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If youve ever brushed your teeth or swished some mouthwash, theyve been in your sight: the hundreds of billions of microorganismsmostly bacteriathat live in the average human mouth. Dangling from the hard palate, burrowed in the nooks and crannies of the tongue and intertwined in the plaque on teeth are the many hundreds of species that make up the human oral microbiome.

For most, the bacteria in your mouth seem largely an inconveniencecritters all mixed together in a smelly goo, that must be flossed, brushed or rinsed away to keep your breath pleasant and gums healthily pink. But for Jessica Mark Welch of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Gary Borisy and Floyd Dewhirst of the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the oral microbiome is a wonder. Far from a jumbled mess of cells, its a varied, ordered ecosystem that can reveal larger truths about the ways microbes interact with one anotherand how their interactions impact the environments they inhabit.

Charting the way microbes array themselves in the mouth could shed light on the ways communities of organisms organize themselves in a variety of ecosystems, the scientists say: from the pores of kitchen sponges to the surfaces within kelp forests. Understanding more about the microbial rules of engagement could help leverage microbiomes to improve health, or, more far afield, help solve technological challenges like making biofuel from switchgrass.

And of course, exploring the oral microbiome specifically can sharpen understanding of how some bacteria in the mouth keep us healthyas key actors in normal metabolismwhile others may be implicated in illnesses like gum disease, heart disease and cancer.

Mark Welch, Borisy and Dewhirst, who recently reviewed whats known about the geographic distribution of species inhabiting the mouth in the Annual Review of Microbiology, have used genetic analysis and fluorescent imaging to map the microbesfrom the chain-linked Streptococcus species that thrive on the tongue to the rod-shaped Corynebacteria that hang out in dental plaque to all the other bacteria that live among them.

Their work suggests that bacteria live in communities that are far more structured than previously believed. I think we expected more big wads of bacteria, says Mark Welch. What was really a surprise was to see how organized they were. It tells us a lot about how they are working together.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jessica, you are a geneticist. Gary, youre a cell biologist. How did you end up studying bacteria in the mouth?

GB: We wanted to study microbiomescommunities of bacteriathe ways they organize themselves, and why that matters.

The mouth was not the first place we began. We started by looking in the natural environment, at microbes in a pond and in a marsh in Woods Hole. We also sampled the manmade environment: dollar bills, and the scum around the toilet bowl.

JMW: And what you find on the sponge in your kitchen sink! There are microbiomes everywhere, and they play an important role in ecosystems.

GB: But we realized rather early on that there was a big problem. When we collected our samples, we could see many individual organisms, but we werent really sure what we were looking at. The genomics database for most environments was sparse. No one had systematically sequenced the microbes we were seeing, so it was hard to identify them when we sampled them, much less understand the ways they worked together to make ecosystems.

And studying the mouth solved that problem?

GB: Yes. One reason for going to the mouth was the existence of this superb database that our coauthor Floyd Dewhirst and his colleagues at Forsyth had developedthe Human Oral Microbiome Database, which catalogs the genomes of hundreds of bacterial species found in the mouth. A lot of the organisms we would see if we started collecting bacteria from the mouth for our research were already identified and cultured, and the genomic information was being curatedall of this provided the foundation for the imaging work we wanted to do.

Also, from a craven perspective, it seemed it would be easier to get money to support this work if we did something related to humans.

JMW: Another thing that makes the mouth a fantastic environment to study is that the different microbial communitiesthe bacteria that grow on the different surfaces in the mouthare so different from one another.

And yet theyre all in the same mouth, experiencing the same saliva, the same immune system, the same daily eating and sleeping schedule. Youre controlling for many of the factors that might influence the community. You can really compare the influence of the surfaces theyre living on, and their location in the mouth.

So what is this landscape of the mouth? Who lives where?

FD: The Human Microbiome Project defines nine sites in the mouththe tongue, palate, tonsils, sub- and supra-gingival plaque on teeth, the keratinized gingiva, the buccal mucosa, the throat, and saliva.

And surprisingly, even though your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, if you rub a Q-tip on either spot I can tell you with 100 percent certainty which surface you just sampled. The organisms living on your tongue are a very different community from whats on the roof of your mouth.

Why are they so different?

JMW: From the point of view of a bacterium, it matters what kind of surface youre living on. The teeth are solid, theyre always there. If you can root yourself onto them, youre not going to get dislodged unless someone pushes you off with a toothbrush or something. Bacteria such as Corynebacteria precipitate calcium from saliva. Its thought that they turn into that calculus that your dentist scrapes off your teeth. They grow very slowly, but they thrive by gluing themselves to their surface.

But if youre on the cheek cells, which shed pretty frequently, you have to bind quickly and grow rapidly. The fundamental limit on the length of time you can be bound to your surface and remain in the mouth is likely to be one of the factors that really structure the bacterial community. Streptococcus do well on the cheeks. Theyre the first to show up, they grow quickly and then they move on.

How many microbes are in the mouth?

FD: We dont really know the number of bacteria in an average mouth. But there are something like 1011 [100 billion] organisms per gram of plaqueso were looking at a large number.

What people usually talk about is how many species are in there. The Human Oral Microbiome Project identified a little over 700 different species of bacteria. (There are also fungi and viruses.)

About 400 of the 700 bacterial species are much more common in people than the others. And were you to take a swab of the cheek and sequence, sequence, sequence until you saw everything you could, thered probably be somewhere between 200 and 300 organisms. They would be distributed almost on a logarithmic scale, with the most common organism making up 10 percent of the population, the second organism 5 percent, the third just 2 percent and very rapidly, by the time you get to the 50th, youre down to 0.1 percent of the population. Theres this long tail.

Since we eat and drink, we take in all of the other microorganisms from the planet. A splash of sea water, some dirt on your spinach. Eventually, if you sampled enough people, enough times, every microorganism on the planet could show up in somebodys mouth.

GB: You could say the mouth is almost like an open sewer but that may take it too far. Only some of the organisms really take up residence and live there on a regular basis.

JMW: Dental plaque and the surface of the tongue are among the densest microbial habitats on Earth. Bacteria are pretty much wall to wall in there.

I thought bacteria was what plaque was. Theres other stuff in there?

JMW: The bacteria secrete stuff.

GB: Its called the extracellular matrix, or extra-polymeric substance

JMW: Or slime! Plaque is a biofilmbacteria adhered to a surface, embedded in a matrix of their own making. And biofilms are cool. Bacteria behave differently in a biofilm. There are parts of their metabolism they only turn on in a biofilm, and they tend to be more resistant to antibiotics and changes in the environment. A lot of the material in dental plaque biofilm is DNA, which is interesting. Do the bacteria die and spread their DNA all over the place?

What led you to start making fluorescent images of the colonies formed by the bacteria?

GB: We had a gap in our understanding of microbiome organization. DNA sequencing gave us a catalogue of bacterial genomes, but it had a big limitation: You have to grind up your sample to get the DNA, and in the process you lose all the spatial informationwho is next to whom.

This had been a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle of understanding microbiomes. We realized we could develop imaging tools to see the members, in their habitat, in as close to their normal arrangement as possible.

Why is that so important?

JMW: If you can see who a bacterium is next to, then youre more likely to understand whom theyre interacting with. Thats important because if we want to recognize what an unhealthy microbiome isand maybe figure out how to shift it into a healthier statewe need to understand how the bacteria work together. If theres a particular microbe you want to get rid of, you need to know what else is there next to it, helping it grow or ready to take its place.

GB: Consider a watch (before they became digital). You have so many springs; you have so many wheels; you have a glass surface; you have a metal back; you have a couple jewels. But how does the watch work? Having the parts list is not sufficient. You have to know how the parts fit together, and how one affects another. With DNA sequencing were given the parts list, but were not told how they work together. If you want to understand the function you have to know the structure.

