Poverty runs deep > The socioeconomic status of cell donors affects the health outcomes of people facing blood cancer who received stem cells from them through hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), or blood and marrow transplantation, according to new research led by the U of M Medical School’s Lucie Turcotte, MD, MPH, MS. 

The study examined the health outcomes of 2,005 patients treated with HCT in 25 hospitals across the country. Patients who received cells from socioeconomically disadvantaged donors experienced a 9.7% reduction in overall survival and a 6.6% increase in transplant-related death after three years—regardless of the patient’s own socioeconomic status. 

“It’s this whole idea that poverty is impacting people down to the level of their stem cells,” Turcotte, also an M Health Fairview Pediatrics hematologist-oncologist, told the Star Tribune, “and that’s a pretty profound way to think about it.”

Double trouble > If it ever feels like stress and anxiety are affecting your gut function, or vice versa, it’s because your gut and your brain are always communicating. 

“The ‘gut brain’ and the bigger brain up in our heads are totally wired together,” the U of M Medical School’s Alexander Khoruts, MD, told MPR. “They talk to each other, and sometimes you get into vicious cycles of symptoms, where either anxiety drives more gut symptoms or the gut symptoms drive more anxiety. Usually it’s both.” 

So what to do? Eating a plant-based diet with minimally processed foods and fermented foods can help to keep your gut healthy, as can minimizing stress through exercise, sleep, and meditation.