On Tuesday Take Two discusses Ebola response at the state and federal level, dealing with puberty happening at a younger age and several cosmetic procedures that lack regulation.
Law enforcement agencies could be monitoring your mail
Ever get the sense that someone is rifling through your correspondence? Well, this may be more than just a sneaking suspicion. Turns out last year the United States Postal Service approved nearly 50,000 requests from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor mail.
A recent audit also revealed that in many cases the Postal Service approved requests without adequate documentation or authorization. New York Times' Washington Correspondent Ron Nixon has been writing about this and joins the show to share more.
Who sets the guidelines when it comes to Ebola?
The federal Centers for Disease Control laid out new guidelines Monday for monitoring the deadly Ebola disease. They stop far short of the controversial mandatory quarantines put in place by New York and New Jersey.
The CDC and the White House have argued against such measures, saying they aren't necessary and could harm the relief effort. The differing responses at the state and federal level have highlighted the lack of a single standard in our Ebola management.
Take Two is joined by Dr. Laura Kahn, physician and research scholar with Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security and the author of the book: "Who's in Charge? Leadership during epidemics, bio-terror attacks and other public health crises."
Superfans in Southern California still cheering, but for the Giants and the Royals
While the Dodgers' and Angels' runs have ended in the World Series, many people in Southern California are still cheering for their teams. It's just that their teams aren't from around here.
The San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals head into game six of the World Series, tonight. The Giants have a 3-2 lead, and could clinch the title tonight.
Karen Eshoo and Danny Slavens Jr will be on the edges of their seats, screaming their lungs out.
Both are here in Southern California, except Karen is a die-hard Giants supporter and Danny is a Royals superfan. They explain what they're doing as they watch their own teams battle out far away.
Why are girls starting puberty earlier?
What happens when a girl has the body of a 13-year-old, but the brain of an 8-year-old? It sounds like a riddle, but it's actually a real life challenge facing lots of kids today.
Girls are hitting puberty at much earlier ages these days, and parents are struggling with how to respond. It's what led Dr. Louise Greenspan and Dr. Julianna Deardorff to write "The New Puberty: How to Navigate Early Development in Today's Girls."
They joined Take Two to explain why puberty is happening earlier for some girls, what can be done to prevent it, and how parents can help their daughters through the changes.
EXCERPT:
Is She Entering Puberty Early?
Isabel's transition into puberty was like that of millions of other girls, from a purely physical standpoint. After Isabel complained of discomfort in her left nipple, her mother noticed a bump under it that started to grow bigger. Within a few weeks, the same thing happened to her right nipple. The pediatrician noticed that Isabel's height had edged out of the average range since her last visit, and she was now taller than most of her peers. When the doctor examined Isabel's breasts, she confirmed that Isabel was developing breast tissue even though she had no pubic hair yet.
All of this would have reflected an ordinary start of puberty had it not been for one significant difference: Isabel wasn't a preteen with dreams of dancing with her current crush. She was just 7 1/2 years old. When the doctor ordered a bone age x-ray, which would reveal how "old" Isabel was from a physiological standpoint, the results indicated that Isabel's bones were as biologically mature as those of a 9-year-old. (An image of the wrist and hand can determine if there's been long-term estrogen exposure, which causes early maturation.) Further testing demonstrated that the hormones responsible for triggering her physical changes were coming from her pituitary gland, the initiator of puberty, which signals certain hormones to instigate the process. To rule out any rare anomalies like a brain tumor that could have sparked puberty, the doctor also ordered an MRI. Fortunately, it didn't reveal any abnormalities, so Isabel was deemed to be an otherwise healthy girl beginning puberty during the phase of her life when she was still playing house with her dolls.
Welcome to the new puberty.
Early puberty statistics
If you've found yourself in panicky discussions with other parents or been reading media coverage about girls developing faster these days and entering puberty at an earlier age than previous generations, the reports are true. Indeed, a growing number of young girls are being catapulted into early physical development long before they are socially and emotionally ready for the change. According to the National Institutes of Health, puberty typically happens between ages 8 and 13 for girls, ending with sexual maturity and the ability to reproduce. Just a generation ago, less than 5 percent of girls started puberty before the age of 8; today, that percentage has more than doubled. In fact, our longitudinal study as part of the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (BCERP), which assessed the onset of puberty in more than 1,200 girls who have been tracked since 2005 across three cities and was published in the medical journal Pediatrics in 2010, found that by age 7, more than 10 percent of Caucasian girls in America had started growing breasts, along with almost 25 percent of African American girls and 15 percent of Hispanic girls. And by age 8, those percentages had spiked to 18, 43, and 31, respectively. This begs the question: What's going on?
