Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Home Blog Page 186

“Colon Cancer Screening is Important”

By
Guest Columnist
-
0

Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and women. The lifetime risk of developing colon cancer is 1 in 24 for men and 1 in 26 for women. Early detection and treatment are instrumental at improving survival rates, and regular screening decreases the risk of colon cancer in the first place.

 

Colonoscopy remains the gold standard for colon cancer screening. While detecting cancer early on is important for survival from any cancer, detecting and removing precancerous polyps during a colonoscopy before they develop into cancer is the main reason regular screenings with colonoscopy have been found to reduce colon cancer rates.

 

During a colonoscopy, with a patient asleep or sedated under anesthesia, a long flexible scope with a light and a camera is used to look throughout the large intestine, the colon, for any polyps or abnormalities. Those polyps can be removed with a forceps or a loop at the time they are detected. Afterwards, patients are monitored, wake up, have something to eat, and are ready to proceed about their day.

 

Thankfully, a large majority of patients do not have any complications from colonoscopy. The complication rate depends on age and risk factors and the reason for the procedure. The overall rate is approximately 0.5%. The most serious complication risk, a perforation or tear in the colon, is about 1 in 1,000.

 

Of course, oftentimes the worst part of undergoing a colonoscopy is the preparation beforehand; getting cleaned out. This is important so the physician performing the procedure has a good, thorough look everywhere in the colon. While cumbersome, with new strategies for doing the prep, many people find this process less awful than they used to.

 

Stool tests have been an easier, cheap, non-invasive method for colon cancer screening for many years. Often these tests look for blood in your stool. The latest, more expensive option, Cologuard, checks for blood and DNA abnormalities, and is the most successful of the stool tests at detecting colon cancer, at 94%. However, it is only about 43% effective at detecting advanced adenomas, those precancerous polyps that are already getting larger and closer to becoming cancer. This limits the test’s potential at preventing cancer.

 

The Cologuard test should not be used for people with risk factors such as a history of colon polyps or a family history of colon cancer. A positive test result should be followed up by a colonoscopy.

 

The FDA recently approved a new blood test for colon cancer screening. However, it only detected 83% of colon cancers, and only 13% of precancerous advanced adenomas. With this poor detection rate, out of 100 people with cancer, the blood test would falsely tell 17 people that they did not have cancer, and it would miss most precancerous polyps.

 

Ever since the Affordable Care Act in 2010, insurance companies have been required to cover colon cancer screening tests. This is because early detection not only saves lives but also saves money.

 

Each method has its own pros and cons, so please talk with your doctor regarding which screening method makes the most sense for you. In the end, “the best colon cancer screening method is the one that gets done.”

 

Andrew Ellsworth, MD. is part of The Prairie Doc® team of physicians and currently practices family medicine at Avera Medical Group in Brookings, South Dakota. Follow The Prairie Doc® at www.prairiedoc.org, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Threads. Prairie Doc Programming includes On Call with the Prairie Doc®, a medical Q&A show (most Thursdays at 7pm streaming on Facebook), 2 podcasts, and a Radio program, providing health information based on science, built on trust

Aggie Tattoos

By
Milo Yield
-
0
Thayne Cozart
Milo Yield

Body and facial tattoos have gone from being a rage a decade or so ago to being commonplace today. Everyone from basketball players to teens to grandparents, of both sexes, have some personal image or message indelibly imprinted or inked on their smooth or wrinkled hides.

Personally, I have nary a tattoo on my ol’ bod and I never wanted one. I’ve never understood why tattoos became the “in thing.” To me, they sure don’t make anyone look more attractive or appealing. From what I read, tattoos are expensive to put on and more expensive (and painful) to have taken off. I can’t imagine that getting a tattoo that covers your arms, shoulder, or legs is not a bit painful to acquire. All the above boils down to “what’s the reason?”

I suppose there are a range of reasons for getting a tattoo, including “to send a message,” or “convey an image of toughness,” or “pure peer pressure.” But, I’d guess the biggest reason for a tattoo is simply “because I want one.”

So, what kind of tattoos are appropriate for aggie folks who want to convey a message about involvement in their profession of agriculture. About any favorite image of a farm animal or a crop plant would work. But, I want to concentrate on appropriate tattoos that convey a message. Here are some aggie tattoo suggestions for “positive messaging.” How about?

