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  • Prioritizing Your Day: How to Make Time for What Matters Most

    Prioritizing Your Day: How to Make Time for What Matters Most

    Introduction to Prioritizing Your Day

    In today’s fast-paced world, managing our time effectively has become more crucial than ever. With numerous tasks competing for our attention, it’s easy to get bogged down in non-essential activities, leaving us with little time for what truly matters. Prioritizing your day is the key to maximizing your productivity, reducing stress, and achieving a better work-life balance. In this article, we will explore the importance of prioritizing your day, provide you with practical tips on how to make time for what matters most, and discuss strategies for overcoming common obstacles.

    Understanding the Importance of Prioritization

    Prioritization is the process of identifying and focusing on the most important tasks and activities that align with your goals and values. By prioritizing your day, you can ensure that you’re making progress towards your objectives, whether they’re personal or professional. Effective prioritization helps you to:

    • Manage your time more efficiently

    • Reduce stress and feeling overwhelmed

    • Increase your productivity and focus

    • Achieve a better balance between work and personal life

    • Make significant progress towards your goals

    Setting Clear Goals and Priorities

    The first step in prioritizing your day is to set clear goals and priorities. This involves identifying what needs to be accomplished and categorizing tasks based on their urgency and importance. The Eisenhower Matrix is a useful tool for this purpose. It categorizes tasks into four quadrants:

    1. Urgent and Important (Do First): Deadlines, emergencies, and critical tasks fall into this category.

    2. Not Urgent but Important (Schedule): Long-term planning, relationships, and personal growth are examples of tasks that are important but not necessarily urgent.

    3. Urgent but Not Important (Delegate): Interruptions, emails, and meetings can often be delegated to others or automated.

    4. Not Urgent and Not Important (Eliminate): Time wasters such as excessive social media use or watching too much television should be minimized or eliminated.

    Creating a Daily Schedule

    Once you have identified your priorities, the next step is to create a daily schedule that reflects these priorities. Here are some tips for creating an effective daily schedule:

    • Start with Your Most Important Task: Begin your day with the task that is most critical or has the greatest impact.

    • Use Time Blocking: Allocate specific time slots for each task to help you stay focused and avoid multitasking.

    • Leave Space for Flexibility: Life is unpredictable, and things don’t always go as planned. Leave some buffer time in your schedule for unexpected tasks or emergencies.

    • Schedule Breaks: Taking regular breaks can help you recharge and maintain your productivity throughout the day.

    Managing Distractions and Minimizing Procrastination

    Distractions and procrastination are two of the biggest obstacles to effective time management. Here are some strategies to help you manage distractions and minimize procrastination:

    • Identify Common Distractions: Be aware of what commonly distracts you, such as social media, email, or chatty colleagues, and develop strategies to minimize their impact.

    • Use the Pomodoro Technique: This involves working in focused, 25-minute increments, followed by a five-minute break. After four cycles, take a longer break of 15-30 minutes.

    • Create a Conducive Work Environment: Ensure your workspace is comfortable, well-lit, and free from distractions.

    • Set Clear Boundaries: Communicate your work hours and boundaries with family, friends, and colleagues to protect your work time.

    Leveraging Technology to Enhance Productivity

    Technology can be both a tool and a distraction. Here’s how you can leverage it to enhance your productivity:

    • Use Task Management Tools: Apps like Trello, Asana, or Todoist can help you organize your tasks, set reminders, and track your progress.

    • Implement Website Blockers: Tools such as Freedom or SelfControl can block distracting websites or social media during your work hours.

    • Automate Repetitive Tasks: Use software or apps to automate tasks that are repetitive or time-consuming, freeing up more time for important activities.

    Maintaining Energy and Motivation

    Maintaining your energy and motivation is crucial for sustaining your productivity over the long haul. Here are some tips to help you stay energized and motivated:

    • Get Enough Sleep: Adequate sleep is essential for physical and mental rejuvenation.

    • Exercise Regularly: Physical activity boosts energy levels and improves focus.

    • Eat a Balanced Diet: A healthy diet provides the nutrients your body needs to function at its best.

    • Celebrate Small Wins: Acknowledge and celebrate your achievements, no matter how small, to keep yourself motivated.

    Conclusion

    Prioritizing your day is a powerful strategy for achieving more in less time, reducing stress, and improving your overall quality of life. By setting clear goals, creating an effective daily schedule, managing distractions, leveraging technology, and maintaining your energy and motivation, you can make significant progress towards your objectives. Remember, prioritization is a skill that takes practice to develop, so be patient with yourself and make adjustments as needed. With consistent effort, you can master the art of prioritizing your day and achieve a more balanced, productive, and fulfilling life.

    FAQs

    • Q: How do I prioritize tasks when everything seems important?
      A: Use the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks into urgent vs. important, and focus on the most critical ones first.

    • Q: What if I’m not a morning person? Can I still prioritize my day effectively?
      A: Yes, the key is to find your most productive time of day and schedule your most important tasks then.

    • Q: How can I avoid procrastination?
      A: Break down large tasks into smaller ones, use the Pomodoro Technique, and remove distractions to help you stay focused.

    • Q: Is it necessary to use technology to prioritize my day?
      A: While technology can be helpful, it’s not necessary. Pen and paper or a planner can also be effective tools for prioritizing your day.

    • Q: How often should I review and adjust my priorities?
      A: Regularly, ideally at the end of each day or week, to ensure you’re on track with your goals and make adjustments as needed.

  • 10 Subtle Micromovements That Reveal Anxiety’s Early Indicators in Adults

    10 Subtle Micromovements That Reveal Anxiety’s Early Indicators in Adults

    You’re sitting in the waiting room to go into your first big interview or give the presentation you’ve been working on for weeks. Maybe your foot starts tapping quicker and quicker, or you start twirling your hair. Why is your body doing this, and what can these small movements tell you? 

    Micromovements serve as the body’s way to signal rising anxiety.  

    Learning to recognize early tension triggers can help build emotional resilience and maintain calm through the day.

    When you hone awareness, you can use mindful techniques to respond, which can help you preserve well-being and maintain focus in work and play. Plus, learning to recognize early tension triggers can also help build emotional resilience and maintain calm through the day.

