the latest edition of Tell Health in Hawaii. I'm your host, Vikram Acharya. I'm the chief executive officer of Cloudwell Health, an all virtual leading telemedicine provider based here in Hawaii. We have a great, great, exciting show for you today. My guest colleague, Reagan Vaughan. Reagan is the director of wellness and credentialing at Hawaii Medical Assurance Association, also known as HMAA. Reagan, how you doing today? Doing great. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for being on the show. It's great, great to have you. To get things rolling, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, you're role at HMAA, and we'll go from there. Sure, absolutely. So I'm originally out of San Antonio, Texas. I currently am the director, as you mentioned, director of wellness and credentialing over at HMAA. I really got started with healthcare in college. I was an intern assistant in one of the local emergency rooms, and my interest was really heavy around medical research. So I did that for a couple of years through my undergrad, and then I went into public health right after college, and I got really lucky that I found HMAA right away. You know, I was 22, I moved out to Hawaii. I found this fantastic job that allowed me to do something in my field, really helping grow the wellness department out there, and I've been there ever since. Yeah, that's a really nice story. What brought you to Hawaii, being from Texas? Well, who wouldn't want to go to Hawaii from Texas? It was really just something fun that I wanted to do. I wanted to get out of my normal space. I loved the environment out there. I'd spend a lot of time in my youth, traveling back and forth. I had some connections in downtown already, so I happened to get into town, and it just worked out and was just meant to be. Yeah, yeah. Now, you're the director of two departments, two big departments at HMAA. There's credentialing and then there's wellness. Let's start with the wellness. What's a day in the life, Reagan, when it comes to the director of wellness? So wellness is really my bread and butter. I was actually fortunate enough to come on with HMAA in 2010 and really start developing their wellness program. You know, at that point, we were trying to meet some of the standards with the ACA, make sure that our groups had the resources they needed to start their own corporate wellness programs. So we really started off with things like biometric screenings, vaccination clinics, encouraging things like healthy eating and physical activity. And over the years, over the last 12 years, it's really just become this really great program where now we are also focusing on things like maternity management, colon cancer screenings, and of course, telehealth, which is something we're just super excited to be able to offer to our members. And recently, we've also, in 2019, we maintained our NCQA, Wellness and Health Promotion accreditation. So we're also very proud of that. But in the ins and outs of the day, we're really just looking to help our members identify areas that they need some extra support in in the wellness realm and make sure that they have the resources and tools that they need to make better lifestyle choices and also get access to care when they need it. Yeah, I'm sure, especially, hopefully coming out of the pandemic, there's a significant need around wellness, especially, I'm sure folks, there's the behavioral health side where there's a lot of need there, but also around the physical health as well. A lot of people have gone, possibly several years, without really taking care of themselves, seeing a provider. Are you seeing things like that? Oh, yes, the pandemic definitely impacted everyone. And in Hawaii especially, the lockdowns were a really trying time for a lot of our members, the local residents, being stuck in confined quarters. A lot of people's gyms were shutting down. Their doctors weren't able to do in-person visits. There was also just the general concern about contracting the virus and what exposure means to everyone.  And now there's also the credentialing component, which is an equally important part of what you do. Walk us through, what is credentialing for those that may not know and how important it is when it comes to HMA. So all of our providers are required to be credentialed. Really that's just maintaining records, ensuring that we have all the proper licensure and the criteria is needed to be part of our network. We check everybody out before we get them out into our provider network. And that's something that we do every three years with all of our providers to maintain our URAC accreditation on that site as well. So it's checks and balances on the provider side and I'm really happy to be a part of that site as well. Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. In your day to day, what are some of the challenges that you face with really maintaining that high level of excellence that you and the HMA team deliver on every day? You know, I think one of the biggest things is just making sure that our members and our providers are happy with the service that we provide. And I really couldn't do that without the excellent team that I have. I'm lucky to be surrounded by really great people. My team is fantastic. They're very reliable. You have a really strong attention to detail and quality. And I think that's just a really big factor throughout our company is that everyone within we're a family and ourselves and paying attention to quality, ensuring that we're giving the best service that we can is a really high priority. Absolutely, absolutely. So now HMA also has a very strong, robust telemedicine platform, it's called HIDOC. Walk us through, what is HIDOC? So HIDOC is our telehealth platform which is powered by Cloudwell Health. We're really excited to be partnered with Cloudwell. So we actually started our telemedicine program. We got started thinking about it in 2016. It wasn't something that everybody was jumping into. It wasn't a heavily utilized service at the time, but we launched around 2018 joined with Cloudwell in 2021. And really it's something we were really grateful to have at the start of the pandemic to have an established program to be able to service our members for the various specialties. So starting out with urgent care, that being something that's really heavily utilized, our members are definitely appreciative of that. Things like pediatrics, but mental health care being a new service with Cloudwell under HIDOC has really just heightened the game for us. It's something that a lot of people in my opinion aren't rushing out to get care for when they need it. And there's different stigmas all around around accessing mental health care. And so I really think that the telehealth aspect of it has really bridged that gap to say, you know what, I know that I need this care and I maybe wouldn't have been excited to go in person right away and start that relationship. But through telehealth, I'm able to go in and talk to a therapist and get the care that I need when I need it. And so that's something that I think has just been super valuable as a part of our telehealth program. It's my favorite thing to promote any time I'm out talking about telehealth is, hey, you know, you can get mental health care on the platform as well. And then just recently rolling out primary care availability as well. It's really also helping to provide access to physicians, especially to members that are gonna be out on the outer islands, maybe there's a physician shortage in those areas or it's just generally hard to get in person with a physician, especially during the pandemic. It's just been a crucial part of our wellness