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Were only in the third month of the year and already there have been a number of bizarre food trends go viral on TikTokfrom a $19 strawberry to feeding babies spoonfuls of butter. The latest is a yogurt, called Coconut Cult, that costs $39 for a 16 ounce jar. On many a for-you-page, you can find influencers incorporating a scoop of the super-live probiotic yogurt into their morning routine and instructing viewers how to properly eat it. Ive never looked hotter, one user posted, adding her stomach has never been flatter. (Not everyone on the platform was impressed with the results, however, and some weren’t fans of the reportedly sour taste.) @clararpeirce why is it spicy #coconutcult son original – Reverse.Soundeffects – Reverse.story Available in three standard flavors (Original, Chocolate Mousse, and Harvest Strawberry) and limited, seasonal releases, Coconut Cult is not a regular yogurt you snack on. According to the California-based brand, it is meant to be consumed more like a daily probiotic supplement. The website claims that two tablespoons a day is enough to experience less bloating, more regularity, improved mood and mental health, better digestion and skin, and boosted immunity,. (The brand warns against double dipping into the same jar with a dirty spoon to avoid interfering with the live bacteria.) This is the most probiotic-rich coconut yogurt you will find on the market in the grocery store, one nutritionist weighed in on TikTok. The certified nutritionist, NTP, BFA, who goes by Claire The Nutritionist, did disclaim that people with certain conditions, such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, might be best avoiding the product as it can worsen the symptoms. For the everyday yogurt enthusiast, however, the difference between this yogurt and other options, according to founder Noah Simon-Waddell, is that many yogurts are pasteurized after fermentation to be shelf-stable, despite the fact this process can reduce or eliminate live cultures. (Some manufacturers may add them back in after the process as probiotics need to be alive and active in order to do their job in creating a healthy environment in the gut.) Packaged with roughly 50 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) per ounce (plain yogurt typically contains at least 1,000,000), Coconut Cult is certainly not lacking in that department. “Fifty billion CFU per ounce is extremely high for food-based probiotics, health creator Brooke Harter, who is currently pursuing her Masters in nutrition, told Delish. While high doses may be beneficial for some, excessive amounts could lead to digestive distress like bloating, gas, and diarrhea.” She added that research also says a lower-dose of well researched and specific probiotics is better than a higher-dose of mixed dose of strains, like those found in Coconut Cult. However, thanks to the glowing endorsements, jars of the stuff are flying off the shelves at Whole Foods and the website is experiencing shipping delays up to three weeks due to demand. Coconut Cult is reportedly producing five times as many jars as they were in 2024 to keep up with demand. I created this yogurt as part of my healing journey, as a way to heal myself and my gut, which was really sick, founder Simon-Waddell posted on TikTok in 2022. I didnt create this yogurt as some kind of genius startup business plan to sell incredibly expensive yogurt. And at approximately $10 per 8-ounce jar (the brands website, thecoconutcult.com, sells 16-ounce jars for $39 with a two-jar minimum purchase), it certainly costs more than your standard Chobani.
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For the first time in more than 40 years, a new hormone-free intrauterine device (IUD) is coming to market in the U.S.and its designed with patients comfort in mind, both during the insertion process and once its in place. The new IUD, called Miudella, comes from the pharmaceutical company Sebela Womens Health Inc. It was approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in late February, and is the second hormone-free IUD to be approved since 1984, when the copper-based option Paragard first became available. With the addition of Miudella, there will now be six IUD options available in the U.S. Not only does this advancement provide patients seeking a hormone-free IUD with more than one option, it also marks a potentially major improvement in IUD design. By reducing insertion pain and post-insertion bleeding and cramping, Miudella is addressing two potential side effects of IUD placement that many women feel have long been overlooked. A new option in an ultra-limited market According to Kelly Culwell, a board-certified OB-GYN and head of research and development at Sebela Womens Health, bringing an IUD to market, especially in the U.S., is a very expensive and time consuming proposition. Because of those barriers, she says, many pharma companies simply choose not to invest as much in studying womens health. There really isnt a generic IUD, and the reason for that is its a very time-intensive and cost-prohibitive development process, especially for companies that arent really putting a lot of money or time or effort into womens health development, Culwell explains. A lot of the bigger pharma companies are focusing on things that could bring in a lot more money; things like oncology or neurologyso there just hasn’t been a lot of innovation [in womens health overall]. These factors have resulted in a limited selection of IUD options in the U.S. compared to places like Europe, Culwell saysdespite the fact that IUDs are considered to be one of the most effective forms of birth control, preventing pregnancy 99% of the time or more. Currently, there are four hormonal IUDs on the market (three of which were made by the same company) and one hormone-free IUD. Hormonal IUDs work by releasing a progestin hormone into the body, which thickens the cervical mucus and prevents sperm from entering the uterus. For patients who are sensitive to hormones, though, this might not be the best option. These patients may want to opt for a hormone-free IUD, which uses copper to prevent pregnancy. The metal is toxic to sperm, killing them before they can make it through the uterus. The only currently available hormone-free IUD, Paragard, has a copper wire wound around the entire T-shaped structure of the device. But theres a major drawback to that design: Copper can initiate an uncomfortable inflammatory response in the patient, resulting in side effects like cramping and heavy bleeding. Miudella, which has been in development for about 15 years, seeks to improve on both this existing hormone-free IUD model and the construction and delivery of IUDs more generally. [Image: Sebela Women’s Health Inc.] Designing a more flexible IUD To start, Miudellas developers wanted to find a way to decrease the amount of copper on the device in an attempt to lessen the side effects caused by the metal. In the past, Culwell says, other companies have attempted a similar strategy, but found that lowering the dose of copper reduced the IUDs effectiveness. After extensive trial and error, the Miudella team found that placing copper strategically on three key points of the device could maintain effective pregnancy prevention rates while lowering the copper dose to less than half that of Paragard. The Miudella has copper placed right at the bottom of the IUD, which is at the internal part of the cervix, and then at the top of the arms, which is at each of the tubal openings, Culwell says. You don’t necessarily need copper throughout the entire uterine cavity, you just really need copper at the key places where the sperm will be going by, to basically prevent them from making their way to the egg. Miudella also bucks the standard material construction of IUDs. Currently, all of the IUDs on the market in the U.S. use a rigid, plastic T-frame that holds one stiff position. To account for the varying anatomies of the uterus, Miudella has swapped that plastic frame for one made of nitinol, an ultra-flexible metal alloy commonly used for procedures like cardiac stents and orthopedic implants. Nitinol is super elastic, Culwell says. It has shape memory properties, so it actually can conform nicely to varying sizes and shapes of uterus. A uterus can be narrow, it can be short, it can be wide, and so having something that’s not just a rigid T allows for some conformity there. Aiming for a less painful insertion process The nitinol frame allowed Miudellas developers to make some changes to the actual IUD insertion process, which can be painful for some womenso much so that, in 2022, TikTok saw an outpouring of stories from women who felt that their pain during the procedure had not been properly addressed. Just last August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its first-ever recommendation that patients should actually be counseled on pain management before the procedure, as well as permitting the use of topical lidocaine during the process. To increase patient comfort, Miudellas developers invented a new insertion tube designed for more gentle insertion. Because of nitinols compressive properties, the tube can be manufactured about a millimeter narrower than Paragards insertion tube. Additionally, while other IUD insertion tubes have a flat, blunt end, the Miudella tube comes with a tapered tip. [Photo: Sebela Women’s Health Inc.] To have it more tapered so that it would be more comfortable for the insertion process is actually a challenge, Culwell says. It’s a bit difficult to create this tapered tip that you could reproduce consistently, because then you also have to be able to get the IUD out without much resistance and force. There was a lot of experimentation on getting the tip of the insertion tube to be able to be nice and tapered, but also to allow easy passage of the IUD. In fact, there’s a proprietary way that that tapered tube is designed: It has slits in the side that decrease friction during the deployment process. Most other IUDs, due to the rigidity of their plastic frames, have to be loaded by the practitioner within five minutes of placement to hold their shape. In the case of Paragard, the device has to be manually loaded with the fingers by pushing the two arms of the IUD down into a tubetypically while the patient is actively waiting in the stirrups. The added benefit of Miudella’s unique tube and nitinol frame is that the device can be pre-loaded before it even arrives at the doctor’s office. Currently, Miudella has been approved for use up to three years, whereas Paragard is approved for up to 10. Culwell notes that the team at Sebela is in the process of studying Miudellas effectiveness for up to eight years of use. In her own practice as an OB-GYN, Culwell says, shes glad to see that the CDC has started to offer more guidance on pain management during IUD placement. Still, she believes that women have historically not been listened to when it comes to pain in particular, and that the pharma industry needs to invest more in innovating with patient comfort in mind. We’re continuing, as a community, to do more and more research on pain management for IUD inserts, Culwell says. I think it lagged behindfor way too long, but there was no research done on IUD pain. So, I think continued innovation and then continued informed consent and making sure that we really offer patients pain management techniques are key, because IUDs are terrific methods for people who want them, but it can’t be torture to get them in. That shouldnt be the trade-off.