    Here are 10 common signals your body might be sending you. 

    The 10 Subtle Micromovements

    1. The Brow Furrow or Knit

    We often knit our eyebrows together when looking at a computer screen or reading a dense email. While in some cases, this might be due to awkward positioning at your desk or a need to make adjustments to your screen, worry or mental strain can trigger this tiny contraction of the forehead muscles. The brain signals these muscles to tighten as it tries to process a difficult problem, mirroring the internal effort to solve a stressful situation.

    2. Jaw Clenching or Grinding

    Do you ever catch yourself clenching your jaw in a stressful moment, like when you’re driving through heavy traffic or working under a tight deadline? Awake bruxism, another term for grinding, is common, affecting up to 23% of adults. A tense jaw is part of your body’s physical defense system: it’s preparing to stabilize your head and neck in the presence of physical threat.

    3. The Shallow Breath

    During a stressful meeting, you might notice your chest rising and falling rapidly while your stomach remains perfectly still. Internal tension disrupts normal breathing, leading to a shift to rapid, shallow chest breathing. The autonomic nervous system enters a sympathetic response, treating minor mental strain the same way it treats actual physical danger.

    4. Finger Tapping or Cuticle Picking

    When we’re anxious, we might repeatedly taps a desk or pick at the skin around our fingernails during a long pause in conversation. The nervous system drives these small, rhythmic movements when it contains too much restless energy. The motor system generates repetitive actions to help discharge that excess stimulation and restore internal balance.

    It’s common to curl our toes tightly inside our shoes or bounce a heel rapidly against the floor. This lower-body tension shows that stress has traveled down the musculoskeletal system. The body prepares its legs and feet for sudden action, keeping you in a constant state of hyper-vigilance.

    6. Lip Biting or Chewing

    Sometimes we trap our bottom lip between our teeth or chew on the inside of our cheek. The lower lip bite is the classic signal of I’m thinking that over or I’m trying to decide—moments that often come with some anxiety or uncertainty. It might seem strange, but this self-regulating behavior increases physical sensations in the mouth. The nervous system uses this sensory input to distract you from emotional discomfort.

    7. Subtle Neck and Shoulder Tensing

    Here’s one to notice: when a difficult email arrives, see if you shrug your shoulders up toward your ears without realizing it. This posture mimics a protective instinct to guard the neck from a sudden blow. Muscles in the upper back tighten to prepare you for a perceived threat.

    8. Hair Twirling or Touching

    Do you tend to wrap a strand of hair around your finger or stroke your head during a challenging presentation. This form of fidgeting is a pacifying behavior. The gentle, repetitive touch provides comfort to an overstimulated brain, helping to soothe rising internal agitation.

    9. Eyelid Fluttering or Rapid Blinking

    In many situations, people blink rapidly when answering a stressful question. Rapid blinking is an important facial expression that indicates heightened anxiety and fatigue. The accelerated blink rate reflects a sudden spike in adrenaline and stress hormones within the nervous system.

    10. The Freezing Response

    Sometimes a sudden loud noise or receiving unexpected news can cause a lock in posture. We stop moving for a few seconds. This momentary pause represents the primal freeze response. The brain temporarily halts all motor functions to evaluate its surroundings before choosing an action.

    The autonomic nervous system is a network of nerves that regulates involuntary body processes, like heart rate and blood pressure. 

    This system relies on the sympathetic and parasympathetic networks. The sympathetic nervous system drives the “fight or flight” response, accelerating heart rate and muscle readiness during perceived danger. The parasympathetic nervous system manages the “rest and digest” system, lowering heart rate and encouraging recovery when the threat passes.

    You might notice that many of these micromovements are a primal body-response to perceived physical threat—even when no such immediate threat is present. Micromovements are the physical spillover of this intense internal activation; they often serve as unconscious attempts at self-regulation, as the motor system discharges excess nervous energy.

    Micromovements prove that the body actively communicates a specific need—and often, that need is simply rest.

    Anxiety signals a chronically overactive sympathetic nervous system. When this stress response remains active, the adrenal glands flood the bloodstream with stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.

    It’s easy to miss early nervous system warning signs when our attention is fractured. Micromovements prove that the body actively communicates a specific need—and often, that need is simply rest. Recognizing these micromovements is the first step toward altering behavioral responses and proactive stress management.

    Mindfulness as a Solution

    Mindfulness offers a way to keep our awareness in the present moment. This practice trains interoception, which is our ability to  accurately perceive internal bodily signals. 

    One way that mindfulness can help us build better interoception is through practices like the body scan, a structured exercise in which individuals monitor physical sensations from head to toe. As you scan your body, assess how each part feels. This can help determine where an emotional reaction took place and where it sits. For example, you may experience tension in your stomach, and can intentionally breathe into the belly to relax that tension.

    Mindfulness training strengthens structural connectivity within the brain’s interoceptive networks, supporting emotional well-being. Mindful practices put you back in the driver’s seat: when you experience yourself as the observer of your thoughts, you have more say in how you respond. This more objective stance de-escalates the anxiety cycle, rewiring neural pathways to foster better emotional regulation. 

    In addition, focused sensory attention gently steers the mind away from anxious and negative thought loops. It involves focusing on the world around you by using all five senses. This practice establishes a supportive relationship between the mind and body.

    Need Some Practice? Start here. 

    You can build bodily awareness through simple daily routines. 

    • Set a recurring phone reminder for a daily check-in—for example, a 60-second exercise to pause and scan the body for physical indicators of stress. Alternatively, detecting a micromovement could also trigger the mindful pause. This is when you would start doing a body scan.
    • Expand this routine with the 4-7-8 breathing technique to regulate heart rate. This involves breathing through the nose for four seconds, holding the breath for seven seconds and exhaling through pursed lips for eight seconds. A study from the National Institutes of Health shows that structured slow-breathing exercises significantly lower blood pressure and reduce stress responses.
    • A micromovement journal can reveal your personal patterns, and writing about your stress can also help to understand and alleviate emotional hooks. 
    • For deeper exploration, the RAIN method guides you to recognize, allow, investigate and nurture internal sensations. This four-step mindfulness technique helps to process difficult emotions and break reactive habit loops.

