5280 Health 2022

During the past year, we both welcomed our firstborns into the world—and immediately joined the ranks of perpetually petrified parents. We had read all the books and bought all the bottles, but we were still ill-prepared for everything there is to fear. Why aren’t they sleeping? Have they gained enough weight? Aren’t they supposed to be rolling over by now? Who’s going to watch them when we return to work? Should they be sucking on that? Evidently, this terror doesn’t go away. If our relatives and co-workers are to be believed, it will only become more intense as our boys grow older and begin to confront adversities on their own, out of our soothing reach. And, according to a growing body of research, being a kid today is even…

ETHAN PAN A food writing and cognitive science major at Brown University, Pan got a literal taste of his subject’s work while reporting “Digging Deep” (page 26), a profile of Denver hip-hop artist, gardener, and vegan chef Ietef Vita (aka DJ Cavem). “While showing me his herbs, he was adamant I try them,” Pan says. “It showed not only his generosity, but also his understanding that sharing flavor makes a special moment.” MADI SKAHILL Skahill, a digital assistant editor for 5280, says that researching “Rise With The Machines” (page 22) was a wake-up call: “Apparently, I’m losing bone strength by the minute.” Luckily, she found three local gyms with state-of-the-art equipment that garners results almost as quickly. “I love that these exercise machines help me work my body smarter,” Skahill…

Born with Down syndrome and weakened muscles, Izzy S. couldn’t sit up atop her mount when she began visiting the Temple Grandin Equine Center (TGEC) interim facility in Elyria-Swansea a year and a half ago. By this past July, however, the four-and-a-half-year-old was able to stand in the saddle for 10 seconds. Her progress can be attributed to equine-assisted services (EAS), a form of therapy designed to treat a range of physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities, from autism to spina bifida. (For Izzy, a horse’s gait helps her understand what walking feels like.) Determined to become the world’s foremost EAS provider, in February 2021 Colorado State University debuted an approximately 14,000-square-foot TGEC facility—named for the school’s famed animal sciences professor and autism advocate—near its Fort Collins campus; a permanent TGEC…

You may have heard the news: Protecting yourself from the sun is actually detrimental to your health—at least, according to a 2016 study in the Journal of Internal Medicine that’s part of a growing body of research re-examining the role sunlight plays in our well-being. But while there’s mounting evidence that not getting enough sun could be a serious risk, there’s a lot to unpack before you decide to leave your parasol behind on a trip to Dillon Reservoir. At the heart of the controversy is vitamin D, the nutrient we get from food, supplements, and ultraviolet radiation (aka sunshine). Higher levels of vitamin D have long been correlated with everything from reduced inflammation to lower rates of skin cancer and heart disease. But researchers haven’t been able to verify…

People suffering long-term effects of COVID-19 have a new co-pilot: the Post-COVID ICU Clinic at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. There, UCHealth specialists in cardiology, pulmonology, physical rehabilitation, and behavioral health come together to see those who struggle with symptoms a month or more after recovering from the coronavirus. “There are patients in their twenties, thirties, and forties who were highly productive and are now unable to walk across the room without feeling exhausted,” says Dr. Natasha Altman, an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist. The clinic is the brainchild of Dr. Sarah Jolley, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist at the CU School of Medicine who was developing a post-ICU clinic to aid long-term recovery when COVID-19 hit in spring 2020. The project quickly…

In March 2020, as COVID-19 spread across the country, Hosea and Lauren Rosenberg’s world had already come to a halt. Days before the pandemic forced the couple to shut down their Boulder restaurants, Blackbelly and Santo, they learned that their then two-year-old daughter, Sophie, had multicentric carpotarsal osteolysis (MCTO), a painful, progressively crippling genetic disorder that can be life-threatening due to its accompanying kidney failure. Sophie shares the disease with approximately 30 to 50 other people on the planet. In the past, the heartrending prognosis might have been the final word. Today, however, parents like the Rosenbergs are leading searches for treatments and cures—and in the process, they’re changing how the medical community thinks about these under-researched diseases. “[Sophie’s doctors] basically printed out a stack of papers and said, ‘Here’s…