What early puberty looks like
We'll answer that important question in this book. What hasn't changed is that puberty typically starts with breast development, then armpit and pubic hair, acne, a growth spurt, and, finally, menstruation. While it's easy to start wondering how environmental chemicals or dietary choices may be affecting our children's development, the new puberty reflects a much more complex set of circumstances than most people think. And it's often not nearly as dramatic as some feature stories would have you believe. Although many journalists have portrayed extremes, profiling 5-year-olds with the body odor of a teenager and shopping for bras with their mothers before heading to kindergarten, such examples are truly exceptional. The facts of early puberty for most girls are much less intimidating. In fact, even the words "puberty" and "normal" are grossly misunderstood by many people because popular perceptions of what is meant by these terms don't reflect the scientific literature. The good news is that despite the media's somewhat sensationalistic slant on this rapid turn of events for modern girls coming of age, this book aims to quell fears that going through puberty early is necessarily "bad" (or that there's something "wrong").
Dealing with early puberty
That said, traditional wisdom about how to help a child through puberty falls short when it comes to caring for a girl facing this transition early in her life. Parents, teachers, and professionals who work with children need much more than advice on how to talk about physical changes and sex; they require a host of skills that will help them teach girls how to appreciate and love their changing bodies and nurture their evolving identities, and also to help girls manage the eventual health risks their early puberty might carry. (Often these conversations don't even mention the birds and the bees.)
Types of early puberty
Girls who enter puberty early fall into two categories: There are the rare girls with known disorders like Central Precocious Puberty, wherein a girl's pubertal process starts abnormally early for unknown reasons or due to a defect in the nervous system, and then there are the bulk of the girls, who simply develop on the early side of the normal curve. But defining this "normal curve" has been a moving target for us in the medical community. Continual shifts in our scientific thinking about what characterizes a healthy normal-but-early puberty have not only provoked some debate among the experts who study it, but also led to much confusion and misinformation among the public. Throughout this book, we will dispel myths that have unfortunately begun to circulate over the last decade, since "early puberty" became a popular topic for discussion.
Common concerns with early puberty
Take a moment to consider some of the questions that are probably on your mind as you begin this book. Is soy really an estrogenic time bomb? Do hormones in meat and dairy hurt a girl's reproductive health? Can early puberty be stopped or reversed? Should it be? What's causing girls to start their pubertal process at younger ages today? How could things have changed so much in just one generation? These are questions we field routinely--from parents, teachers, school administrators, doctors, and health professionals--and we trust you'll be as surprised and reassured as they have been by our answers. For those who are seeking immediate solutions for guiding and nurturing rapidly developing girls, either because you work in some capacity with such girls or because you have a daughter of your own, we will provide highly practical strategies (e.g., lists of things to do or avoid and scripts for talking to girls) for supporting children going through this experience. Whether you care for a girl who is years away from puberty or one who is already in the throes of this important transition, this book will help you prepare for whatever lies ahead. We understand the unique set of challenges that arise when puberty begins for a girl who hasn't even begun to fathom what that means or what's ahead of her.
About the researchers
Before we present an overview of the upcoming chapters, let us tell you a little about ourselves. We've been working in the trenches of child and adolescent health in both clinical and research settings for years, nearly our entire professional lives, and between us, we have covered every angle of the early puberty phenomenon. In 2005, we--Louise Greenspan, a pediatric endocrinologist, and Julie Deardorff, a clinical psychologist--teamed up to study the complex nuances inherent in the new puberty, which eventually inspired us to write this manual for managing its potential effects, from blessings in disguise to serious hazards. People affected by early puberty, from panicked parents to educators and leaders in health care, have long urged us to combine our wisdom to create a scientifically grounded and practical book that addresses their concerns. And this is just what we've done. Even though we're still in the midst of our research and unveiling new insights every day, we've accumulated plenty of knowledge over the past decade to create an essential guide that can equip you with the information you need to traverse this terrain. Some of our most helpful information stems from the encounters we have had with individuals and families who live and breathe this new reality daily.
