its investment in Baxter International Inc., a medical equipment and supplies company. Though Baxter’s stock has dropped 15.48% over the past year, Loeb’s Third Point now ones an additional 11.97 million shares at an average price of $32.69—so obviously Loeb sees the company is going somewhere. In fact, just the announcement of Loeb’s increased involvement with Baxter sent the stock price on a rise to the tune of 1.3%. That’s likely a good sign for the consumer.

Dan Loeb is somebody who knows a good deal when he sees one. Known for aggressively restructuring the companies that come under his influence, Third Point’s investment in Baxter is a good sign that it’s about to rise farther in stock price and in the marketplace.

Baxter’s homepage touts the company as one that is “saving and sustaining lives” around the world. Inspiring stories like that of Yin Le, who was forced to leave school after she was diagnosed with end stage renal disease (ESRD) as a fifth grader. But through peritoneal dialysis (PD) therapy, she was able to treat the disease – and get back to life as a kid. Baxter provided the equipment that allowed Yin to treat her disease from home and continue living her life.

“I was so excited that I was finally able to have lunch at school,” she said. “I surprised my friends when I showed up in the cafeteria for the first time, and in that moment, I was filled with happiness.”

It’s a good sign that big companies such as Third Point are working hard to promote health care services—naturally, the more funding the sector gets, the more likely people are to receive the services and goods they need to stay happy and healthy.

And now that Third Point owns a total of 53.85 million of Baxter’s shares, the board of the company has plans to expand to 12 directors. Additionally, Third Point partner Munib Islam has been appointed to Baxter’s board of directors. He believes that Baxter now has the chance to focus on improving profit margins as well as increasing its market share.

Loeb, expert investor that he is, operates under a fairly simple business philosophy: he believes in having “talented management teams, strong and growing free cash flows, and a proven track record of smart capital allocation that drives significant increases of intrinsic value per share,” a philosophy he will no doubt bring to Baxter.

Third Point has had an active hand in the health care sector lately. The health sector now comprises 12% of the company’s equity portfolio. Now, if more companies who could afford to do so actually invested in healthcare, the stronger the sector—and all of us—would be.

Demi Lovato Talks Mental Illness

Andrew Solomon says people feel that mental illness in a child "reflects
their failure as parents" - which is simply not true.

Mental illness isn’t really something we like to talk about. No one wants to hear about depression, anxiety, schizophrenia--they just aren’t pretty topics. But that doesn’t mean we can simply not address them; in fact, one of the problems facing mental illness today is that we don’t talk about it, and so the surrounding stigma never dissipates. The good news is that more and more people seem to be willing to join the conversation, and even celebrities, who hold a lot of social influence, are opening up about their experiences.

Pop star Demi Lovato isn’t shy about her struggles with mental illness. As the current voice for a mental wellness campaign called Be Local, Lovato encourages people to discuss mental illness frankly and honestly. "I think the taboo around mental illness will get to a better place because the conversation is becoming more common, even in the media," she says. The more we open ourselves up to the presence and problem of mental illnesses, the more likely people are to get the help they need.

But there is work to do yet. According to a Ted Talk by journalist Andrew Solomon, “people still think that it’s shameful if they have a mental illness. They think it shows personal weakness. They think it shows a failing. If it’s their children who have mental illness, they think it reflects their failure as parents.” Of course, simply none of this is actually true. One in four people suffers from some kind of mental disorder, mild to severe. But given such a rate that high, there is no reason for anybody dealing with a disorder to feel like they are alone in it.

Lovato speaks out because she says that it helps her. By giving voice to her feelings, they lose some of their power, and she hopes that speaking similarly will help other people, too. She believes that opening dialogue about mental illness is the best way to deal with it, but she doesn’t want people to think that they can only be happy if they overcome their mental illnesses: she wants them to know that they can live a full and happy life in spite of one.

The singer advocates for getting help and getting educated. So if you are struggling or you just want to help, maybe now is the time to join the discussion.

What Flakka Can Do to You, and Why You Should Care

Flakka, AKA the "zombie drug" is a dangerous new designer drug that
Dr. Nabil El Sanadi likens to bioterrorism.

There’s a new designer drug in town in Broward County, Florida. Its called flakka, and it is rapidly reaching epidemic levels of usage in the Fort Lauderdale area. If you’ve never heard of flakka, think of it as a cousin to bath salts—one that teens are vaping directly into the bloodstream to get high.

“It’s worse than Ebola—this is bioterrorism,” noted Dr. Nabil El Sanadi, CEO of the North Broward Hospital District. El Sanadi has seen the effects of flakka first-hand: it’s so powerful, it can numb someone to the pain of a shoulder popping out of its socket.