What do your images show?

JMW: Vast differences between the structures and make-ups of different parts of this oral ecosystem. For instance, if you look at images of dental plaque and of a microbial community on the tongue, theyre just completely different.

The plaque is characterized by a shape of bacterial community we call a hedgehog, organized around Corynebacteria (in the image, these are the magenta-purple filaments that radiate out from the center.) We think the Corynebacteria are the foundation of community, acting like the coral in the reef or the oak tree in the forestcreating the habitat that other organisms then inhabit at characteristic positions. The ring of bacteria weve colored green that you see around the outside of the structure are Streptococcus, and they stay in the aerobic zone, exposed to oxygen. They appear to be creating a low-oxygen zone in the interior thats been occupied by different bacteria.

But if you look at a microbial community scraped from the surface of the tongue, you see a gray coredead human epithelial cellswith other bacteria forming these very dense communities growing outwards and expanding together.

FD: With the bacteria in the plaque, its almost like you take your fingers and intertwine themalmost every neighboring cell is a different species. But on the tongue, you have these big chunks of blue or red or another color, with cells favoring proximity to cells of the same species.

And this overarching structure has a function in the mouth, presumably?

JMW: Right. Looking at the spatial organization of bacteria in the mouth tells you which microbes are directly attached to the host, and which have the most opportunity to interact with it and its metabolism.

We know that some bacteria in the mouth participate in our nitrate metabolismhow we take in nutrients from food, which can actually modulate blood pressure. If you consume a diet that is rich in nitrate, rich in green leafy vegetables, it will lower your blood pressure a little bit, but not if you use antiseptic mouthwash. In my opinion that might be one reasonand this may be going out on a limbwhy we, as the host, allow the bacteria to grow to such density. We have a reason to let them do that.

Researchers are trying to learn more about the ways microbes are implicated in periodontitis (gum disease) and caries (cavities). A common mouth bacterium known as Fusobacterium nucleatum seems to be involved in colon cancer. Its famous among oral microbiology people because it binds to everything. If its attached to harmless Streptococcus, it can evade the immune system and enter the body through the cheek cells, and it probably gets into the colon just by being swallowed.

GB: Some bacteria provide a service to the host, but some turn against us. If we drink a lot of sugary beverages, bacteria that like the sugar thrive, and produce acid that creates cavities. If these get into our bloodstream, they can cause serious disease, such as heart-valve infections. Its like a garden. When plants arent growing where they should, we call them weeds, even though in other places theyd be just fine.

JMW: When we ask volunteers to give us their dental plaque, we ask them to please not brush their teeth for 24 or 48 hours before we take our samplesand we have to ask them whether they have valvular heart disease. It can be especially hazardous for people with valvular heart disease to let these bacteria build up in their mouths.

So yes. These bacteria can provide a benefit to us, but they can hurt us too and if we want to fight these pathogens we have to understand structure. A microbes behavior depends on where it is. A lot of times research is conducted on a single bacterium, in culture. But that bacterium is going to act differently if its next to another bacterium. We need to study both together if we really want to understand what theyre doing in the wild. If we figure out which are next to each other in the various locations of the mouth, we know which ones to put in the petri dish.

Scientists have suggested that different parts of the mouth have different bacterial communities for some time. But people still like to sample saliva to measure bacteria in dental plaque. Its easy. But saliva is a mixture of bacteria from different sites in the mouth and, it turns out that they are mostly tongue bacteria, not plaque. The notion that there is location-specific structure hasnt sunk in, which is one reason we wanted to write the article.

Where else can scientists look to better understand microbe communities in the human body?

GB: Most people are already looking at the gut. But probably every part of the body will have a distinctive microbiomethe ear, the nose, the belly button, the vaginal tractand interesting structures.

JMW: I've been trying to flip this around the other way, looking at where else in the worldbeyond the human bodyyou can find interesting spatial structures like those in the human mouth.

Its taken me full circle back to marine organisms. Kelp and other macroalgae are similar to the mouth, in a way. Theres a fixed surface thats nutrient-rich, and immersed in flowing water, and that promotes structure in the community.

Kelp is an ecosystem engineer. It is important as habitat for fish and other organisms and for regulating the transfer of nitrogen and carbon. Were interested in the degree to which the bacteria might be needed for this. How much does the kelp act by itself, and how much does it require microbes to do its work? Analyzing whats going on in the human mouth might get us closer to an answer.

See the original post here:
By Studying Mouth Bacteria, Scientists Hope to Learn the Secrets of Microbiomes - Smithsonian.com

NEW BUFFALO, Mich. (WNDU) - In 2021, the Michigan Department of Transportation said they hope to repave a few miles of U.S. 12 from the state line to Red Arrow Highway, going through New Buffalo.

Commonly known as a "road diet," they want to reduce the number of lanes from four to three.

"Which will be a nightmare during the busy holiday seasons, or should I say summer season," resident John Gorny said.

At a meeting Wednesday, MDOT representatives talked with community members about why they feel this proposed project is necessary.

MDOT said safety is their No. 1 priority.

"It gets that left-turn traffic out of the flow of traffic. So, we are reducing the number of crashes by probably two-thirds," MDOT spokesperson Nick Schirripa said.

MDOT said in the last four years, there have been 157 crashes on this stretch of U.S. 12. They said two-thirds of those crashes would not have happened if there had been three lanes.

MDOT also said the lane reduction will provide wider shoulders, a buffer between cars and pedestrians, will help eliminate weaving in and out of traffic lanes, and will help reduce side-street delays.

In a four-lane section, MDOT said emergency responders have to negotiate traffic. With a road diet, however, they can use the turn lane.

This proposal is not a done deal, as they are still in the planning phase.

"We wanted to get some community feedback. Certainly there are some things these folks know working and living here, just because we are not here every day," Schirripa said.

"But in fact, I was lectured to, and a lot of statistics were thrown about," Gorny said.

MDOT said they have been planning this resurfacing project long before the Marquette Greenway Project, which is a trail connecting New Buffalo to Chicago.

"Creating a safer, efficient roadway was the catalyst for the road diet concept. When that idea became public and other organizations started talking with us about it, that's when the idea of adding the Greenway as a partnership came to be. So, there is certainly an opportunity to work together with the folks on the Maquette Greenway, but it was not a catalyst for this project," Schirripa said.

The proposed repaving project would cost $2.4 million.

Continue reading here:
MDOT meets with community members, proposes to repave a strip of U.S.12 - WNDU-TV

Many people today feel as if they need to cultivate and perfect work-life balance. Is there really such a thing? More importantly, even if there is, do you really need it?

Assuming that you work way too much, and that it negatively impacts your relationships, your health and your hobbies, then yes, reigning in your work schedule seems an appropriate and healthy move.

That said, here's my experience with coaching clients who work too much: They are often inefficient they do not prioritize well.

When I say "inefficient," I simply mean that their ability to perform their role takes an inordinately long time. Why is that? Are they capable enough? Are they qualified, not qualified or overqualified? How about you? Wherever you sit on this spectrum, you can still fail to accomplish what you need to in an efficient and appropriate amount of time.

Here are some common causes of inefficiency:

Micromanagement: For leaders and managers who micromanage, the message you send to the team is that you need to know everything in order to do your own job (and feel comfortable or confident). Micromanagement adds a lot of hours to any schedule (yours and others') due to two people the person with the actual functional responsibility and the person watching over them being required to make progress. You end up out of balance at work because you spend time doing things that others are paid to do.