    Focusing on just one type of micromovement per week keeps the practice manageable. This supportive practice emphasizes personal compassion over perfection, empowering you to reclaim agency over your daily lives.

    Bring Personal Awareness Into Daily Life

    Anxiety often begins with quiet physical signals. Mindfulness provides the tools to listen to these subtle bodily signs. This clear awareness transforms you from a passive reactor into a conscious, proactive manager of your inner state. Recognizing early bodily shifts allows professionals and practitioners to build greater emotional stability.

    This post comes to us from Lola Marks, Senior Editor at Body+Mind.



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  • About Group B Strep Disease | Group B Strep

    About Group B Strep Disease | Group B Strep

    What it is

    GBS disease is a name for any infection caused by GBS bacteria. These bacteria commonly live in people’s gastrointestinal and genital tracts.

    Gastrointestinal tract: The part of the body that digests food and includes the stomach and intestines

    Genital tract: The part of the body involved in reproduction and includes the vagina in women

    Most of the time, the bacteria aren’t harmful and don’t make people feel sick (have any symptoms).

    Illustration of group B Streptococcus

    This image of group B Streptococcus was computer generated.

    Types

    GBS bacteria can cause many types of infections. Some of these infections can be life threatening.

    Infections include:

    • Bacteremia (bloodstream infection)
    • Sepsis (the body’s extreme response to an infection)
    • Bone and joint infections
    • Urinary tract (bladder) infections
    • Meningitis (infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord)
    • Pneumonia (lung infection)
    • Skin and soft tissue infections

    Most common infections

    Newborns: GBS bacteria most commonly cause bacteremia, sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis in newborns.

    Adults: Bloodstream infections, pneumonia, and skin and bone infections are the most common GBS infections among men and non-pregnant women. It’s very uncommon for GBS bacteria to cause meningitis in adults.

    Symptoms

    Symptoms and complications of GBS disease depend on the part of the body that’s infected.

    Who is at risk

    Anyone can get GBS disease, but some people are at greater risk than others. Being a certain age or having certain medical conditions can put you at increased risk for GBS disease.

    How it spreads

    GBS bacteria come and go naturally in people’s bodies. How people spread GBS bacteria to others is generally unknown.

    From mothers to babies

    Pregnant women can pass the bacteria to their babies during delivery. Most babies who get GBS disease in the first week of life are exposed to the bacteria this way. It can be hard to figure out how babies who develop GBS disease after the first week of life got the bacteria. The bacteria may have come from the mother during birth or from another source.

    Ways the bacteria don’t spread

    In the United States, there’s no evidence that GBS bacteria spread through food, water, or anything that people come into contact with.

    Prevention

    There are currently no vaccines to prevent GBS disease, but they are under development. Unfortunately, experts haven’t identified effective ways to prevent GBS disease in people older than one week.

    In newborns

    Healthcare providers can take steps to help prevent GBS disease during the first week of a newborn’s life.

    Screening and diagnosis

    Screening

    Healthcare providers should screen all pregnant women for GBS bacteria.

    Diagnosing GBS disease

    After seeing someone who is sick, healthcare providers may take samples depending on the type of infection they suspect:

    Healthcare providers may also order a chest x-ray to help determine if someone has GBS disease.

    Treatment and recovery

    Healthcare providers usually treat GBS disease with antibiotics. Sometimes people with soft tissue and bone infections may need additional treatment, such as surgery. Treatment will depend on the type of infection caused by the GBS bacteria.

    It’s important to start treatment as soon as possible.

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  • What Is the Best Poop Position?

    What Is the Best Poop Position?

    The Squatty Potty is put to the test.

    Previously, I’ve talked about the potential efficacy of prunes and dried figs to keep us regular. What influence does body position have on defecation? While squatting continues to be the traditional position for people in Asia and Africa, Westerners have become accustomed to sitting on toilet seats. When we do that, we sit upright, and our poop is forced to make a nearly 90-degree turn, the “anorectal angle,” which you can see below and at 0:37 in my video The Best Poop Position for Constipation.

    Now, that’s a good thing in terms of keeping us from pooping our pants every time we sit down. But when it comes to doing our business, toilet posture defeats the purpose of our body’s brilliant design—like trying to drive a car without releasing the parking brake. Yet, many physicians are hesitant to discuss “such an unmentionable bodily function,” or they may just be ignorant. Doctors don’t know squat.

    Of course, this is coming from someone who owns a company selling people squatting platforms for their toilets. In a previous video, I talked about those little footstools you can use to raise your knees when you assume a pooping position, but they were not found to make a difference in terms of self-described difficulty in defecating or the average time spent emptying one’s bowels. Those stools give only a measly four-inch boost, though, while the Squatty Potty is twice that height. What happened when it was put to the test?

    Researchers implemented a “Defecation Posture Modification Device,” i.e., Squatty Potty, and it worked! Participants reported increased feelings of bowel emptiness, reduced straining, and about a minute less of on-the-pot reading time. The only downside is the discomfort. Even just a six-inch riser was found to cause such extreme discomfort in research participants in a previous trial that they abandoned trying to study it.

    How else can we get that same change in angle you get from raising your feet? How about just tipping forward, as shown below and at 2:14 in my video?

    Look familiar? It is like that famous sculpture by Rodin, The Thinker. And indeed, Cleveland Clinic researchers set out to study “The Thinker” position for defecation. They were able to show the anorectal angle, as measured using cinedefecography—your SAT word for the day, basically meaning x-ray poop movie—opening to more than 130 degrees. That’s better than simply raising your feet, which opens the angle to only around 90 degrees. So, “The Thinker” position may be a more efficient method for defecation. It may also help with constipation, but it has not yet been formally put to the test.

    As an aside, you can imagine how the worst position might be flat on your back using a bedpan. Because of the spike in blood pressure in the heart and brain when bearing down, straining while passing stool is associated with sudden death from a heart attack and stroke. In fact, it has been found to be the daily activity most often occurring at the time of death in Japan, and those who can’t get out of bed would seem to be especially at risk. That’s why, if at all possible, it can help to sit people up in bed to cause less strain on the system.

