In this episode, our host Melissa Palafox speaks with Eunice Lin on public health newsworthy topics including:

• Menstrual cycle disruption after the COVID vaccine, regardless of the type of vaccine selected.
• Racial and Ethnic Disparities in FMLA from 2017-18, where service industries jobs also had less access to paid leave than corporate jobs.
• Parental leave differences between CA and WA.
• Healthy foods to improve mental health and reduce stress during final exams time.

References:

Global study finds COVID-19 vaccination can affect menstrual cycle:

https://news.ohsu.edu/2022/09/27/global-study-finds-covid-19-vaccination-can-affect-menstrual-cycle

Racial and Ethnic Inequities in Paid Family and Medical Leave: United States, 2011 and 2017–2018:

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306825

Natural Ways to Improve Your Mood:

https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sather/natural-ways-to-improve-your-mood/

Hello, welcome back to the public health report. I am your host, Melissa Palafox. And this week I am joined by Eunice Lin. And we're going to be talking about different public health topics in the media that we recently came across. Welcome, Yunus to the podcast. Hi, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be part of my first public health report. Yeah, so tell us what you found this week.

Eunice 2:44

But of the total participants, only 6.2% of the vaccinated individuals experienced a change in length greater than eight days. I was one of those people I actually skipped, I think two periods, like two cycles after my second dose of my vaccine. And I know it's crazy. I was really, really surprised that that happened. But the author's just called for future studies to on other aspects of vaccination, late changes to menstrual cycles, and for studies to determine physical reasons why the vaccine affects your body this way.

Eunice 3:19

But yeah, that's kind of what I've been reading about recently. And I reached out to a couple of my friends on social media, and I just had an overwhelming number of responses from women who experienced all these weird menstrual cycle effects from the vaccine. So it's definitely a real thing. Wow, that's so interesting. I remember when I remember when you first told me about this topic. I didn't realize because I actually did have a change in my cycle, too. But I never put it together with the vaccine because I was always irregular. Yeah, but I remember like, after a while, this was before pandemic, my cycle started to be regular again. So I was like, okay, cool. I'm like back to normal. And then all of a sudden, it just started being regular, irregular again. And I didn't realize it happened around the time I got vaccinated too, which is crazy. Yeah, yeah. It was really interesting to learn about and they also, the study also said that there is no difference between which vaccine you got, and you're changing periods of some people matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter which one says because some people thought, oh, maybe it's because of the mRNA or the different technology between like the Pfizer or the Johnson and Johnson, but it was pretty much the same all across the board. So yeah, more research. And we're saying a lot of things about the Johnson and Johnson one. Yeah. So I can see why maybe they're putting the blame on that one.

Melissa 4:48

Yes, the least effective vaccine, sadly. And the one that gets a bad rap, but wow, how many responses did you get from like your friends? I think I heard from For at least 20 different people.

Eunice 5:05

Yeah, I just posted on my Instagram story, like, let me know if you experienced menstrual cycle changes after your COVID vaccine. And just a ton of a ton of DMS came back. The majority, I think of the responses were that the cycles are really heavy or really light. That was the biggest it wasn't necessarily missing a period. It was just very like, yeah, people whose periods are very regular, they experienced really heavy flow,

or barely any flow at all, which I thought was interesting. Wow, that is interesting. Mine. I think mine wasn't necessarily the flow. At least I think it wasn't mine was just,

Melissa 5:45

I was bleeding between sites like between. Yeah, the spotting in between? Yeah, but I was more than spotting. Oh, it was actual bleeding, bleeding. Yeah. So I was like, it's confused. But yeah, it's crazy. Because it did happen around that time that I got my second dose. Yeah. And it usually returned to normal after three to four cycles. So I'm interested to see how if they do further studies, how they're gonna look into that. Wow, interesting. Thank you for bringing that up. Today. That was the very course of a very interesting choice of a topic.

Eunice 6:23

They are able to take the 12 weeks

that their work allows them it's eight weeks for a vaginal delivery. And

I believe it's 12 weeks for a C section.

Eunice 9:11

And so they're taking that time, but I know in California, it's a little different. I came from Washington state. That's where my healthcare experience is. And in Washington state, the state actually gives you an additional 12 weeks of leave of protected okay. It's not necessarily paid that depends on your employer. Yeah, but the state does give you an additional 12 weeks of leave.

Eunice 9:34

And that's protected. So you can't lose your job if you take that additional time. Although, but I know it is still very much based on employer and how they decide to pay you. And for the dads who take leave as well. It's different you know, it's typically not full pay or it's unpaid or Yeah, and of course if it's unpaid, like they're gonna be Yeah, they're gonna probably be

Be anxious about that, and probably not even gonna want to get because they now have a baby that they need to pay bills for. Yes. So it's very difficult though the amount of paperwork it takes to, to process which is what I used to do. I used to process paperwork for maternity leave. It's a lot of signatures, a lot of hoops to jump through. And a lot of the time, you can't even apply for it until after you've already delivered because they need to know the exact delivery date. So, you know, the mom is like a week, a week postpartum and trying to get paperwork signed. And it's just a lot. It's a lot that they shouldn't have to worry about. Right, right.