We should also add that aside from our professional jobs as doctors and scientists, we are mothers of girls, too. We go home every day to young daughters who are entering puberty themselves. We compare our notes and observations all the time from a deeply personal perspective, for we've pondered all of these emotional and sometimes thorny issues as parents as well as providers. And we practice the rules we preach in this book in the hope that our own loved ones will enjoy a most fulfilling, good long life.
Reprinted from The New Puberty by Louise Greenspan, MD, and Julianna Deardorff, PhD. © 2014 by Louise Greenspan MD, and Julianna Deardorff, PhD. By permission of Rodale Books. Available wherever books are sold.
Cosmetic surgery: Many of $10 billion industry's treatments unregulated
Los Angelenos love their beauty treatments.
But from Brazil to Beijing, one of the fastest growing markets in the world is the one for clinical cosmetics.
And you know we're not just talking about make-up here, but all sorts of other "interventions" from facial peels to botox treatments to full cosmetic surgery.
At the moment this market is estimated to be worth $10 billion a year worldwide and it's getting bigger.
But, a surprising number of these treatments are barely regulated at all.
The BBC's Justin Rowlatt found out a bit more as he strolled around a cosmetic surgery trade fair in London.
Tuesday Reviewsday: Javiera Mena, Pablo Alborán, Run the Jewels and Grouper
Music journalist Chris Martins and Justino Aguila, Associate Editor of Latin at Billboard Magazine join Take Two for the latest installment of new music segment - Tuesday Reviewsday.
Justino Aguila
Artist: Javiera Mena
Album: Otra Era [Another Era]
Release date: Oct. 28
Songs: “Otra Era”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqNTdNCU2y8
Notes: Javiera Mena is not stuck in the ‘80s, but she sure knows how to party and pay homage to the era without losing her own musical style that feels new, fresh and danceable.
A native of Santiago, Chile, the songstress returns with a fourth album of pop music and love songs that hit a high note as endearing compositions that sparkle in themes that pay tribute to the synthpop acts of the ‘80s from Duran Duran to Spandau Ballet.
Mena brings her own point of view through the music and in lyric form as her songs go from deep ideas to fun in songs such “Otra Era” [Another Era), which looks at the wonderment of a relationship.
Seen and heard at music festivals around the world such as Mexico’s Vive Latino and Chile’s Lollapalooza, Mena has been steadily building audience with her brand of pop music. The current album showcases a more electropop side of Mena.
The Chilean indie electronic pop singer is part of a new wave of young female singers to emerge in a vein similar to the style of veteran singer/songwriter Julieta Venegas. The two, along with Chilean crooner Gepe, performed together in 2013 for the song “Vuelve” [Return].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkfLeSTjbVo
Artist: Pablo Alborán
Album: Terral [Dust Cloud]
Release date: Nov. 11
Songs: “Por Fin” and “Pasos de cero”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEmHuISQnNw
Notes: Spanish singer/songwriter Pablo Alborán has promised his fans that his new album is unlike anything he’s done before. He’s kept his word with the upcoming release of Terral or Cloud Dust.
Alborán is only 25 and the prolific songwriter's signature ballads consist of tight, eloquent and charming compositions which also reign in the current project (There's also a duet with pop star Ricky Martin).
This is Alborán’s fourth album, but the crooner has been writing music since he was 12 and equally performing everything from the piano to the guitar, among other instruments. H s style of writing is intimate, soulful and moving and that makes the Latin Grammy nominated recording artist worthy of a larger spotlight.
Instrumentation on the song “Por Fin” [Finally] compliments his smooth vocals so well as his flamenco style emerges equally in the love ballad.
“Pasos de cero” [Steps of Zero] also illustrates the power ballad technique that Alborán has made his own and he further heightens his craft by playing his own instruments such as the guitar. The song's lyrics combined with the music are upbeat, charming and catchy.
Alborán is known for his acoustic versions of his music and in many ways this is one of his strengths as a performer who can sing, write and perform wonderfully in front of an audience. His new album has a more refined pop vibe. American musician/producer Eric Rosse, who has worked with Tori Amos and Mary Lambert (She Keeps Me Warm), worked on the album.
