The findings hint at the juice’s promise as a functional food that may help curb the unchecked inflammation that characterizes a range of chronic conditions, researchers say. 

The tomato-soy juice contained high levels of the plant-based compounds lycopene and soy isoflavones, both believed to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties based on previous research. Compared to a control tomato juice lacking these compounds, the tomato-soy juice significantly lowered blood levels of three proteins that are markers of systemic inflammation. 

“The idea is, can we use food-based interventions to modulate inflammation?” said lead author Jessica Cooperstone, associate professor of horticulture and crop science at The Ohio State University. “And can we test this in a rigorous way so that we can really see this is affecting inflammation, versus just saying something is anti-inflammatory?” 

Based on these results and additional data, Cooperstone and colleagues have received National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases funding for a pilot clinical trial testing whether consuming the same tomato-soy juice reduces inflammation in patients with pancreatitis. 

The study was published recently in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research. 

Lycopene is a carotenoid that gives tomatoes and other vegetables their colors, and soy isoflavones are flavonoids that mimic the action of the hormone estrogen. Both are phytochemicals that help plants thrive. 

Years ago, based on studies showing an association between diets high in either tomato products or soy and a lowered risk for prostate cancer, Ohio State researchers developed the tomato-soy juice made with tomatoes containing a high concentration of lycopene – also developed and grown at Ohio State – and enriched with soy isoflavone extract. 

Later research at the university linked higher intake of the tomato-soy juice to reduced prostate-specific antigen levels in some men with prostate cancer, and studies elsewhere have suggested that tomatoes and soy, consumed separately or combined, can affect inflammatory and metabolic pathways related to obesity and other chronic illnesses. 

“There’s been enough compelling evidence that compounds from tomatoes and soy might be modulating inflammation that we decided to test this in people,” Cooperstone said. 

In the new study, 12 healthy adults with obesity consumed two 6-ounce cans of tomato-soy juice every day for four weeks. After a washout period, they consumed the low-carotenoid control tomato juice for four weeks. 

“The hypothesis is that it’s the lycopene from the tomatoes and the isoflavones from the soy that’s inducing the effect, so we didn’t want to have a control that’s just water,” Cooperstone said. 

Researchers took blood samples testing for cytokines – pro-inflammatory proteins produced by the immune system – before and after each four-week trial period. Only the tomato-soy juice resulted in significant reductions in three cytokines: Interleukin (IL)-5, IL-12p70 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), as well as showing a downward trend in tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) that was not statistically significant. 

The team also analyzed participants’ urine before and after each trial period for changes in metabolites, the molecular products of biochemical reactions that break down nutrients to produce energy and perform other essential functions. 

The findings showed that both the tomato-soy and control tomato juice led to some shared changes in the metabolite profiles, meaning some tomato-driven effects occurred in the absence of lycopene. Soy isoflavone metabolite shifts stood out among the changes induced by the tomato-soy juice. While further investigation is warranted, the changes provide additional evidence that this food-based intervention is affecting human biology. 

“This is probably a function of the fact that there’s more to our intervention agents than just these two compounds,” Cooperstone said. “Ultimately, we want to have a better understanding of how the foods that we eat are relating to our health. And when we really want to be sure, we need to test them in clinical trials. And that’s what we’re doing here.”

She and colleagues have also found evidence in an animal model that the soy-tomato juice can reduce inflammation and the severity of chronic pancreatitis – data supporting the prediction in the current clinical trial that the intervention could improve outcomes for patients with pancreatitis. 

“Care for patients with pancreatitis is palliative, focused on controlling pain and GI symptoms. Our hypothesis is that the tomato-soy juice may serve as an intervention to decrease inflammation and hopefully increase patients’ quality of life,” Cooperstone said. 

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, the Lisa and Dan Wampler Endowed Fellowship for Foods and Health Research, and the Foods for Health Initiative at Ohio State. 

Co-authors include first author Maria Sholola, Jenna Miller, Emma Bilbrey, David Francis and Thomas Mace of Ohio State, and Janet Navotny of the USDA. Mace is the lead principal investigator on the pancreatitis trial. Cooperstone, Philip Hart and Kristen Roberts of Ohio State are also PIs on the trial.

After collecting nearly 30 vacuumed dust samples from places like schools, university residence halls and office buildings, researchers simultaneously identified the presence of 54 distinct viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza, norovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, and others. 

Indoor dust tends to accumulate biological material shed by occupants and also integrates signatures from the air, surfaces and human activity over time, which means using these particles to monitor viral pathogen trends could aid early detection efforts against future outbreaks. 

“It’s really important that we understand broadly how to track disease in our community,” said Karen Dannemiller, senior author of the study and an associate professor of civil, environmental and geodetic engineering and environmental health sciences at The Ohio State University. “Similar to wastewater monitoring, which tracks disease clusters on a large-scale level, we’ve created an intermediate tool that has those same benefits for a smaller population.” 

Compared to traditional sampling methods, dust-based techniques are advantageous because the particles are easily collected during routine cleaning, it requires no specialized plumbing access, and dust can remain stable at room temperature for extended periods. These simple but critical aspects can lead to quick, high-resolution insights into what is happening within a specific space and help researchers take appropriate measures to address it, said Dannemiller. 

“This is groundbreaking work,” she said. “While people have sequenced viruses out of dust before, it’s been on a pretty limited basis and was not proposed as a surveillance tool.”

The study was recently published in the journal Building and Environment.

To take a targeted look at these pathogens, researchers utilized both PCR analysis and a novel sequencing technique that detects the RNA molecules that viruses leave behind after they decay. By comparing the findings in their sample to a library panel of 200 potential pathogens, the team measured and categorized many viruses at once, a capability that, on the ground, would increase both the efficiency and utility of future viral investigations. 

“Research like this is useful for monitoring a range of buildings where there’s a variety of things that you're concerned about,” said Dannemiller. “By using that information to help pinpoint those issues, it’s possible to improve our decisions about where to direct limited mitigation resources.”

Significantly, building dust could also be used to capture data from both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, a noninvasive aspect that would allow researchers and decision-makers to infer viral patterns without the need for direct clinical testing. 

While researchers in this study did not measure the viability of the sampled viruses, it’s unlikely that leftover viral particles in dust would still be infectious – depending on the bug. Given the minimal risk, establishing a robust and easily scalable dust-based monitoring tool would provide the public with a much broader understanding of community transmission. 

For instance, three of the viruses the team found were shown to be more prevalent in child-associated settings, like daycares, rather than in buildings primarily occupied by adults, and a total of 85% of all collected samples contained at least one rhinovirus. Such results signify that dust can even capture public health trends by occupant demographic, like age. 

Overall, findings suggest that dust-based surveillance may be a powerful complement to wastewater surveillance, particularly for early warning of threats in enclosed environments. Future work may include exploring the use of this sampling in military and healthcare settings and determining if the team’s new viral sampling technique could help automate detection pipelines. 

“This is an initial step to understanding how we can use technology to better monitor at the building level for different infectious diseases,” said Dannemiller. “Ultimately, that leads to a more informed use of precautions and better targeting for the use of resources.”

Other Ohio State co-authors include Austin Shamblin, Calissa Carlisle, Nicholas Nastasi, Seth Faith, Michael Sovic and Vanessa Varaljay, as well as Genny Cook, Anthony Fries, Richard Agans from the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. This study was supported by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

Many of the academic experts who have advanced the science behind concussions in student-athletes – and, in collaboration with the Department of Defense, in soldiers as well – are now focused on addressing these head injuries in a population that’s similar, but different: first responders. 

The considerations are many, spanning from a first responder’s potential sports or military injuries in a previous life to the factors that signal when it’s safe to return to duty after a strike to the head. Getting a clinical diagnosis is key to putting an injured first responder on the proper trajectory of recovery – not just working safely, but also maintaining a satisfying quality of life, experts agree. 

Researchers will soon publish the first evidence-based guidelines for traumatic brain injury (TBI) recognition and management and return to duty in first responders – a group encompassing law enforcement officers, corrections personnel, firefighters and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). 

The authors will be the nearly 60 experts who convened at The Ohio State University in late March to pursue consensus on protocols surrounding six frameworks: workplace policies, injury prevention measures, challenges of recognizing injuries, diagnosis and treatment of the injury, mental health monitoring, and steps needed to get a concussed first responder back to work. 

“This is a critical step in improving the care and support for our first responders who risk so much for us every day,” said Jaclyn Caccese, associate professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (HRS) at The Ohio State University. 

Caccese co-hosted the 1st International Conference on TBI in First Responders with James Oñate, interim director of HRS, interim vice dean for health and rehabilitation sciences in the College of Medicine, and a professor in the HRS Division of Athletic Training. 

One universally accepted fact drove the work: Brain health in first responders is a matter of public safety – for the injured personnel, their colleagues, their families and the public they are sworn to protect. 

After working together for several months in six workgroups, the scholars, clinicians and first responders met March 26-27 to share what they’ve learned and vote on a series of recommended guidelines. The final recommendations and consensus statement will be published early next year in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. 