• “Market’s Up!” (accompanied with a big smiley face emoji)

• “John Deere Green”

• “Hard Case-IH Man”

• “Certified Angus Beef”

• “Bullish on Beef”

• “Let’s Hear it for Herefords”

• “I’m Hoggish on Pork”

• “Jerseys — Cream of Cows”

• “Dyed in the Wool”

• “Goats: The Better Butter”

• “Get Looped into Team Roping”

• “Save the Ogallala Aquifer”

• “Bullish on Broadband”

• “Boom Over Bust Every Time.”

• “Bumper Crops Pay The Bills”

Now, here are some aggie tattoo suggestions for conveying “negative messaging.”

• Market’s Down” (accompanied with frowning emoji)

• “Breakdowns Always Untimely”

• “Winter Calving is Hell”

• ” Ice Fishing Vacation Fell Through”

• “Fencing Advice: Get Tight”

• “Died in the Wool”

• “Farm Bill? Farm Bull!”

• “Always Too Dry Or Too Wet”

• “Day Late, Dollar Short”

• “My Broker Broke Me”

• “Why Is Parity A Bad Word?”

• “Whip Wildfires Before They Start”

• “Bird Flu Blues”

• “Cedars: Aliens To Worry About”

***

The hot topic at a recent Old Geezer Gang morning coffee wuz taxes. The discussion ranged all over the topic, but here’s wuz the best line that ended the discussion: Pointing to the watch pocket on his jeans and at the pliers pocket on my overalls, the wag said, “Now I know that these tiny pockets are for stashing your left-over money after taxes.”

***

It’s not April yet by a few days, but Mother Nature is ushering in spring early anyway. Friends are reporting that the purple martins, killdeers, and buzzards have returned to the Flint Hills.

Here in Riley, Kan., some daffodils and phlox are blooming, as are some flowering trees and shrubs.

Some of the Flint Hill have already been burned, but most ranchers are waiting and hoping for some much needed moisture to burn.

As for me, I’ve already planted my first seeding of radishes and peas. And, I spent a wad of cash just this week buying the materials for permanent raised beds in my garden.”

***

Another sure sign of spring is my urge to go fishing. So, to satisfy that urge, my new fishing buddy, ol’ Castin Krankitt, and I headed to the pond of my old friend at Gridley, Kan., Parker Looseley. We didn’t have a banner day of fishing, but we combined to catch a nice mess of crappie and bass. For the first fishing outing of the spring, it wuz a success.
***

Words of wisdom for the week: “If it’s not going to matter in five years, don’t spend five minutes being upset about it now.” Have a good ‘un.

 

Wheat Scoop: Breeding Better Wheat: A Conversation with Dr. Guorong Zhang

By
Guest Columnist
-
0
Kansas Wheat

For the audio version, visit kswheat.com.

Kansas wheat growers know that success starts with strong, resilient varieties. Few understand this better than Dr. Guorong Zhang, a wheat breeder at Kansas State University’s Agricultural Research Center in Hays. In a recent episode of the Wheat’s On Your Mind podcast, Zhang discussed his breeding philosophy, career path, and the future of wheat development in Kansas.

 

Zhang’s journey began on a small farm in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, where his family farmed rice and jute on less than an acre. After studying at Zhejiang Agriculture University, he spent time in barley research before coming to the U.S. for a Ph.D. in plant breeding at North Dakota State. That experience led him through research roles in soybean and biofuel crops, and eventually to K-State in 2012, where he took over the Hays breeding program.

 

“At the beginning, yield was my main focus,” Zhang said. “Farmers need high-yielding varieties to be profitable. Over time, I added more objectives—disease resistance, drought tolerance, and quality.”

 

His program has produced widely adopted varieties including Joe, KS Dallas, and KS Bill Snyder. Named in honor of the Hall of Fame football coach, the Snyder variety gained attention for its strong yield potential and broad adaptability. Zhang continues refining its drought tolerance as part of ongoing improvements.

 

Kansas weather has created some of Zhang’s toughest hurdles. In 2021, a hailstorm destroyed up to 80% of his trial plots in Hays, setting the program back significantly. These experiences have reinforced his focus on resilience in both environmental and disease-related stress.

 

“We’re getting better data, faster,” Zhang said, referencing the integration of double haploid breeding and drone phenotyping into his program. “The goal is to develop varieties that can handle both environmental stress and disease pressure.”

 

Field testing takes place across eight locations in western Kansas, including five farmer-managed sites. These trials give Zhang’s team insight into how lines perform under real-world growing conditions. He values the feedback received during field days and uses it to refine breeding goals for future releases.

