Germany has seen a 64% decrease in plastic bag usage since 2015. Recently Germany agreed to ban the sale of single-use plastics, including plastic straws, cutlery, cotton buds, and food containers by July 2021.

Many disposable plastic products are superfluous with no sustainable use of resources. In addition, plastics end up too often in the environment or in the oceans. We are taking an important national step in the fight against the plastic flood.

–Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze

We throw away 1.3 billion tons of trash worldwide every year, and Germany alone produces 3 million tons of plastic waste annually. Germany’s recent bill to ban singe-use plastic is in accordance with the EU’s directive to reduce plastic waste.

Related: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

Many of the single-use plastics we go through a day are full of toxins like BPA and BPA alternatives. A study published by the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology examined 34 everyday plastics made of 8 different types of plastic and showed that 74% of the products were toxic in some way.

With a healthy gut and a healthy lifestyle, the chances of experiencing health problems from plastic toxicity are extremely unlikely. Still, for the environment and your health, you’re better off avoiding single-use plastics and using reusable alternatives.

Related: Many Hand-me-down Plastic Toys Are Toxic for Kids

Data from a recent study shows that young men between ages 18-24 are having less sex than years previous. From 2000 to 2018, around one in three U.S men between the ages of 18 to 24 in the study reported no sexual activity within the previous year.

Additionally, there was a decrease in sexual activity in men and women ages 25-34, although not as drastic as men age 18-24. Data was collected from 10,000 men and women between the ages of 18-44. Between 2016-2018, 16.5% of respondents reported less sexual activity compared to 9.5% of respondents reporting less sexual activity between 2000-2002.

There are now many more choices of things to do in the late evening than there once were and fewer opportunities to initiate sexual activity if both partners are engrossed in social media, electronic gaming, or binge watching.

-Jean Twenge, department of psychology in San Diego State University 

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The decrease in sexual activity is likely due to a number of factors. Likely factors include increased usage of social media and electronic gaming, as well as the stress of managing work and intimate relationships.

Men with lower income, or who were unemployed, along with both male and female students were more likely to be less sexually active. Unmarried women, as well as gay men, saw no notable decline in sexual activity.

Given a preference for men of higher socioeconomic status and the larger number of college-educated women than men, some young men may find it difficult to form heterosexual relationships, the researchers note.

–Young U.S. men having a lot less sex in the 21st century, study shows

During the Influenza pandemic of 1918, it was common practice for sick patients to be treated outside in tenets or open wards. This is known as the open-air method. The English physician John Coakley used the open-air method in 1791 to treat children suffering from tuberculous.

A combination of fresh air, sunlight, scrupulous standards of hygiene and reusable face masks appear to have substantially reduced deaths among some patients and infections among medical staff.

-20% of COVID Patients Caught Disease at Hospital

Sunlight increases vitamin D levels, which boosts the immune system. Additionally ultraviolet light renders viruses like COVID-19, and the flu, inactive. During the Influenza pandemic, in a typical hospital that had 76 cases, 20 patients would die in a three day period while 17 nurses would become sick. Adopting the “open air” method brought fatalities down from 40% to 13%.

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Today, our modern hospitals are severely lacking in the “open-air” method. It’s been estimated by several different studies that a large portion of COVID-19 cases are being contracted within hospitals. Numbers from NHS England indicate that up to 20% of hospital patients with COVID-19 became infected at the hospital.

Nurses and other staff have inadvertently passed on the virus to patients because they did not have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) or could not get tested for the virus.

-20% of COVID Patients Caught Disease at Hospital

In Wuhan, China it’s estimated that hospital-related transmission is associated with 41% of cases. In the U.S., it’s estimated that 1.7 million healthcare-associated infections occur in hospitals each year. In past outbreaks, SARS, which is similar to COVID-19 has been said to be a “super spreader” in Ontario in 2003, 77% of SARS cases were contracted in a hospital.

Related: How to Breathe

Dr. John Loannidis recommends not going to the hospital with COVID-19 if your symptoms are mild. Many people are able to spread COVID-19 to those who are immune-compromised. A study analyzed the mortality rates of 5,700 patients in New York City who were placed on ventilators. The mortality rate of these cases was anywhere from 76.4% to 97.2% depending on age.

If you’re worried about COVID-19, having a healthy gut is the best thing you can do to avoid getting sick, and of course sunlight and fresh air are great too.

