Aging is inevitable, and for many, it signals the beginning of a new chapter - one where you cross off bucket list items and live life to the fullest, on your own terms. However, for some women, aging is a horrible prospect, filled with chronic fatigue, irritability, and inability to perform in the bedroom. If you're concerned about life in middle age and beyond, we've got great news: there are easy, proven steps that you can take to help stop the negative effect of aging.
Global Life Rejuvenation was founded to give women a new lease on life - one that includes less body fat, fewer mood swings, and more energy as you age. If you're ready to look and feel younger, it's time to consider HRT (hormone replacement therapy), and growth hormone peptides. These therapies for men and women are effective, safe, and customized to fit your goals, so you can keep loving life as you get older.
HRT, and growth hormone peptide therapies bridge the gap between your old life and the more vibrant, happier version of you. With a simple click or call, you can be well on your way to a brighter future. After all, you deserve to be the one in charge of your wellness and health. Now, you have the tools to do so - backed by science and applied by our team of HRT experts with more than 13 years of experience.
As women age, their hormones begin to go through changes that affect their day-to-day lives. For women, hormone deficiency and imbalance usually occur during menopause and can cause chronic fatigue, hot flashes, and mood swings, among other issues. Hormone replacement therapy helps correct hormone imbalances in women, helping them feel more vibrant and virile as they age.
Often, HRT treatments give patients enhanced quality of life that they didn't think was possible - even in their 60's and beyond.
The benefits for women are numerous and are available today through Global Life Rejuvenation.
As women age, their bodies begin to go through significant changes that affect their quality of life. This change is called menopause and marks the end of a woman's menstrual cycle and reproduction ability. Though there is no specific age when this change occurs, the average age of menopause onset is 51 years old. However, according to doctors, menopause officially starts 12 months after a woman's final period. During the transition to menopause, women's estrogen and other hormones begin to deplete.
As that happens, many women experience severe symptoms. These symptoms include:
The symptoms of hormone deficiency can be concerning and scary for both women and their spouses. However, if you're getting older and notice some of these symptoms, there is reason to be hopeful. Hormone replacement therapy and anti-aging medicine for women can correct imbalances that happen during menopause. These safe, effective treatments leave you feeling younger, healthier, and more vibrant.
The most common reason for menopause is the natural decline in a female's reproductive hormones. However, menopause can also result from the following situations:
Oophorectomy: This surgery, which removes a woman's ovaries, causes immediate menopause. Symptoms and signs of menopause in this situation can be severe, as the hormonal changes happen abruptly.
Chemotherapy: Cancer treatments like chemotherapy can induce menopause quickly, causing symptoms to appear shortly after or even during treatment.
Ovarian Insufficiency: Also called premature ovarian failure, this condition is essentially premature menopause. It happens when a woman's ovaries quit functioning before the age of 40 and can stem from genetic factors and disease. Only 1% of women suffer from premature menopause, but HRT can help protect the heart, brain, and bones.
For many women, menopause is a trying time that can be filled with many hormonal hurdles to jump through. A little knowledge can go a long way, whether you're going through menopause now or are approaching "that" age.
Here are some of the most common issues that women experience during menopause:
If you're a woman going through menopause and find that you have become increasingly depressed, you're not alone. It's estimated that 15% of women experience depression to some degree while going through menopause. What many women don't know is that depression can start during perimenopause, or the years leading up to menopause.
Depression can be hard to diagnose, especially during perimenopause and menopause. However, if you notice the following signs, it might be time to speak with a physician:
Remember, if you're experiencing depression, you're not weak or broken - you're going through a very regular emotional experience. The good news is that with proper treatment from your doctor, depression isn't a death sentence. And with HRT and anti-aging treatment for women, depression could be the catalyst you need to enjoy a new lease on life.
Hot flashes - they're one of the most well-known symptoms of menopause. Hot flashes are intense, sudden feelings of heat across a woman's upper body. Some last second, while others last minutes, making them incredibly inconvenient and uncomfortable for most women.