program offerings to be able to, you know, have a backup plan for our members to say, you know, we can get you seen today. Yeah. I'm sure, you know, you have many members who are very hard for them to access primary care, urgent care because of the significant providing shortages in the state, but with HIDOC, they can get it the same day. Absolutely, yeah. And that's definitely invaluable, you know, especially with children having pediatric availability on the platform as well. I've got two kids myself, so I can definitely, you know, stand behind that, that sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night with a fever and all kinds of symptoms. And, you know, it's not necessarily convenient to pull your children out of bed in the middle of the night and take them into an urgent care and ER facilities. So I really think that HIDOC and Intel Health in general is just a really great resource to, you know, get that medical feedback and consult on what you should do next. You know, do I need to go to the ER? A lot of the time, they're simple, you know, explanations for certain things where you can either wait and talk to your primary doctor if you need to, otherwise you can be seen through telehealth and it saves you from spending all that time waiting in the ER, the urgent care waiting room when you really just needed a prescription for antibiotics or something like that. So definitely a great, great option to have. Yeah, no question, no question. When you meet with your members, do they, these days, is it medical needs and behavioral health needs are pretty much about the same? Like what people are looking for? Or is it more on the medical side? Like what type of feedback do you get, you know, when you meet with your members? I think that it's a little more heavy on the medical side, but I think that the mental health side is building, especially because it's not something that members necessarily thought of off the top of their head.  You need to be seen for a skin infection or something like that, but you don't necessarily think, oh, I can talk to a counselor, I can talk to a therapist through telehealth as well. So I think that that really sparks a lot of interest to hear, oh, I have this option as well. And we've really seen that build the program over the last year or two. Yeah, yeah. So, and it's probably, you know, right now when you meet with members, it's like, you know, it's great that you have mental health, behavioral health services may not have thought about it, but now that you mention it, I'm, you know, both are of importance to us now. Absolutely, absolutely. And the feedback that we've gotten from members who regularly use the mental health aspect of the program is, you know, very positive. They love interacting with their therapist. They go attend regularly. They're not missing sessions. And they're really getting all of the positive aspects of finally receiving that care that maybe that they've been ignoring until now. Absolutely. You know, when you, if you were to look about three to five years down the road, do you foresee more and more utilization of programs like High Dock to advance telehealth? What are your thoughts on that? I definitely think so, especially among the younger generation, you know, I think that people in their early 20s and their 30s, you know, growing up with technology, having access to everything in the palm of your hand and just the general busyness of everyone's schedule, having direct access to a physician without having to wait two weeks, you know, that's something that really speaks to a younger generation as well. So I think that as this is just the norm, you know, as we go over time, it's really gonna pick up because we're also gonna see populations that wouldn't normally get a regular annual checkup with a physician start utilizing it more because it's easier to access that care. You know, they can do it from the comfort of their home. You don't have to take off work to go to the doctor anymore. You can be seen on your lunch break. You can be seen after work. And so I think that accessibility is gonna play a huge role, especially in that younger generation getting used to being seen this way. Yeah. And a lot of people were sort of introduced to telehealth during really the height of the pandemic. It's great that now that they're more familiar with it, you know, we find that once people use it for the first time, there might be some hesitancy in the beginning, but once they use it, they really like it and they inevitably come back. Yes, that's what we've seen on our end as well is that usually if somebody comes into the service once, they're gonna enjoy it and they're gonna come back and use it again when they need it. Yeah. Now, shifting back to wellness, there's a lot of just higher, higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure, you know, higher rates of chronic conditions, especially in Hawaii. You know, as part of your wellness leadership role, what types of programs are available for members to access when it comes to some of these chronic conditions that could be pre-diabetic or they may have diabetes, what's available to them? Sure, so we work on multiple tiers with chronic conditions and chronic conditions are really something from a wellness perspective, and I think that most wellness programs can attest to this is you really wanna hone in on those risk factors, you know, because preventing comorbidities from things like diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, you know, we're gonna, we really wanna prevent those from developing into things like coronary artery disease and digestive heart failure and stage renal disease. You know, we really wanna stop the train there. So what we do is we have different levels. So those that don't really have any risk factors, but they know that their behavior, their lifestyle choices aren't necessarily the healthiest. We have the standard wellness programs that promote physical activity, healthy eating, getting regular checkups with your physician, that kind of baseline wellness care. And then we build up from there. So if you are pre-diabetic, for instance, we've got some digital resources that you can use to kind of step back your risk factors, get some education on, you know, ways that you can just really improve your health even in the slightest ways that are gonna help you prevent from developing things like type two diabetes.  We also work with several pharmacies who do diabetes education, that sort of work. And then we also have disease management programs for those who are diagnosed with the conditions and they need a little bit of extra help reaching their goals, whether that's medication compliance, regular testing, following up with their physician on a regular schedule and things like that. So we've got nurses that are available to assist with those types of things. But as I mentioned with our telemedicine program, we also are able to refer them to speak directly to a physician and get some consults on things that they should do directly from a medical professional. Yeah, yeah. So the nurses, they're like coordinators for patients. They help coordinate the patient's wellness progress and trajectory. Yes, so every member has a dedicated care plan based on the risk factors they have, the conditions and comorbidities that they have. And then their registered nurse will work with them on at least a monthly, more so, depending on the case basis in order to make sure that they're reaching their goals. Yeah. Now we're often asked this question a lot and I'm sure it's the case with HMA-82. Because we service all the islands, it makes it great, especially for those that might be on