    It’s important to take a step back, though, in this sitting versus squatting debate, as a nearly 50-year-old commentary did. Yes, the squatting position is called natural since it is used by so-called primitive peoples who easily pass large stools, such that squatting advocates blame the porcelain throne for all manner of Western maladies. But does the position really make a difference if you’re eating the right foods? “The man who squats because he has no modern plumbing also tends to eat food that is less refined”—that is, more natural foods that haven’t had their fiber processed out. Adding fiber to the diet can enable constipated patients to poop effortlessly without having to squat over a hole in the ground. So, maybe if we just change the design of our diets, we don’t have to change the design of our plumbing.

    Doctor’s Note

    The video on prunes that I referred to is Prunes: A Natural Remedy for Constipation.

    I previously talked about poop position in Should You Sit, Squat, or Lean During a Bowel Movement?.

    How Many Bowel Movements Should You Have Every Day? Check out the video to find out.



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  • The Most Effective Community Mental Health Clinic Model Just Received More Than 3 Million in New Federal Funding

    The Most Effective Community Mental Health Clinic Model Just Received More Than $223 Million in New Federal Funding

    The most evidence-based community mental health delivery model in the United States just received its largest single infusion of federal funding in years. On June 17, 2026, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced more than $700 million in new behavioral health investments — including $223.1 million specifically for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) — during a visit to an Easterseals MORC CCBHC clinic in Clinton Township, Michigan.

    The announcement also introduced the STREETS program ($96 million), designed to connect people experiencing homelessness to addiction and mental health treatment, and $211.1 million to improve local 988 crisis line capacity. The total package represents one of the most significant federal investments in community behavioral health since the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022.

    Why This Matters

    The United States faces a profound mental health and substance use disorder crisis that costs lives and strains emergency rooms, jails, hospitals, and families. More than 57 million adults in the U.S. experienced a mental illness in the past year, and more than 28 million had a substance use disorder. Fewer than half of those with mental illness received any treatment.

    The CCBHC model was specifically designed to close that gap. Unlike traditional outpatient mental health clinics that operate on business hours and serve only those who can afford to wait, CCBHCs must provide same-day care regardless of patients’ ability to pay, 24-hour mobile crisis response, integrated treatment for both mental illness and substance use disorders, peer support services, and primary care screening.

    And unlike many promising models in mental health, CCBHCs have been rigorously studied — and the evidence works.

    What We Know So Far

    According to SAMHSA’s grants dashboard, the $223.1 million for CCBHCs breaks down as $94 million for CCBHC Planning, Development, and Implementation grants and $117.1 million for CCBHC Improvement and Advancement grants, plus $12 million for state planning grants. Individual clinic grants can reach up to $1 million per year.

    The HHS announcement specifically framed the investment as part of President Trump’s Great American Recovery Initiative, an anti-addiction and mental health policy platform.

    “Every community deserves access to effective behavioral health services that help people prevent addiction, achieve recovery, address mental health challenges, and respond to crises,” said Christopher D. Carroll, principal deputy assistant secretary of SAMHSA. “Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics are a cornerstone of this effort, providing comprehensive, community-based care that helps people sustain recovery and rebuild their lives.”

    What the CCBHC Model Requires

    To be certified as a CCBHC, a clinic must meet nine mandatory service requirements established under Section 223 of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 and made permanent under the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act. Those requirements include:

    • 24-hour mobile crisis response
    • Same-day outpatient mental health and substance use treatment
    • Screening, assessment, and diagnosis
    • Primary care screening and monitoring for chronic disease
    • Peer support and family support services
    • Targeted case management
    • Psychiatric rehabilitation
    • Community-based mental health care for veterans
    • Services for individuals experiencing a substance use disorder, including opioid use disorder

    The requirement that no patient be turned away due to inability to pay — and that same-day care must be available — distinguishes CCBHCs from most mental health providers in the current system.

    Where the Impact Would Be Greatest

    CCBHCs are concentrated in communities that have historically had the least access to behavioral health care: rural areas, low-income urban neighborhoods, and communities with significant populations of people experiencing homelessness, substance use disorders, or co-occurring mental illness and medical conditions.

    The CCBHC Medicaid Demonstration Program — which provides enhanced federal Medicaid funding to states that implement the model — now includes 10 new states following a June 2024 expansion round. Colorado submitted a new CCBHC Demonstration application in March 2026, reflecting growing state-level interest in the program.

    States that have implemented the CCBHC Demonstration have seen measurable improvements in access to care, including reductions in emergency department visits and psychiatric hospitalizations for participating patients.

    What Doctors and Experts Say

    Research on the CCBHC model has consistently shown reductions in emergency department visits, reduced psychiatric hospitalizations, improved treatment retention for both mental illness and substance use disorder, and better coordination between behavioral health and primary care.

    According to SAMHSA, the CCBHC Improvement and Advancement grants are designed to “enhance and improve CCBHCs that currently meet the CCBHC Certification Criteria,” recognizing that existing clinics benefit from sustained investment to maintain the demanding services the model requires.

    The announcement of the STREETS program — which specifically focuses on moving people from the streets into treatment and recovery — reflects the connection between untreated mental illness, substance use disorder, and homelessness that advocates have long documented.

    What the Evidence Shows — and What It Does Not

    The CCBHC model has been studied more rigorously than most community mental health approaches. Multiple evaluations of the original eight-state CCBHC Demonstration Program, which began in 2017, documented reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations, improved access to care in underserved communities, increased treatment retention, and greater integration between behavioral health and primary care.

    The model is not a cure for the U.S. mental health crisis. There are not enough CCBHCs to serve the full population that needs them. The certification process takes 12 to 18 months, meaning new grants announced today will not produce new clinics immediately. And the model requires ongoing federal and state funding to maintain its elevated service requirements — making it more vulnerable to funding disruptions than simpler models.

    Who Faces the Greatest Risk Without Access?