While head injury data on first responders is minimal, a meta-analysis of studies to date suggests that about 60% of law enforcement and corrections officers have suffered at least one traumatic brain injury in their lifetime, and 17% have experienced a TBI on the job. Among firefighters, lifetime TBI prevalence ranges from 62% to 77%. There have been no studies of head injuries in EMTs. 

Though what has been learned by studying sports and military concussions has given these teams a head start, most workgroups indicated that the need for more research specific to the first responder workforce is apparent. 

“We’ve lumped first responders together. We’re going to stop doing that,” Oñate said. “This is the beginning, and we’re starting with many things we’ve advanced already. We’re not starting from scratch.” 

In a first-of-its-kind survey of Ohio law enforcement officers in 2024, Caccese, Oñate and colleagues reported that 74% of officers had a lifetime history of one or more head injuries, and 30% had a head injury that happened on the job. Further analysis showed post-traumatic stress disorder and depressive symptoms were higher in those who had experienced one or more head injuries.  

At the conference, each of the six workgroups brought forward four to five recommendations for a vote. Consensus was reached on all but two, though many will undergo refinements before publication. 

Overarching themes included standardizing methods of recognizing and treating TBIs and assessing return-to-duty readiness; ensuring no punitive actions are taken against an injured and recovering first responder; protecting the head as much as possible during training intended to expose new personnel to risks linked to blasts and being hit at work; and educating agencies, first responders, families and health care providers about TBI risks, prevalence and potential lasting effects when they’re not managed well. 

“Almost every workgroup talked about the importance of education,” Caccese said. 

The educational component is critical because this effort is still very new. Many agencies are unaware that an international effort is afoot to address TBI in first responders. In addition to publishing the conference outcomes in a scientific journal, the group plans to present at academic and first responder-specific conferences and approach publications targeted to first responder agencies. 

Conference attendees acknowledged TBI in this workforce is a delicate subject for so many reasons, not the least of which is the stigma linked to injuries that affect performance in a profession characterized by a mission-first mindset that leads to underreporting. First responders served on every workgroup alongside the academic researchers to help keep suggestions realistic for the workplace cultures and practices that are being asked to change. 

The conference featured a panel discussion with three law enforcement officers who had received a head injury on the job. They described symptoms including double vision, dizziness, chronic migraines, short-term memory loss, speech problems and temporary paralysis, as well as complications navigating recovery – with one eventually losing her job as a result of her occupational injury. 

Hearing from these officers “helps give us context about the stakes to come up with recommendations for first responders to return to full capacity,” said Nathan Edwards, a research scientist in Ohio State’s Human Performance Collaborative. 

Improving care for first responders isn’t stopping with the brain: Researchers are investigating musculoskeletal issues, physical performance and heart health in the first responder population as well, Oñate said. 

“It’s on us to get the level of evidence much higher,” he said. “It’s also on us to communicate with the first responder community to look at what impacts they’re looking for and what they need to have happen.” 

This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs endorsed by the Department of Defense, through the Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health Research Program. The conference was also supported by HRS and Ohio State’s Center for Brain Injury Recovery & Discovery.

A new study suggests another dietary pitfall could have a similar damaging effect in a similarly short amount of time in older adults: a lack of fiber. 

The study in rats also points to the amygdala – the small structure governing emotional memories, especially related to bad experiences – as a brain region that is particularly sensitive to a highly processed diet. Every type of refined diet fed to old animals was associated with cellular and behavioral signs of cognitive problems traced to this emotional memory center of the brain. 

“The amygdala is important for learning the association between something fearful and a bad outcome. And we found that all of the refined diets, whether they were high fat, high sugar, low fat, low sugar, it didn’t matter. They all impaired memory that’s governed by the amygdala,” said co-lead author Ruth Barrientos, an investigator in the Institute of Brain, Behavior and Immunology at The Ohio State University. 

“And when we looked to see the common thread among all of those diets, the one thing that became very obvious was that they all lack fiber.” 

Not learning the association between an action and its outcome, especially when it’s dangerous or risky, may increase the risk for physical or financial harm, said Barrientos, also an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral health and neuroscience in Ohio State’s College of Medicine. 

“The amygdala plays a role in that kind of awareness and learning,” she said. “Its vulnerability to a refined diet is therefore concerning for older adults who are at greater risk of financial exploitation and scams.” 

The research was published recently in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 

Barrientos has studied the effects of high-fat and highly processed diets on the aged brain for several years, seeing behavioral results and related indications of inflammation in both the amygdala and the hippocampus, which is important for spatial, autobiographical and episodic memory. 

In this work, she and colleagues focused on disentangling the diet contents to see whether fat or sugar, or something else, had the strongest link to cognitive impairment in rats.

Young and aged male rats were fed either normal chow or one of five experimental diets for three days: low fat, low sugar; low fat, high sugar; medium fat, low sugar; medium fat, high sugar; or high fat, low sugar. 

Behavioral tests showed that old animals that were fed all of the refined diets – no matter the level of fat or sugar – had impaired long-term emotional memory based in the amygdala compared to young rats on the same diets. In contrast, memory-related behavior traced to the hippocampus was negatively affected only by the high-fat, low-sugar diet. 

And then there was the no-fiber factor. All of the experimental diets lacked fiber, and examination of the rats’ guts and blood showed a significant reduction in a key molecule, called butyrate, that is produced in the gut and circulated in the blood when dietary fiber is broken down by gut microbes. 

Previous research by other labs has shown that butyrate has anti-inflammatory effects and can cross the blood-brain barrier, which may mean a deficiency in butyrate caused by a lack of dietary fiber could be linked to unregulated inflammation in the brain, Barrientos said. 

“What our study really brings to light is the complexity of diet and how it affects so many different things, even the brain,” said co-lead author Kedryn Baskin, assistant professor of physiology and cell biology at Ohio State. “There’s not a magic bullet, but in this case, low butyrate, as a result of a lack of fiber, is a culprit.” 

At the cellular level, the researchers found the most compelling evidence of refined diet-related damage in the mitochondria of microglia, cells that have multiple functions important to memory function. When exposed to experimental energy demands in cell cultures, mitochondria from young brains could adapt to the changes, but these power centers in aged brain cells were not able to rise to the challenge. 

“The mitochondria are still functioning, but they’re showing depressed respiration and are functioning at a much, much lower rate in the aged compared to the young,” Baskin said. 

Though the refined diets caused some weight gain, Barrientos said the findings put to rest the notion that obesity brought on by a highly processed diet is the primary driver of impaired cognition.  

“These effects on the brain after you eat something are pretty rapid,” she said. “You can experience this unhealthy cognitive dysfunction well before you reach obesity.” 

And while she and Baskin said the data imply increasing fiber in the diet could be beneficial to the brain, the team plans to study whether fiber or butyrate supplementation in animals could reverse the age-related cognitive problems that follow poor eating. 

This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, the Foods for Health Research Initiative at Ohio State, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. 

Additional co-authors were Michael Butler, Jade Blackwell, Andrew Sanchez, Hannah Sanders, Dominic Kolonay, Jeferson Jantsch, Stephanie Muscat, Sabrina Mackey-Alfonso and Bryan Alvarez, all of Ohio State; and Maria Elisa Caetano-Silva, Akriti Shrestha, Casey Kin Yun Lim, Robert McCusker and Jacob Allen of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

A team led by researchers at The Ohio State University compared the annual out-of-pocket and total costs of 33 neurologic medications either covered by insurance and sold by commercial pharmacies or bought online through the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. Out-of-pocket costs include copay, coinsurance and deductible charges, and total costs reflect all consumer out-of-pocket and insurance premium payments as well as what insurers pay. 

Overall, direct-to-consumer out-of-pocket neurologic drug costs were 75% higher than for insured medicines at retail pharmacies, but the total annual costs of the drugs from Cuban’s online pharmacy were 431% lower than those sold by commercial pharmacies to insured patients. 

Because health plan out-of-pocket costs are in addition to insurance premiums paid by beneficiaries, the findings suggest the direct-to-consumer pharmacy may offer uninsured patients similar pricing for medications without having to pay the premium. 

The higher out-of-pocket costs at Cuban’s pharmacy reflected an average across the board, but many of the medications are inexpensive – so the higher price did not reflect a significant amount of money, said first author Amanda Gusovsky Chevalier, assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Ohio State’s College of Medicine. 

For 76% of the online pharmacy drugs, the difference in out-of-pocket payments was less than $200 per year. 

“The difference was close to zero for a lot of these different medications,” Gusovsky Chevalier said. “The reason that’s notable is because this price that patients can get directly from a website is the same as the cost to patients who, on top of buying medications, are paying a premium for an insurance plan that’s probably coming out of their paycheck. 

“So the cost you’re paying that is subsidized by your insurance provider is the same as what you could pay at the Mark Cuban pharmacy. This could be a great option for uninsured patients who are paying completely out of pocket.” 

The study was published recently in JAMA Network Open. 