specific islands where the provider short is even increasingly acute. And so I'm sure you get that feedback also from the HMA-A side. Look, thank you so much because I don't have a lot of providers on this island but I do have a smartphone and I can access High Dog. Absolutely. And really making sure that we have something for those outer islands members, we don't wanna leave them in a position where they have to travel to Oahu in order to access care. And a lot of members out on those outer islands can attest to the fact that sometimes that is the case. You have to leave and come to Oahu to get care or be seen for certain specialties. And so it's really great for High Dog to be able to say, it doesn't matter where you are. We can definitely help you. And in most cases, it doesn't matter what time it is, we're always there for you so you can access care whenever you need it. So yes, those outer islands, those rural areas, we're really pushing it in those populations to let those members know you have access to this program and it's not gonna take weeks for you to be seen. Yeah, and you raise a good point. It's having care for the outer islands but also because the service is essentially open, essentially almost all the time that they can, whether if you would like primary care at nine o'clock in the evening, you can receive it. Right. Mental health sessions, based off when you're free because many people obviously in the service industry, for example, it's hard for them to be able to take time off. And like you said, go to the doctor or go to your therapist whereas, if that's the time it works for you late at night or early in the morning, then it's available. Absolutely, care on your own schedule and that's really what we all need. A nine to five availability doesn't work for everybody and sometimes things pop up and you need to be seen sooner. You don't have that time to wait. So yes, having that constant, near constant availability is priceless. Yeah, yeah. And now if you were to start to think of other ways in which down the road, high doc, something like high doc can be used, where would you try and try and position it in terms of some new potential ideas? So kind of stemming off of the chronic disease topic, I think that's a population that we'd really like to be able to continue to hone in on and provide additional remote monitoring. It'd be really helpful for not only the patient to understand where they stand with their condition, but also for the physician that's monitoring their condition to get regular live updates, especially if somebody goes into a diabetic crisis. Sometimes it would be really great for members to have a care community who is also aware of what's going on with them and can reach out and say, hey, we noticed that this is going on with you or maybe the member calls in to the physician and they are like, yep, we already see your results right here, full access, full transparency between patient and physician. I think that would really help with stepping back those risk factors and properly maintaining those conditions. Yeah, those are great long-term steps, that's great vision. So in your spare time, when you have it, you mentioned you have a family, you have young children. Can I tell us a little bit about Reagan's family? Oh gosh, so I have a 11-year-old son. He is in sixth grade, so we're getting exposed to all of that middle school, early teenage tween years, so that's exciting. He's in football right now. He loves basketball and baseball, video games, of course, because what sixth grade boy doesn't love video games. And then I also have an eight-year-old daughter. She's currently in third grade and she's kind of the opposite of the spectrum. She goes to startup business classes. So she's learning how to design her own company and she loves gymnastics and she's just a great personality. And she loves also being part of this type of interaction. She was lucky to be able to be part of one of HMA's news segments on the COVID early in the pandemic. So she's got a good drive for business, which is really funny from an eight-year-old's perspective, but they're great. We spend all of our time together when we're free and really just enjoy each other. Yeah, yeah, no, same on my side. It's like being able to, the kids, when they need medical care, we've accessed telehealth and they really respond to it really well. They're like, wow, I don't have to go in. We don't have to go into the doctor, mommy. Like, daddy, I can do it through the computer and we're like, yeah, it's like a full-on visit. It's really a lot of, and they're fully engaged. I mean, they answer the doctor's questions, they participate. I mean, it really is, like you said, in the years to come, the new mode in which- Oh, absolutely. And they're already used to talking to everybody through FaceTime and video chat. You interact with grandma and grandpa this way. You also get to interact with your doctor this way. So it's great. And yeah, they pick it up really quick. Yeah. Any types of great stories you want to share on the high dock side of grateful members or happy members, people who really tried the service first time and really enjoyed it? You know, keeping in line with the family perspective, some of the best feedback we get is around families. I was up in the middle of the night. My child had a fever. They were throwing up. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to pull them out of bed. I didn't want to drive 30 minutes into town. I didn't know what the wait was going to be. And they were able to get in within 30 minutes. Late at night, mind you. I believe it was sometime after midnight that they called in and they were able to get a prescription, pick it up the next morning. And, you know, everything worked out great. So I know that the adults are loving the service as well, but I think it's extra beneficial when we know that that's trickling down throughout the family. No, absolutely. Absolutely. To know that it's not just adults who could use it, but children as well. You know, that's a great resource, especially for busy parents. And I suppose that in the middle of the night, it can be very hard, very stressful. You can't leave some children at home when one has to be driven to the hospital. You know, that's hard to do. On the other hand, telehealth was, you know, I know we talked about the pandemic, but it was vital for the pandemic, especially when exposure happened in the workplace. One of the things that we did see is that we would get calls from clients and they would let us know, you know, obviously we assisted with COVID testing early on as well, doing pop-up testing clinics and stuff like that. But when it came to exposure with certain employees, we were able to say, you know, if anyone has questions, concerns, they need a note from a physician in order to go get tested. They were able to call in HIDOC and all of their employees were able to talk to a doctor, evaluate their risk, discuss exposure, identify ways to get tested. So that was a really great resource to have mid-pandemic. Returning to work and that sort of thing as well, we were able to just make sure that the members felt comfortable. They were cleared by a physician to say, okay, well, your exposure was something to take serious.  