    Communities and individuals most in need of CCBHC services include:

    • Adults with serious mental illness who lack insurance or are enrolled in Medicaid
    • People with co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders
    • Veterans with PTSD, depression, or substance use disorders
    • People experiencing homelessness or housing instability
    • Residents of rural counties without local psychiatric care
    • Children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance

    What You Can Do Now

    • Check whether a CCBHC is available in your community. SAMHSA maintains a behavioral health treatment services locator at findtreatment.gov.
    • If you or someone you know is in a mental health or substance use crisis, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. The June 17 announcement also included $211.1 million for 988 capacity expansion.
    • If you are a mental health provider or community organization interested in CCBHC certification, contact your state behavioral health authority for information on the certification process.
    • Patients currently enrolled in Medicaid can ask their caseworker whether CCBHC services are available in their plan.

    Cost and Access: What Patients Should Know

    CCBHCs are required to serve patients regardless of their ability to pay. For uninsured patients, CCBHCs operate on a sliding scale and may coordinate with other federal programs including Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program services, substance use block grants, and community health centers.

    Most CCBHC services are billable to Medicaid, and the CCBHC Demonstration provides enhanced federal Medicaid matching rates to participating states, increasing the financial sustainability of the model.

    What Happens Next

    The grants announced June 17 will be awarded through SAMHSA’s competitive grant process over the coming months. New CCBHC Planning, Development, and Implementation grantees will spend their first year building toward certification, with the goal of becoming fully certified CCBHCs and eventually Medicaid Demonstration participants. MedicalDaily will track the expansion of CCBHC capacity and 988 upgrades as new clinics come online.

    The Bottom Line

    The CCBHC model works, and it just received its largest federal investment in years. These clinics provide same-day psychiatric care, round-the-clock crisis response, and integrated addiction treatment to the communities that need it most — without turning anyone away for inability to pay. For the millions of Americans who cannot access mental health care today, this funding represents a meaningful step toward closing the gap. The next step is getting people through the doors.

    References

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  • Lyme Disease Is Spreading into States That Rarely Saw It Before — Is Your County at Risk?

    Lyme Disease Is Spreading into States That Rarely Saw It Before — Is Your County at Risk?

    Lyme disease was once thought of as a problem concentrated in the Northeast and a few Midwest states. That geographic assumption is no longer accurate. Deer ticks — the primary carrier of the Lyme disease bacterium — are now establishing themselves in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, areas where they were rarely found just a generation ago.

    Emergency department visits for tick bites were up more than 25 percent in April 2026 compared to April 2025, according to CDC data cited at a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health media briefing on May 5, 2026. Researchers called it an early signal of what could be a challenging year ahead.

    Why This Matters

    Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne illness in the United States, and it is underreported by a wide margin. State health departments reported more than 89,000 confirmed cases to the CDC in 2023 — the most recent year for which national data were published, but researchers estimate the true number is closer to half a million annually, largely because of misdiagnosis and underreporting in areas where the disease is newly arriving.

    For residents of expanding-risk states, this matters in a very practical way: your doctor, your local emergency room, and even the diagnostic tests used to confirm Lyme disease may not be calibrated to a disease that was once considered rare in your area. Early Lyme disease is treatable with antibiotics, but a delayed diagnosis can lead to more serious complications, including neurological and cardiac involvement.

    What We Know So Far

    The Companion Animal Parasite Council’s 2026 annual forecast — which tracks tick populations and disease risk — identifies Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan as projected areas of significant Lyme disease expansion. The forecasts have historically been 94 percent accurate when compared to actual diagnostic results.

    The Upper Midwest and Northeast remain the highest-risk regions overall, with Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut continuing to account for the largest share of confirmed cases. But the expansion is moving steadily south and west.

    According to Contagion Live, Dr. Elitza Theel, a Mayo Clinic infectious disease microbiologist, noted that “these cases have progressively spread into more Midwest states, such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois,” and attributed the spread to both tick range expansion and the proliferation of environmental reservoirs — particularly white-footed mice and deer.

    Where the Risk Is Highest

    Pennsylvania remains among the highest-burden states in the nation for both Lyme disease and related tick-borne conditions. The state is also now formally tracking cases of alpha-gal syndrome — a rare red meat allergy triggered by tick bites from the lone star tick — adding another dimension to tick-related health risk.

    Within the broader risk map, the CAPC forecast projects that some of the greatest expansions in Lyme disease risk in 2026 will occur in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and parts of Tennessee and North Carolina — states that until recently saw very few cases. Iowa is also identified as a higher-than-normal risk area, particularly in the southeastern part of the state, due to forested river corridors along the Mississippi and Iowa rivers.

    In Indiana, blacklegged ticks have now been found in almost every county, according to Purdue University’s Medical Entomology program. The tick was first discovered in the state of northwestern Indiana in 1987 and has since expanded rapidly.

    What Doctors and Experts Say

    Dr. Thomas Hart, an infectious disease microbiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research and Education Institute, explained the environmental drivers at the May 2026 briefing: “This increase in tick populations is going to be caused primarily by climate change. Warmer, milder winters are great for ticks to survive to the next year without freezing. And it also helps the animals that the ticks feed on — deer and mice — survive at greater populations.”

    Dr. Nicole Baumgarth, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins, noted that suburban expansion into wooded areas is another key contributor: human activity is increasingly bringing people into contact with tick habitat that was previously less accessible.

    What the Evidence Shows — and What It Does Not

    Researchers at Johns Hopkins have noted a well-documented challenge that comes with geographic expansion: diagnostic gaps. Lyme disease is confirmed using a blood test that detects antibodies, but antibodies may take several weeks to develop after infection. A test done too early can come back negative even in an infected patient.

    This limitation matters more in newly expanding regions, where physicians are less accustomed to suspecting Lyme as a diagnosis, and patients are less likely to report a tick bite as a relevant medical history item.

    Established science shows that early Lyme disease, caught within days to a few weeks of a tick bite, responds well to oral antibiotics. Later-stage disease — which can involve the joints, heart, and nervous system — requires more intensive treatment and may have lingering symptoms even after treatment is complete.

    Who Faces the Greatest Risk?