Gusovsky Chevalier and colleagues had previously published an analysis of neurologic drug costs from commercial pharmaceutical and Medicare supplemental insurance claims databases from 2012-2021, enabling the team to calculate 2024 estimates for out-of-pocket and total costs of the medications. For this new study, those estimates were compared to prices posted on the Cost Plus Drug Company website on Dec. 10, 2024. 

“I had heard about the Mark Cuban pharmacy through colleagues and thought it would be interesting to compare the costs because his pharmacy is very direct-to-consumer – they cut out the middleman and whatever is advertised on the website is what you’re paying for, and that’s your only cost,” she said. 

The analysis included drugs used to manage 11 neurologic conditions, among them Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), peripheral neuropathy and Parkinson’s disease. 

The highest-priced medications (annual costs) in the direct-to-consumer pharmacy – and therefore all paid out of pocket – were the MS drugs glatiramer acetate ($24,186) and fingolimod ($2,185), and cyclosporine ($2,185), a treatment for myasthenia gravis. All other medications examined in the study from the Mark Cuban pharmacy cost less than $635 per year. 

The medications with the highest 2024 insurance plan annual out-of-pocket and total costs, respectively, were teriflunomide for MS ($286 and $11,739), droxidopa for orthostatic hypotension ($238 and $11,618) and fingolimod ($240 and $8,394). 

Out-of-pocket costs for only two medications, teriflunomide and droxidopa, were lower (40% and 18%, respectively) in the direct-to-consumer pharmacy compared to commercial insurance plans. Eighteen of the 33 medications had lower total annual costs at Cuban’s pharmacy compared to private plans. 

Those two drugs and one other MS medication, dimethyl fumarate, stood out for their markedly reduced total costs: Results estimated aggregate annual savings of at least $11 million each by using the direct-to-consumer pharmacy instead of commercial insurance plans at a retail pharmacy. 

“Total costs represent system-level spending, and we look at them because we want to know how much money is moving around to be able to cover these medication costs,” Gusovsky Chevalier said.

The authors noted that there can be drawbacks to relying on a direct-to-consumer pharmacy – the Cost Plus online pharmacy listed only 33 of 79 commercially available neurologic medications at the time of the analysis. And patients who work both sides of the system to pay the lowest prices would risk having fragmented prescription records that could lead to unintended drug interactions.

Even so, the findings suggest direct-to-consumer online pharmacies may be an attractive alternative source of prescription medications, especially for patients who lack insurance coverage, the authors concluded. 

“Our research has shown that the costs of medications just continue to rise through insurance plans, and it’s really important to find ways for patients to access medicines,” Gusovsky Chevalier said. “I think this adds to a larger body of evidence showing that these direct-to-consumer pharmacies have the potential to disrupt the market in some significant way in the future. 

“It’s important for people to know that online pharmacies like this are available.” 

Co-authors of the study include Chun Chieh Lin, Kevin Kerber and senior author James Burke of Ohio State; Evan Reynolds of Michigan State University; and Brian Callaghan of the University of Michigan.

Beyond the reduction in self-reported and clinician rated depression, the students’ global well-being increased nearly three-fold and their performance improved on several cognitive tasks. All but one participant also lost weight. 

The 16 students who completed the pilot trial were receiving medication, counseling, or both for major depressive disorder before beginning the keto diet. The findings suggest achieving nutritional ketosis through diet is a feasible adjunctive therapy for depression and pave the way for a larger clinical trial, researchers say. 

The pilot study did not have a non-keto control group for comparison. Previous research has suggested medications and counseling reduce depressive symptoms by about 50% in a similar time period. 

“So many people are suffering right now, so it’s rewarding to potentially bring forward a solution,” said Jeff Volek, PhD, lead author of the study and a professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University. “There is more science yet to do, but because there is evidence of a benefit, expanding accessibility to a well-formulated ketogenic diet as an augmentation to treatment for depression is something to think about.” 

The study is published today (Sept. 9, 2025) in the journal Translational Psychiatry. 

Volek’s lab teamed with Ohio State mental health experts to design and complete the trial with young adults studying at the university. 

Stress, anxiety and depression are the No. 1 impediment to academic performance for U.S. college students, said co-author Ryan Patel, DO, a psychiatrist in Ohio State’s Office of Student Life Counseling and Consultation Service: About 40% of college students report depression symptoms, and about half of them are receiving treatment of some kind. 

“We have a treatment gap in that we have more students suffering from mental health concerns than can feasibly receive professional treatment,” Patel said. “There is a need for finding ways of helping students on a large scale. And nutrition is one way we can do that.” 

Twenty-four students were enrolled in the trial and 16 students – 10 women and six men with an average age of 24 – completed the entire study. 

Participants received extensive education on the keto diet, consisting of fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day combined with higher fat and moderate protein intake. The keto diet converts fat into ketones used by cells in the body and brain as an alternative to glucose, and is designed to put the body in a state of nutritional ketosis, when it has greater access to ketones as both fuel and a signaling molecule.  

“It was very important to make sure participants knew what they were getting themselves into,” said Drew Decker, MS, first author of the study and a graduate student in Volek’s lab. “And a big part of increasing chances for adherence to the diet was talking to each individual about what they like and don’t like to eat so we could tailor some suggestions for how they could structure their diet.” 

The team also provided 10 complete starter meals, offered consistent advice and snacks for the first half of the trial, and communicated throughout the study with participants through a private app. The students were advised to eat when they were hungry and finish eating when they were full, and not to worry about calories. 

At baseline and over the course of 10 to 12 weeks, the students reported depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-09), the standard instrument to measure the severity of depression in clinical settings, and completed the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5). They also took a series of cognitive tests assessing episodic and working memory, processing speed, executive function, and attention and inhibitory control. 

Co-author Jennifer Cheavens, PhD, professor of clinical psychology at Ohio State, oversaw clinical assessments of participants before and throughout the trial. 

“One of the things we really wanted to make sure of is that we were providing a treatment for people who met the diagnostic criteria for having major depressive disorder,” Cheavens said. “Each participant had about a 2 1/2-hour interview at the beginning, and then weekly assessments of their symptoms.” 

Students were also screened to ensure that they did not have any contraindications to a ketogenic diet, such as Body Mass Index under 20, eating disorders, pregnancy or high alcohol consumption. 

Results included:

• Participants achieved ketosis, based on a measure of ketone values in their blood, 73% of the time – an indication of good adherence to the diet.
• Self-reported depression scores decreased 37% by week two and reached 69% of improvement at week 10-12. The range of symptom severity varied, but nobody’s symptoms worsened.
• Clinician-rated assessments of depression at week six and week 10-12 decreased by 59% and 71%, respectively.
• By week two, perceived ratings of global wellness had increased two-fold, which improved to nearly three-fold at the end of the intervention.
• As a group, participants lost an average of 11 pounds and their body fat decreased by 2.4% – with most exceeding the clinically significant drop of 5% weight loss.
• As a group, participants’ performance improved on cognitive tasks assessing episodic memory, processing speed and executive function.
• No significant changes in cholesterol or triglycerides were found.

Patel, who met with the students throughout the trial, said the magnitude of the reduction in depressive symptoms linked to the keto diet was notable. 

“The average effect size for medications and counseling after 12 weeks is about 50%, and we saw a substantially greater result,” he said. “That is an impressive finding, that across the board, in this real-world setting, everybody got better, and across the board, our participants did not need more treatment or emergency intervention.” 

For over two decades, Volek has been studying therapeutic applications of ketosis for conditions such as heart disease and cancer as well as athletic performance and soldier health and resilience. 

“The idea is that the ketogenic diet is working through a variety of potentially different mechanisms – there’s a whole range of physiological metabolic adaptations to the diet that could overlap with some of the pathophysiology of depression,” Volek said. 

The team collected a range of biological data on changing levels of proteins related to inflammation and brain function in this pilot that may help inform a future study examining potential mechanisms behind the diet’s effects. 

“We haven’t teased out those mechanisms here because this is a proof-of-concept study for an adjunctive therapy,” Volek said. “This is one of the first really well-controlled studies and it has limitations, but the results encourage us to want to keep pursuing it.” 

This project was supported by a grant from the Baszucki Group Brain Research Fund. 

Additional co-authors included Scott Hayes, Whitney Whitted, Ann Lee, Alex Buga, Bradley Robinson, Christopher Crabtree, Justen Stoner, Madison Kackley, Teryn Sapper and Ashwini Chebbi, all of Ohio State. 

To remedy this, specialized dental care is needed. It can be extensive, said Ana Mercado, a clinical associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Dentistry and craniofacial orthodontist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The treatment is not just cosmetic, though.

“For the patients we treat, there’s a medical necessity,” she said. “And it impacts their pockets, too, because treatment can be so expensive. Then it’s a financial issue for these families.”

Mercado and her colleague Lisa Knobloch, professor and vice chair of the Division of Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry at Ohio State, traveled to Washington, D.C., last month to advocate on behalf of families facing these medical and financial hurdles.

As written, ELSA, or the Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act, “would require all private insurance group and individual health care plans to cover medically necessary services resulting from congenital abnormalities. That coverage would include services and procedures for any missing or abnormal body part necessary to achieve normal body function, including teeth.”