You're in the clear. You can return to work without any concerns. So I will say that that was another really big benefit to telehealth, just accessing that medical feedback around COVID. Absolutely. Absolutely. No, that's, these are really excellent points. You know, it's, we're on the heels of a telehealth awareness week. And we've spoken, you know, it's been a great conversation with you about the benefits of telehealth. But I really want to personally thank you not only for being on the show, but the tremendous partnership that, and successful partnership that we've had with Cloudwell Health and HMA working together for the residents of the state. And it's just been an excellent collaboration. You know, you do a tremendous job and it's just great to see so many members who are patients well taken care of. And it's just really been a great partnership and ultimately members and patients have really benefited from it. I want to thank you, I really appreciate it. Absolutely. And you know, that goes both ways. It wouldn't be successful on our end if Cloudwell didn't put such high quality into their service. You know, hands down, you all do a fantastic job of assisting our members. You know, the access to care, the assistance between your call center and your physicians, the follow-ups after the consults, coordinations with the pharmacies. You know, we couldn't be successful without the high quality of work that your team puts out. We appreciate it. We appreciate it. Thank you, Reagan. Absolutely. We appreciate you being on the show. And thank you for everything and Mahalo for your time. It's great to see you. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. Have a wonderful day. We'll talk soon. Absolutely. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


Welcome to my first outdoor video. Sometimes it's important just to get some nature time. Now this is not exactly the deep wilderness. This is High Park in the city of Toronto. There's the sound of traffic in the background. Some people walking their dogs not too far away. But here I can be surrounded by some trees and at least partially have a break from human civilization. I'm not sure exactly why it's so good to have this kind of time. But it seems like there's something very restorative about it. Because almost all our lives, for almost everybody who's listening to this, I would bet that almost all our lives are spent in a human environment. Living in a city or town surrounded by human constructions on all sides. Dealing with people through technology. And that's what we live in. That's the world we live in. It's like human technology has created its own world. We live inside walls and we communicate using machines and tools. And we really don't have to care that much about the environment outside that. In fact if someone was to decide to never spend any time in nature, they could certainly do that. Now it might not be the happiest, healthiest life.  Not only the physical environment is human, but the mental environment. Everything that we deal with. We deal with human business, law, human concerns. We don't have to be concerned about the rules of nature and the way that nature works. So there's something about coming back to this kind of simple nature. And it does almost feel like coming back. It's like in some part of our nature we remember that we did come out of nature. As much as we can spend our entire lives within the human environment, we come from nature somewhere in our deep past and somewhere deep in our mind and deep in our memory. We have this sense of the wild nature. So being able to come back here, it's like it awakens that part of the mind that's kind of sleeping while we're between four walls and a ceiling and a floor. Coming out here, even in this tame little rectangle of nature that we get in a city park. It's a reminder of what's there outside. So this is, there's something so healing and restorative and refreshing about just forgetting about humans for a while. Just forgetting about the products of human construction. Of course, not including the clothes I'm wearing that are keeping me warm and of course the technology recording this and all that, but just no walls, no roads, no computers and technology except for what I'm doing now just to record. But if I wasn't recording, I wouldn't be looking at my phone right now. I would just be looking at trees, sky, uneven ground that hasn't been made into a smooth floor.   But the whole human world is embedded inside this bigger universe that we're in. So anything that can remind me of that, I find helps to put everything in perspective. You can take a deep breath of fresh air, remember what it's like to not have humans before going back to the human world.


As we continue our journey into physical health, let us take a look at what, for most of us, is already in our bodies. More specifically, how we can optimize our bodies by getting rid of that which does not serve us, and giving ourselves that which does. Solving a problem means acknowledging first that there is one, and as most of us are aware, there are a lot of toxins in our bodies. In order to clean our bodies and clear our minds, we must become aware of what specifically is going on, and how those toxins got there in the first place. Brace yourselves. You've never heard this stuff before. This could be pretty shocking. Let's start with some basic biology. Scientists have estimated that there are probably close to 37 trillion cells in our bodies. Each individual cell is a living, functioning organism, and each cell has a basic role in function in your life. Which both survive by, and make up, the totality that is you. And yet, to think that we're an island unto ourselves can be very misleading. These cells are nourished, experienced growth, and cell division by the process of metabolizing the nourishment that we're feeding them. This basically means that our entire bodies on a cellular level relate heavily to whatever it is we've been feeding it. You might think of it as other forms of life moving through you. This is identical to the idea that all of the atoms and particles that make up our existence are completely moving through all of us all of the time, and not isolated to any one individual. This has some astonishing energetic conscious implications. If we take into our bodies other cells for nourishment that are devoid of nutrients, or while growing had been absent of caring and loving hands, we are taking in nourishment that is simply not very nourishing, and our bodies ultimately suffer for it. If an animal has been suffering and abused its entire life, when you eat it, all of that adrenaline, that fear, and that suffering now enters into your body, and adds that trauma into your body of consciousness. You can really see that these animals are experiencing pain and terror and all these sorts of things, because you can see them when they're not, and you can see them when they are, and it's pretty damn obvious. You now share in the experiences of more suffering, stress, and anxiety than you did before, because of what you are bringing into your body's ecosystem. And so now, we're going to cover some of the biggest factors affecting our health by taking a look at by far the largest food group that the majority of us are consuming, and the effects that can happen by eating too much processed foods. Processed foods are a very wide topic, so let's start with the basics, starting with this very simple question, what is a processed food? The technical definition of a processed food is actually anything that has been altered from its original natural grown state, often for the purpose of preserving the food and making it last longer. From this perspective, we have to approach the topic on a selective case-by-case basis. It's true that most foods that are available in the grocery store are processed and do contain ingredients that aren't the best for us. It's also true that if old granny on her farm grew some apricots and put them in a jar and stored them for the winter times, that too is technically processing. With that in mind, we're going to