The mind-altering substance has also been appearing in other parts of the country, such as Ohio and Texas. But flakka, also called “gravel,” has been a nuisance specifically in Broward County, where law enforcement and healthcare facilities are seeing about 20 cases a day related to it.

 

Your body on flakka

 

When on flakka, your body experiences an excited delirium that involves hyperstimuation, hallucinations, paranoia, aggressive behavior, and even self-injury in some instances.

But what’s especially dangerous about flakka is that its most dangerous form of consumption, vaping, is also the most popular form of consumption among teens. Vaping flakka is particularly popular because it doesn’t give off an odor, making its usage difficult to detect. When vaping flakka, the drug can go directly into one’s bloodstream, making it incredibly easy to overdose, according to NIDA. 

Even without an overdose, some sources report that the symptoms of use can persist for up to 30 days. There is no quick way to detox users, the only real option being heavy sedation and waiting for the drug to exit their system. Videos posted online have some comparing users to mindless zombies, frequently involving harm of themselves or others. Members of communities where flakka is running rampant say that they've even observed erratic behavior continuing for up to four to six months after use.

Flakka on the rise

 

Flakka appears to have first surfaced on the streets in 2013, when Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement crime labs only received 38 submissions for testing the drug. However, that number grew to almost 200 in 2014 and from there, to 275 in just the first three months of 2015.

How has flakka been able to spread so quickly? The key appears to be the compound from which it is made, called alpha-PVP. This chemical is a cousin of cathinone, the amphetamine-like drug found in bath salts. While the active ingredient in bath salts was officially banned in 2011, alpha-PVP was not. Therefore, it is legal in any state without its own ban.

Until a ban on alpha-PVP is put into place, it doesn’t appear that this situation will improve.

Carbohydrates Helped Human Brains Develop

A full paleo diet!
Image: Shutterstock

If you’re a fan of “paleo” diets, you might be in for some bad news: eating starchy foods was part of the reason human brains are so large. Meat-heavy diets have been around for years, but a recent trend has been to tie them to early human evolution, and argue that they are, therefore, better for us. The trend is largely based on science that suggests that eating meat, specifically cooked meat, was the key to developing larger brains, which in turn allowed us to develop language, civilization, and, my personal favorite, the internet.

However, according to a new study, while eating meat may have spurred brain development, eating carbohydrates is what allowed us to keep it going. The brain requires about 60% of the blood glucose that your body produces, and it’s much more efficient to give the brain what it wants by eating carbohydrates. Furthermore, low blood glucose levels during pregnancy and lactation can threaten the health of both mother and child. Starches, which are the principle source of carbohydrates, were readily available to early humans, and the development of cooking made digesting them much easier. And to top it all off, we developed salivary amylase genes to break down those carbohydrates. Our bodies, as they currently exist, evolved to eat both meat and carbohydrates, not one or the other. So why choose?

This new study gives us some important insight into the development of early humans. Since about 800,000 years ago, human brain size has been increasing, though obviously the most significant growth was earlier in the process. But that growth was facilitated by eating carbohydrates, which allowed for earlier brain development in fetuses, which in turn led to larger brains overall. The research also has implications for modern dieters as removing entire food groups from your diet, or even just severely reducing them, can have negative effects on your health. It’s important to think carefully about what we’re putting in our bodies—how it’s going to affect us, both in the short-term and the long-term.

Want To Live a Little Longer? Eating Spicy Food Could Be the Answer!

If you like spicy foods and you know it, clap your hands!

If you like spicy foods and you know it, clap your hands!

If you like spicy foods and you know it then you might just want to know that

Eating spicy foods can help you stay alive! 

OK, so maybe the song was a bad choice... but it was worth a shot, right? 

Over the years, spicy foods are one of the things I've come to love more and more. I find myself sprinkling on a little cayenne here and there, just to give my meals a little extra kick.

If you also love spicy food, then here's a(nother) reason to keep on loving them, other than the flavor, of course: spicy foods might help keep you alive longer--or at least it seems that way, according to a study published by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. 

The study looked at 487, 375 participants, whose medical data was on file in the China Kadoorie Biobank. The participants were between 30 and 79 years old between 2004 and 2008, when the data was collected. By the time of a median check up of those people 7.2 years later, there had been 20,224 deaths.

The researchers found that the people whose diets contained more spicy foods had a lower chance of death. Specifically, people who ate spicy food 1 or 2 days a week had a 10% lower chance, while people who consumed spicy food 6 or 7 days a week had a 14% lower chance of death. 

The consumption of chilies was especially helpful, as they are not only rich in capsaicin, which makes them spicy, as well as vitamin C and other valuable nutrients. The effect was similar in both men and women, although the chance of death was lower in those that did not consume alcohol.

The study also found that regular consumption of spicy foods was linked to a reduced rick of cancer as well as heart and respiratory diseases, and diabetes. This association was greater in women than in men.