 

“The western Kansas variety has strong resistance to Triticum mosaic virus and wheat streak mosaic virus, as well as improved drought tolerance,” Zhang said of two new releases expected this year. “The central Kansas variety has exceptional yield potential and strong disease resistance.”

 

His breeding program also includes collaborative work with universities like Colorado State to tackle new threats like wheat stem sawfly. Together, they evaluate new lines and share research data to speed up resistance development for high-risk regions.

 

Even as technology and challenges evolve, Zhang stays grounded in the basics: better yield, better disease resistance, and better quality. “We want Kansas farmers to have access to the best possible wheat varieties,” he said.

 

For more on Dr. Guorong Zhang’s breeding program and other updates, visit kswheat.com.

Always tasty! Canned Beets

By
Guest Columnist
-
0

I remember my mom and grandma used to can the beets that we grew in the garden. Always tasty! Beets can be grown as a spring or fall crop in Kansas. Commonly grown for the roots, the tops can also be used as a cooked green.

 

Variety considerations. Red, round beets are by far the most common, but you can now easily find gold, white, red and white striped, and cylindrical types as well. Some non-red varieties are not as vigorous and have lower germination rates. Monogerm varieties only grow one plant per seed, whereas most varieties will produce 2 to 6 plants per seed. Look for varieties that mature quickly and produce uniform roots..

 

When to plant. Beets are fairly frost hardy and can be planted from late March to mid-April in many areas of Kansas. Irrigate carefully to avoid soil crusting, which prevents good germination. Plant fall beets in late July to early August.

 

Spacing. The beet “seed” is actually a cluster of seeds in a dried fruit, resulting in 2 to 6 plants per seed. Plant the seeds about an inch apart and about ½ inch deep. Hand thinning is usually necessary to provide a uniform stand of beets properly spaced 2 to 3 inches apart. Poorly thinned stands will have an abundance of tops with few or small roots.

Care. Beets compete poorly with weeds, so frequent shallow cultivations are necessary. Beet plants require a fertile well-watered location. Hand thin the plants when they are 1 to 2 inches tall to avoid damage to surrounding plants.

 

Harvesting. Select beets of the diameter you prefer. Roots larger than 2 to 2½ inches in diameter are often tough and woody. Beets for baby beets or whole canning should be harvested smaller. Trim the tops of beets to ½ to 1 inch above the roots and store in plastic bags in a refrigerator before use. Mulch fall planted beets to prolong the fresh harvest season but use them before they freeze.

KU News: Kansas, Missouri farmers avoid discussing climate change regardless of opinions, study finds

By
Guest Columnist
-
0

From the Office of Public Affairs | https://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

Kansas, Missouri farmers avoid discussing climate change regardless of opinions, study finds

LAWRENCE — Farmers, who are on the front lines of climate change, avoid talking about the topic with their neighbors, community members, elected officials and even their own families because of potential conflict and harm to their livelihood, new research from the University of Kansas has found.

 

KU faculty awarded AAI Arts & Humanities Grant to expand art-based aging project

LAWRENCE — “Untold Stories of Aging in Action – Revealed and Traveled,” a project to create and document the influence of an art-based intervention among communities of older adults and intergenerational audiences, has been awarded university grant funding to expand its reach, bringing the art collection to a wider audience through a traveling exhibition set to begin in summer 2025. The pieces will be brought to communities of older adults where KU social welfare and visual art students will facilitate discussions about the pieces with community residents and attendees, who themselves can contribute to the art project.

 

Full stories below.

 

————————————————————————

 

Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected]
Kansas, Missouri farmers avoid discussing climate change regardless of opinions, study finds

LAWRENCE — We have all avoided having conversations if the topic is controversial or may lead to an argument. Farmers, who are on the front lines of climate change, avoid talking about it with their neighbors, community members, elected officials and even their own families because of potential conflict and harm to their livelihood, new research from the University of Kansas has found.

Researchers conducted interviews with more than 20 farmers in Kansas and Missouri to understand their communication about climate change. Results showed respondents had a range of views on climate change from being convinced of its effects and taking action in their farming operations to skepticism — but all avoided discussing it to varying extents.

“People were worried about a variety of reactions. Some said they couldn’t even talk about it with their families because they would give them a weird look if they brought it up,” said Hong Tien Vu, associate professor of journalism & mass communications at KU and lead author of the study. “That was a low-level worry, but others said they had heard people laughing at them or were concerned about their neighbors not working with them if they had different opinions.”