look more specifically at the types of processed foods that the majority of us eat on a daily basis, which unfortunately are very far removed from anything natural. In most cases, to create these kinds of foods, almost everything nutritious has been removed, the water's been removed, the fiber's been removed, the minerals have been removed, and then everything has been done to ensure that these foods are highly concentrated with fat, salt, and sugar. These then become a low-grade addiction, or, depending on the person, a very serious high-grade addiction. Let's take a look at each one of those things individually, shall we? Sugar. Probably one of the biggest addictions out there, and responsible for a tremendous amount of health issues in the world, the average American consumes between 82 and 153 grams of sugar every day. However, most health associations only recommend between 25 and 36 grams per day, and some even say that that is too much, especially in its refined form, rather than consuming sugars from, say, eating an apple. The results of having too much sugar in your diet have been proven to cause metabolic dysfunction, including weight gain, increased bad cholesterol, elevated blood sugar, abdominal obesity, elevated triglycerides, and even high blood pressure. It also increases your uric acid levels, causes cavities, induces insatiable hunger, causes diabetes, liver failure, pancreatic cancer, kidney disease, heart disease, cognitive decline, gout, and a wide array of other nutritional deficiencies. Forbes Business Magazine published an article showing that the biggest culprits of where all of the sugar is coming from is, topping the list, regular old soft drinks, followed closely by candy, then cakes, cookies, pies, and other pastries, then fruit drinks, followed by dairy desserts and milk, and other grains. Sugar also affects hormones in the brain which produce excess fat, which ultimately makes sugar to be one of the leading contributors of obesity in children and adults. To conclude this topic, sugar causes a massive dopamine release in the brain, making it highly, highly, highly addictive. Fat. When we're talking about fat, we must note that there are a plethora of different types. Natural fats, like that which is found in an avocado, are much better for you in moderation, in fact, necessary for your body. Other fats, on the other hand, such as saturated fats, which come from butter, cheese, red meat, and other animal-based foods, top the list of the leading contributors of heart disease out there. There are also trans fats, which most often come from oils through a food processing method called partial hydrogenation. When oil is hydrogenated, it changes from a healthy form of fat to a very unhealthy form of fat called trans fat, which boosts the blood levels of bad cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein. Typically, food like donuts, baked goods, pie crusts, cookies, crackers, and stuff like that all are loaded with trans fats, which increase bad LDL cholesterol and lowers good HDL cholesterol. In simple terms, the whole thing with fat is that it puts you at risk of cardiovascular disease, which has the potential to really clog up your arteries and may even lead to an abrupt and untimely death. When it comes to fat, the most important thing you can do is to be very aware of the food label on the packages that you buy. Does it have any percentage of saturated or trans fat, especially trans fat? If so, your best bet is to find an alternative that satisfies what you're craving. Salt. The final ingredient of the big three aspects of processed foods is salt. Salt is the leading cause of hypernatremia, which is defined as a huge imbalance in the amount of salt or water in the body, which occurs when a person becomes dehydrated and the kidneys cannot cope with the excess salt in the bloodstream. The simple version is, salt increases blood pressure, causes heart disease, stroke, and osteoporosis. Elevated sodium levels can negatively affect the function of the inner lining of the blood vessels, those endothelial cells that we looked at before. This can also lead to decreased rate of lomular filtration, which is a sign of chronic kidney disease and kidney failure. Salt even causes cognitive disorders by causing the sympathetic nervous system to overreact to stressful situations, pumping out chronically high levels of stress hormones, which means that when you have a lot of salt in your system and something stressful happens, you're going to be way more stressed out about that thing than if you had the ideal sodium levels in your body. The source of the salt is, much like with the other stuff, in all of the foods that we normally eat daily. The salty six are meats, pizza, canned soups, breads and rolls, chicken, and burritos and tacos. Roughly 77% of salt in the average diet comes from processed foods, and it is often added so heavily, specifically to increase the storage life of the product, so that the companies can sell food long after they're produced. OK, additives. In addition to these three major addictions found in our foods, there are also countless additives in the form of preservatives, anti-foaming agents, food coloring, color retention agents, emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, acidity regulators, glazing agents, flavor packs, thickeners, stabilizers, humectants, and tracer gases that are often added to our foods. The list is actually ridiculously long and too much to cover in one video. Sometimes these can be the worst things for us in that canned food or boxed whatever that we find ourselves consuming. It's very, very important to read the labels and do some research for what specifically is in our foods before we buy them. Now I know, sometimes it can be very hard to let go of an old food source that we love so much, that gives us comfort. But just remember, it's not actually you that really wants that food. It's the bacteria in your system which have built up a craving for that specific salt, sugar, or fat. As our way of eating changes, that bacteria actually can no longer survive, and we start to find natural foods to be more appealing. In fact, you would be surprised that after some time, you will actually find that that fast food that you used to love so much is now entirely unappealing. And on that same note, you'll also notice over time, as you remove processed flavor enhancing agents from your regular diet, your taste buds will start to change. Suddenly, you will be able to notice subtle sugars within things like carrots, and that they will just taste sweeter than they did before. And this is just the beginning. Moving forward. So to conclude this segment, I would love to leave you with some great news. This would be that regardless of what level of disease, illness, or just general health challenges that you may be facing, simply changing what you're putting into your body automatically begins changing your physical ecosystem. It's not about how many pills you're taking, it's just about letting real, healthy food be your medicine. If you are struggling to get started eating healthier, try this for an approach. Instead of thinking about all the stuff that you have to remove from your diet, look instead at all of the new things you can add. If you start tomorrow with a green smoothie, you may notice that you no longer want that extra cup of sugary coffee on your break. Add an extra apple or a handful of unsalted nuts as a light snack and see if you are less hungry come supper time so that you can easily eat a little bit less. Try it for yourself and as always have your own experience, your body knows what's best for you. So listen to it. See you next time.