This was the first advocacy trip for both women, who work together at the Ohio State-based Ohio dental treatment center for the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasia, one of just 23 in the country.

“I felt proud to be advocating for our patients,” Knobloch said. “It made me feel like I was doing something for the patients that we know and love, something that will hopefully provide them some financial relief down the road.”

There was an unexpected benefit for the advocacy work: a greater understanding of the legislative process.

“I feel that if you’re involved in advocacy, you know what to answer [when families ask questions]. You know how to explain,” Mercado said. “You’re not aloof. I can tell them what’s happening in Ohio, I can tell them about the federal bill. I can be a source of information.”

ELSA was passed by the House of Representatives last year by a bipartisan majority. It was not voted on by the Senate before a new session was seated this year, so a new vote is needed. Still, Knobloch and Mercado are hopeful that the act will be signed into law.

“You owe it to the patients [to advocate for ELSA],” Mercado said. In Washington, she met a father and daughter who both suffer from ectodermal dysplasias. The condition often runs in families, she said.

“He’s paid a lot of money for his dentures and he has to keep paying because they’re broken,” she said. “But he’s there for his daughter, who is missing teeth. So, we keep trying [to get the act passed]. We may miss the boat now but we’re doing it for their daughter, their grandchildren, future generations.”

Patients cannot afford not to advocate for themselves, Mercado said. And clinicians have powerful stories to tell in support of their patients.

 “A full set of dental implants can cost as much as $56,000,” Knobloch said. Patients are often young when they begin treatment and there is routine maintenance that needs to be performed throughout their lives. In addition, it is not unusual for the teeth to need repairs or to even be replaced regularly. While the dental treatment center at Ohio State can lower some costs, increased insurance coverage would make a difference in many lives.

“We sometimes get patients who choose dentures over implants because of the cost,” Knobloch said. “To live your whole life with dentures because of the cost? I would not consider that to be the standard of care that we want someone to have.”

ELSA has until January 2025 to be passed by this Congress. Mercado and Knobloch plan on going back to Washington if they’re asked.

“There are currently 6,000 bills in front of the House and 4,000 in front of the Senate,” Knobloch said. “We’re one of those bills. … So as an advocate, you’re hoping to get their attention and make them understand the importance of what you’re doing. When these things come up to a vote, we want them to remember us.”

For more information about ELSA, visit the NFED website: https://www.nfed.org/get-involved/advocate/ensuring-lasting-smiles-act/   

“We are excited to welcome Dr. Warner to Ohio State. The breadth of his knowledge and experience will be critical to serve the Wexner Medical Center’s mission of exceptional patient care, innovative research and educational excellence, and to create world-class health care solutions to improve people’s lives,” said Hiroyuki Fujita, PhD, chair of the Board of Trustees.

Warner will join Ohio State on April 1, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.

He will lead efforts to advance and pioneer interdisciplinary approaches to health care delivery, research and teaching at the Wexner Medical Center. Warner will also work closely with university leaders to advance the excellence of the university and its academic medical center through signature integrated teaching and learning, and convergent research initiatives.

“With three decades of service, Dr. Warner is uniquely suited to lead the Wexner Medical Center at a time when access to high-quality health care is more important than ever and near-daily advancements in technology and research are reshaping the medical landscape,” said President Kristina M. Johnson, PhD. “On behalf of the university community, I want to thank the board for recruiting such an outstanding new Buckeye.”

Warner comes to Ohio State from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he has served as CEO of the UT Southwestern Health System, as well as executive vice president for health system affairs, since 2018. Prior to those roles, Warner was CEO of UT Southwestern University Hospitals and Clinics, playing a key role in the design, planning and opening of the 460-bed William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, which recently expanded to include more than 750 total beds. Currently, he oversees UT Southwestern’s clinical enterprise, which includes more than 100,000 inpatients and approximately 4 million outpatient visits annually.

Throughout his tenure as one of the nation’s foremost health care leaders, Warner has consistently led efforts to advance patient satisfaction and the quality and safety of hospitals and health systems. It’s a commitment that has helped to make UT Southwestern — located in Dallas, the ninth largest city in the nation — a highly regarded and consistently top-ranked medical center serving a large metropolitan area.

During his time at UT Southwestern, the medical center has earned regional and national distinction for quality of care and patient experience. Clements University Hospital has been ranked the No. 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth, and the No. 2 hospital in Texas, for six consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. Since the hospital’s opening, UT Southwestern Medical Center has been a two-time recipient of the Rising Star Award from Vizient, the benchmarking organization for academic medical centers, for top performance in quality, safety and patient-centeredness. Additionally, both UT Southwestern’s hospitals and medical practice recently received Press Ganey Pinnacle of Excellence Awards for patient satisfaction and experience over the past three years.

“Dr. Warner’s record of exemplary leadership, service and vision will help the medical center continue our momentum as one of America’s top-ranked academic health centers,” said Leslie H. Wexner, chair, Wexner Medical Center Board of Trustees. “We are delighted to welcome him to the university and to Ohio.”

Warner holds the Nancy and Jeremy Halbreich, Susan and Theodore Strauss Professorship in Cardiology, and the Jim and Norma Smith Distinguished Chair for Interventional Cardiology. From 2017-18, he served as president of the American Heart Association (AHA). He was named an AHA fellow (FAHA) in 2016 and has served on its national board of directors since 2014 — along with leadership roles on numerous additional Association groups related to research, strategy, innovation and more. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Warner, as chair of the Association’s Quality Certification Business Management Committee, played a critical role in the creation and quick launch of the first-of-its-kind COVID-19 CVD Registry.

Last year, he received the Heart Association’s Gold Heart Award, the highest volunteer honor bestowed by the organization. Though the Gold Heart Award is described by the American Heart Association as a lifetime achievement award, Warner continues to be actively engaged with the Association — and considers his new role as CEO of the Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president at Ohio State as the next step in a career focused on innovation and improving the quality and safety of health care for individuals and families in the communities in which they live.

“This is an exciting time to be joining such an esteemed and respected academic medical center and university. Few institutions have such a bold vision combined with the comprehensive breadth and depth of programs and a strong focus on improving health equity,” Warner said. “The opportunity to make a lasting impact alongside this community of exceptional faculty, staff and learners is both inspiring and exciting. I can’t wait for our work together to start.”

Warner received his MD from Vanderbilt University and completed his residency training in internal medicine at UT Southwestern, where he served as chief resident. He did his fellowship training in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at Duke University Medical Center. He served on the faculty at Duke until he returned to UT Southwestern in 2003. He received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Physician Executive MBA program at the University of Tennessee in 2011.

A national and international speaker and lecturer, Warner has published more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, reviews, chapters and monographs. Along with the American Heart Association’s Gold Heart Award, he received the Association’s Distinguished National Leadership Award in 2018 and has been named a Super Doctor by Texas Monthly Magazine from 2007-2022.

Warner comes to Ohio State at a time of expansion and growth to meet the needs of communities in central Ohio and throughout the state.

The Wexner Medical Center Outpatient Care New Albany opened in 2021 and Outpatient Care Dublin opened in 2022. Construction continues on The James Outpatient Care at Carmenton, the university’s 270-plus-acre innovation district that will serve as a hub for research and entrepreneurship in high-growth sectors. Carmenton will also feature the Interdisciplinary Research Facility, which will serve multiple research disciplines, including biomedical, life sciences, engineering and environmental sciences. Two floors in the research facility will be dedicated to The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, including the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology. In addition, the Inpatient Hospital Tower — focused on patient care, research and education — is scheduled to open in 2026.

In the most recent U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings, the Wexner Medical Center was recognized as a national leader in nine specialties. Among 20 common adult procedures and conditions, the medical center was rated as high performing in 14. The Best Hospitals rankings mark the 30th consecutive year that Ohio State has been recognized as a leading health care provider in the United States.

“Working in academic medicine is a great privilege, and I am honored by the trust the Board of Trustees has placed in me to help propel Ohio State forward and lead a world-class medical center committed to advancing transformative health care that improves the lives of the people we serve across central Ohio, the nation and the world,” Warner said.

“Historically, food pantries have been wonderful for getting food into the hands of people who need it,” said Nick Fowler, coordinator of the Buckeye Food Alliance. “There’s a large area of growth for teaching folks what to do with food. Sometimes we’ll see beautiful produce come through and a student will say, ‘I don’t know what to do with this once I get home.’”

The goal of the classes, Fowler said, is to equip students with skills they’ll need to prepare meals for themselves.

“That level of independence goes a long way toward closing the food insecurity gap.”

Each class will have 15 seats and focus on a different subject like kitchen safety, knife skills and using spices and condiments. The classes are led by Cameron Carothers and Michael Carnahan, senior culinary educators at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.

Usually, the educators lead cooking workshops that focus on plant-based diets and the cancer-fighting nutrients they offer, and it can’t hurt to help students become more familiar with vegetables and non-meat sources of protein, Carothers said.

“We want to set them up for success,” she said. “That way, they can learn these foundations and then in the future, they can continue them and hopefully pass them along. We want to create a better culture of wellness.”