Reliance on standing meetings: Some research has shown that employees spend, on average, 62 hours in meetings each month, and half of those hours are considered to be a waste of time. What if meetings were shorter? What if you became super discerning about exactly which meetings require your talent and input, and only then do you attend?

Pride in working at the same pace as everyone else: To me, it seems odd that many work cultures include an unwritten and unspoken rule that "if you want to advance, you had better arrive before the boss and leave after the boss." If your boss works an absurdly high number of hours each week, then you end up in a difficult predicament: Work even longer hours or limit possible advancement.

There exists a third option, which includes working to change your culture to a meritocracy, where you're revered for the results you create rather than given a badge of honor for staying really late every day.

The Real Question To Ask To Enjoy Both Work And Home

When considering how to pursue a healthy work-life balance, could it be that we are pursuing the wrong thing? Let me explain.

Let's say you wanted to improve your diet. If you could eat only super healthy, low-fat, delicious food every night for dinner, would you feel the need to "balance" that with nights where you eat junk food? My guess is that most of us would naturally run toward healthy and delicious choices every time.

Let's also say you wanted to adopt a learning and growth platform that exposed you to all kinds of new opportunities to expand your skills, interests and hobbies, and that it was fun. Would you require couch potato weekends to watch TV and "balance out" too much learning?

In my experience, assuming that we need or want balance essentially leads us to adopt a corrective strategy for the wrong outcome. What if, instead, you simply engaged in activities that you're passionate about, skilled in, interested in and have the energy for?

If this were the case, what would you pursue more of? Would you do more activities with your family? Would you dive into your work more because work feels like play, or are you dying of boredom and required to spend long days at work?

A client in Seattle holds a simple life philosophy that he employs every day: Have fun at everything I do or enjoy the exit.

When I asked him how that looks when he goes to a boring or contentious Thanksgiving dinner, he didn't flinch: "My one brother and sister-in-law host every fourth year, and it's always horrible. My wife and I always have a plan B ready, and if argumentative relatives start talking about politics, we simply exit and go to the movies."

Life is too short to participate in activities that suck the life out of you. If your work is one of those activities, the responsibility to transform your relationship with work is yours alone. If you work long hours to avoid loneliness, conflict or unhappiness at home, the responsibility rests with you alone to change your home life.

Make Your Simple Declarations

What if you made some very simple declarations about the passion and enjoyment of your work, as well as declarations about the rest of your life? What might your life look like if you absolutely loved your daily work, and you loved the people you work with and work for? Would you need to balance that out or limit it?

How about the rest of your life? If you make simple declarations that redesign aspects you don't like, you may find that you have no need to balance your life with your work because you'll likely enjoy every moment.

You simply have to meet the challenge of loving what you do so you won't have any need for balancing your time spent doing it.

Here is the original post:
Do You Really Need Work-Life Balance? - Forbes

The struggle to return taro to ancestral fields is a part of a larger battle over questions of stewardship and sovereignty in the islands. Since July, activists have rallied at Mauna Kea, the great dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii and the highest in the archipelago at nearly 14,000 feet. A sacred place, home to the gods in Hawaiian lore, it was part of the Hawaiian kingdoms crown lands, transferred to the United States upon annexation. Since 1968, it has been leased to the University of Hawaii to serve as the site of astronomical observatories. Thirteen major telescopes stand on the peak, and another, the Thirty Meter Telescope projected to be the largest visible-light telescope in the world, able to peer further into space and cosmic time than ever before was set to begin construction this summer, until protesters said no more.

Thousands have blocked the access road to the summit, waving the native Hawaiian flag a kahili (royal standard) and crossed paddles against stripes of yellow, red and green and asking for an end to what they see as a half-century of mismanagement of the mountain. Some go further, saying that the government never had a right to lease the land because it was stolen in the first place; they fly the state flag upside down, an international signal of distress. Its not about the telescope, says Dean Wilhelm, the executive director of Hookuaaina, a nonprofit on Oahu that uses taro cultivation as a means of empowering youth and building community. Its about a continuum of disregard for the Hawaiian voice, in the name of progress.

Taro farmers across the islands have sent poi to feed the protesters, in solidarity. For a number of young farmers, growing taro has been part of learning and earning their Hawaiian inheritance, whether they are kanaka maoli or kamaaina. Note that embedded in the word aina, land, is ai, which means food in general but is also specific to poi. Almost every ancient tradition around the world has its roots in honoring the aina, the land that feeds us. Penny Levin, a taro farmer on Maui and the executive director of the nonprofit E Kupaku Ka Aina, which helps restore degraded lands to ecological health and abundance, says, Behind the sacred is often the practical.

ISLANDS, AND THE people who live on them, must be resilient, vulnerable as they are to the whims of nature, alone and far from help in an impartial sea. Today, there are around 600,000 Americans of Hawaiian heritage a dramatic revival from fewer than 24,000 a century ago nearly 300,000 of them living in the islands and making up more than a quarter of the population. While part of this may be because of a change in the census allowing respondents to choose more than one ethnic origin, it also speaks to newfound pride in identifying as kanaka maoli. (Wilhelm remembers his Hawaiian mother telling him that she tried to keep out of the sun as a child, worried that her skin was already too dark.)

The native language, banned from instruction in public schools until 1986, is now studied and spoken at home in nearly 20,000 households, according to the census most recent American Community Survey, and traditions long suppressed and then caricatured for tourists like hula, criticized for its immodesty by missionaries and forbidden from public performance in the early 19th century by Queen Kaahumanu, a Christian convert are flourishing. Reppun says, Hawaiian culture got buried, like Haloa the name of the Sky Fathers buried child, who gave life to taro. Now its growing back.

But according to researchers, only around 60 heirloom varieties of taro are left out of an estimated 300 to 400 precontact farmers call them kupuna kalo, using the Hawaiian term for elders and theyve been largely replaced by photogenically purple Maui lehua, a sturdy hybrid of two Hawaiian strains, Lehua maoli and Moi. The ascendancy of a single variety brings risks. If the standby falls victim to an accidentally imported disease or fails as the climate shifts, you need backups. Attempts at genetic modification have been met with resistance, because for Hawaiians, taro is a member of the family literally, not metaphorically, just as to Catholics the sacramental Communion wafer is not a symbol but in fact the body of Christ. Crossbreeding is accepted, but there was an outcry when the University of Hawaii at Manoa was granted patents in 2002 on three new hybrids, which would have required farmers to sign a licensing agreement and presented the shocking notion that taro could somehow be owned; the patents were later rescinded.

And with less diversity comes a dwindling in flavors and textures. Even color has been lost: Poi can be a wide range of hues, including blue, yellow and pink, a shade once reserved for the alii (royalty), but an entire generation, raised on store-bought poi, has only ever known purple. Gone, too, are the names of the old taro, each with a story behind it, some really rascally, some poetic, says Levin. On a couple of acres in Waihee, on Maui, Levin tends more than 50 heirloom varieties; shes gained intimate knowledge of how to nurture each plant. If you pay attention, they teach you, she says.

More:
On Hawaii, the Fight for Taros Revival - The New York Times

Its a sunny, autumn September day. Lines of small orange cones and strings of red flags line the trees surrounding the soccer stadium at Saint Martins University. Slowly, but surely, parents, coaches and event officials meander toward the finish line and clock set up on a red-tinted track, their shadows continuing to elongate in the evening sun.

Everyone waits for the first runner from the Ramrock Classics boys 5-kilometer race to appear.

Some know exactly who will lead going into the final stretch.

Across the facility, ribbons lead a rugged path from a meadow onto the track. From the finish lines flank, Bryce Cerkowniak, standing 5-foot-10, places a foot onto the track. He has about 300 meters to go until the finish line.

For the first 200 meters, its just him and the track. His short strides increase as his arms continue to pump and his strides get longer.

The small crowd begins cheering.

With a final push, Cerkowniak leans through the finish line and the timer, his legs slowing his body from the sprint 15 minutes, 36 seconds and first place.

Yelm junior Bryce Cerkowniak leads the pack by a lengthy amount at the 3A South Sound Conference Championship. For the first time, Cerkowniak placed first at the league race.

Not bad at all.

Just as Cerkowniak begins catching his breath, a North Thurston runner enters into the final stretch. With a final push from his deep strides, Samir Amin brushes through the finish line, high-fiving Cerkowniak and moving off the track in the process.

Both are juniors at their respective schools and have forged a friendly rivalry as the South Sound Conferences top runners. Amin joins Cerkowniak on the side of the track and the two commence a casual conversation, each of them congratulating Yelms Ryan Lange, then Kelan Herness as they pass through the finish line. The four young athletes smile, recounting the course.

They stay on the side of the finish line, cheering on runners as they enter onto the track and throwing high fives out toward finishing runners. The 20th man finishes, and the boys keep the cheering strong. Cerkowniak may have finished first, but it was the talk of sportsmanship that lingered on as the crowd of young men grew.

Its a scene that has been repeated again and again this year as hard work and dedication have propelled Cerkowniak to the front of the pack and title contention.

An eager Bryce Cerkowniak runs on a cleared path after last winters snow storm.

The road that brought Bryce Cerkowniak to the forefront of Yelm cross country running isnt one explained by natural talent and physique alone.

If youve driven around downtown Yelm at all within the last two years, youve probably seen him either early in the morning or in the afternoon; a scrawny, short-haired boy running the sidewalks that grid the small town.

His focus is forward. His shoulders are broad. His strides are short but consistent.

People drive past. Angie Cerkowniak, Bryces mother, said this is something hes kind of known for around town.

Hes almost a local celebrity, she said, noting that people will often tell her I saw Bryce running today.

And while many have seen Bryce Cerkowniaks entranced glare in transit, you cant help but believe his stature as a local celebrity might be true. Just a few years ago, Cerkowniak was a talented, impressionable freshman at Yelm High School. Now, hes possibly one of the best runners in the schools history.

A junior this year at Yelm High School, Cerkowniak is competing for the state 3A cross country championship title after placing first at both the 3A South Sound Conference league and West Central District championship meets.

While he may not be the favorite to take state this year, he, his coaches, fellow athletes and a small support group disagree. They believe he has what it takes to go for gold and clinch a massive upset on the course this November in Pasco.

Yelm Middle School track and field coaches Art VanVeen, right, and Laurel Robillard talk with a young Bryce Cerkowniak during a track meet. Cerkowniaks parents say the two were instrumental in encouraging him to run cross country in high school.

Last year, Cerkowniak placed eighth at state and is currently the third fastest 3A runner in Washington.

Cerkowniak twice broke the schools 5-kilometer boys record as a sophomore and this year as a junior, lowering it down to 15:22, which still remains his best time. Last spring for track and field, Cerkowniak twice broke the boys 3,200-meter school record.

Most recently, Cerkowniak clinched a first-place finish at the West Central District 3A Cross Country Championships 5K race last Saturday, Nov. 2. Cerkowniaks eyebrow-raising finish helped propel the Tornados to a fourth-place finish, qualifying them for state.

For a program like Yelm, coaches say runners like Cerkowniak only come around once in a blue moon.

Dan Baker, who coaches the girls cross country and track and field teams, discussed Cerkowniaks success last year after first breaking that 38-year-old 3,200-meter record during track season.

This is my 21st year coaching track here. There have not been a lot of kids at his caliber, Baker told the Nisqually Valley News last spring. Its not a surprise that hes doing well Hes got natural racing smarts.

Over a slice of pizza and surrounded by cross country athletes during an after-practice team get together at Bertoglios Pizza, head boys coach Alex McIntire and Justin and Angie Cerkowniak, Bryces parents, explain why his story is an important one to tell. Simply put, great things follow when you put in consistent, focus-driven work.

In previous interviews with the Nisqually Valley News, top Yelm runners such as senior Jacob Barnert and junior Kelan Herness have highlighted Cerkowniaks will to lead by example and his dedication to make the team tighter as a group shorten the teams spread.

Earlier this season, Herness said he believed it was Cerkowniaks leadership that would propel Yelm into its best season yet.

McIntire said Cerkowniak is a hard worker, but isnt one to showboat despite his success.

He came into my room the other day and he put all these lines up on the white board and says Guess what this is? Thats a map of the state course. He has it memorized, he visualizes it every single day; what its going to look like, feel like to win state, McIntire said. Hes got his goals written above his toilet seat so its the first thing he sees when he wakes up and the last thing he sees when he goes to bed.

In the restaurant, Cerkowniak is quiet but doesnt mince words.

Recounting the story, Cerkowniak, sporting a medal from the last track and field season and with pizza in hand, smirked at the claim.

Its actually on my desk. He just wishes I put it on my bathroom wall, Cerkowniak said. I wanna have the state championship. I sit at my desk every day and do homework, basically. So I see it every day, so it keeps it in my head, keeps it fresh so I remember what my goals are.

Stringent routine drives Cerkowniaks day-to-day.

The Yelm junior wakes up every day around 5:30 a.m. After bagging up his lunch that he prepared the night before, he heads out to the high school parking lot to meet McIntire for a 2 and a half mile run.

After school, he heads to practice where more workouts ensue. This is where Cerkowniaks friends are. Over the years the team has become closer, he said, if not for the countless hours they spend every season running than because of the frequent team dinners and activities their parents will host.

After practice, Cerkowniak gets home, takes his dog Krypto out, and then hits the books. On the weekends, hell usually take it easy, but hell make sure to run every day.

More important than the runners routine is the diet. Cerkowniak, like many of his friends on the team, keeps a consistent diet on most days, including leading up to a meet. Before class, the Yelm junior will usually down an egg, meat and cheese burrito to cap off his run. For lunch, its usually a black-forest ham sandwich with pretzels.

Even while driving across the country during vacation this summer, Cerkowniak wouldnt give up on his daily running routine. Hed constantly be looking for routes to run during downtime.

I think it was kind of cool because it gave me something to do. I run in Yelm every day, its the same loop every day and on the weekends and the offseason. Its nice to get out, find something new, Cerkowniak said.

To say hes dedicated could be an understatement. But running, as a sport, is something thats developed into an addictive passion. Last summer, it was reported that he ran upwards of 640 miles in preparation of the 2019 season.

Im just proud of his dedication to it. We never tell him, Hey, you better get out and run. Its him. Hes self motivated with it, father Justin Cerkowniak added.

McIntire didnt believe in the hype Yelm Middle School track and field coach Art VanVeen and other athletes were trying to feed him on Cerkowniak.

As a freshman new to cross country, Cerkowniak showed potential but didnt blow anyone away when he finished 75th in state.

I didnt realize fully the type of runner that Bryce could be until his track season freshman year, McIntire said. Bryce really worked toward being good. I wouldnt say its totally talent. I mean, he has a lot of talent but he really put in a lot of work right away.

In the months following the 2017 cross country season, Yelm lost one of its top runners, then-sophomore Logan Miller.

In Millers absence, Cerkowniak worked a tough training regiment going into the track and field season. McIntire said Millers departure left something of a hole for Cerkowniak to fill as the Tornados top runner.

He came out and he ran 10 seconds off the school record as a freshman. So thats where you start thinking, OK. Theres some real talent here, McIntire recalled. He works hard. He ran every single day that winter, did not miss a day. And hes got his journal to prove it.