Hi, I'm Grant Hughes. I'm a ResNet technician at University Housing. I'm an Anthropology major and behind the camera we have Channing. Hi guys, my name is Channing. I'm a Senior Communication major and I'm from Springdale, Arkansas. If you guys have any questions today, please comment those and we'll be sure to answer those for you guys. Alright, so part of your dorm plan is your included cox cable. Alright, so you have a pretty much basic cable plan. However, you do also have HBO included as well. Do you watch HBO? Me personally, yeah. Do you stream? That's your stuff? Yeah, I mostly do Netflix. How do you watch these days? Lately I've been watching Community. Really? Okay, talk back there. But so, I have a lot of channels here to go through. You'll notice when you move in that you have a box on the wall that'll look like this. This is your cox cable box. These are all the connections you need, HDMI, coax cable. If you do have a problem with this, any of the things is unconnected or it just doesn't seem to be working. Contact Resonated Housing and we'll be able to fix it for you. Yeah, why don't we show them the University channel too. I think that's somewhere around 213 maybe? I think it's 214. 214, oh good. Couldn't be more than Channing. This is the University's channel. It's always broadcasting. Everything's going on at the University. It runs 24-7, always running something, news, anything like that. I noticed you have that little dot down there. What does that thing do? Okay, so this is what we call an IR blaster and what it does is it helps extend the range of your remote so you can point it at that, attach it to your TV, point it at that so you can just point the remote there instead of having to point it at the box on the wall. That could be behind furniture or across the room from wherever you have your TV set up. Which is literally what the situation is here, you can see right now we have this wardrobe right here but because we pushed that back up, so it's a good thing to have. That's pretty much all that's going on with cars. Housing has several services that are available to students such as cable television, our Resonate help desk. Fix it, that's for anything wrong with the room. That's not network, furniture. Need a bed lofted, anything like that. We have a laundry service which we have an app that you can download on your phone and it will text you alerts. About your laundry when it's done, when you need to change to the dryer, anything like that. Mail and packages, each dorm has its own mail desk, mental health services, sustainability and conference services as well. We have a plethora of services we offer when you live here on University Housing. Alright so this is the fix it web page, so like I said earlier if you have any problems in your dorm that needs fixing you'll come here to make a work request or work order. A lot of you have used this to ask for a lofting for your beds. Of course that time period is over now, sorry, but a lot of you use this to ask for your loft, your beds to be lofted before you arrive. Any sort of broken blinds or a light bulb changed, any of that. No batteries in the thermostat, those sort of things, lights out. Speaking of batteries, I feel like we were saying they need to bring batteries for their remote control for the televisions, is that right? The room should have a remote, if they don't they can be supplied remote at the front desk. Otherwise ResNet will supply batteries, so it's near reach out to ResNet for that. Excellent, excellent. Are you submitting a new work request? Yes, going through your work request you just need to submit new work request in the corner and then select your building and then fill out all the information, your name, phone number, email address and what you want done. Very nice, and then they will come into your room usually but give notice, I believe. And then you have, I mean you guys make house calls, right? ResNet makes house calls? We do, just need to call or email and set up a time and we can come out. Nice. So speaking of ResNet, to get to the ResNet website you just need to go to housing.ur.edu slash ResNet and you'll get to our home page where you'll have our contact information at the bottom, phone number and email address. However the best way to contact us would be to create a new ticket and much like the FixIt website. You've got to sign in with your UR account and once you're signed in you can create a ticket with us and you'll have any tickets that you've created with us will be seen on here. The typical reasons you're going to reach out to us is if you don't have anything, you have issues with your network connectivity or if you're having issues with the Cox communications like we had mentioned earlier. So you'll just need to again log in, hit your building number, put all the information that's on the page, what the issue seems to be and then we will be in contact with you asking questions or setting up a time to come to your dorm and fix it. Have you been with housing for a couple years now, is that right? Yes, that's correct. What do you see? What are the requests that come in the most often to ResNet? A lot of times smart TVs are getting more and more prevalent so connecting those to the internet. It's generally a simple process. It's gotten simpler in the years that I've been here. It should just be connecting to a specific Wi-Fi network which is now housing IoT and it should connect automatically. But if it doesn't, make a ticket with us and we'll be glad to have them. This would be like your TV where you actually stream Netflix directly from the device as opposed to some peripheral device? Game consoles are the same way. Really anything that other than computer and phone that connects to the internet, well we can fix those too but those will connect to, computer and phone connect to your Wi-Fi. Broadcasting all the dorms as well and then anything else should be your housing IoT. IoT, what does that mean? It's internet of things. So everything else. What about if I'm good buddies with Alexa or Siri or any of the other digital assistants? Can I bring them with me? Alexa is welcome. It should also be on the IoT network however these can be slightly more complicated and if you can't get it on yourself please submit a ticket and we'd be happy to help because like I said it is a little bit more complicated. Google homes, no. Anything Google Chrome, Chromecast, Chromebooks, Chromebooks will connect. They're just a little bit more tricky. But Chromecast and Google Home, no they won't work on the network. That's good to know in advance. A lot of times we have students ask about their printers and bringing their printers and like wireless printers and their own routers and all kinds of stuff like that. What are your thoughts? They're allowed as long as they don't connect through Wi-Fi. Bring them, hook them up directly to your computer, print from there, perfectly fine. We don't allow wireless printing, no routers as well. There should be a router supplied in every dorm room that will allow for wired connections and broadcast Wi-Fi as well. No wireless printing. Okay, sounds good. We've got about 10-12 people who are watching. Any questions from anyone who's watching right now? We are eager to answer. Grant has all your answers for you. Because they might literally be talking to you when they arrive here, right? How big is the team? How big is the ResNet team? We've got about, we've got six currently and then we've got to hire three more, so nine people. Full team. What are you looking for when you hire a ResNet employee? Hiring a ResNet employee. Somebody who's willing to learn, maybe very tech savvy, at least some tech savvy. Very high quality of customer service, very willing to try to solve problems and know when to move the problem up to somebody else. So just, you know, a smile, a good attitude. And these people will be interfacing with students all the time, so that's what we look for in a ResNet technician. Well, do you have any questions, Jerry? I think he covered everything. Okay, okay. Well, again, you can go to housing.ur.edu, forward slash services, or just go to the home page and look for the word up at the top. I think it's what, third from the right, maybe up there? Do you go to the very top? Yes. Fourth. Fourth from the right. Go right there and you can see, you can show the website. Yeah. Any parting words for the incoming freshman that you were, you yourself were just three short years ago? About adjusting to life on campus. Don't stay in your dorm the whole time. Go do things, and if you need help, ask for it. It's good advice. Good stuff. All right, well, you can tune in to movein.ur.edu. You are come live to find the rest of our broadcasts, but you want to wave us out, Grant? All right, goodbye. Oh, yeah.


سلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته ونعود بالله من شرور نفسنا ومن سيات عمالنا من يهده الله فلا مضيلا له ومن يضل الفلا هاديلا منشدوا الله إلا الله وحده لا شريكلا منشدوا أن محمدا نعبده ورسوله وبعد فإن أصدق الحديث كتاب الله وقار الهديه هدي محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم وإياكم ومحدثات الأمور فإن كل محدثات بدعا وكل بدعات طلالة وكل طلالة في النار يا أيها الذين آمنوا التقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتنا إلا وانتوا مسلمون محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم الله سبحانه وتعالى خلقنا وخلقنا وخلقنا من so many of his creations الله has given us عقل with which we are able to think and عقل means that you are able to know the right from the wrong and once you are able to know it is not just a matter of knowing it but more important than that is acting upon it so when Allah gives us this عقل so that you can know the facts and the truth and then act on it and believe in it it is important for us also to know how are you going to act on it on what you are allowed to and what you can't do and what you can't do if we see those who are the enemies of Islam they are basically everybody including many who call themselves Muslims including many who call themselves Muslims and only if you go and study Quran and Sunnah and the history of Islam and those things which happened before was even born and those things which happened in his lifetime and those things which happened in the lifetime of a Sahaba الله تعالى عليه مجمعين many things will come and answers will be given without asking anybody else if you know what enemies of Islam they are keeping for us the amount of hatred they keep against us the opportunities which they are looking for any opportunity to come and destroy us things which are happening where they do not declare openly that they fight Muslims or they want to destroy and kill you but would come under different agendas and different names there are too many if you know how much they hate us you would never have a single moment in your life where you would rest but you would be fully awake finding out ways to defend and protect the owner which Allah has given you and there is no other better owner than the owner of Islam which Allah has given you الله سبحانه وتعالى made it very clear when he said لتجدنا أشد الناس عداوة للذين آمنوا اليهودة والذين أشركوا that you will see that those who are the most severe enemies of Muslims are those who call themselves Jews and who are pagans مشركين now for a person to be a Jew it does not mean that he has a certificate a bad certificate a driving license a passport in which it is written he is a Jew and for a person to be a mushrik he does not need to be born in India which looks like he is the core of all the mushrikين where majority of them they live at least those who worship idols no you can be anywhere you could be calling yourself anything you could be hidden behind so many agendas which nobody would know and even you may not know about it meaning that the person who is a part of one of either being a pagan or a Yahudi but what is important to us to know what these people are and how to keep yourself protected from it I would like to go back today 1430 years ago in مأركة الخندق the battle of trench the battle of Ahzab when Salman Al-Farsi ربي الله تعالى عنه who originally is a Christian from Iran who kept on looking for truth from being a child of those who worship fire then on his long journey he ends up in Madina because he was guided that this is the place where the prophet would come which ends up being really what it was told to him what he was told Salman Al-Farsi and the other Sahabas they are digging that trench to protect Madina from outside invaders now in the duration of that when they were digging the trench there was this big rock very solid and it was a special of Salman Al-Farsi he was the one who was doing it there and he was he had very mighty shoulders he was meaning that he had a lot of strength and he could not break it so he went to Rasool Allah he said asking him to help him so he said he wanted to tell Rasool Allah look we cannot dig from here why don't we dive a little bit and dig from the other side Rasool Allah he said give me the pick so he said he started to hit it Allah has given him certain powers including that he was a strong a steady man and this is authentically recorded and the blessings of Allah which comes to him whenever Allah wants to give it to him so he hit it for the first time and he said Allah who opened and Salman Al-Farsi he is saying that light came out I could not verify the authenticity of this particular word but Rasool Allah he said that I have been given by the light or he could see in the vision the palace of the Romans and then he hit it for the second time then he was shown the palace of Qisra the white palace of Qisra which was in Iran then for the third time on the third hit he was shown the palaces of Yemen he said Allah has promised the Sahabas that this is what you people are going to conquer and it will belong to the Muslims now this one said in the 50th of Hijrah after that by 11 years Salman رضي الله تعالى عنه سعدي بن أبي وقاص رضي الله تعالى عنه درار بن الخطاب رضي الله تعالى عنه when he said Allah عليه السلام said that he was not a Muslim but he had about it and he became Muslim later on all these people are moving towards that side and that is Al-Mada'in where this palace in the surroundings were now we are talking about about 150 to 160 kilometers away from the current Baghdad and all of these things are happening in Iraq in Iran now to understand more this place was overpowered and taken by Persians known as Fuss now these people they worshipped fire as their official religion so whatever battles which took place between the Sahabas and whoever came later on till today it is not not about the region it's about the belief in religion and that is those Persians they taught and they still believe that Islam came and Muslims and then they include Arabs they have taken this land from us it belongs to our forefathers the worshippers of the fire and so forth this thing I am saying it started 1430 years ago when the Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave that blooddaring in the battle of Trench and now 11 years later those Sahabas they are walking in to take that place they know the promise of Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and how these things are going to happen the first the captain losing all their battles is others the Romans on the other side they hadith keep on saying and everything almost happened as it is being written in the historical events such as إبن كثير تاريك الأمم والملوك إبن جريرة طبري and so many other historical books now then they were moving and conquering in the end we see that these Persians they ran to the other side of the river known as الدجلة in English they call it tigris river of tigris which is one of the major rivers the other one is this one tigris and they took all the boats and seized all the other boats so that the Muslims they cannot cross from this side of the river to the other side and it was around the month of March at that time when the river flow is very high all flooded and very hard to cross to the other side without boats and now they were well fortified in that palace there out on the other side and then they thought that whatever the Muslims will be able to come and take over them take over them but Allah سبحانه و تعالى He wanted it to happen and that is what will happen and definitely would happen when Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqasi gets their likes of Ka'qa and others amongst them these are all famous names in the battles of Islam amazing there were we only know few such as among them now they had to cross this river Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqasi the commander he did this and he saw a vision and he did understand from that that they would cross it to the other side he from his 60,000 soldiers chose as volunteer who would go to the other side 600 they decided to be the first ones among those another 