For Carnahan, the classes are an opportunity to ensure another generation understands kitchen fundamentals like cutting onions or making soup.

“My philosophy is teaching basic cooking methods so that the students can use them in a lot of different applications,” he said. “For example, showing them how to make a vinaigrette. After that, they can make other vinaigrettes from one basic recipe.”

The first class was filled with volunteer students who were willing to test the program before it officially starts later this year. Fourth-year health science major Mia Mowatt-Larssen was excited to learn new skills. She volunteers with the BFA because food insecurity is common in her hometown of Warren, Ohio.

“A lot of students at my high school would go home and not have a meal,” she said. “We had free breakfast and free lunch days at my school. A lot of my friends used food pantries. I volunteered there, too.”

After COVID-19 pandemic restrictions eased, Mowatt-Larssen searched for a way to get back into campus life and became involved with the BFA. Fowler said he hopes the classes will encourage a similar type of community-building for other students.

“We’re coming through the pandemic, when you haven’t had a lot of face-to-face interaction,” he said. “One of the best ways I’ve found to meet somebody is to have a meal with them and share that space. So we’re building a sense of community within the pantry.”

In addition to strengthening bonds between students, Fowler hopes the classes will combat the stigma associated with using a food pantry.

“We want to build out our programming so students know we’re not just a pantry. We’re here as a resource to help with all aspects related to food.”

In a new study published in the journal Science Advances, a team from The Ohio State University demonstrated a battery-free, wireless biochemical sensor that detected the blood sugar – or glucose – humans excrete from their skin when they exercise. 

The Ohio State team fabricated a “smart necklace” – complete with a functional clasp and pendant – which, once placed around their necks, was used to monitor the glucose level of study participants as they exercised.

Instead of a battery, it works using a resonance circuit, which reflects radio frequency signals sent out by an external reader system. After engaging in indoor cycling for 30 minutes, participants took a 15-minute break, during which they drank sugar-sweetened beverages, before resuming cycling. 

The researchers knew that glucose levels in the sweat should rise after drinking the sugary beverages – the question was whether this new sensor would pick it up, said  Jinghua Li, co-author of the study and assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State.

The results showed the sensor did track the glucose levels successfully, which suggests it will work to monitor other important chemicals in sweat.

“Sweat actually contains hundreds of biomarkers that can reveal very important information about our health status,” said Li. “The next generation of biosensors will be so highly bio-intuitive and non-invasive that we’ll be able to detect key information contained in a person’s body fluids.”

Biomarkers are substances that can divulge a body’s deepest secrets: Everything from disease, infection and even evidence of emotional trauma can be found in a person’s bodily fluids, which include sweat, tears, saliva and urine. In addition to analyzing the composition of sweat, the researchers believe this sensor could one day be customized as bioimplants and used to detect neurotransmitters and hormones, which could help identify ion disorders in cerebrospinal fluid associated with secondary brain injury, or even lead to a new understanding of how the brain functions, Li said. 

Additionally, this smart necklace requires only a minimum amount of sweat for the interface to work due to the miniaturized structure of the sensing interface, Li added.

Although it’ll be some time before a device similar to this study’s prototype will become available to the public, Li is already thinking about what will benefit the people who will need this potentially life-saving technology the most.  

Instead of using the bulky and rigid computer chips found in our phones and laptops, the sensors are made out of materials that are ultra thin. This style of design makes the product highly flexible, protects the device’s functionality, and ensures that it can safely come into contact with a person’s skin. 

While the study notes that further miniaturization would make it more feasible for this and similar devices to become implantable, for now, Li said she imagines it as a lightweight device with simple circuit layouts that could be easily integrated into our daily lives. 

“We hope that eventually these sensors can be seamlessly integrated into our personal belongings,” she said. “Some of us may wear necklaces, some may wear earrings or rings. But we believe these sensors could be placed in something we all wear and that it could help us better track our health.”

Co-authors were Shulin Chen, Tzu-Li Liu and Yan Dong of Ohio State, as well as Jie Zhou and Zhenqiang Ma of University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Support for the study came from the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, part of the National Science Foundation, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. Other funding came from various Ohio State sources.

During a discussion titled “Nudging the Vaccine Hesitant,” a panel of experts gathered to weigh the efficacy and ethics of public health “nudges,” small interventions that may push people into a specific action, in the COVID-19 pandemic. The event, hosted by the Center for Ethics and Human Values (CEHV), featured Mark C. Navin, professor of philosophy at Oakland University, Kristen Carpenter, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral health in Ohio State’s College of Medicine, and Myriam Shaw Ojeda, assistant professor of pharmacy practice and science in the College of Pharmacy. The event was organized by Trevor Hedberg from CEHV and the College of Pharmacy.

“Some nudges, in some contexts, can be very effective,” Navin said. A complicator in the case of the pandemic, however, is that there is a disagreement about whether vaccines are a public health matter or one of individual health. In the case of individual health, the chief value is informed consent.

This is where the issue of nudges becomes more complex, said Shaw Ojeda. If nudges are meant to be small interventions, how informed can a patient truly be?

“How do we work with people in a way that promotes equity or does not infringe on a person’s ability to make a decision? How do you educate a patient fairly?” she asked.

In addition to questions about informed consent, the panel considered how effective nudges have been since the pandemic began. One example is the state’s Vax-A-Million sweepstakes, where vaccinated Ohio residents were entered into a weekly lottery for the chance to win $1 million or a college scholarship.

“I was in a meeting a week after the lottery was announced and we saw a spike,” said Shaw Ojeda, who worked on the state’s vaccination campaign. “We saw a spike in vaccine uptake but that spike was not sustainable. It lasted for the duration of the program and then it went away.”

While the gains these programs make are not sustainable, Carpenter was quick to say that even a small increase in the vaccination rate is meaningful for the state and the country.

“1%, 2%, 3%, we’re still talking about millions of people,” she said. “I don’t think we should dismiss these small gains. If you can’t celebrate, it’s too hard. So if I see that even one person has made the choice to get vaccinated, fantastic.”

All three panelists mentioned the polio vaccine and how it is considered a highly successful vaccine rollout. Navin was skeptical of this assessment.  

“There’s good reason to think that there was a lot more socialization toward conformity, towards obedience,” he said. “We lived in an especially white, suburban, middle-class life where both political parties were not polarized. And so we had a sort of bipartisan conformity in the culture.”

Carpenter agreed, suggesting that the polio vaccine would encounter the same problems the COVID-19 vaccine does today, due in large part to mistrust of public health officials.

“There is misinformation and distrust of the system,” she said. “And some of that distrust is warranted when you think about what has been done to various communities, in medicine. But I think [during the polio epidemic] there was trust that the government would do right by the public. … I don’t know that we have the tools to combat that now.”

Shaw Ojeda agreed that some communities had good reason to question public health measures in the past, adding that trust must be rebuilt, especially with historically disadvantaged groups.

“We are going to deal with this pandemic for the immediate future,” she said. “Hopefully it will pass but, in the meantime, what are the lessons we’re learning here?”

“Some of the big issues we work on as public health professionals – like inequities, racism, poverty, violence against women – artists are also working on in a different way. But the end goal for both of us is to improve community health and well-being,” said Amy Ferketich, professor of epidemiology.

Students will explore how these themes cross disciplines through a new minor in public health and the arts.

The interdisciplinary minor, available in the upcoming spring semester, combines courses across the College of Public Health and more than a dozen units in the College of Arts and Sciences. Enrolled students will take 15 credit hours, including two foundational courses, a critical thinking course and a practice or performance-based course.

“My hope is that students will have that matrix moment that the arts and public health are as natural a pair as peanut butter and jelly – that they will be able to see new ways of doing public health,” said Julia Nelson Hawkins, an associate professor of classics in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The arts have a way of reaching people on a deeper level than traditional public health messages, Nelson Hawkins said. She recalled the famous street mural “Crack Is Wack,” painted by artist Keith Haring in Harlem in the 1980s, noting that many people found this anti-drug message more powerful than Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign of the era. Located near a highway, the “Crack is Wack” mural was “at the intersection of the community, the street; the place representing the people,” she said.

And when it came to changing the culture around tobacco in the mid-to-late 20th century, arts also played a large role, said Jared Gardner, Joseph V. Denney Designated Professor of English and director of the Humanities Institute.

“It was never smoking bans or taxes alone. It was never any scientific paper alone. It was a combination of those things with public health experts using a wide range of art and popular culture to change the ways people think about their own responsibilities – to themselves, to others, to future generations,” Gardner said.

As Ohio State implements a new General Education curriculum that encourages interdisciplinary learning designed to prepare students to be active, engaged and adaptable citizens, the new minor’s timing, Gardner and Nelson Hawkins said, couldn’t be better. They hope that as the minor gains traction, it will inspire collaborations that cross academic disciplines and defy conventional institutional barriers.

“Sciences, humanities and arts are coming closer and closer together,” Nelson Hawkins said. “This is the only way to approach the future.”