As McIntire took the helm of head boys cross country coach, he began to refocus what he wanted his athletes to take away from running a love for it.

In the summer of 2018, as school let out, McIntire took a group of six boys to Glacier National Park to work out goals and teach his boys, especially young Bryce, how to love the sport of running and work through the pain.

I think Bryce loved to win, he loved to be competitive. I dont know if hed learned how to love to run at that point yet. So, we just got out in the mountains and ran for four days. And that really, I think, was the kind of spark he needed to say, I actually like doing this, McIntire recalled. He just has a really good fundamental understanding of the bigger picture. I think a lot of athletes kind of struggle to see the why of doing everything. And he got it pretty quick.

McIntire said he knew Cerkowniak was a different breed of runner after that summer.

Going into last years cross country season, McIntire said he wanted to build off of Cerkowniaks confidence and turn to competing fiercely at the state cross country meet. McIntire said he also wanted to make sure that he was building a solid foundation for Cerkowniak to look to his junior and senior years for the state title.

Cerkowniak ran about 50 to 60 miles a week going into the season.

After a record-breaking season and taking eighth at state, McIntire said he began to visualize Cerkowniak taking state his junior year.

Going into state this year, Cerkowniak is ranked in at third in the state. McIntire said the beauty of the sport is that even the best runners can have tumultuous days.

Nobodys shooting for 3rd. Nobody says I want to be 3rd at state. No, you want to win. So thats what we were geared towards after that sophomore year. It was now we need to start training like a state champion, McIntire said.

Cerkowniak will find challenge in two superb eastside runners this weekend; North Central junior runner Leif Swanson and 3A state champ favorite Stanford Smith, a senior from Kamiakin who will undoubtedly be leaving everything he has on the Pasco course as he finishes out his high school career.

The Yelm boys cross country team will run in the 3A Washington Interscholastic Activities Association State Cross Country Meet Saturday, Nov. 9, at Sun WIllows Golf Course in Pasco.

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Hard Work and Dedication: The Road That Brought Yelm's Bryce Cerkowniak to the Top - Nisqually Valley News

Friday is World Vegan Day, a day to celebrate all things 100 percent cruelty-free and plant-based.

World Vegan Day was established in November 1994 in celebration of the United Kingdom Vegan Society's 50th anniversary and as a way to kick off World Vegan Month. More recently, experts have noted that veganism is on the rise across the United States, with health and eco-conscious millennials as the driving force behind the upward trend.

"For the past half-century, veganism has been a minority within a minority," wrote The Economist last December for its "The World in 2019" report. The analysis used data from a 2015 survey which found that just over three percent of Americans were vegetarianand less than one percent were vegan. The Economist also predicted that 2019 would be the year that the lifestyle would find itself introduced not as an alternative, but a mainstream lifestyle, largely thanks to younger adults.

"Interest in a way of life in which people eschew not just meat and leather, but all animal products including eggs, wool and silk, is soaring, especially among millennials," the outlet noted. "Fully a quarter of 25-to 34-year-old Americans say they are vegans or vegetarians."

In July, the Plant-Based Food Association (PBFA) working with the Good Food Institute issued a report highlighting some of the financial implications of the recent uptick in Americans leading a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

According to the report, U.S. retail sales of plant-based foods have increased by 11 percent over the last year, making it $4.5 billion industry. The plant-based meat category alone is worth more than $800 million, the PBFA wrote.

"Plant-based foods are a growth engine, significantly outpacing overall grocery sales," Julie Emmett, PBFA's senior director of retail partnerships wrote in a company statement. She continued: "We are now at the tipping point with the rapid expansion of plant-based foods across the entire store, so it is critical for retailers to continue to respond to this demand by offering more variety and maximizing shelf space to further grow total store sales."

In recent years, celebrities and other high-profile public figures have come forward to share their vegan lifestyles. Famous vegans include Bill Clinton, Beyonce, Natalie Portman, Ariana Grande, Venus Williams, Mya and many others.

Actor and vegan Jessica Chastain once summed up the lifestyle, saying "I guess it's about trying to live a life where I'm not contributing to the cruelty in the world. ... While I am on this planet, I want everyone I meet to know that I am grateful they are here."

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World Vegan Day 2019 Statistics: Plant-Based Diets On The Rise in the US - Newsweek

Maangchi eating kimbap in Central Park. Photo: Christian Rodriguez

Maangchi is the kimchee queen of YouTube. Her fans are devoted the musician Japanese Breakfast called her a hero and her charmingly joyful cooking videos, focused on recipes like kimchee, tteokbokki , or Korean dinner rolls can rack up millions of views. This week, Maangchi (whose real name is Emily Kim) released her second book, Maangchis Big Book of Korean Cooking, which has recipes for Buddhist vegan cooking and a whole chapter on Korean lunchbox meals. My Korean fans are just surprised because I make food a very old-fashioned way, she says. All the time, food is changing. Maangchi really loves to cook, and this week made bulgogi lettuce wraps for her family, got her favorite baguette from Maison Kayserto eat with sopressata, and got really excited about the mackerel she found at Hanyang Mart in Flushing. Read all about it in this weeks Grub Street Diet.

Thursday, October 24First thing I do every morning is to have a cup of coffee. These days I really love Variety coffee, from Brooklyn. Almost every one of theirs I try is delicious. I have a subscription and they deliver the beans to my house, freshly roasted. I use an Aeropress, I like my coffee light but flavorful, and nutty. Makes me alert. Then I start with my smoothie for a happy life.

More than two years ago I watched a Korean TV show on YouTube and I saw a man talking about the green smoothie hed been making every morning for years. He talked about his cholesterol going down and all that stuff but what really got my attention was when he mentioned his freckles disappearing from his face! Okay, I was listening! I bought a Vitamix!

Ever since then, Ive never skipped my morning smoothie unless Im traveling, and my fridge is always full of fresh fruit and vegetables. I use grapes, kale, celery, spinach, lemon, apple, pear (or pineapple or peach), tomato, and omija (schisandra berries) along with a big spoonful of Greek yogurt.

I buy my fruits and vegetables from Whole Foods, Food Emporium, Union Square Greenmarket, or Amish Market, wherever I can find good fresh produce. This is for my health so I always remove all the bruised parts, always. I dont want any oxidized stuff in my body, so each ingredient has to pass my test.

After my smoothie I had a nice Korean persimmon, too. Called dan-gam () in Korean and Fuyu persimmon in English, I bought them at Hanyang Mart in Flushing last weekend. They are in season and very sweet, firm and crispy. I got a whole box for $12.

I had some abalone in the freezer that I bought from a Korean website run out of California called Wooltari Mall that sells wonderful, high-end Korean ingredients imported from Korea. I had ordered a dozen of abalone from them and these were the last four. I found this website after I went to Korea to learn about Korean red pepper flakes, gochugaru how they make it, and how they harvest it. (Because my readers always asked me, Which one should I buy to make kimchee? But I didnt always know the exact answer. So I would tell them, Maybe the most expensive one.) Then I went to some place famous for Korean hot peppers, where I found the really best-quality ones. Theyre sold in America, including through this website.

So, I chopped up the abalone after removing the sand sack and mouth (but not the intestines those are nutty and delicious!) and fried them with soaked rice, garlic, and sesame oil. I added water and chopped carrot and green onion for a quick, easy, and delicious porridge. With such a small amount of rice, its good food for a diet, because it makes a lot of porridge. I kept the leftovers in the fridge for later.

But the porridge didnt have many carbs so I was hungry by 4 p.m. My stomach was asking for more so I had some frozen bread rolls, reheated in the microwave oven. It was a great snack with a glass of milk! The rolls are made from my original Korean roll-ppang dinner rolls recipe. I used to make them for my children all the time in Korea when they were growing up, so it was fun to share the recipe and hear about my viewers making them for their own families! I feel very attached to them.