The authors are urging more research in this area. So far, they only have a link between spicy foods and reduced risk of death, but do not understand any cause or effect. It could be that chilies and other spicy foods have a direct impact on human health, or they could simply be indicative of other, generally healthier dietary or lifestyle habits. It doesn’t seem like spicy foods are making people live shorter lives though, which is good news for people who prefer their meals with a little extra kick.

So, if you needed an excuse to add a little extra sriracha to your ramen or chili pepper sauce to your eggs, this could be good news for you :) But we'll all have to stay tuned for the finer details once additional research is conducted.

Ladies: Proof that What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger

One study claims women suffer more than men after a breakup.
Image: Shutterstock

Breakups can be hard on people, women and men. According to a new study by researchers at Binghamton University, however, women suffer more pain from breakups than men. The flip side, though, is that women come out of that pain stronger and recover more fully--while men tend to move on without ever truly recovering.

The study was based on 5,705 individuals, across 96 countries, who were asked to rate their emotional and physical pain following breakups, on a scale of 1 to 10. Women averaged 6.84 in emotional pain, and 4.21 in physical pain, while men averaged 6.58 and 3.75, respectively.

Craig Morris, lead author of the study, hypothesizes that this is steeped in biology. Simply put, women have more at stake in a relationship. A quick fling could result in pregnancy, followed by childbirth and child rearing, while a man could just move on and never look back. So women have evolved a deeper emotional connection, and when a particularly good mate ends a relationship, they suffer more for it.

Men, on the other hand, evolved to compete for women’s attention, and following breakups, slowly come to the realization that they have to begin competing again. They don’t seem to take the same kinds of lessons from those breakups though, and seem less likely to learn from previous experiences.

Of course, this speaks simply to biology, and doesn’t much take into account differences between human cultures, or the changes of those cultures over time, though it does provide some very interesting information that historians and other social scientists could make use of.

It is still valuable now though, as some people tend to respond poorly to breakups, and high-risk individuals, who can initiate self-destructive behavior following loss, can be much worse off following a breakup. A stronger understanding of the emotional and physical response to grief could help us develop better systems to help people dealing with grief, especially those that might harm themselves or others.

What do you think--are breakups really harder on women than on men? Or do the two simply rate their pain differently? Leave your thoughts on this study in the comments below!

Picky Eating Can Lead to Problems for Children

Having trouble getting kids to eat their greens? You're not alone!
Image: Shutterstock

Conventional wisdom tells us that children are picky eaters. They don’t like vegetables, or they hate specific green foods or things that look or sound "gross." This conventional wisdom also states that this is a phase, and that it will end. It’s just how kids are. 

I know this to be largely true; I was one of those picky eaters as a child, as was my brother (to a much larger degree than me). I mostly liked fruit, so much so that I told my mom I wanted to become a "fruititarian." She said no. My brother liked only plain things, like hamburgers with only meat and bun or "spaghetti" with no sauce--just noodles.

Here's a sample list of what I didn't like as a child:

• Tomatoes
• Carrots (these were on-again off-again)
• Mushrooms
• Pork
• Apple juice
• Grape juice
• Milk
• Fish (of any kind)
• Corn off the cob (but on the cob was fine, apparently)
• Onions
• Chunky bits of salsa or spaghetti sauce (but the juice part was fine)

Today, the only item solidly on that list still is mushrooms. I'm still not a huge fan of apple juice, pork, or fish, but I'll eat them in moderation.

Picky eating is hardly a rare problem, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center. It's actually quite common among kids aged 2 to 6, but it can have some severe consequences. Twenty percent of children in this range qualified as selective eaters, while 18% were moderately picky, and 3% were severely selective. The differences between these categories can be hard to explain, but at the most severe end, children were such selective eaters that they couldn’t eat with others. 

Everyone knows somebody who would only eat hot dogs or something as a child; those kids were like severely selective. I'd say at least for a few years, my brother fit into this category (and maybe still does - today he is a vegan, but at least he's now selecting foods that give him nutritional value!).

Moderate or severely picky eaters showed symptoms of anxiety and other mental conditions, including a stronger predisposition towards depression and social anxiety. This is not to mention the obvious physical health problems that can be caused by too selective of a diet. On top of all of this, selective eating can strain the parent-child relationship, which can potentially damage the relationship later in life as well.

The problem is figuring out how to intervene and get kids to eat a wider variety of foods. Kids can have a number of reasons for being picky eaters, such as being hypersensitive to taste, or having had a negative experience with a specific type of food that makes them afraid to try new things. In any case, expressing this can be difficult or even impossible for children, so many are treated as if they’re just misbehaving, and begin to associate certain foods with punishment,.

On the plus side, being a picky eater can be a sign that something is wrong, which allows parents to seek help from their doctors before things get out of hand.