With classes in English, art history and even opera (such as “Figaro Meets Florence Nightingale: the Marriage of Opera and Public Health”), students in the public health and arts minor will discover the natural and historic ties between the fields. 

In addition to learning about various forms of art and modern public health issues, the minor allows students to see how art has shifted along with society’s understanding of public health over time, Ferketich said.

“It’s a partnership that’s always been implicit, and we’re really excited to see it become more explicitly articulated at the university,” Gardner said.

Today, 10 months into the project, about 100 people gathered for a “Building a Healthier Tomorrow” event at the construction site to learn about how the hospital will impact the community.

Scheduled to open in early 2026, the hospital will enhance a unified Ohio State Wexner Medical Center campus providing leading-edge research, clinical training and world-class patient care, officials said.

“The well-being of our community, and its long-term economic success, rely largely on people’s access to the highest quality, most up-to-date health care. This space is where we will translate our research into real-world medical treatments that improve patients’ lives, while also advancing our teaching capabilities so that our medical professionals graduate among the best in their fields,” said Ohio State President Kristina M. Johnson.

Located east of Cannon Drive, the new facility will enhance the way Ohio State delivers health care. It is the largest single facilities project ever undertaken at Ohio State, with up to 820 beds in private room settings to elevate patient-centered care, safety and training for the next generation of health care providers.

The inpatient hospital will include:

• 60 neonatal intensive care unit bassinets.
• State-of-the-art diagnostic, treatment and inpatient service areas (imaging, operating rooms, critical care and medical/surgical beds).
• Leading-edge digital technologies to advance care and teaching.
• Enhanced connections between the new inpatient hospital and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute that also connects to Rhodes Hall, Doan Hall, the Ross Heart Hospital, and the Brain and Spine Hospital, which will improve the way Ohio State delivers health care.

The new hospital is designed to support patients and the people who care for them. Every patient room will have enough space for a family member to stay, and an indoor café and outdoor areas will provide restorative places for families to recharge.

“This inpatient hospital will be a model for all 21st-century hospitals. It brings researchers and clinicians into closer working proximity, so they can translate groundbreaking discoveries into patient care faster than ever before. This is all part of our ambitious vision to redefine the future of health care and create healthier communities, one person and one family at a time,” said Dr. Hal Paz, executive vice president and chancellor for health affairs and chief executive officer of the Wexner Medical Center.

During the event, artist Keith Alan Hasenbalg painted a live piece of art that directly correlates with the vision of the hospital. The artwork is expected to be displayed inside the new hospital upon its completion.

The event concluded with spoken word poetry by Antoinette Pusateri, a first-year fellow physician in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

Pelotonia will transform into a more personal experience, asking participants “What will your Pelotonia 2020 be?” and encouraging them to set individual fundraising and activity goals. While cycling is still encouraged, this year the experience is about more than just riding. By asking the community to define their own Pelotonia, the doors are open for anyone to participate and become a legend. Participants can set their own one-time or cumulative activity goal with My Pelotonia to ride, walk, run, volunteer or even create their own activity – whatever feels right to honor and support cancer research. In doing so, participants will embody Pelotonia’s 2020 Be Legendary campaign, uniting with the Pelotonia community in spirit and purpose.

“The Pelotonia community has come together in profound ways over the past 12 years, and this year will be no different. Our legendary community is unwavering in Pelotonia’s goal to fund accelerated cancer research, united in a shared sense of duty to those diagnosed with this disease,” said Doug Ulman, Pelotonia President and CEO. “While so much has recently changed, the need for critical research funding and the goal of Pelotonia has not. My Pelotonia will be an experience that is more inclusive and personal with more ways to engage and participate than ever before.”

The My Pelotonia platform will provide an online community for people to share their training and fundraising ideas, or simply cheer one another on along with the inspirational stories of everyday legends pushing forward despite challenges. Pelotonia will celebrate all efforts the weekend of August 7 with an entertaining and motivating live broadcast that mirrors the Pelotonia Opening Ceremony program the community has come to love.

To allow for even greater participation, the 2020 registration fee has been waived along with required fundraising commitments historically tied to Ride distances. In addition, Pelotonia will not have a minimum age requirement this year and the fundraising deadline has been extended to October 31, 2020. The My Pelotonia platform will share goal suggestions, and Pelotonia community leaders are already setting examples: Doug Ulman will ride from Columbus to Cincinnati as his 100+ mile goal and Cindy Hilsheimer, Pelotonia Board Member and Managing Principal, BeecherHill, will walk 200 miles and send an equal number of thank you notes to generous supporters; and Dr. Bill Farrar, CEO of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, will ride 43 miles, with his wife, to recognize the number of years that he has treated patients at The James.

“As the global scientific community shifts its focus to the important work of navigating through and overcoming COVID-19, it is paramount that we ensure that scientific discovery continues in cancer. We must maintain momentum in basic, translational, clinical and population research studies so that we continue to improve our cancer prevention and bring new clinical therapies to our patients, which will ultimately lead to better outcomes for our community,” says Raphael E. Pollock, MD, PhD, director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and surgical oncologist with the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). “We are grateful for the steadfast support and efforts of the Pelotonia community of riders, corporate partners, and volunteers.”

All Riders, Virtual Riders and Volunteers already signed up for Pelotonia will be able to update fundraising and activity goals for My Pelotonia starting June 2. Participants who have already paid a registration fee will have the option to direct the fee toward cancer research or defer it to 2021 registration. Incentives will be provided to My Pelotonia participants when they reach various designated fundraising levels.

“The Huntington peloton and all our colleagues take great pride in partnering and volunteering to make a difference as part of the legendary efforts of Pelotonia, and we are especially inspired to create our Pelotonia journey during this challenging time,” said Steve Steinour, Chairman, President and CEO of Huntington and Pelotonia Board Member.

With 100 percent of every dollar raised, Pelotonia will continue to provide critical funds for innovative cancer research at the OSUCCC-James, a portion of these funds supports the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology. Additionally, Pelotonia has collaborated with the OSUCCC-James to create a research fund, with an initial pledge of $1 million, to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the cancer community.

For more information on Pelotonia, please visit https://pelotonia.org/rise/. To read more about the impact of Pelotonia dollars, please visit pelotonia.org/impact and pelotonia.org/institute.

The Ohio State: Wellness app is now available on Android devices. Beginning this week, users can now download the app on any Android or iOS device. For people using the app on an Android phone or tablet, the features and information are the same as the iOS version.

“The features themselves, they pair equally across both platforms. If Android displays news articles one way across the board, we try to apply those styles to Android versus iOS for a better user experience,” said Nick Rotonda, senior web and mobile developer in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. “The features themselves are pretty similar, but the way that the information gets displayed could be a little different.”

The wellness app is organized into sections to help locate useful resources:

• “Explore” helps students find articles and information focused on student wellness.
• “Support” offers resources for recovery and proactive wellness.
• “My Wellness” enables tracking to support wellness goals.
• “Crisis” offers directions for quickly accessing support.

Undergraduate, graduate and professional students at all campuses are the primary audience – thousands of them already received the app when it was sent to Digital Flagship iPads. Although designed for students, faculty and staff are encouraged to download and explore the app - most of the tips and guidance are useful for anyone.

The app was developed by students, faculty and staff following recommendations from the university’s Suicide and Mental Health Task Force. The app is a continuously updated source of information at a time when students, faculty and staff are facing new challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All of the different groups across campus who’ve been working on this project have been committed to provide these resources to all students across all platforms,” said Grace Buchholz, marketing and communications lead with Digital Flagship. “It’s especially important during these times, when we know this information is more needed than ever before. We have new content that we’re putting into the app every week to try to help students navigate the changes that are happening right now.”

Developing the app was a cross-institutional partnership between the Office of Distance Education and eLearning, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Suicide and Mental Health Task Force, Office of Student Life’s Counseling and Consultation Service and Student Wellness Center, Office of Institutional Equity, USG, the university’s Suicide Prevention Program, regional campus mental health services, Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

“Telehealth care allows our providers to offer high-quality clinical care while ensuring the safety of our providers, staff, patients and visitors,” said L. Arick Forrest, medical director of ambulatory services at the Wexner Medical Center. “Our doctors are working with patients to determine whether their current health concerns or follow-up visits are suitable for a telehealth visit.”

To care for patients remotely, the medical center deployed more than 200 cameras, updated more than 500 computers and set up over 2,000 accounts in Updox, a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform. The James set up more than 40 telehealth stations in private exam rooms and offices within the hospital to ensure patient confidentiality during consults. All providers are equipped to provide these private consultations from a location outside of their usual clinic.

“We want to make sure only the patients who truly must be seen in person come to our clinical buildings,” said David Cohn, chief medical officer for The James. “Our patients with cancer are already at a risk for infection as a result of their cancer or cancer treatment, so we are being especially vigilant about putting protections in place to maintain their health and wellness.”

Ohio State Wexner Medical Center offers the following same-day and by-appointment telehealth visits:

• Video visits: via the Ohio State MyHealth app, Updox or another web-based video messaging platform.
• E-Visits: Patients complete a detailed questionnaire about their medical history and current symptoms. The provider reviews the responses and will either determine a care plan or recommend a follow-up appointment.
• Telephone Visits: Providers and patients discuss medical concerns via phone.