I had a lot of promotion work to do for my new cookbook. On Friday, I was going to film a video for Vice on how to make the bulgogi wrap lunchbox recipe from the book, so even though Im familiar with this recipe I wanted to make them again. A spoonful of warm rice on a sheet of lettuce, a touch of ssamjang (Korean spicy dipping paste made with fermented soybean paste), and the bulgogi on top, simple and delicious. The bulgogi was made with ribeye, thinly sliced. You have to put it in the freezer for one hour before preparing it so that it gets hard enough to slice thinly. One thing I like about this recipe is that one pound of meat is enough for four people once you add in all the rice and lettuce.

My family and I ate the bulgogi lettuce wraps for dinner and we loved them. I served them with mugwort soup made from mugwort (which is ssuk in Korean) I foraged from Riverside Park in May. I blanched and froze that in bunches and have been using it bit by bit ever since. I boiled the mugwort with water, dried anchovies, garlic, and homemade fermented soybean paste (doenjang). When the soup was done I took out the anchovies and served. Its crazy delicious and flavorful. It went well with the bulgogi lettuce wrap and I didnt even need kimchee!

Friday, October 25Started with my coffee and smoothie, same routine.

It was a special day as I needed to be at Vice in Williamsburg to film a video at 12:30 p.m. I knew it would take an hour from my home, so I decided to have an early light lunch so that when I filmed I wouldnt be hungry. I had a bowl of rice and my one-year-old perilla leaf pickles (kkaenip-jjangaji) made with my perilla leaves I grew on my balcony. I sometimes feel like just rice and pickles, or rice and kimchee it makes for a great meal, full of flavor. And I wont be distracted by any other side dishes, I can just concentrate on one!

The shoot at Vice was great, I made six wraps in a lunchbox. For the finale I ate one big wrap on-camera. I said, Dont tease me, I have a big mouth! The crew laughed and encouraged me to stuff the whole wrap into my mouth even though it was too big! Later I asked them to edit that part out, but lets see if they do it.

I had brought some of my homemade kimchee and perilla-leaf pickles for the producers and crew at Vice. They loved them. All through the summertime, I eat perilla leaf. Every day I pick it and wrap it around Korean barbecue, rice, and ssamjang and just eat it. This is really my happiness meal.

These days I love anything heirloom: eggs, tomatoes, turkeys, even heirloom people. Authentic, genuine, honest, and down to earth, thats my definition of people who are heirloom. And it was heirloom tomato time! You have to be lucky to get good ones, and I was really lucky at Whole Foods. They were firm, thick, crispy, sweet, and juicy, perfect levels. Of course they are quite expensive but instead of buying expensive clothes or eating out at some upscale restaurant I choose top-quality ingredients because they are always worth it in terms of my happiness.

My dinner was heirloom tomatoes, peaches, cheese, and spicy sopressata with a sliced baguette. I recently discovered the best of the best, the baguette monge at the Maison Kayser near my house. Id never tasted such delicious baguette anywhere else, including Paris! Crunchy and chewy crust with a soft and spongy inside. Both ends of the bread come to a pointed tip, like old-style traditional Korean shoes called gomusin. My whole family knows the tips are mine. I drizzle some olive oil on top, lovely!

For cheese I got Herv Mons Camembert, Spring Koe Gouda (I love the beautiful orange color that reminds me of jade!), and some Saint Angel Triple Creme which is my favorite these days. I used to be addicted to Livarot from Normandy, the stinkiest cheese I could find, but these days I like smoother cheese with a milky flavor.

It was only a couple of years ago that I discovered sopressata. Im actually not a big sausage or cured-meat person, but once in a while some meaty pungentness in my life is nice. When I eat it with baguette and cheese, it enhances the taste. As I discovered, not all sopressata is delicious. The best I found is sold at Esposito Meats in Hells Kitchen. They get it from the Alps Provision in Astoria. I slice it thin like paper with my sharp knife. The taste is deep and rich and spicy, and reminds me of well-fermented kimchee.

I also served it with more Korean persimmons and some pesto that the producers from Vice gave me, made with ingredients grown on the rooftop of their offices. It was great!

Saturday, October 26Coffee and smoothie again.

When I bought that baguette yesterday from Maison Kaiser I also bought two financiers. There is so much butter inside its a guilty pleasure, but its delicious with my morning coffee as a weekend special, so I just had half of one, and it was enough. I like the plain flavor. With my coffee it turned from guilty pleasure to just pleasure.

My lunch was white fluffy rice cooked on the stovetop, with steamed eggplant and kimchee soup. Koreans make huge quantities of kimchee, which surprises some people. We make so much because when its well-fermented we make other dishes out of it like kimchee pancakes, kimchee stew, steamed kimchee, braised kimchee, kimchee dumplings, and yes, kimchee soup! I made kimchee soup with my well-fermented sour kimchee, just chopped it up and added chopped pork shoulder with some gochujang and water and boiled until the pork and kimchee turned soft and the broth was flavorful. Then I added tofu and cooked it another five to ten minutes. This is my familys favorite all wintertime, they love the combination and its always gone quickly.

Steamed eggplant, called gaji-namul in Korean, is one of my favorite side dishes. Korean eggplant is longer and thinner than Western eggplant, but I didnt have any Korean eggplant in the house so I used American eggplant. I sliced it into a half-inch-thick pieces lengthwise and steamed it for five minutes until well cooked but not mushy. Then I tore it up with my fingers and seasoned it with soy sauce, garlic, green onion, toasted sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds. It was soft, savory, and comforting, and went well with the kimchee soup.

I made multigrain rice with my electric pressure rice cooker. I have a Cuckoo brand from Korea, which makes great rice every time and is especially good for multigrain rice. I used white short grain rice, barley, brown rice, and black rice.

I also made beef radish soup (soegogi muguk) with brisket from Dicksons Meats in Chelsea Market. Its the best brisket in New York City that Ive found so far, and it reminds me of the brisket I used to buy from a butcher in my neighborhood in Korea. It tastes just like the Korean beef I used to taste, with just enough tasty fat to make the perfect beef radish soup. I salted the soup with my three-year-old homemade soy sauce! Yum!

These days, Korean radish is in peak season, and the past weekend I found some beautiful ones in Hanyang Mart in Flushing. Good radish is firm, crispy, sweet, and juicy. I cut it into matchsticks and made a very simple Korean radish salad called musaengchae. Its one of the most Korean common side dishes.

Also at Hanyang Mart I bought some mackerel. Holy mackerel! They were so large with wonderful blue backs, and their eyes were so clear. Its hard to get good mackerel in the summertime, but its in season, so I bought several and cleaned, butterflied, salted, and then wrapped them into individual pieces and put them in my freezer. Then for my dinner, I took one out and instead of pan-frying it as I usually do, I used my air fryer that my daughter bought me a while ago. It turned out great! Soft, flaky, salty flesh with crunchy skin, really delicious!

Sunday, October 27Had my coffee and smoothie and, later, a quick lunch before shooting my video. I reheated some of the leftover kimchee soup in the fridge and added a scoop of rice to it. Its a quick eating style that Koreans call gukbap, literally soup rice. I shoot my videos every 10 days or every 12 days. Its not like, Okay this is the date Im supposed to. That is too much obligation. I always want freedom.