The study was born from research Vu and students started during the COVID-19 pandemic. The group received private donor funding to study local climate change effects. Students interviewed scientists on campus and farmers in surrounding communities about climate change, their views on it and how it affects them. Farmers were reluctant to discuss the topic on camera.

“When we talk about climate change, we tend to look at broad effects like sea level rise. It can be difficult for people to find relevance in topics like that in their lives. We wanted to focus on factors that relate to people’s lives here in Kansas,” Vu said. “We wanted to interview farmers specifically because they are on the front lines of climate change impacts, both in terms of contributing to it through factors like emissions and feeling the effects of it.”

Given farmers’ reluctance to discuss the topic on camera, researchers decided to conduct interviews in which they could guarantee anonymity for respondents. Farmers then discussed their opinions on the topic, how it affects their lives and work, and why they avoid discussing it.

The researchers examined the topic through the lens of spiral of silence theory, which posits that when discussing controversial topics, people judge the prevailing opinion of others before deciding whether to speak. If they feel they are in the minority, people will often choose not to discuss a topic, which can have long-term ramifications, including silencing people and exacerbating problems that people choose not to address.

The results confirmed the prevalence of a spiral of silence among Kansas and Missouri farmers. The respondents were both men and women, ranging in age from their 20s to 70s. When asked their thoughts on climate change, responses ranged from believing it is real, scientifically proven and having effects now, to being skeptical both of its prevalence and whether it is caused by humans. But across the board, respondents indicated they generally avoid discussing the topic.

The farmers gave a range of reasons why they avoid it. Many simply did not want a conflict that could result in violence or an argument with neighbors or community members. Some feared it could damage their business, as neighbors might be less likely to work with them and share equipment or people might give them a negative online review and tell people not to buy their products at farmers’ markets and other locales if they disagreed with their views.

Farmers said they also tried to gauge a person’s opinions based on interpersonal cues before deciding whether to discuss climate change. For example, the type of vehicle a person drives, whether a large pickup or hybrid car, can provide clues about their opinions on the matter.

Spiral of silence theory holds that people traditionally used news media to gauge political opinion on a potentially controversial topic. However, respondents in the study indicated they felt news media only politicized the topic and therefore was not a trustworthy way of determining how people felt. Instead, many turned to social media where they could see if people posted on the topic or to find others to discuss it with, without fear of arguments or contentious conversations.

“The algorithm can allow you to choose who to talk to or who to exclude,” Vu said of social media. “People also often feel masked on social media. To me, that is a way of losing conversations and can give you a false sense of prevalence of opinions by eliminating cross examples.”

The study, co-written with Nhung Nguyen, lecturer; Nazra Izhar, doctoral candidate; and Vaibhav Diwanji, assistant professor of journalism and mass communications, all at KU, was published in the journal Environmental Communication.

When asked how they deal with the effects of climate change, several farmers reported taking measures such as switching to organic methods, fallowing fields to counter overuse of land and seeking information on more sustainable practices. Several also reported feeling isolated in general and given that they felt they could not discuss climate change, took to journaling as a way to process their thoughts.

Vu and colleagues, who have studied how climate change is viewed and reported globally, said understanding how the issue is viewed and discussed in more local settings is also important because people need to work together in day-to-day operations like farming as well as for policy solutions. If pressing issues are not discussed, it can negatively affect how they are dealt with on interpersonal levels and at local levels of government, they argue.

As part of the larger research project, the group plans to use journalistic storytelling techniques to document how people are dealing with climate change locally and their opinions on the topic. They also plan to test the effects of different content elements such as psychological distance and modalities like text, video, podcast or virtual reality on public perceptions of and behaviors toward sustainability.

“In our conversations with farmers, we found they often felt excluded from other conversations on climate change,” Vu said. “It felt like they were picking their battles with everyone, because they are often blamed for things like emissions, while working on adjusting their farming practices for mitigation and adaptation purpose. We think not talking about climate change is a serious issue.”

-30-

————————————————————————

KU News Service is now on BlueSky.

Follow for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

 

https://bsky.app/profile/kunewsservice.bsky.social

————————————————————————

 

Contact: Chance Dibben, Achievement & Assessment Institute, [email protected]
KU faculty awarded AAI Arts & Humanities Grant to expand art-based aging project

 

LAWRENCE — The Achievement & Assessment Institute (AAI) at the University of Kansas has awarded the 2024 AAI Art & Humanities Grant to Sarah Jen, associate professor in the School of Social Welfare, and Liz Langdon, a lecturer in the Department of Visual Art, for their project, “Untold Stories of Aging in Action – Revealed and Traveled.” The project’s aim is to create and document the influence of an art-based intervention among communities of older adults and intergenerational audiences.