A MyChart account is not required to have a telehealth appointment with an Ohio State provider.

Telehealth is offered by all specialties but not for all appointment types, as each patient’s needs are different. Telehealth immediate care visits are appropriate for non-urgent health issues such as colds, flu, back pain, diarrhea, headache, heartburn, sinus problems and urinary tract infections. Providers can diagnosis conditions, electronically prescribe medication, if deemed necessary, and may recommend patients go to the nearest Ohio State Emergency Department, Walk-In Care or AfterHours location for further care and treatment. Patients must be physically located in the state of Ohio.

“Over the past decade, the field of telehealth has been growing to meet the needs of patients and to improve access to care, and we need it now more than ever,” said J. Nwando Olayiwola, chair of the Department of Family Medicine and professor of family medicine at the College of Medicine. “Many people are comfortable using technology to connect with family and friends. We hope that this transition in health care will be seamless for them.”

To prepare for a virtual visit, patients should be able to describe their symptoms in detail, ask questions and share photos or use online tools to provide clinical information such as blood pressure, weight and heart rate. A strong internet connection, good lighting and a clear connection are recommended.

Medicare, Medicaid and most insurance plans cover one or more telehealth service.

The researchers who led this work were part of a team that previously found in a lab setting that the virus could infect cells from multiple species, including chickens and humans.

In this study, birds that were given the virus developed diarrhea by two days after infection. Healthy birds housed with infected chickens and turkeys also developed diarrhea two days after exposure.

That rapid spread of disease surprised the Ohio State University scientists.

“We weren’t even sure the virus would transmit from bird to bird. That’s a significant finding,” said senior author Scott Kenney, assistant professor of veterinary preventive medicine based in Ohio State’s Food Animal Health Research Program at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster.

“It looks like it’s pretty readily able to spread between birds. It’s a little concerning because if the virus gets into one or two animals in a large layer or broiler house, it would probably permeate through the entire house pretty quickly,” Kenney said.

Susceptibility to a pig virus can’t ethically be tested in humans – but the previous work in cells showed the virus attaches itself to the same type of receptor in many different host species.

“If the human cell culture model is as predictive as it was with the chickens, then humans are definitely susceptible to having virus-related disease,” he said.

The study is published in the online journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

This virus, porcine deltacoronavirus, was first detected in pigs in Asia in 2009 and caused a swine diarrhea outbreak in the United States – involving Ohio pigs – in 2014. It is part of the family of pathogens that cause respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases in the species they infect.

There are four types of coronaviruses. Two illnesses known for life-threatening regional outbreaks, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), were caused by betacoronaviruses. The current respiratory disease outbreak associated with a live animal market in China is also attributed to a betacoronavirus. Deltacoronaviruses historically have been linked to birds, and scientists suspect that this porcine virus originated in an avian species.

In this study, researchers worked with 14-day-old chickens and turkeys. In each group, they directly gave 10 birds the virus obtained from an infected pig. Two days later, the researchers allowed uninfected “sentinel” chickens and turkeys to live among the infected birds.

Most infected birds developed diarrhea at various time points, and the sentinels had mild to moderate diarrhea after joining the infected flock. Based on the length and severity of symptoms, the study showed that turkeys are more susceptible to the virus than chickens.

Other signs of disease in the birds included distended intestinal tracts containing gas and yellow liquid, high levels of the virus RNA in swabs of their tracheas and digestive tracts, and increased antibody levels in the directly infected birds and some sentinels, said Patricia Boley, first author of the study and a research associate in Kenney’s lab.

“Both chickens and turkeys were still shedding the virus at 14 days, when the study ended. We don’t know how long either species would continue shedding the virus,” Boley said.

Despite the presence of virus RNA in the trachea, the birds showed no signs of respiratory symptoms, which would make this virus more dangerous than enteric – intestinal – symptoms. The virus also did not kill the birds, but it can lead to death in piglets.

“We want to figure out why the virus is enteric versus respiratory, and how the hosts respond differently,” Kenney said. “With piglets we see mortality. We don’t have chickens dying, but we have piglets dying from the virus, so what makes the chickens different in their response to the virus? Maybe we can learn something from chickens and apply it to the pigs so they get less sick from the virus.”

Though there is no screening in place to detect this deltacoronavirus in humans, Kenney said it is feasible that humans have been exposed and infected and even had symptoms.

“People who get gastroenteritis may write it off as food poisoning. Deltacoronaviruses may be in some cases causing human disease, but we don’t know that aspect of it yet,” he said.

The virus cannot be transmitted to humans by consumption if the meat is properly cooked, he noted.

This work was supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s funding to the Food Animal Health Research Program.

Ohio State co-authors Moyasar Alhamo, Geoffrey Lossie, Kush Kumar Yadav, Marcia Vasquez-Lee and Linda Saif also worked on the study.

INSIGHT into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, recognized the College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Optometry and College of Veterinary Medicine with the 2019 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award.

Ohio State is the only academic institution in the country to have four colleges receive the 2019 Health Professions HEED award.

“Diversity in people and ideas is one of our shared values at Ohio State,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron. “As Buckeyes, we are committed to advancing inclusive excellence across our campuses and communities.”

“We’re committed to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion throughout our university and the health sciences,” said Dr. Hal Paz, executive vice president and chancellor for health affairs at Ohio State and CEO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “This award celebrates the amazing work our faculty, staff and students do every day to create an environment where everyone feels valued and has a safe space to work and learn.”

The Health Professions HEED award process consists of a comprehensive application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees, leadership support for diversity and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion. Ohio State diversity and inclusion efforts include:

• College of Medicine: a focus on mitigating implicit bias in its admissions process and providing implicit bias training to College of Medicine and Ohio State Wexner Medical Center leadership, faculty and staff. Inclusive excellence in leadership is an integral part of the strategic plan, evident in the recent hire of four female department chairs. This brings the percentage of female leaders in the College of Medicine to 22%.
• College of Nursing: offering services to support student success, including clinical opportunities in diverse communities locally and abroad. The Summer Institute for Discovering Nursing program strives to increase the number of nursing students from underrepresented populations. The Barbers and Beauticians Who Care and Ask a Buckeye Nurse programs provide health screenings in underserved communities in central Ohio.
• College of Optometry: providing outreach programs to underrepresented minority students to educate them about how the eye works, vision disorders, eye diseases, eye safety, the importance of eye examinations and the optometric profession. The Improving Diversity of Optometric Careers summer program attracts underrepresented minority undergraduate college students from across the United States to learn about optics, eye anatomy, vision disorders and the College of Optometry admissions process.
• College of Veterinary Medicine: creating Community of Inclusion Affinity Groups that act as sites of community engagement to support an inclusive community. The Veterinary Clinical and Professional Skills Center has been integrated into the core curriculum to create stand-alone courses that provide structure for hand-on skills training from day one of coursework.

Ohio State will be featured in the December 2019 issue of INSIGHT into Diversity magazine.

Walters, who survived strangulation at the hands of an ex-boyfriend in 2006, said she now understands that all of those things stem from brain injury.

Domestic violence survivors commonly suffer repeated blows to the head and strangulation, trauma that has lasting effects that should be widely recognized by advocates, health care providers, law enforcement and others who are in a position to help, according to the authors of a new study.

In the first community-based study of its kind, researchers from The Ohio State University and the Ohio Domestic Violence Network found that 81 percent of women who have been abused at the hands of their partners and seek help have suffered a head injury and 83 percent have been strangled.

“This is happening to lots of people and it’s a really, really lonely place to be,” Walters said.

The 45-year-old Toledo woman worked in the hospital where she was seen the night of the strangulation, after a neighbor checked in on her and realized she’d been severely beaten. But neither Walters, nor the team of doctors and nurses who cared for her, thought to consider brain injury at the time.

After a car crash in 2017, a brain MRI revealed the problem. She still struggles with the fallout of the damage to her brain, and is determined to keep telling her story in hopes of helping health care providers, police officers and others understand that they should think about brain injury when working with someone who’s been physically abused.

The new research suggests that brain injury caused by blows to the head and by oxygen deprivation are likely ongoing health issues for many domestic violence survivors. Because of poor recognition of these lasting harms, some interactions between advocates and women suffering from the effects of these unidentified injuries were likely misguided, said the authors of the study, which appears in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.

“One in three women in the United States has experienced intimate partner violence. What we found leads us to believe that many people are walking around with undiagnosed brain injury, and we have to address that,” said lead researcher Julianna Nemeth, an assistant professor of health behavior and health promotion at Ohio State.

The study included 49 survivors from Ohio and 62 staff and administrators from five agencies in the state.

Previous research has acknowledged brain injury as a product of domestic violence. But this is the first study to gather this kind of detailed information from the field. It’s also the first to establish that many survivors have likely experienced repeated head injury and oxygen deprivation – a combination that could contribute to more-severe problems including memory loss, difficulty understanding, loss of motivation, nightmares, anxiety and trouble with vision and hearing, Nemeth said.