    People most at risk for Lyme disease in 2026 include:

    • Outdoor workers in landscaping, forestry, agriculture, and construction in the Northeast and expanding Midwest
    • Hikers, campers, hunters, and people who spend time in wooded or grassy areas
    • Children between 5 and 15 years old, who show consistently higher case rates in national surveillance
    • Adults between 45 and 55, the other age group with elevated case rates
    • Residents of newly endemic counties in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan who may not recognize tick exposure as a health concern
    • Pet owners whose dogs spend time outdoors and can carry ticks into the home

    Symptoms and Warning Signs to Watch For

    Early Lyme disease — within the first three to 30 days after a tick bite — may cause:

    • A bull’s-eye rash (erythema migrans) at the bite site, though this rash does not appear in all cases
    • Fever, chills, and fatigue
    • Muscle and joint aches
    • Headache
    • Swollen lymph nodes

    Later symptoms, if the infection goes untreated, may include severe joint pain and swelling, neurological problems such as facial palsy or numbness, heart rhythm irregularities, and cognitive difficulties.

    Contact a health care provider promptly if you find an attached tick, develop a rash near a bite site, or experience fever and fatigue following outdoor activity in a tick-prone area.

    What You Can Do Now

    • Use EPA-registered insect repellents with DEET (20–30 percent), picaridin, or IR3535 on exposed skin when outdoors in wooded or grassy areas.
    • Wear long sleeves and pants, and tuck pants into socks when hiking in tick habitat.
    • Perform a full-body tick check — including scalp, behind the ears, under the arms, and between the legs — after any outdoor activity.
    • Remove attached ticks promptly using fine-tipped tweezers, pulling upward with steady pressure. Do not twist or crush the tick.
    • Shower within two hours of coming indoors after outdoor activity.
    • Talk to your veterinarian about tick prevention for dogs, which can also bring ticks into your home.
    • If you find an attached tick or develop symptoms after potential exposure, contact a clinician. Do not wait for the rash — not everyone with Lyme disease develops the classic bull’s-eye pattern.

    Cost and Access: What Patients Should Know

    Standard Lyme disease testing is typically covered by health insurance, though the two-step testing protocol may require a laboratory order and follow-up confirmatory testing. Patients in newly expanding areas who suspect tick exposure should be specific with their health care provider about their outdoor activities and location.

    In areas with limited primary care access, telehealth can be a practical option for initial evaluation and a discussion of whether testing and empiric treatment are warranted. Oral antibiotics such as doxycycline, amoxicillin, and cefuroxime are effective for early Lyme disease and are widely available and relatively low-cost in generic form.

    What Happens Next

    The 2026 tick season is expected to remain active through October in most of the affected region. Researchers at Johns Hopkins are continuing work on Lyme disease diagnostics and are monitoring a pipeline of Lyme vaccines, though none is currently approved for human use in the United States. Updated CDC case data for 2024 are expected to be published later in 2026 and may confirm the geographic expansion already visible in tick surveillance data.

    The Bottom Line

    Lyme disease is no longer confined to the Northeast. If you live in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, or other expanding-risk areas, the risk of tick exposure in 2026 is meaningfully higher than it was just a few years ago. The best protection is simple and well-established: repellent, protective clothing, prompt tick checks, and early medical attention if you develop symptoms after possible tick exposure. Do not wait for the classic bull’s-eye rash, which is absent in a meaningful share of cases.

    References

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  • About Group A Strep Infection | Group A Strep

    About Group A Strep Infection | Group A Strep

    What it is

    Group A Streptococcus are bacteria.

    Types

    Group A strep bacteria can cause many different types of infections that range from minor to serious. The bacteria can also cause inflammatory diseases.

    The following are some, but not all, of the conditions associated with group A strep bacteria.

    Minor infections

    The following infections caused by group A strep bacteria are generally mild:

    Serious infections

    Three infections caused by group A strep bacteria can be very serious and even deadly:

    Inflammatory diseases

    Long-term health issues related to group A strep bacteria include:

    Both are thought to be caused by an immune response to an earlier group A strep infection. As the body’s defense system, the immune system is important in fighting off infections. But the immune system can mistakenly attack healthy parts of the body and cause damage.

    Risk factors for serious infections

    Who’s at increased risk of getting any specific condition listed above varies. However, some people are generally at increased risk of getting a serious group A strep infection.

    Viral infections, like flu or chickenpox, can increase this risk.

    Medical conditions that can increase the risk for getting a serious group A strep infection include:

    • Cancer
    • Chronic heart, kidney, liver, or lung disease
    • Diabetes
    • Immunocompromising condition (having a weakened immune system)
    • Obesity
    • Wounds or skin disease

    Other groups at increased risk for getting a serious group A strep infection include:

    • American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Island populations
    • People aged 65 years or older
    • People who inject drugs or who are experiencing homelessness
    • Residents of long-term care facilities

    How it spreads

    Group A strep bacteria are very contagious. Some people infected with group A strep bacteria don’t have symptoms or seem sick. They can still spread the bacteria to others.

    Generally, people spread the bacteria to others through respiratory droplets or direct contact. Rarely group A strep bacteria can spread through food that isn’t handled properly.

    Respiratory droplets

    Group A strep bacteria often live in the nose and throat. People who are infected spread the bacteria by talking, coughing, or sneezing. This creates respiratory droplets that contain the bacteria.

    People can get sick if they:

    • Breathe in respiratory droplets that contain the bacteria
    • Touch their mouth or nose after touching something with those droplets on it
    • Use the same plate, utensils, or glass as someone infected with the bacteria

    Once washed, plates, utensils, and glasses are safe for others to use.

    Direct contact

    People can also spread group A strep bacteria from infected sores on the skin. Other people can get sick if they touch those sores or come into contact with fluid from the sores.

    Once the sores heal, the bacteria aren’t usually able to spread to other people.

    Prevention

    There are things people can do to protect themselves and others from group A strep infections.

    Group A strep prevention activities vary by each disease, but generally focus on three important goals:

    1. Limit exposure and spread of bacteria
    2. Treat group A strep infections promptly
    3. Use preventive antibiotics when appropriate

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  • Embodied Compassion for Difficult Emotions

    Embodied Compassion for Difficult Emotions

    When you’re overwhelmed and feeling the urge to resist or repress painful, confusing, or distressing emotions, use this meditation from recovery coach Emily Jane to practice staying present with courage and compassion.