It was a late dinner for me after filming. I ate the oxtail soup from the video shoot, served with well-fermented radish kimchee (kkakdugi) from my fridge. An oxtail soup recipe had been requested by my readers so many times, so I couldnt wait to post the video! Oxtail has a lot of meat, so you need to cook it until the meat is tender but not falling off the bone into the soup. That meat has a lot of collagen and protein, and when I ate the light milky broth, my lips stick to each other. Thats when Im satisfied with my oxtail soup.

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YouTube Star Maangchi Savors the Best Part of the Baguette - Grub Street

The 2020 presidential election is still a year away. For whichever candidates go all the way, thats more than a thousand meals, mostly eaten on the road while glad-handing and selfie-taking with voters around the country. From downing corn dogs for the cameras to eating the lumberjack special at a famed local diner, each public meal is an opportunity to connect with voters under the (ludicrous) pretense of being just another regular person or a vote-erasing disaster, like John Kerrys Swiss-cheese-smothered Philly cheesesteak in 2004. For most candidates, every single bite in front of a camera is a tight-rope walk over a pool of molten nacho cheese.

But then theres South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, whose gastronomical exploits, from the Iowa State Fair to the iconic Grimaldis Pizzeria, where he shamed former candidate and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasios dainty slice-eating manners, are already the stuff of electioneering legend. So its no surprise that when I asked multiple campaigns for permission to tail a candidate and document everything that went into their body for two straight days, the Buttigieg camp was by far the most receptive, allowing me full access often, I was the only photographer in the room while the candidate embarked on a bus tour across rural Iowa battleground counties that went for Obama in 2008 and 2012, but flipped to Trump in 2016.

The tour started in Cedar Rapids, at a fish fry fundraiser for Abby Finkenauer, a freshman congresswoman from Iowas First District. Every top-tier candidate made an appearance: Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Buttigieg, who recently overtook Biden and Sanders in the latest Quinnipiac poll. The fundraiser was not a traditional food photo op like the Iowa State Fair or the Polk County Steak Fry, so the candidates largely hid out in the green room, though Cory Bookers partner, the actress Rosario Dawson, did wander out at one point to collect some fried Alaska walleye. Buttigiegs slot was late in the afternoon, and the team had already eaten Jimmy Johns, the college town sandwich chain of choice, for lunch, so he missed the actual fry but with the next stop two hours away, there was no time for fish anyway, just a cup of black coffee as the bus took off.

Next up was a rally in Decorah, a town in Winneshiek County. The town has a population of just 7,700, but more than a thousand people showed up to see Buttigieg, who is going all-in on Iowa. With a start time of 7 p.m., there was no set plan for a dinner stop. Food is always a surprise on these trips, said Sean Manning, Buttigiegs deputy Iowa press director. Where it comes from, when it comes.

Between the stump speech, Q&A session, and handshakes, Buttigieg spent an hour with the crowd, then returned to the bus and drank a Founders All Day IPA while answering questions from the press. While there were off-brand White Claws, red wine, and a bottle of Bulleit bourbon available, Buttigieg stuck to IPAs like his politics, a beer style that is progressive but ultimately safe over the two days I trailed him.

Visiting a restaurant with a presidential candidate usually involves more hand-shaking than eating, so essential meals are often consumed out of sight from voters, which presents logistical difficulties. Most meals are ordered and picked up while the candidate is still on stage, so its ready to eat on the vehicle by the time the event is over. In Iowa, the task of choosing where and what to eat falls to Buttgiegs Iowa press director Ben Halle, who went to school at the University of Iowa; state director Brendan McPhillips; and the advance team, which scouts locations and arranges logistics so things are already in place by the time the candidate arrives Seamless, but for everything. The team often surveys local volunteer coordinators for recommendations, but Jimmy Johns and Dairy Queen frequently win out restaurant chains are, at the very least, a known commodity.

Word from their volunteers on the ground was that the food from Toppling Goliath Brewing Company, which specializes in IPAs and barrel-aged stouts, is the best in Decorah, so the advance team ordered trays of tacos, chips, fries, and pizza to take back to the hotel. Buttigieg sampled from various trays before opting to wash down the chicken tacos with a Lagunitas IPA while chatting off the record with press and staff.

Buttigieg often begins his stump speech by asking voters to imagine the sun rising on the day that Donald Trump is no longer president of the United States. But the next morning, the sun rose on Buttigieg doing an intense workout before heading out to the bus to shoot campaign video. Of course, the advance team made sure that breakfast was waiting.

Buttigieg took a few bites from a box filled with hotel bacon and eggs before spying a tray of cinnamon rolls and maple pecan sticky buns from Rubys Restaurant. Ever the millennial, Buttigieg shot a photo of the fully loaded tray with his cell phone and tweeted it before microwaving one of the frosted buns and chasing it with a cup of black coffee. The bus took off for the first stop of the day, 67 miles away in Waverly.

The event in Waverly was at a local school gymnasium, packed with 568 people. Like in Decorah, Buttigieg spent an hour there, which gave the advance team time to get three platters of sandwiches from Sub City, a sandwich shop located in an old train depot that came highly recommended by Buttigiegs local volunteers.

Theres a sort of romantic notion that driving through the American heartland and visiting every diner along the way is the best way to see, and taste, what this country is really made of. Riding with a presidential candidate, this could not be further from the truth: The goal is to touch as many voters as possible, and a small towns sole diner is not an ideal space to corral hundreds of people, much less grab a quick burger. Eating mostly happens while the bus wheels are in motion.

Eating on a vehicle is good for portion control, said Buttigieg, noting that there isnt a big table where things can spread out. For lunch, Buttigieg took an Italian sub from one of the Sub City trays and loaded it up with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles so many pickles.

My team is pretty good about keeping me well fed, Buttigieg said as he drank a can of Diet Coke with his sandwich. He added a bottle of water and coffee to the mix as the bus rolled toward Charles City, about 30 miles away.

Energy was running low at this point: It was late in the afternoon, the room at the Charles City Elks Lodge was small and dark, and it had started to pour outside. The advance team took note of this and made a run to Dairy Queen to pick up Blizzards for Buttigieg, the staff, and the entire press corps. Two dozen Blizzards in vanilla, chocolate, M&Ms, and Reeses flavors were waiting on the bus by the time the event ended.

Buttigieg wrapped up after an hour and looked wiped as he boarded the bus, but perked up as he settled down with a Reeses Blizzard and conversations with the press corps turned toward football. The caravan sped toward the last stop of the day, 30 miles away in Mason City.

Mason City was the largest of the stops, and the gym at Lincoln Intermediate School filled up accordingly. The city is also home to Northwestern Steakhouse, which is sometimes considered the most iconic steakhouse in the state. There is, however, little campaigning advantage to visiting a nearly empty 65-seat restaurant in the late evening and having dinner there, so the advance team opted for more takeout.

Large platters of fried rice, pad thai, egg rolls, and fried dumplings from Thai Bistro and Sushi Bar were ready on the bus when the event ended. The sushi wouldve been a bit too risky, said Lis Smith, Buttigiegs fiery communications advisor whose New York-style media blitz approach has elevated a near-anonymous mayor of a midwest town to the top tier of the Democratic primary. Though her critique of landlocked state sushi is a bit outdated, she seemed pleased to get some Thai food into the mix, mentioning that whoever ordered some underwhelming subs earlier in the trip fucked up.

Buttigieg sampled a fried dumpling before settling on a plate of chicken pad thai, an egg roll, and a Pompeii IPA from Toppling Goliath Brewing Company.

Another day of campaigning for president down, 361 days of road food to go.

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What Mayor Pete Buttigieg Eats on the Campaign Trail - Eater

Neuropathy is nerve damage that often occurs in people with diabetes and as a side effect of chemotherapy. Although lifestyle changes and conventional treatments may ease symptoms of neuropathy, supplements may also help.

Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy include:

Although any of the body's peripheral nerves can develop neuropathy, most people experience symptoms in the feet or hands.

Treatment for neuropathy usually involves managing the condition that has caused it and relieving symptoms. Research into using supplements and natural remedies for neuropathy is ongoing. Supplements may have fewer side effects than conventional treatments and have other health benefits.

As with any medication, anyone wanting to try supplements should discuss the risks and benefits with a doctor first. Anyone experiencing severe side effects should seek medical advice as soon as possible.

In this article, we examine vitamin and supplements that may help reduce symptoms of neuropathy, prevent it from occurring, or even reverse nerve damage. We also discuss dietary and lifestyle tips for neuropathy and look at when to seek advice from a doctor.

Acetyl-l-carnitine (ALC) is a popular supplement for treating a wide variety of symptoms. The liver and kidneys naturally produce it.

People undergoing chemotherapy may find relief from neuropathy with ALC. However, the data supporting its use are mixed.

While some small early studies produced promising results with the supplement, other data suggest that ALC does not work.

Other studies show that ALC helps control pain and may improve nerve function in people with neuropathy due to diabetes.

B-12, B-6, other B-complex vitamins may also ease symptoms of neuropathy.

B-complex vitamins play an essential role in nerve health, metabolism, and sensory perception. B-complex deficiencies are relatively common, and a person can develop a deficiency after just a few weeks of inadequate intake.

A person needs to consult a doctor before supplementing with B vitamins.

Some B-complex supplements that may help neuropathy include:

Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) may help reverse free radical damage and intensify the effects of antioxidants, which may slow or stop nerve damage.

A handful of studies suggest that ALA may offer relief from some neuropathy symptoms, especially burning and stabbing pains, within a few weeks.

A 2006 study evaluated symptoms of neuropathy after 5 weeks of taking oral doses of ALA once a day. The researchers divided participants into three groups according to ALA dosages of 600 milligrams (mg), 1,200 mg, and 1,800 mg.

Participants received a single oral dose of ALA each day, and researchers compared them with a placebo group. At all three dosages, participants reported fewer symptoms. However, people who took higher doses experienced more side effects.

Another study found that people taking 300 mg of alpha-lipoic acid along with 150 mg irbesartan showed increased blood flow in the brachial artery, which is in the upper arm. They also experienced lower levels of inflammation, suggesting the supplement may help with both blood flow and inflammatory processes.

The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy also suggest that calcium could help with chemotherapy-related neuropathy, but again, research is limited.

However, the study published in Nutrients found that high dietary calcium had no effect on chemotherapy-induced neuropathy in some people.

Rich dietary sources of calcium include dairy foods, such as milk and cheese.

Glutamine is the body's most abundant amino acid. It may improve many side effects of chemotherapy, including inflammation, muscle pain, and neuropathy.

Food sources of glutamine include:

Glutamine is also available as a pill or an injection.

Several small studies have found that glutamine may eliminate or reduce the severity of neuropathy in people having chemotherapy. However, researchers need to carry out further research to confirm these findings.

Glutathione is an antioxidant that the body produces naturally. It is an increasingly popular supplement, and some foods, such as okra, asparagus, and avocados, contain high levels of it. However, digestion breaks up glutathione, and the body does not absorb it, so people may need to use other methods. Talk to a doctor about the best ways to take in glutathione.

Preliminary research has found that glutathione may help with chemotherapy-related neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy, and neuropathy of unknown origin.

Not all studies have found that glutathione works, so more research must assess its role in nerve health.

N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is present in foods such as lentils, beans, and bananas. NAC may protect the neurological system from inflammation and damage, which may help prevent or treat neuropathy.

A 2018 review highlights several small studies linking NAC to improvements in several neurological disorders, including neuropathy.

NAC may also help with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, though the research is still in its infancy.

Some people develop neuropathy because they have a deficiency in particular vitamins and nutrients. Supplements can help reverse or reduce symptoms.

Some vitamin and mineral deficiencies that may cause neuropathy include:

Taking too much of any supplement can cause serious health problems, including worsening neuropathy. People who suspect they have a nutrient deficiency should ask a doctor to check their levels and then consult with a nutrition expert about which supplement to use and at what dosage.

Neuropathy is a complex symptom, and the right treatment varies from person to person.

Diet and lifestyle strategies that may help a person to reduce their symptoms or even prevent neuropathy include:

People with conditions that may cause neuropathy should discuss prevention strategies with a healthcare professional.

It is also important to see a doctor if:

Neuropathy can be unpredictable and may suddenly get better or worse.

Many people with neuropathy find that they have to try several treatments to see improvements. Neuropathy is a treatable symptom, especially with the right combination of medication, lifestyle changes, and treatment for the underlying condition.

A person should talk to a healthcare professional about strategies for managing neuropathy.

Some people find that tracking their symptoms over time helps them understand which interventions or medications have worked and allows them to establish links between their lifestyle and neuropathy symptoms.

Excerpt from:
Supplements and vitamins for neuropathy: 8 options - Medical News Today

Maine lobstermen have brought in fewer pounds of lobster this year only slightly over half of what was landed last year. Thats still 50 million pounds, so it is still an incredible amount of lobsters. But, the lower catch level this year has many lobstermen and scientists wondering why they are seeing this decline.

To say that the marine ecosystem is complex is a vast understatement. So, to point to a single reason for the lower catch this year is not realistic. There are so many different factors impacting what is landed that it is difficult to untangle them in an effort to study the why.

Reproduction is one of the keys to replenishing the population, so it is logical to look at how many baby lobsters are being born each year. Going back further, you can look at the number of eggs that are produced. Female lobsters carry their eggs on their bellies and are known as berried females because these black shiny eggs look like blackberries. The rate that the eggs develop depends highly on temperature warmer temperatures mean eggs develop more quickly. It can also mean that a female lays fewer eggs in some cases. In this way, warming ocean waters may be contributing to fewer eggs.

It is what happens next, however, that is critical to survival. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae are easy targets for hungry predators. For every egg, maybe 1 in 10 survives to become an adult lobster. There are three larval stages before the lobster settles and becomes the crawling, insect-like crustacean we recognize. Once it settles, it can hide more easily and can also use its hard pointy shell as defense.

In addition to surviving predation, lobster larval survival also depends on food. And, this is a bit of a mystery. Try dissecting a larval lobster stomach and discerning what it ate for breakfast. Even the best microscopes dont make it easy. Some new research, however, is helping to solve this mystery. Scientists from the Bigelow Lab are using DNA techniques to identify exactly what those tiny larvae are eating. This could help them to understand any shifts in the larval diet that could affect their survival.

This work is a partnership with the University of Maines Darling Marine Research Center, the University of Southern Maine and New Hampshire Fish and Game. It brings a lobster scientist, Rick Wahle (Darling Marine Lab) together with Bigelows David Fields, a copepod (lobster larvae food) expert, and Pete Countway, a molecular biologist from right here in Brunswick. The project began when these scientists noticed that both the copepod and larval lobster populations were decreasing. They also noticed that there were fewer recruits new legal-sized lobsters. All of this led to the question of how these might be linked.

This work is just getting underway, so there are many more questions to answer. The group plans to continue to build on this summers initial data by doing further DNA sequencing to look at exactly what is being eaten. Theyll also be doing feeding

experiments to see what kind of food larvae prefer and testing out how well they survive with different amounts of food.

The causes of the drop in catch this year may or may not have to do with larval diet and could have more to do with any of the other myriad factors. Nonetheless, this research will help scientists to better know the habits of these little critters that grow up to be a part of our states most valuable fishery

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Intertidal: Many there are many reasons why this year's lobster catch is on the decline. - Press Herald

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