“Nobody really knows just what this combination of injuries could mean for these women,” she said. “When we looked at our data, it was an ‘Oh my gosh’ moment. We have the information we need now to make sure that people recognize this as a major concern in caring for survivors.”

Almost half of the women in the study said they’d been hit in the head or had their head shoved into another object “too many times to remember.” More than half were choked or strangled “a few times” and one in five said that happened “too many times to remember.”

In some cases, the survivors lived through both experiences multiple times.

The reports from women in domestic violence programs throughout Ohio already have prompted changes to how the statewide advocacy group and the programs it works with are helping the survivors they serve. They’ve created a model called “CARE” for “Connect, Acknowledge, Respond and Evaluate.”

They’ve adjusted their training and developed materials that address the “invisible injuries” to the brain. They’re encouraging providers at agencies to tailor care plans to the specific needs of women who’ve had traumatic brain injury, and to help them seek medical care to get an appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

Currently, the team is working on an evaluation to see how well that new programming is working.

“Brain injury was not something we really talked about much until now. It wasn’t part of any routine training and we’re trying to address that now because of what we learned from these survivors,” said Rachel Ramirez, a study co-author and training director for the Ohio Domestic Violence Network. She’s been exploring ways to ensure better diagnosis and treatment for women with brain injuries, and said there’s a long way to go.

“Almost all of the best-practice recommendations for TBI are focused on athletes and soldiers, and some of the guidance is impractical for our population,” she said. “These women could be having trouble being able to plan for the future, to make decisions about their safety, to come to appointments, to do their jobs. Many have likely been wondering for years what’s going on with them.”

Emily Kulow, accessibility project coordinator for the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, said that it’s likely some of the survivors who’ve suffered from severe head trauma and oxygen deprivation have been slipping through the cracks because their symptoms aren’t well-understood.

For instance, someone who can never remember to show up for counseling at the right time or who is combative with a roommate might be seen as a troublemaker when she’s really at the mercy of her brain injury, Kulow said.

“Regardless of why we’re seeing these behaviors, we should be serving all the women who have survived domestic violence and a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work.”

Added Nemeth, “The survivors who have severe brain injury are likely some of those with the greatest unmet need.”

In addition to memory problems and cognitive impairment, poor mental health may arise or be exacerbated by brain injury – and addressing the mental health needs of survivors is an ongoing challenge for agencies, Kulow said.

The researchers also authored another study, recently published in the Journal of Family Violence, that documents challenges that agency employees face when dealing with the complex mental health needs of survivors. The study authors, led by Ohio State Assistant Professor of Social Work Cecilia Mengo, call for care models tailored to survivors who have a mental health disability.

But they also recognize the challenges faced by advocates and survivors, particularly in areas where residents have poor access to counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists.

“It’s not that they don’t recognize the need for mental health services, but that need is difficult to meet in a state with inadequate mental health services,” Ramirez said.

Added Kulow, “We also heard from programs that there’s a lack of understanding of the more-serious mental health disorders that people have, such as bipolar disorder.”

The studies were supported by the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime.

Obesity affects almost 40% of the population – or about 93 million adults – in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As chronic obesity worsens, it can lead to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And just like with any other chronic disease, the best course of action is early intervention, such as bariatric surgery, said Dr. Stacy Brethauer, a surgeon at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center’s Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence.

Bariatric surgery is a weight-loss technique that changes the anatomy of the gastrointestinal tract including the stomach and digestive system and creates physiological changes in the body that alter energy balance and fat metabolism.

“Surgery is, by far, the most effective tool in managing or reversing Type 2 diabetes. Just as doctors wouldn’t wait until a patient has advanced-stage cancer to treat their disease, patients shouldn’t have to wait until they are severely obese to undergo surgery,” Brethauer said. “Too many see obesity as a problem of willpower, and it’s simply not. Patients must participate in their care by making healthy lifestyle changes, but the most effective treatment is often surgery, and that should be an option for patients who would benefit.”

Patients with obesity who are interested in having bariatric surgery to lose weight must meet certain criteria to qualify for the surgery. Those criteria were developed nearly three decades ago, and are arbitrarily based on a patient’s body mass index (BMI), Brethauer said.

According to the 1991 National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference Guidelines, patients are considered surgical candidates only if their BMI is 40 or higher, or if their BMI is 35 or higher and they suffer from other life-threatening comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disease.

“For example, if you have two patients who each have obesity with uncontrolled diabetes, the patient who has a BMI of 35 or higher would qualify for bariatric surgery, while the other patient with a BMI of 34 or lower would often be denied coverage by insurance companies,” Brethauer said. He wants this to change.

Multiple clinical studies have shown the benefits of bariatric surgery in patients with lower BMIs. The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery has drafted new criteria that would make these patients eligible for surgery with a lower BMI and diabetes, said Brethauer, a senior past president of the society who helped draft the new guidelines during his tenure as president.

“The patient who doesn’t get the operation, we know very well that their disease will progress and their lifespan will be shortened,” said Brethauer, professor of surgery at Ohio State’s College of Medicine. “Continuing to increase their insulin requirements will not change the trajectory of the disease. Surgery does.”

Brethauer said it’s now up to referring physicians and insurance companies to more widely adopt these new standards so that more patients can receive the treatment they need.

In 2016, global guidelines developed during the 2nd Diabetes Surgery Summit were published in the journal Diabetes Care to inform clinicians and policymakers about benefits and limitations of bariatric surgery for patients with Type 2 diabetes. These guidelines have been endorsed by more than 45 scientific and medical societies worldwide that urge health care regulators to introduce appropriate reimbursement policies.

“National data says that two-thirds of the population is either overweight or obese, and up to 8 percent are severely obese and clearly would qualify for bariatric surgery,” Brethauer said. “But right now in the United States, we do more than 250,000 bariatric surgeries a year, so that means we’re operating on 1 percent of the patients who are eligible for surgery based on their BMI.”

REACH is the name of the university’s unique suicide prevention training program. The goal is to help prevent suicide by teaching students, faculty and staff the risks, the warning signs, and how to intervene.

“It’s really building a toolkit to be able to do your best to help someone else feel heard,” Weist said.

Weist, a third-year material science and engineering major, has been involved in the university’s Residence Life program since he started at Ohio State. He started as an office assistant and now is a resident adviser at Blackburn House.

Weist was encouraged to take the REACH training program as an office assistant. The 90-minute workshop is designed to help the Ohio State community prevent suicide by teaching faculty, staff and students how to:

• Recognize warning signs
• Engage with empathy
• Ask directly about suicide
• Communicate hope
• Help suicidal individuals to access care and treatment

The experience helped him understand the challenges he was going through at the time.

“As soon as I dove into the discussion and actually learned about [suicide prevention] and saw how much of it really applied to my own life, really saw how it connected to my own struggles and the struggles of the people around me in high school, it really resonated with me,” he said.

The training has proved useful. Weist said he has used it to help students who were in trouble and didn’t know where to turn.

“When I have been connected with these students who are really out on a limb by themselves, without much support, I’ve been able to use the REACH class to get to their feelings and to make them feel heard,” he said. “Because the most common thing that I’ve seen is that people feel so alone and they don’t realize that other people feel as similar as they do.”

While the program predates the university’s recent Suicide and Mental Health Task Force, it aids the mission of building a caring community at Ohio State. The task force report recommended continuing to build a “culture of care” on campus that finds ways to minimize psychological harm to students and encourages students, faculty and staff to look out for one another.

Laura Lewis, assistant director of Ohio State’s suicide prevention program, manages REACH. Said the training program confronts a complex topic in a way that makes it easier to understand.

“Because we’re trying to create this culture of care, this community of care, we prefer to do our trainings in a way that creates an environment … where it feels non-judgmental,” Lewis said. “It feels like you could ask questions, it feels like you’re not alone and you don’t feel dumb. The curriculum is designed in a way to debunk myths but it’s also designed in such a way to inspire conversation.”

One of the keys to inspiring that conversation is the program’s peer-to-peer education model. In each training session, students teach students and graduate students, faculty and staff train their peers.

Lewis said each new trainer goes through a rigorous training process and always works with an experienced partner for the presentations.

So far, more than 16,000 students, faculty and staff have participated in REACH classes. Lewis said they typically train 2,500 people per semester. They expect and want the numbers to continue to grow.

While the training is not mandatory, Lewis said she wants to see more members of the Ohio State community sign up because suicide is preventable.

“The training is meant to dispel some fears. Your job is not to solve the problem. Your job is to be the bridge to get that person to the person who can solve the problem,” she said. “We’re not asking you to be counselors. That’s not at all what this is about. We have those people and they’re great at what they do, but this is about you noticing something’s off and everybody can do that.”

To learn more or to sign up for a training session, click here to go to the Ohio State Suicide Prevention Program website.

For help, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255/TALK (or 1-888-628-9454 for Spanish speakers). To reach someone at Ohio’s 24/7 Crisis Text Line, send 4HOPE to 741741.