60 were chosen to be the first ones then the next 600 and the 60,000 soldiers to follow later on they went inside the river of course the patients they could not believe that they are crossing it never came in their mind that they would cross this river regardless of whatever it is so the patients they decided to send their soldiers inside so that they could fight the Muslims in the river which was a big mistake by them and they ended up losing the battles they were not able to attack the patients were not able to attack from that side because their own people were there mixed with the Muslims they could not sling they could not throw bows and arrows or anything like that or spears the Muslims they took care of them and then they penetrated there and in a matter of very limited time Allah SWT granted them victory including that the entire army could cross the river and come to the other side and they took their place now we see that the the Qisra the emperor he lost and he ran away and everything was granted to the Muslims and he gave the Taqwira again and said that this is what Allah SWT has promised us and today we are taking it now all of them they ran away they dispersed here and they are small crowds big crowds and they decided to stand and have at least last stand and مهران was one of them as a qaid and few others and then they decided to have their final of the stages being set up in جلولة جلولة there they did lots of trenches and they fortified themselves صاعد بن أبيب قاس he asked the permission from طب and then he sent رضي الله تعالى عنه with 12,000 soldiers and they were able to siege the place and it continued for about 7 or 8 months and it was very difficult telling the end they decided that the patients they decided to come out and find the Muslims with the deed but that was the end of them because the Muslims they kept on fighting them المجاهدون and they had اعين those are the patients where if the Muslims will come they will get trapped in it and naturally die but it so happened that it became the trap for them and their horses were trapped in those traps which they were setting they had set up and they had to get out of the horses and fight the Muslims in the end they lost about 100,000 soldiers were killed 100,000 soldiers of the patients were killed and Muslims were just 12,000 in that battle and that was just more you might say the final showdown in which they lost and they ran away and they could not do anything after hardly ever there was many to run away anyway what I am trying to tell if they lost hundreds and thousands of people defending what they think belongs to them do you think that they have forgotten it 1430 years now?  Muslims he did not sing aloud this and that no based on Islam only so the Sahabas they thought that we would be too few in numbers رسول الله said no you are too many but the strength of the iman is gone you people have nothing of significance in yourself as being a Muslim meaning that we lack a lot in that that is what he said and the fear which the kufar behave from you people would be gone and the weakness will come and overtake your heart what is this weakness يا رسول الله they know of course we know it is weakness but they say what you really mean خالى شب الدنيا وكراهية الموت your love for this dunya and your fear of death our love for this dunya we are ready to step down from all the rights which Allah has given you for the love of this dunya you are ready to be away each and every command of Allah to get some part of this dunya for this dunya is so much that you are ready to go over the board in everything so that you can get even one single dollar your fear has become because of the love you have for this dunya and everything you do is tense for this dunya that you fear dying if somebody comes and tells you that you are going to die next minute what will you say what will really if you know you are going to die when the doctor gives you time that you have got only one week to die what are you going to do and here you don't know maybe in next minute or next second you die and still you do not fear at all so let us see among those at least let us be among those who know be vigilant and know what is around you and who your friends are who your enemies are who your allies are my brothers and sisters in Islam it is very important not only to pray but to know what happens to you and the rest of the Muslims if you are not careful enough if you do not have this strength to stand on your own foot when he said that is a lot of wisdom behind it when Allah is ordering you to be prepared be strong not only in iman also in physical sense also in military sense in every sense why if you are strong nobody dares to touch you are they the strong ones ones whose countries are invaded by others are they the strong ones never they are the ones who are always weak those who receive are always weak the rich people they dominate receivers are poor people the rich people they dominate receivers, recipients are those who are poor so he exactly does apply in every sense of life and living when he said give us courage in iman and we stand strong for the sake of Allah و لا يأخذنا في الله لو متلاعب الله منصرنا على الكفر والملحذين اللهم انصر المجاهدين الذين يجاهدون في سبيلك لعلاي كلمتك يا رحم الراحمين سبحان ربك رب العزة والسلام علي المرسلين والحمد لله رب العالمين أقيموا السر أشاد ولا إله إي الله أشاد وهنا محمد الرسول الله أعيّل الصلاة أعيّل الفلاح قد قامت الصلاة قد قامت الصلاة الله أكبر الله وكبر لا إله إي الله استأقيم الله أكبر خلال الله أعب العالمين رحمن رحيم مالك يوم الدين إياك نعبد وإياك نستعين مهدنا السعات المستقيم سرات الذين أنعمت عليهم بير المضوب عليهم ولدال لي خل يا أيها الكافرون لا أعبد ما تعبدون ولا أنتم عابدون لكم دينكم وليا دين الله أكبر الله أكبر الحمد لله رب العالمين رحمن رحيم مالك يوم الدين إياك نعبد وإياك نستعين إهدنا السعات المستقيم سرات الذين أنعمت عليهم بير المضوب عليهم ولدال ورعيت الناس يدخلون في دين الله فسبح بحمد ربك واستغفره إنه كان سميع الله ممن حمد الله أكبر السلام عليكم ورحمة الله السلام عليكم ورحمة الله السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته إن شاء الله we have our monthly lecture tomorrow if you start straight after Salat al-Maghrib would continue till Salat al-Rasha and then I would be saved straight after Salat al-Rasha you and your families all are welcome if you have anybody who is not a Muslim and interested also bring him we are insha'Allah going to have our global messenger day 16th of May in the Autea square in Oakland city بإذن الله more than 50 countries are taking part in it the theme is about Muhammad Salat al-Maghrib all of you are invited if you are able to please do contact us we will start in this masjid by 9 in the morning where there will be a small course given and then after that we would proceed to the city those brothers who are blocking others please remove your vehicles before you pray your Salat مرحبا


At least four people voicing criticism against Moscow have experienced possible poisoning over the past two years. Mostly during the war with Ukraine, Russian language Agnestvo news website has reported. During this period, there have also been cases of unknown individuals with ties to Russian special services breaking into people's houses. Agnestvo has also reported possible poisoning of head of the Free Russia Foundation Natalia Arno Budiva in early May this year. Thus, while holding meetings in Prague over the political situation in Russia, Arno felt numbness and pain in various parts of her body. According to reports, shortly before the onset of symptoms, Arno realized that the door to her hotel room in Prague was open and that the room smelled like cheap perfume. Moreover, Agnestvo has been informed by two separate sources that a few months prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, former US Ambassador to Ukraine and Uzbekistan John Herbst had symptoms of poisoning. He is currently the Director-General of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. It should be noted that Russia's major opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was also poisoned in a mysterious way in the past.