This latest album is one that is sure to satisfy Alborán's followers and will undoubtedly attract new fans as well. The impressive collection of music should take his career to new heights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6qB6FmEinw
Chris Martins
Artist: Run the Jewels (El-P and Killer Mike)
Album: Run the Jewels 2
Release date: October 24
Songs: "Early," "Crown"
Warning: Explicit lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg5spmavrMI
Notes: Run the Jewels is a rap duo comprising: 1) Brooklyn's El-P, an alt-rap icon since the mid-'90s. He founded the influential Def Jux label, produced the revered Cannibal Ox album, and is a wordy, swaggerful rapper in his own right... And 2) Atlanta's Killer Mike, who made a debut on OutKast's 'Stankonia' album, had a key verse on "The Whole World" (he "caught the beat running like Randy Moss"), and has released six solo albums to date.
They are underground vets who've found a powerful lane together. El is known for words and beats that evoke dystopian paranoia (he's a noted Philip K. Dick fan). Mike's lyrics often take on corrupt politicians, religious hypocrites, and abusive police. He has been an active voice during the Ferguson debacle, speakin on CNN and FOX, and writing an essay for Billboard.
RTJ combines El's seething atmospheric discontent with Mike's eloquent granular takedown. But the delivery isn't heady. It's hot and fierce, with the give and take of Run D.M.C. and the anger of Public Enemy. This is their second free album in two years, and it's likely the best rap release of 2014. Guests include Rage Against the Machine's Zach de la Rocha and Blink-182's Travis Barker. The song "Early" plainly addresses police brutality, and El's "Crown" verse takes on the military.
Warning: Explicit lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsP0RluaRxc
Artist: Grouper
Album: 'Ruins'
Release date: October 31
Songs: "Holding," "Lighthouse"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i31zFiwBFho
Notes: Liz Harris, a.k.a. Grouper, is a Northern California native who now lives in Astoria, Oregon (the setting of 'The Goonies'!). For a decade she's been creating praiseworthy ambient music and minimal dream-pop.
She uses piano, voice, guitar, and field samples, and often gathers the latter via artist residencies in faraway places. Her new album, Ruins, was recorded on one such excursion to Portugal. She says it was "the first time I'd sat still for a few years," in which she "processed" a lot of "political anger and emotional garbage" while there.
Her lyrics aren't easy to make out, but you can hear sounds of nature caught up in her hypnotic compositions. When she wasn't recording, she was hiking several miles to the beach on a path through ruins of old country estates. She calls the album "a document, a nod to that daily walk."
Harris is a noted visual artist as well, and does commissioned music for films and art installations too. Interestingly, her name isn't a reference to the fish, but to "the Group," the Fourth Way transcendental Christian commune in which she was raised. Her music is quiet but gorgeous, a little bit spooky and a lot bit entrancing. Out on Halloween.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm4fk2bZbno
Midterm elections: Bill Clinton coming to Coachella Valley
Midterm elections are exactly a week away now and there are some tightly contested races in Southern California.
For example, in Ventura County, Democratic Congresswoman Julia Brownley is campaigning to protect her seat from Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorell.
Out in Redlands, Mayor Pete Aguilar - also a Democrat - is running to represent the 31st district.
And each is getting support from some political heavy hitters on both sides of the aisle.
This Wednesday, Bill Clinton is expected to join Brownley, Aguilar and Dr. Raul Ruiz from the Coachella Valley for a Get Out the Vote rally in Oxnard.
Southern California Public Radio's Washington DC correspondent Kitty Felde shares more.
Latino turnout key to Democratic chances in Central Valley congressional seat
Latinos became California's largest demographic group this year. But, that has not yet translated into political clout at the polls.
That's certainly the case in one congressional district that stretches from Kern to Fresno County.
The California Report's Sasha Khokha looks at the most lopsided district in the state when it comes to Latino voter registration versus turnout.
South LA pushing for 8-mile bike path
Following on the heels of Whittier and Burbank, South Los Angeles is pushing for its own conversion of an abandoned rail line to a bike rail.
Metro is expected to approve $2.3 million to draw up plans. KPCC's Andrea Gardner reports.
Chocolate component could reverse memory loss, study finds
As if you need a reason to like chocolate, here's a good one: Something in it could reverse memory loss.
It's the key finding in a new study published in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience.
The study linked a compound found in cocoa with improved memory in older adults.
For more, Take Two speaks with Dr. Scott Small, Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center and lead author on the study.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
We're not talking about any old chocolate, right?
We are not talking about chocolate, period. That's a misperception I should clarify at the get go. We are talking about a derivative of cocoa beans. We gave our subjects a lot of these flavonols, so much so that you can't find that level in chocolate. So the message should be, as a physician, do not consume a lot of chocolate to try to replicate what we found in the study.