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A new study has shown that high blood pressure increases your risk of dying from COVID-19. Doctors in China noticed a pattern when treating patients – nearly half of those in critical condition were also suffering from high blood pressure. A total of 2,877 patients were analyzed, where 29.5% of people had a history of high blood pressure. Data showed that those patients who had higher blood pressure had double the risk of dying from COVID-19.

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Out of the 10.5% of the overall population with diabetes or prediabetes, 14.3 million people over 65 have one of the two chronic conditions.

High Blood Pressure May Double Your Risk of Dying From COVID

Additionally, patients with diabetes also had worse symptoms than those without. In the U.K., data showed that 19% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 also had diabetes. Only an estimated 6% of the U.K. population has diabetes. Those with Type 1 diabetes were worse off than those with type 2.

Diabetes and high blood pressure contribute to 5 out of the 10 top leading causes of death according to the CDC.

Related: Hypertension – How To Lower Your Blood Pressure Quickly and Naturally

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A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Cardiology has found that nearly 80 percent of COVID patients sustained heart damage.

The research was conducted by Germany’s University Hospital Frankfurt. Researchers examined the MRI scans of 100 patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19. Most of the patients were said to be otherwise healthy and in their 40s and 50s.

More than three out of four of the patients showed heart muscle damage with an MRI test.

In some patients, the heart may be “in serious trouble as a part of COVID-19 disease,” Dr. Valentina Puntmann of University Hospital Frankfurt told Reuters. Among 100 patients ages 45 to 53, “a considerable majority” – 78 – had inflammation in the heart muscle and lining. Sixty-seven had recovered at home while 33 had required hospitalization. Half of the former patients were more than two months out since their diagnosis at the time of the MRI. Thirty-six patients reported ongoing shortness of breath and general exhaustion, and 71 had blood markers of heart muscle damage. Compared with similar people who had not had COVID-19, the recently recovered patients’ hearts pumped more weakly and displayed other risk factors for heart failure. Puntmann suspects the abnormalities are signs of permanent problems. “While we do not have direct evidence for late consequences yet, such as the development of heart failure … it is quite possible that in a few years, this burden will be enormous based on what we have learned from other viral conditions that similarly affect the heart,” she said. (JAMA & JAMA)

Yahoo News

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Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the economy was propped up by the Federal Reserve System. The central banks had reinflated the stock market, and while President Trump was boasting about a booming economy we were actually well on our way to an economic crash. It’s highly likely that an economic crash would have happened even without coronavirus, but whether or not it would have been as severe as it is now is debatable. With more people unemployed than during the time of the Great Depression, it is unlikely the economy will be quick to recover even if we do return to “normal”.

Noam Galai, Getty Images

In truth, the economy was a Fed-induced bubble before the pandemic. The central bank has managed to reinflate the stock market bubble despite the economic destruction, but it is nothing but a Fed-induced sugar high. And the economy won’t likely rebound quickly, even after things open up.

Nearly Half of Small Business Owners Expect to Close Down Permanently

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A recent survey conducted by a financial services company shows that nearly half (47%) of small businesses expect to close down permanently, and 41% say that they are looking for full-time work somewhere else. Less than half of small business owners that participated in the survey applied for PPP loans (38%) and 37% of those who did apply said the program was “slow to distribute funds”. Small businesses employ nearly 60 million Americans, accounting for 47% of America’s workforce. There are already several small businesses that have permanently closed leaving many unemployed. It is unlikely that the economy will be quick to recover without small businesses.

It’s no secret that bee populations are in trouble, and new research from York University examined the history of native bee and plant systems and found that 94% of those networks have been lost. Thirty percent of the networks have been lost permanently, while 64% of networks have been disrupted because native bees no longer visit native plants.

There are several reasons for the losses in the networks. Climate change is likely the biggest driver. We know that over the last 100 years or so annual temperatures have changed by two and a half degrees. This is enough to alter the time when certain native plants bloom…

For a bee that’s out for months on end or is a generalist pollinator, this isn’t such a critical mismatch, but for a bee that’s only out for two weeks of the year and only has a few floral hosts, this could be devastating.”

Sandra Rehan, Study author, University of New Hampshire

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Native bee populations are also under pressure from invasive species. Global ornamental plant trade has been able to easily migrate insects that live in plant stems from one continent to another and displace native populations. In addition to invasive species, neonicotinoids disrupt bee behaviors like flight ability, learning and memory ability, and temperature regulation.

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