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Just In | The Hill 

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Data from over 11,000 adults show good hydration is associated with a decreased risk of developing chronic diseases and improved longevity.

Global surveys indicate around half of the world’s population does not meet recommended daily fluid intake levels.

Researchers suggest improving hydration may help curb chronic disease rates. 

Many Americans are likely familiar with the well-known benefits of hydration, ranging from increased energy to better physical performance. 

Now, new research shows adults who stay well-hydrated appear to be healthier, enjoy a lower risk of developing chronic diseases, and may live longer overall compared with their less-hydrated peers. 

That’s according to an NIH study published in eBioMedicine. Data from over 11,000 participants collected over 25 years revealed higher serum sodium levels — which rise when fluid intake decreases — were associated with a 39 percent increased likelihood of developing chronic conditions like heart failure, stroke and dementia, compared with adults who had levels in the medium range.

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Adults with higher levels were also 21 percent more likely to die at a younger age.

“The results suggest that proper hydration may slow down aging and prolong a disease-free life,” said study author Natalia Dmitrieva in a release. Dmitrieva is a researcher in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Data were collected from five medical visits per participant. The first two visits occurred when participants were in their 50s, and the last three were between the ages of 70 and 90. All those with high serum sodium levels at their first visit were excluded from the study, along with adults who had underlying conditions that could affect levels, like obesity.

Normal serum sodium levels range from 135-146 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L). Researchers compared participants’ levels with 15 different health markers including cholesterol and blood sugar. 

In addition to longevity and chronic disease outcomes, they found adults with serum levels above 142 mEq/L were 10 to 15 percent more likely to be biologically older than their chronological age, compared with adults with ranges from 137-142 mEq/L. 

“People whose serum sodium is 142 mEq/L or higher would benefit from evaluation of their fluid intake,” Dmitrieva added. 

Most individuals can safely improve fluid intake by drinking fluids or eating vegetables or fruits with high water content, researchers said. However, some patients with underlying health conditions may need to seek medical guidance as certain medications can lead to fluid loss. 

The National Academy of Medicines recommends most women drink between 6 to 9 cups of fluids each day. For men, the Academy recommends between 8 and 12 cups. 

Although the results do not prove any causal effects, global surveys show around half of all people do not drink the recommended amounts of fluids, researchers wrote. 

“On the global level, this can have a big impact,” said Dmitrieva. 

“Decreased body water content is the most common factor that increases serum sodium, which is why the results suggest that staying well hydrated may slow down the aging process and prevent or delay chronic disease.”

​Longevity, Changing America, Well-Being, eBioMedicine, Health care, Hydration, NIH Read More 

Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories 

NEW YORK — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis plans to send migrants to major cities including New York, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday, warning that the nation’s largest city is already struggling to deal an influx of people sent from Texas and other Republican-led states.

The impending move by Polis is unusual because Colorado is not a border state and both leaders are Democrats facing severe challenges over what they say is a national crisis around immigration.

“We were notified yesterday that the governor of Colorado is now stating that they are going to be sending migrants to places like New York and Chicago,” Adams said during a radio appearance. “This is just unfair for local governments to have to take on this national obligation.”

An aide to Adams said the mayor’s administration was told of the governor’s intentions on Monday evening. And while it appeared that Polis’ plan entailed redirecting migrants who had arrived in Colorado to New York City and other metropolitan areas, the details on timing and the number of people who would be traveling east was unclear.

Polis’ office did not immediately respond.

Like many major cities around the country, Denver has been struggling to provide services for a surge of people who have fled their home countries in Central and South America, crossed the southern border and sought asylum in the United States. Last month, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock declared a state of emergency and later appealed to the local Catholic archdiocese for assistance. He and Polis — both Democrats — also launched a fund to raise money to support services for migrants.

Thousands of migrants have attempted to cross into the U.S. from the southern border in recent weeks, in part because a Trump administration border policy, known as Title 42, was set to expire in December. The Supreme Court last week blocked the lifting of the policy, which allows the U.S. to expel migrants to stop the spread of Covid-19.

Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott over the spring and summer bused thousands of migrants from the border to blue strongholds like New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, while Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis flew nearly 50 mostly Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. He claimed it was to bring attention to the border situation.

But in recent weeks, the dilemma at the border has become worse. El Paso’s Democratic mayor, Oscar Leeser, declared a state of emergency in December after migrants began pouring into the city. Abbott also deployed hundreds of Texas national guard and state troopers to the border to stop people from entering the U.S.

A spokesperson for Abbott said in an email, “We are still only busing to DC, NYC, Chicago, and Philadelphia.”

Adams said Tuesday around 30,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since the spring in need of food, shelter and education — a surge that has has stretched the city’s social service infrastructure to the breaking point and opened up huge risks for the municipal budget. Adams, along with the two Colorado leaders, have called on the federal government to provide assistance to localities dealing with the influx.

“No city should have to make a decisions if they’re going to provide for their citizens — particularly coming out of Covid — or if they’re going to deal with an onslaught of migrants and asylum seekers,” he said.

David Kihara contributed to this report.

​ Read More 

Just In | The Hill 

Chinese officials have called out other countries for their COVID-19 testing requirements for travelers coming from China, threatening to impose countermeasures in response.