What are the flavonols doing?
We don't know for sure. What we do know from previous studies is they increase the connections and the strength of the connections in the very specific part of the brain that previous studies have suggested underlies age-related memory loss. Exactly how in the kind of molecular perspective is still unknown.
And the amount of flavonols you were giving were way more than anyone could find anywhere in any diet right?
Yes, to give you a sense, our subjects consumed 900 milligrams of cocoa flavonolos a day. In a typical chocolate bar, at best, there's 40 milligrams. So you'd have to eat 25 bars a day—not what I am recommending, not what the study is suggesting. So let's make that clear. Chocolate is good for many reasons, but not at 25 bars a day.
Tell us about the sample of people.
We were interested in normal aging so we looked at healthy people between the ages of 50 and 69.
What did you find?
When we compared subjects who consumed high flavonols versus those who consumed low flavonols we found a significant improvement in the function of this very small area in the brain that is thought to underlie age-related memory decline.
How did you measure that significant improvement?
We had to optimize a variant of functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to detect small changes in this tiny area of the brain. We also needed to modify a cognitive test that we show is sensitive to function in this area of the brain.
What kind of improvement did you notice?
Numerically, on average, 60 year olds seemed like they were performing closer to 30 year olds. Although I caution, that's the kind of finding that really needs to be tested in our future studies when we apply these tools to a much larger sample.
It doesn't help with someone who has Alzheimer's or dementia?
We explicitly make the point that our study sample did not have Alzheimer's disease. I personally don't think it's going to help Alzheimer's, however our study didn't look at patients with Alzheimer's. It might, so I think that remains to be tested.
How could this research be used to further develop memory loss treatments?
The kind of, maybe, big story here is that it shows that dietary interventions can ameliorate age-related memory decline. I don't think we're quite there yet because we can't consume enough of these flavonols, but they are food products. In the future one can imagine how diet and lifestyle changes might be able to prevent or ameliorate age-related memory decline.
Would it be a good idea to try and increase the amount of flavonols in your diet?
I would love to give a practical recommendation based on our findings but it's not there yet. All I know is 900 milligrams of flavonols seem to have an effect. In our future studies, we're going to start looking at, can one see the same effect with much lower flavonols, perhaps the amount one can consume in a specifically designed diet.
New LA County health program aims to help unauthorized immigrants
There are about 1 million unauthorized immigrants in Los Angeles County.
Somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 of them are uninsured and ineligible for benefits under the Affordable Care Act.
That prompted the county to create a new health program for them.
Southern California Public Radio's Adrian Florido says the goal is to keep these people healthier while spending county money more efficiently.
Ebola: Cremation precaution defies West African tradition
One of the keys to containing the Ebola outbreak is proper disposal of the dead.
That means cremation. But cremation runs counter to West African tradition.
And that poses a challenge for health workers whose job is to collect bodies.
From Monrovia, Liberia, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reports.
Silicon Valley startup creates gun tracking technology for cops
A Silicon Valley tech company has developed technology to let police dispatchers know when an officer's weapon has been fired.
The technology, designed by Yardarm Technologies, would send real-time notifications about when an officer's gun is taken out of its holster, in what direction it was fired, and where the gun is located.
Yardarm Technology's Jim Schaff joins Take Two to explain how the new police gunfire tracking technology works.
'Game of Thrones' withdrawals? Learn to speak Dothraki
"Game of Thrones" fans have a long time to wait until the next season - it won't premiere until spring of next year.
But a new volume of the story that the show is based on has arrived. Today fans of the show can buy writer George RR Martin's new book, "The World of Ice & Fire," an illustrated history of the show's back-story.
But there's another way you could kill the time until the new season starts--learn to speak Dothraki.
For people unfamiliar with the story - Dothraki are a nomadic, warrior people who strike fear into anyone they come across.
In the "Game of Thrones" story one of the greatest Dothraki leaders, who are referred to as khals, was Khal Drogo, who is married to the principal heroine in the series, Daenerys Targaryen. Here is a clip of the show where actor Jason Mamoa, who plays Khal Drogo, speaks of war in the Dothraki language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyqKWROjrq4
And actress Emilia Clarke shares her experience learning the fictional Dothraki language for the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAmO5kNI79k
Alex Cohen learned more about the Dothraki language with the creator, David Peterson.
https://soundcloud.com/wired/sets/useful-dothraki-phrases