    One of the core principles of mindfulness practice that can be a challenge for people is the notion that it actually makes more sense to accept our emotions rather than resist them. Especially when it comes to painful, confusing, or frightening emotions, this move towards ourselves in compassion can feel incredibly counterintuitive. 

    This week, author and recovery coach Emily Jane guides us through a practice you can use anytime you need support bringing curiosity, courage, and compassion to difficult experiences.

    Embodied Compassion for Difficult Emotions

    You can read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or, listen to the audio practice.

     When we experience difficult emotions, our natural tendency is to repress or resist them, and yet it is often this very resistance that creates even more stress and suffering. In this meditation, we will begin to gently shift our relationship by creating space for our uncomfortable emotions. We will invite them in and sit with them with compassion, like an old friend.

    We will start the meditation with some mindful awareness, then turn towards the emotions, sensations, and parts of ourselves that we might usually avoid or wish we didn’t have to feel. 

    1. Begin by finding a position that feels comfortable, either sitting in a chair, on your bed or the floor, or lying down. When you’re ready, you can close your eyes or lower your gaze. Allow your shoulders to relax down, your jaw to soften, maybe opening and closing the jaw a couple of times, creating a little movement and inviting some release. Let all the little muscles around the eyes, the forehead, the cheeks to soften as best they can. 
    2. Now bring awareness to the surface beneath you. Feel into that support, how it holds you. If your feet are touching the floor, feel into that connection between your feet and the ground, feeling into the support that is already here.
    3. Notice the temperature of your body and of the temperature of the air around you. Notice the weight of your body and the gentle pull of gravity holding you.
    4. Now bring your awareness to the natural rhythm of your breath. Follow the pathway of the breath through the body. Noticing how it enters the body, where the breath lands in the body—perhaps the chest, the belly, the ribs. And notice how it leaves the body. Just take a moment to feel one full breath from beginning to end, and then the next.
    5. Now take a slightly deeper inhale through the nose, allow the breath to flow down into the belly and then exhale with a sigh. And again, breathing in through the nose and exhaling slowly with a sigh.
    6. Now bring awareness to your body as a whole. Notice what it feels like to be you in this moment, in this body. See if you can approach your experience with curiosity and a sense of compassion.
    7. Become aware of any sensations, noting any emotions that are present or areas of tension, discomfort, or heaviness. Whatever is here, see if you can just allow it to be here and just gently make space for it.
    8. Now, become aware of that part of you that is aware. The part of you aware of the breath, the body, the sensations and emotions. See if you can lean into the awareness itself, this observing presence, and notice its qualities. Perhaps there is calm here, a stillness, or a sense of peace and compassion.
    9. Rest for a moment in this compassionate awareness. If it feels supportive, place one hand on your heart. Feel the warmth of your hands, the gentle pressure, just offering the body care and support.
    10. Now bring to mind a difficult emotion, memory, or situation. Nothing too intense, just something you’ve been finding a bit challenging. Perhaps something that’s been worrying you lately, an interaction that’s upset or annoyed you, or just a feeling that you’ve been carrying.
    11. As you bring this to mind, notice what happens in your body. Maybe sensations begin to emerge, restlessness, tightness, heaviness, or a sinking feeling. Maybe you notice an emotion. Just feel into whatever arises and name the emotion. Describe any sensations. 
    12. See if you can simply observe the sensation, just being a compassionate witness to the discomfort or pain and allowing the experience to be here without immediately pushing it away. Remember: you don’t have to pretend it’s all okay, and you don’t have to like it. But see if you can welcome it, making space for it, letting it be exactly as it is. And if this feels challenging, that’s okay. It’s in our human nature to resist discomfort, so if there’s resistance, just notice that too without judgment. 
    13. As you sit with this emotion or sensation, notice that there is space around it. Space inside the body, space around the body. The support beneath you is still there. The breath is still moving, and this emotion, this sensation, is only one part of your experience. It’s a part of you, but it’s not all of you.
    14. Now just move a little closer towards the emotion and gently place your hand over the area where you feel the emotion or sensation most strongly. Through your hand offer these words, “I see you. I’m here with you. I offer you space, compassion, and love.” Notice what happens when you say these words. Maybe this part of you responds to the words. Maybe you experience less resistance towards it. Perhaps there’s a softening or you even find peace in the discomfort or pain. Perhaps nothing changes at all. Whatever happens is okay. There’s no right way to experience this. 
    15. Just spend a few more moments being with this emotion, with this sensation. Then return your awareness to the breath, and as you inhale, imagine breathing compassion into the body. Let it flow into the center of the emotion, and as you exhale, allow it to expand into the space around you. Breathing in compassion, breathing out compassion. And as you breathe, allow this emotion to integrate into the fullness of your being. 
    16. Now begin to sense the body as a whole. The support beneath you, the ground holding you, feeling the support of gravity. Remind yourself gently with these words, “I can be with difficult emotions when I create a compassionate space for them.”
    17. Now gently bring your awareness back to the space around you. Notice any sounds in the room, the temperature of the air. Invite some gentle movement into the body. Maybe a gentle sway or gently just shaking the arms. Take one final deep breath into the belly and exhale fully. When you’re ready, you can open your eyes, returning in your own time.



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  • Can Ultra-Processed Foods Be Fixed by Tweaking Their Nutrients?

    Can Ultra-Processed Foods Be Fixed by Tweaking Their Nutrients?

    What happened when ultra-processed foods were matched for calories, sugar, fat, and fiber content in the first randomized controlled trial?

    In the United States, “junk food” is often used to describe less-healthy foods, like candy, ice cream, and chips, but there isn’t a consistent definition, so nutrition researchers came up with the concept of ultra-processed.