Speaking at a daily briefing on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called the virus testing requirements imposed by other countries “excessive” and “unacceptable” and said they “lack scientific basis.”

Several countries including the U.S., Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and Japan have announced strict COVID measures toward passengers coming from China amid growing concerns of the lack of data on daily infections in the country and the spread of new variants. 

“We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China lack scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable,” Mao said.

“We are firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate the COVID measures for political purposes and will take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity,” Mao added. 

Mao’s remarks come as the Biden administration has plans to implement new COVID-19 restrictions for passengers traveling from China amid the surge of virus cases and the lack of transparency with reporting virus data from the country. 

Starting Thursday, all passengers who are at least 2 years old or older traveling from China, Hong Kong or Macau are required to show a negative COVID-19 test no more than two days before their departure.

U.S. officials noted that the requirement will apply to all air passengers regardless of their nationality and vaccination status.

China, which has downgraded COVID-19 from a Class A infectious disease to Class B and shifted away from its strict COVID measures as well, last month announced it will lift the mandatory COVID-19 quarantine requirement for travelers entering the country.

​Healthcare, News, Policy, China Read More 

Just In | The Hill 

Two-thirds of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal predict a recession will occur this year as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to try to get inflation under control. 

The Journal surveyed economists at 23 large financial institutions that do business with the Fed, and found that most believe a recession will happen this year. Economists at two firms expect a recession will take place next year. 

The survey covered a group of trading firms and investment banks known as primary dealers. They mentioned a few reasons for concern, noting that Americans are spending the money they saved during the COVID-19 pandemic, the housing market is declining and banks are tightening their standards for lending money. 

Fed data shows that the savings the people built up at the peak of the pandemic has dropped from $2.3 trillion to $1.2 trillion, and Deutsche Bank analysts expect the savings will be fully exhausted by October. 

The Journal reported that almost 40 percent of U.S. banks were tightening their lending standards in the fourth quarter of 2022.

That can be a sign that banks are expecting a recession, as banks generally tightened their lending standards ahead of recessions in 2008 and 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 

Economic experts have indicated concern that the Fed’s aggressive increases in interest rates over the past year could cause an economic downturn, but the economy has shown resilience in continuing to add jobs. 

Still, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has indicated a willingness to continue to raise interest rates as much as is necessary to get inflation to less than 2 percent. 

After four straight increases of 0.75 points, the Fed did slow its increase in rates to 0.5 points last month as inflation showed signs of abating. But the annual inflation rate was still 7.1 percent in November. 

A majority of the economists in the Journal’s survey said they believe the higher interest rates will increase the unemployment level from 3.7 percent recorded in November to more than 5 percent, which would still be historically low but represent millions losing their jobs.

Respondents said the effects of the interest rate increases will be more noticeable this year than last year. 

Most economists said the recession will likely be mild and they expect the economy to rebound later in the year largely as a result of the Fed starting to cut rates. Only five of the financial institutions surveyed said they do not expect a recession this year or next year.

​Finance, federal reserve, Interest rates, Recession Read More 

Just In | The Hill 

U.S. News & World Report announced on Monday that it would be making multiple changes to how it ranks law schools after several high-profile institutions dropped the rankings in recent months. 

U.S. News has one of the best-known college rankings systems and has become embroiled in controversies as leading institutions such as Harvard Law, Yale Law, Columbia Law and others slammed the metrics for the rankings and said they would no longer cooperate with them. 

In a letter addressed to “Law School Deans” and posted on its website, U.S. News announced several changes to how it will rank schools.

The most significant include putting less weight on peer assessment reviews of schools from academics, lawyers and judges, giving full-weight to schools that offer fellowships for students going into public service and giving credit to schools for students who choose to pursue graduate degrees. 

Robert Morse, chief data strategist for U.S. News, and Stephanie Salmon, senior vice president for data & information strategy for the publication, said in the letter they are also working on criteria for loan assistance help, need-based aid and “diversity and socio-economic considerations,” but that will take more time to develop. 

The letter says these changes came after conversations with more than 100 law school deans and officials, where the outlet found schools wanted them to focus “more weight on outcomes, such as bar passage and employment outcomes.”

The changes were also announced after more than 10 law schools said they would no longer give U.S. News data on their institutions. 

Among the top complaints for these schools, they abhorred the weight of peer assessments on institutions and said their fellowships to help get more lawyers into public service were undervalued. 

Harvard Law School Dean John Manning took aim at the ranking’s debt metric in the school’s announcement they were leaving the rankings, saying it encouraged schools to only admit wealthy individuals who could afford to pay and didn’t take into account the school’s loan forgiveness programs. 

“We have helped expand the universe of well-known law schools beyond the club of Ivy League schools of the last century. But we realize that legal education is neither monolithic nor static and that the rankings, by becoming so widely accepted, may not capture the individual nuances of each school in the larger goal of using a common set of data,” U.S. News says in the announcement. 

It also said it will continue to rank schools who don’t cooperate and give them data, as much of it is publicly available, but schools that do give data will get more detailed profiles of their institutions. 

​Blog Briefing Room, U.S. News and World Report Read More