“Untold Stories of Aging in Action – Revealed and Traveled” was born out of a 2021 project by KU social work students seeking to illuminate the experiences of older adults and their caregivers through art and conversation. Students collected and displayed artwork from more than 30 artists that captured stories of aging, and the pieces were displayed in an exhibition hosted in the KU Commons in April 2022.

“Artists were able to use their artwork to start important conversations with their loved ones. Displaying their work also allowed them to leave a legacy, tell their stories to and be remembered by a larger audience,” Jen said.

Since then, the online digital archive of submissions from KU students and other community members has continued to grow. “Untold Stories of Aging in Action – Revealed and Traveled” will be an evolution of the original project and will bring the art collection to a wider audience through a traveling exhibition.

The pieces, ranging from poetry to sculptures, will be brought to communities of older adults where students from the KU School of Social Welfare and the visual art department will facilitate discussions about the pieces with community residents and attendees. KU art education students will be leading the art criticism portion of discussions, while the social work students will facilitate the psycho-socio-emotional meaning-making portion.

“Art is a vehicle for conversation, and we think the discussions are going to be very rich as we work in these communities,” Langdon said. “It’s not all about the quality of the artwork necessarily. It’s really about the process, the meaning making, and the building of connections through looking at and discussing art.”

Attendees will also be able to participate in their own interactive art creation and meaning-making process by contributing to collective art installations. Their reflections and reactions to the exhibition will be recorded and documented for future grant submissions to reproduce this creative intervention on a wider scale. A larger collection of pieces and the art installations created by older adults will also be shared at an exhibition open to the broader community at the end of the project.

“Our audience for the original exhibition was really intergenerational and reached a wide range of ages, so I am really looking forward to having specifically an older adult audience and seeing how older adults respond to the artwork,” Jen said. “I think we know more about how younger people and an intergenerational group has responded to it so far, but I’m excited about the potential of getting older adult voices out there as well and being able to share that with a wider audience.”

Jen and Langdon said that they want to provide a space for older adults to think about their next chapters, allowing them to break away from societal expectations of what late life typically looks like.

“There’s a lot of research that says that when folks can imagine what they want for their futures, they’re more planful in making it happen, but we don’t often give older adults the experience to think of what comes next,” Jen said. “I think societally we tend to think of later life as like this one homogenous experience where once you’re 65 or older, it’s all the same after that. But it can be inspiring for people who are in their 70s and 80s to think about what they still want out of their lives.”

The purpose of the AAI Arts & Humanities Grant is to foster deeper ties between the arts and humanities and the education and social sciences within which most of AAI’s work is focused. “Untold Stories of Aging in Action” bridges these two fields in a creative and resonant way that engages the community.

“We’ve had this dream of bringing together students from social work with students from art education for a while, and this felt like a really nice way to do that. Art brings up emotions, and it triggers things, and students in the social work field know what to do with that,” Jen said. “Art students will ask audience members to interpret and engage with the art, and then the social work students pick up that thread and ask, ‘What do you do with that? What comes next?’ So, I think those two groups of students will really balance each other well.”

Langdon said that receiving the AAI Arts & Humanities grant is encouraging in part because it shows that the arts are valued at KU.

“The joy that comes from engaging with art can be a really positive and transformational experience for people. I am excited that we will be able to make those connections and that AAI has recognized that this work is important,” Langdon said.

AAI Operating Officer Jackie Counts highlighted the project’s effects on reshaping perceptions of aging.

“This project powerfully illustrates how art can transform our understanding of aging,” Counts said. “By uniting social work and art education, Jen and Langdon’s work amplifies the diverse stories of older adults and encourages them to reimagine their futures. At AAI, we champion interdisciplinary collaborations that bridge the humanities and social sciences while fostering meaningful community connections.”

The “Untold Stories of Aging in Action – Revealed and Traveled” traveling exhibition will begin in summer 2025. More information regarding the project will be made available in the coming months.

-30-

————————————————————————

 

KU News Service

1450 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence KS 66045

[email protected]

https://www.news.ku.edu

 

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

 

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

1...185186187...4,784Page 186 of 4,784

Kansas News, Auctions & Classifieds

Trending

Categories

© Rural Messenger