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In late February, the federal government abruptly cut funding to dozens of organizations that fight housing discrimination across the country, threatening their survival and dealing a setback to civil rights enforcement efforts in the United States, fair housing advocates say. More than 160 groups nationwide rely on federal funding to investigate and file complaints on behalf of people who think they have been denied housing because of disability, race, sex, national origin, religion, or because they have children. In some states, including California, fair housing organizations also represent people who suspect they’ve been discriminated against because they pay rent with government housing assistance, like Section 8 vouchers. I was shocked, said Caroline Peattie, executive director of Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, who received notice that her organizations grant funding had ended abruptly. Housing discrimination is illegal under the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968. But the law has no teeth if advocates dont have the resources to enforce it, Peattie said. The current administration appears to have targeted fair housing programs for deep cuts, despite their relatively low cost. Housing advocates worry the cuts will mean they wont be able to pursue discrimination cases and that some fair housing groups will have to cease operating altogether. Peattie received a notice from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that said HUD is terminating this award because it no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities. This affects us, and our ability to be a viable organization that can provide housing services to communities that we serve, Peattie said. There was no warning whatsoever. Last month, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California was among 78 grantees that got sudden notice that theyd no longer receive funding, said Nikitra Bailey, executive vice president of the National Fair Housing Association, whose members include fair housing groups nationwide. The total cost of the canceled grants is estimated at $12.1 million, Bailey said, or less than a half-percent of Housing and Urban Developments total $255 billion budget for fiscal 2025. A HUD spokesperson wrote in an email, The Department is responsible for ensuring our grantees and contractors are in compliance with the Presidents Executive Orders. If we determine they are not in compliance, then we are required to take action. Trumps executive orders have targeted programs that mention diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility across the federal government. However, fair housing advocates arent sure how their programs conflict with the orders. The HUD spokesperson didnt explain why the canceled grants might have violated executive orders and didnt answer a follow-up email asking for specific examples of noncompliance on the part of the agencies whose contracts were canceled. Peattie said she had not been notified that her organization was noncompliant. Housing discrimination is especially common in cities like New York and Los Angeles where vacancy rates are low and competition for apartments is stiff. So our concern, Peattie said, is that as things get tighter in the rental markets, we will start to see more cases of housing discrimination. The budget cuts send a message, said Jasmine Perry, a home health aide in the San Francisco Bay Area, who was denied housing and filed a discrimination complaint through Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California nearly two years ago. It gives the people who denied me the okay to keep doing what theyre doing and to do it more. Its really sad, Perry said. Landlords repeatedly rejected Perrys rental applications as she searched for an apartment in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco. Perry, who is Black, suspected discrimination based on her race or because she planned to use a Section 8 rent subsidy to pay her rent. Section 8 is the nations largest housing assistance program for low-income peopleit provides a subsidy that tenants can use in any apartment, provided rents dont exceed limits set by local housing authorities. Perry finally obtained the voucher after 11 years on a waiting list, and she had just 90 days to use it before it expired. She turned to Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, which investigated and found that the management of one apartment building where she was rejected welcomed applicants without subsidies while discouraging those with them. Perry won a $37,000 settlement from the building management. She said her experience with filing a discrimination complaint showed her that I have rights. I can exercise my rights. Bailey of the National Fair Housing Association would not say how her group would respond to the funding cuts. However, some members of the organizations leadership are currently appealing to members of Congress to restore the funding. Even groups that have not received notices of grant cancellations are on edge. In Southern California, the Long Beach-based Fair Housing Foundation told Capital & Main in an email that its funding remained intact. Likewise, funding had not been cut at the Fair Housing Council of Orange County. But the groups David Levy wrote, We are still monitoring the situation as we believe we could still get a notice of cancellation. And Levy worries about funding for the coming year. The grant cancellations have now called into question whether the new administration will fund [fair housing] grants at all. In an email to Capital & Main, a HUD spokesperson said, The Department will continue to serve the American people, including those facing housing discrimination or eviction. When the Department puts out a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) any eligible organization is invited to apply. But the administration has given other indications that fair housing programs could be on the chopping block at Housing and Urban Developmentand employees of the department are also stressed. An internal documentobtained by the American Federation of Government Employees Council 222, which represents HUD workers, and viewed by Capital & Mainshows the agency plans to slash fair housing staff positions within the agency by more than 75%. Union president Antonio Gaines said the document is unofficial, and is derived from multiple sources that have proven to be reliable in the past. In early February, a web page describing the types of discrimination covered under the Fair Housing Act disappeared from the HUD website. It was replaced with a page not found message but the page is currently accessible on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. There is a perpetual state of fear, anxiety, fear of retaliation or reprisal, anxiety, every other distressful terminology that you can use can be applied to the environment, Gaines said. By Robin Urevich, Capital & Main This piece was originally publihed by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
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