    The term “ultra-processed food”—if you want to call it that—describes industrial formulations that are typically seen in those long list of ingredients, which, besides salt, sugar, and fat, aren’t typically found in any cookbook, like various flavors, sweeteners, colors, emulsifiers, and other additives used to imitate real foods or to hide undesirable qualities of the final product. This roughly corresponds to my idea of “red light foods” in my traffic light system, in which, ideally, we should maximize intake of green light foods, minimize yellow light foods, and avoid red light foods. Indeed, most of what people eat are red light foods: soda, ice cream, candy, cakes, most bread and breakfast cereals, TV dinner-type ready-to-heat products, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, sausages, burgers, and hot dogs. There has been a dramatic rise in ultra-processed foods. In fact, the U.S. food supply is dominated by them. More than 200,000 products were assessed, and 71% were classified as ultra-processed.

    And, of course, they aren’t only in grocery stores. Sugary drinks and processed junk are ubiquitous even at non-food retailers, sending pervasive cues to consume products that are dense in calories but poor in nutrition. As a former head executive of Coca-Cola put it, the soda should be kept within an “arm’s reach of desire.” A major candy brand boasted, “We put them everywhere: grocery stores and supermarkets, gas stations and chiropractors’ offices, bowling alleys and grocery stores, which we already mentioned. Not sorry.”

    So, this is where we are today. What proportion of food consumed by U.S. children and adolescents is classified as junk? An unbelievable 56% to 70% of what our children and teens eat over the entire day is junk. But kids will be kids, right? In the United States, more than half of the calories taken in across the board are junk. In fact, around the world, ultra-processed foods consistently account for more than 50% of the dietary caloric intake in the higher-income countries. No wonder unhealthy diets are humanity’s greatest killer, the leading risk factor for death globally, as you can see below and at 2:25 in my video Ultra-Processed Junk Food Put to the Test.

    What exactly are the health consequences? The biological effects of modern foods have been studied using rats, showing they gorge themselves into dramatic weight gain, inflammation, and cognitive and metabolic abnormalities. And just as ultra-processed foods were taking over, binge eating was recognized as a new eating disorder, and it grew into the most common form of eating disorder. And not surprisingly, binge foods were found to be 100% ultra-processed. That’s no surprise—these foods are engineered so you can’t have just one. People don’t tend to binge on broccoli.

    About 9 out of 10 studies found that ultra-processed food consumption was associated with adverse health outcomes—and not just obesity, but cancer, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, frailty, and all-cause mortality (meaning living a shorter life). Studies on youth add asthma to the list and also report higher DNA damage. Not a single study reported a link between ultra-processed foods and beneficial health outcomes.

    In contrast, populations with low meat consumption, high fiber intake, and low intake of minimally processed foods have far fewer chronic diseases, enjoy lower obesity rates, and live longer disease-free. But most of the findings were based on observational studies. You don’t know for sure if ultra-processed foods themselves are to blame until you put it to the test.

    In the first randomized controlled trial on ultra-processed foods, 20 people were essentially locked in a hospital ward and received both ultra-processed and unprocessed diets for 14 days each. Here’s the kicker: The diets were designed to provide the same calories, sugar, fiber, fat, and macronutrients. Why? In response to criticism, manufacturers are now proposing reformulating their products, keeping them ultra-processed but tweaking them by adding some fiber, for instance, or reducing the sugar, fat, or salt. So, the researchers wanted to try to tease out the effect of ultra-processing by giving the study participants the same amount of calories, sugar, fat, fiber, carbs, and protein in each of the two diets. So, for instance, for breakfast in the ultra-processed weeks, the participants would get Cheerios and a muffin, or an egg and cheese muffin with turkey bacon and orange juice. When it was time for the less-processed breakfasts, people would get, say, oatmeal with blueberries and almonds. The meals had the same amount of overall sugar and fat, but the unprocessed option was presented more in whole food form. For lunch, the ultra-processed group might get a turkey sandwich with nonfat Greek yogurt, canned peaches, baked potato chips, and sugar-free Crystal Light Lemonade, versus a Southwest entrée salad with black beans, carrots, corn, avocados, and nuts, along with grapes and apples on the unprocessed diet. The same calories were offered, with the instruction to eat as much or as little as they wanted.

    So, what happened? On the ultra-processed diet, people ate about 500 more calories a day and, unsurprisingly, gained about two pounds on the processed diet, or actively lost two pounds on the less-processed diet, as you can see below and at 5:31 in my video.

    So, the problem wasn’t just the unbalanced nutrient profile of ultra-processed foods. Simply tweaking them wouldn’t magically make them healthy, but that’s what the industry would rather do. Reformulation is referred to as the “unobtrusive strategy,” creating “the prospect of nutritional improvement without dietary change.” But what this study showed is that it may be better to limit the consumption of ultra-processed foods altogether.

    Why does the industry love them so much? They’re made with dirt-cheap ingredients, like taxpayer-subsidized corn syrup, allowing for huge corporate profit margins. But at what cost? The food industry takes in more than a trillion dollars every year, yet most of our healthcare dollars go to treat chronic diseases exacerbated by these very same foods, like diabetes and heart disease. So, you could argue “we lose triple what the food industry makes.” The food industry argues that these days, it’s “unrealistic” to tell people to avoid ultra-processed food, given societal time constraints and the difficulties of food prep, but this may just be acquiescing to the same propaganda and disinformation campaign that the processed food industry has used to co-opt families for decades. Those who think healthy foods can’t be convenient have never met an apple.

    That was a response to Dr. Lustig’s essay on processed food as a failed experiment, in which he said: “One-third of American mothers today don’t even know what real food is or how to cook; they and their children are destined to remain hostages to the processed food industry.” I don’t like his mother-blaming, but I do appreciate his prescription: “There’s only one recourse—real food, which is low in sugar and high in fiber.” We need to start thinking outside the box.

    Doctor’s Note

    It’s no surprise processed foods are wreaking havoc on our health. Learn about The Role of Processed Foods in the Obesity Epidemic. Is there a solution? Yes. Cut the Calorie-Rich-And-Processed Foods.

    This is the third video in a series on junk food. If you missed the first two, check out Do Healthy Fast Food Options Lead to Healthier Choices? and How We Won the Fight to Ban Trans Fat.

    I mentioned my traffic light system for choosing the healthiest foods. Learn all about it in Dining by Traffic Light: Green Is for Go, Red Is for Stop.



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