Melissa: Now, Wow, that's crazy. I didn't know that that all those steps went into just asking for that leave. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Oh, well, yeah, I just felt like that article is interesting, and definitely will spark a lot of conversations about that. But the second article I found was also just very straightforward. And I felt like would be great with finals, kind of around the corner, depending on if you're like in the 15 week courses, or like us, the eight week courses, which start today. But anywho, this article is from Berkeley student wellbeing website. And it's basically just mind foods to boost your mood and reduce stress and anxiety. So I thought that'd be perfect for like, test season. And just as we get close to the holidays, you know, I feel like there's always stress and anxiety around that time. And they basically go into how you can incorporate stress reducing foods as a lifestyle in your diet, because, you know, people will probably be like, Oh my God, I need to eat these foods right now. And they'll like eat it one day. But this article is saying that you need to incorporate it in the long term, little by little, in order to actually see the effects of like a calmer state of mind. And the first food group that they talked about was fiber rich vegetables. So that includes like leafy greens like spinach, they say this because it was linked to reduce the risk of anxiety, depression and stress if you eat these regularly, so even if you incorporate it like, once, once a day, so I thought that was interesting. I love spinach. So I feel like you can incorporate spinach in a lot of things, even smoothies. And then the second one is so easy. It's just bananas. They're rich in Vitamin B six, which they said helps your body synthesize serotonin, and dopamine, which of course, you know, that's the happy, the happy neurotransmitter feelings, so definitely something you need during finals. The third food group that they talked about was fermented foods, so like kimchi, and even like simple yogurts help, and they found a correlation between a higher frequency of fermented group or fermented food consumption with lower levels of reported social anxiety. Wow. Yeah. That's so interesting. That one surprised me because both like usually, I didn't think that food like kimchi would do that, you know, but I would think that oh, it's because you're like so spiced out of your mind that Yeah, you can't be anxious. But I love Ken t. So now that it's even better now gives you more of a reason to go to your favorite Korean barbecue place. And then the next one is lean meats. So turkey, chicken, stuff like that. Or if you don't need me, they suggested even chickpeas and soy would give the same effect.

And right here it says in the article that eating a diet high in these meats over four days resulted in a decreased anxiety and symptoms of depression. And then the next one is nuts and seeds, which of course help with like a happy or they provide like fiber to make your gut kind of like a healthier and easier to digest foods. Then next one is fatty fish. So like salmon and tuna, which have high levels of omega threes, and also help with your mood disorders like anxiety and depression.

The next one is chamomile, chamomile tea. And of course tea is always good when you're stressed. So it's definitely a good one to help you know if you're feeling stressed or anxious during during finals, you can definitely brew up some cough chamomile tea and it'll definitely help. The next one is garlic like legit garlic which can be found in a lot of foods.

And honestly I feel like garlic is necessary when you're cooking because I called many cultures to garlic is like a cure all garlic and on Yeah, actually I saw

When the pandemic was big that people would literally just eat garlic like that. Yeah, in our house, we, my uncle and his family who I lived with at the beginning of COVID did this thing where if anyone was sick, they would put onions in, like just cut onions and garlic or garlic in like a bowl and leave it in the room. Because it's opposed to oh, I heard that, like, clear out the toxins or people like put raw onions or garlic at the bottom of their feet and like, put socks on. Oh, I didn't know like, draw out toxins. Yeah, I've never tried it. But people who do it swear by it. So there must be some. I mean, I know in my culture, they use it, they put it in, like they boil it. And they put it in like either tea. And like you can either drink it or if you want, just want to smell it. Like if you're congested, like go home with the onion to record that I'm both onion and garlic.

Honestly, they're that girl when it comes to cooking.

But yeah, they actually found that after a 10 day diet added garlic. And this was with they tested this on

conduct like they conducted an animal survey with rats. And that they found that when they had a 10 day diet of added garlic, they showed less physical symptoms of depression and anxiety and lower levels of stress markers in their brain. Wow, sounds pretty interesting. And then the last one is whole grain pastas, cereals and breads. So basically like whole wheat bread, or oats or even quinoa, they'll lower your blood sugar levels because the white breads and the simple carbs, they spike the blood sugar levels so

and those can really affect your mood swings and your stress responses. So whole grain wheats can help lower those levels and cortisol levels as well.

That's so cool. Yeah. So now you know, if you're feeling hungry, and you want to help your mood, now you know which foods reach out for. And just a quick note to if anyone listening does struggle with anxiety and depression like please do reach out to your doctor. Don't just go and eat a ton of bananas and oh, yeah, none salmon and garlic.

Just some helpful tips from Berkeley student well being but they we are not doctors I who am reading this I'm not a doctor.

So you can just if you're unsure, and you really want to start a change in diet and make sure that you consult with your doctor first. before committing to anything like that.

Agreed. Agreed. But yeah, thank you for this interesting conversation. Eunice. Yeah, thanks for having me on today. Yeah, of course. And I hope that these topics were interesting to you guys. And I hope that it also sparks an interest in communicating with others about important topics in public health with your peers. So that is all for today. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe if you liked today's report. To learn more about our podcast news and events, visit public health podcasters.com. Again, I am Melissa and this is Eunice and this was the public health report.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai