Royse, 49, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has been active much of his life: He played college basketball and as an adult he’s been a runner, even doing some marathons. So when his wife got into the paddle sport and then got him to play several casual matches, he didn’t think it was anything his current level of fitness couldn’t keep up with.

“It’s an enjoyable and addicting sport. My 75-year-old mother plays,” Royse said. “I thought it was a little bit goofy from the beginning. It’s like a driveway game, and in some ways it is but in all the good ways.”

But in early August, Royse’s wife asked him to fill in for a league game. Suddenly, his perception of what he’d viewed as just a fun, casual game changed.

“I neglected to think of it as a sport,” Royse said. “I thought I could show up after my third or fourth time playing and now go play it at a really high intensity with folks that really know how to play. I approached it like my kid asking to go play kick the ball in the yard. Next thing you know, I’m playing high-intensity pickleball and I blew my knee out.”

Pickleball, which combines elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong, is the fastest-growing sport in the United States. Last year more than 36 million people played the game, and it is particularly popular among adults 40 and up. It’s helped get people active and exercising as well as helped already active adults stay active. But it’s also a growing reason for sports medicine injuries and orthopedic injuries: It’s estimated there were 67,000 emergency room visits and 9,000 outpatient surgeries related to pickleball injuries in the U.S. last year, according to an analysis by UBS Asset Management.

“I’ve just been really shocked by the number of mostly soft tissue injuries, not necessarily always surgical … the number of people not only playing but the number of people coming in injured seems to be rising exponentially over the last six months,” said Dr. Wayne Luchetti, associate chief of orthopedic surgery at Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute in Pennsylvania.

Luchetti himself is a pickleball enthusiast and tries to play two or three times a week.

“It’s a different kind of workout for me. I’m a Peloton guy. A lot of days I dread getting on the Peloton for 45 minutes. It’s just mentally hard to do, but I never dread going to play pickleball for an hour and a half because it’s just a fun way to burn calories,” Luchetti said.

He’s also injured himself while playing pickleball, pulling his calf muscle about three weeks after he took up the sport.

The common injuries are to the feet, ankles and knees, with many due to overuse and strain.

Luchetti said he believes there are three main reasons why so many people are getting injured: One, that there are just so many people playing it; two, it involves a lot of side-to-side movement, which can be hard on the knees and ankles; and three, a lot of the people playing are older adults.

He said he sees people of all ages with pickleball injuries but most are in their 60s and 70s.

“You have a lot of older athletes that haven’t necessarily played a sport in 20 years, now they’re addicted to this fun sport,” Luchetti said. “They’re going out two to three days a week and firing muscles they haven’t fired in 20 years. Sometimes they don’t know their limitations.”

How to avoid pickleball injuries

St. Luke’s University Health Network recently opened the St. Luke’s SportsPlex, which is also home to Pickleball Lehigh Valley. John Hauth, St. Luke’s senior administrator for sports medicine relationships, said the SportsPlex has instructors, classes and courses available to help pickleball players avoid injury.

“A hallmark of the program there is offering both quality instruction in pickleball specifically, but also in how to prepare and become stronger, more well balanced as you begin to play the game of pickleball,” Hauth said. “People that haven’t exercised for a long period of time may be deconditioned. They need to start the right way and that’s something we’re emphasizing.”

Luchetti also said strength and conditioning work is crucial to avoiding injury. He sometimes tells his patients who are really serious about playing to see a physical therapist for one session before they play again so they can get advice on what muscle groups they need to strengthen to avoid injuries.

Luchetti added proper footwear is key; shoes worn to play pickleball should fit well and grip the court.

“I see a lot of people slipping and turning their ankle or their knee,” Luchetti said.

And people with joint problems should make sure to wear a brace while playing.

Luchetti also said muscles, tendons and ligaments get tighter as people age and that makes them more prone to injury; to avoid that, stretching before playing is key.

Luchetti’s pickleball injury was partly caused by him not stretching, but now he stretches for 20 to 30 minutes before he steps on the court. Dynamic stretching such as doing hip circles or high stepping is ideal to limber up.

He added that while getting exercise is important, so is giving the body time to rest. Instead of playing the game multiple days in a row back to back, consider spacing out when you play so you get at least one rest day between game days.

And if you feel like something is off or feel pain while you play, stop — don’t play through the injury. If you suffer an injury while playing, immediately stop and rest, apply ice, compress the injury and make sure it is elevated, then seek care as soon as possible.

Hauth said while it’s important to do what you can to prevent injuries, fear of injury or another injury shouldn’t keep people away from the sport.

“People are active because they’re engaged in pickleball. People are moving, which is good for their overall health,” Hauth said.

Royse said he feels the same way. While he has regained the ability to ride a bike, he hasn’t made it back onto the pickleball court, nor has he been able to start running again. But he’s working toward that point. He will be back on the court.

“I’m a former athlete, I’m in pretty good shape and it happened to me so it can definitely happen,” he said. “But I chalk it up to it’s like skiing. A lot of people get injured skiing, but it doesn’t hold you back. You just got to know your limitations, know your craft and take it seriously, but it’s definitely worth it.”

“I assume that this summer when I can go play pickleball, with proper stretching and preparation, I would totally go play and play hard. I don’t want to be fearful in life.”

About 80 million tons of food, or the equivalent of about 149 billion meals, are wasted each year in the United States, according to Feeding America. Individual consumers only shoulder part of the blame: Businesses are responsible for a significant amount of waste. The food industry alone accounts for about 46% of all food waste, and about 38% of food that isn’t sold goes uneaten.

But dietitians The Morning Call spoke to said not wasting food is something their patients think about a good deal. Especially since fresh and unprocessed food is generally more nutritious and healthful than preservative-packed counterparts, but is also far less shelf stable.

“That weighs heavily on a lot of people’s minds. They don’t want to waste food but they run into the situation where they are overpreparing,” said Amber Kinney, lead clinical dietitian for St. Luke’s University Health Network’s medical weight management program.

If your New Year’s resolution is to waste less food, The Morning Call has some tips from dietitians on how to prevent food from going bad and how to avoid wasting food that is otherwise perfectly usable and edible.

Kinney said that food waste at home comes down mostly due to a lack of preparation. She said planning out meals ahead of time is a good way to make sure that you are not buying food that you won’t use. Kinney added that knowing what is in your fridge and is already on hand before you go shopping is a good way to prevent you from buying more than you need.

Suzanne Ickes, registered dietitian for Lehigh Valley Health Network through contractor Sodexo, said shoppers should keep in mind how long items will last. As a general rule of thumb, Ickes said fresh berries will last about two to three days and fresh fruit and vegetables for one week, except for root vegetables, like potatoes, onions or carrots, which will last two weeks or more in some cases.

Kinney added that buying in bulk is a slippery slope that often leads to a pile of wasted food.

“We think we’re saving money so we buy in bulk but then we can’t use all that food. We encourage people to shop local, that reduces the carbon footprint as well,” Kinney said.

She said if people are adamant about buying in bulk for the savings, they should plan to use that ingredient for multiple meals that week and then freeze the rest.

Not buying pre-chopped vegetables is also a good way to prevent waste and be frugal. Despite the minor convenience provided, pre-chopped veggies go bad much faster and tend to create more trash due to the containers they are stored in.

Once at home, Ickes said resealable freezer-safe bags are your best friend for preserving food.

“You can put anything into a freezer bag, you can put leftover soup, you can put leftover meats, you can put leftover vegetables,” Ickes said. “The key to this is that you’re able to retrieve them from your freezer, otherwise they end up at the back or the bottom of your freezer and they never get used.”

Kinney said knowing how to properly store food is crucial if you’re not going to freeze it for later.

“We tend to prepare too many fruits and vegetables too quickly. We don’t want to buy berries and wash them right away because they’re going to go bad a lot faster,” Kinney said.

While crisper drawers in the refrigerator have their purpose, people often end up forgetting about the vegetables they leave there, so it may be better to keep fresh produce on the shelves of the fridge where they are visible, Kinney said. She added another strategy to keep in mind is to check your cupboard and pantry regularly and make sure older food items are out front where you can see them and remember they exist.

Not wasting food doesn’t just extend to keeping foodstuffs from going bad, it also applies to using what is left over from preparing other meals. Chicken and turkey bones and carcasses can be saved to be used for stocks and broths. The same goes for scraps left over from chopped vegetables.

“For vegetable broth you can use any kind of vegetable scraps, not just what’s left over in your refrigerator but when you’re preparing onions and you’re chopping, those leftover skins you can freeze,” Ickes said. “You can freeze the ends of broccoli or cauliflower or the tops of tomato that you didn’t use. Any piece of vegetable that you don’t really want to eat can be frozen and then you can make your own vegetable broth at a later time.”

She said the process for making a homemade vegetable broth is simple, too:

• Bring a pot of water to a boil
• Add your frozen vegetables
• Let the vegetables boil and thaw in the broth
• Reduce heat and allow broth to simmer
• Strain the broth

Resources:

• FoodKeeper App created by the USDA’s food safety and inspection service, foodsafety.gov.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture Safe Food Storage, nutrition.gov

The World Health Organization announced on Friday that COVID is no longer a global emergency, but the pandemic itself isn’t over and COVID continues to evolve.

XBB.1.16, also known as Arcturus, is the newest subvariant of the omicron variant of COVID-19 spreading throughout the U.S. and much of the world. Like many COVID variants and subvariants that came before it, Arcturus is believed to be the most infectious strain of COVID yet.

“It does seem to be more transmissible than the last variant XBB.1.5,” Dr. Timothy Friel, chairman of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Department of Medicine in Pennsylvania, said. “That’s very telling because we thought XBB.1.5 was perhaps one of the most transmissible viruses that we’ve ever encountered.”

Arcturus hasn’t become the dominant strain of COVID in the U.S. yet — that position is still held by omicron variant XBB.1.5 — but its’ making gains. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Arcturus accounts for about 12% of all cases nationally. Friel said it may account for as many as 15% of cases in Pennsylvania. Arcturus has been identified in at least 34 countries and in India it is the dominant strain already.

One of the oddest things about the Arcturus subvariant is that it appears to be correlated with increased cases of conjunctivitis, the inflammation of the outer membrane of the eye better known as pink eye. Conjunctivitis is usually caused by bacterial infections, but some viruses, like coronavirus and adenovirus, an agent of the common cold, can cause it too.

Dr. Jeffrey Jahre, St. Luke’s University Health Network section chief emeritus of infectious diseases in Pennsylvania, said the fact that Arcturus can cause pink eye is not in and of itself notable, as other strains of COVID have caused pink eye in about 3% of patients. But pink eye, especially in children and babies, seems to occur more frequently with Arcturus.

“It seems that there is a far greater percentage of individuals with absolute bona fide Arcturus who have conjunctivitis,” Jahre said. “Although absolute conclusive evidence requires a number of repeated observations, in this case, it does appear to be the case.”

He added that with other strains of COVID, it has been rare for pink eye to be the only presenting symptom of a COVID infection, but with Arcturus, this seems to be happening more frequently, though fever also tends to be present.

Friel said that even though pink eye seems to be more likely from an Arcturus infection, coughing and sore throat are still the most common symptoms. If you have any COVID-like symptoms, you should get tested, he said.

Pink eye symptoms include the whites of the eye turning red or pinkish as well as itchiness, gritty feeling, tears, sensitivity to light and discharge that forms a crust that can make it difficult to open the eye.

Jahre said at this time of year when pollen has filled the air, there is a high chance that most cases of pink eye that emerge will be allergy related, but differentiating between allergic conjunctivitis and viral conjunctivitis may be difficult and may require evaluation by an eye specialist.

“If a fever is present, it is more likely to be COVID,” Jahre said. “If another individual in the family has diagnosed COVID, then anyone else in the family experiencing conjunctivitis symptoms should assume that he or she may also have COVID and take appropriate health measures and precautions to avoid affecting others.”

While pink eye isn’t fun, it fortunately usually doesn’t require treatment from a doctor. But Jahre said if the conjunctivitis worsens over 24 hours, then that would be a good indicator to see a physician or an eye specialist.

The good news about Arcturus is that it doesn’t seem any more likely to result in severe COVID-19 illness than any other recent variant, Jahre said. He also said it’s likely that this summer will follow the last couple, where COVID cases and hospitalizations dipped.

Though it’s impossible to know the actual number of COVID cases, due to testing and reporting limitations, other metrics indicate a downward trend since January. Last week the rate of new confirmed COVID hospitalizations was 4 per every 1 million people and there were 1,109 new COVID deaths from April 27 to May 3, down significantly from the peak of 4,109 that occurred from Jan. 5 to Jan. 11.

Jahre said in the last few days there have been fewer than 10 COVID inpatients at all St. Luke’s hospitals combined. Since April 10, LVHN has had fewer than 10 COVID patients hospitalized at any given time among all campuses.

Jahre added that for those most at risk, such as those with compromised immune systems, certain pre-existing health conditions and the elderly, vaccines are still effective at preventing the worst outcomes of a COVID infection.

Jahre said that in the minds of many it may feel like the pandemic is over, but it is still not clear what COVID will ultimately look like in the future and whether it will become a recurring seasonal illness like flu or if it will disappear almost entirely.

“The real test is going to come in the fall when people start spending more time indoors, school starts again, and so on and so forth — that’s when we have seen resurgences,” Jahre said. “We have to be careful before we say this is an over-and-done. If we can get away with not seeing a major resurgence in the fall, particularly the late fall, then I think we can have a lot more security that maybe the worst of all this is truly over.”

For a homeowner winging lead removal, it’s more likely than not that they will accidentally poison a family member.

“I had one family that the father said, ‘Oh, we vacuum the house every day.’ It turned out he was vacuuming with the shop-vac that he used in his construction work,” said Tanya Allison, community housing manager for the city of Allentown. “He was bringing all the dust from his day job into his home.”

The government takes lead abatement seriously as well. If the EPA finds out a contractor without the proper licenses and certification has disturbed a surface covered in lead paint greater than 6 square feet, the consequence is a significant fine.

However, in theory, just about anyone can become a certified lead worker by taking the proper educational courses and getting licensed and certified.

There are ways to minimize the risk of lead exposure or lead poisoning in old homes without specialized training. These include:

• Making sure old paint is covered and all painted surfaces are in good condition.
• Watching for paint that might chip off and carefully cleaning paint chips as soon as possible without creating dust.
• Regularly cleaning floors, windowsills and other surfaces with warm water and all-purpose cleaners.
• Keeping play areas clean and regularly washing children’s hands, bottles, pacifiers and toys.
• Removing shoes or wiping soil off shoes before entering the house to avoid bringing in lead dust that came from painted surfaces outside.
• Using vacuums that are equipped with high-efficiency particulate air filters.
• Speaking to a health care providers about testing children for lead.
• Ensuring children eat a healthy and well-balanced diet high in iron, calcium and vitamin C to help protect against lead absorption and its effects.
• Contacting the local or state health department or calling the National Lead Information Center.

Allison said even many homes built after 1978 have may have paint with lead in them, and taking actions to reduce lead exposure in newer homes is also a good idea.

“Even though they’re creating paints that have significantly less lead, there still could be some elements of lead in it, and it’s still a hazard,” Allison said. “Even if it doesn’t show up as the definition of lead paint, you still need to be aware that there could be a lead hazard.”

How to find out more about lead and lead abatement

National Lead Information Line 1-800-424-5323