Symptoms of hot flashes include:
Typically, hot flashes are caused by a lack of estrogen. Low estrogen levels negatively affect a woman's hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls body temperature and appetite. Low estrogen levels cause the hypothalamus to incorrectly assume the body is too hot, dilating blood vessels to increase blood flow. Luckily, most women don't have to settle for the uncomfortable feelings that hot flashes cause. HRT treatments for women often stabilize hormones, lessening the effects of hot flashes and menopause in general.
Mood swings are common occurrences for most people - quick shifts from happy to angry and back again, triggered by a specific event. And while many people experience mood swings, they are particularly common for women going through menopause. That's because, during menopause, the female's hormones are often imbalanced. Hormone imbalances and mood swings go hand-in-hand, resulting in frequent mood changes and even symptoms like insomnia.
The rate of production of estrogen, a hormone that fluctuates during menopause, largely determines the rate of production the hormone serotonin, which regulates mood, causing mood swings.
Luckily, HRT and anti-aging treatments in Little Ferry, NJ for women work wonders for mood swings by regulating hormone levels like estrogen. With normal hormone levels, women around the world are now learning that they don't have to settle for mood swings during menopause.
Staying fit and healthy is hard for anyone living in modern America. However, for women with hormone imbalances during perimenopause or menopause, weight gain is even more serious. Luckily, HRT treatments for women coupled with a physician-led diet can help keep weight in check. But which hormones need to be regulated?
Lowered sexual desire - three words most men and women hate to hear. Unfortunately, for many women in perimenopausal and menopausal states, it's just a reality of life. Thankfully, today, HRT and anti-aging treatments Little Ferry, NJ can help women maintain a normal, healthy sex drive. But what causes low libido in women, especially as they get older?
The hormones responsible for low libido in women are progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone.
Progesterone production decreases during perimenopause, causing low sex drive in women. Lower progesterone production can also cause chronic fatigue, weight gain, and other symptoms. On the other hand, lower estrogen levels during menopause lead to vaginal dryness and even vaginal atrophy or loss of muscle tension.
Lastly, testosterone plays a role in lowered libido. And while testosterone is often grouped as a male hormone, it contributes to important health and regulatory functionality in women. A woman's testosterone serves to heighten sexual responses and enhances orgasms. When the ovaries are unable to produce sufficient levels of testosterone, it often results in a lowered sex drive.
Often uncomfortable and even painful, vaginal dryness is a serious problem for sexually active women. However, like hair loss in males, vaginal dryness is very common - almost 50% of women suffer from it during menopause.
Getting older is just a part of life, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for the side effects. HRT and anti-aging treatments for women correct vaginal dryness by re-balancing estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. When supplemented with diet and healthy living, your vagina's secretions are normalized, causing discomfort to recede.
Uterine fibroids - they're perhaps the least-known symptom of menopause and hormone imbalances in women. That's because these growths on the uterus are often symptom-free. Unfortunately, these growths can be cancerous, presenting a danger for women as they age.
Many women will have fibroids at some point. Because they're symptomless, they're usually found during routine doctor exams. Some women only get one or two, while others may have large clusters of fibroids. Because fibroids are usually caused by hormone imbalances, hysterectomies have been used as a solution, forcing women into early menopause.
Advances in HRT and anti-aging medicine for women give females a safer, non-surgical option without having to experience menopause early. At Global Life Rejuvenation, our expert physicians will implement a customized HRT program to stabilize your hormones and reduce the risk of cancerous fibroid growth.
Endometriosis symptoms are much like the effects of PMS, and include pelvic pain, fatigue, cramping, and bloating. While doctors aren't entirely sure what causes this painful, uncomfortable condition, most agree that hormones - particularly xenoestrogens - play a factor.
Endometriosis symptoms are much like the effects of PMS and include pelvic pain, fatigue, cramping, and bloating. While doctors aren't entirely sure what causes this painful, uncomfortable condition, most agree that hormones - particularly xenoestrogens - play a factor.
Xenoestrogen is a hormone that is very similar to estrogen. Too much xenoestrogen is thought to stimulate endometrial tissue growth. HRT for women helps balance these hormones and, when used with a custom nutrition program, can provide relief for women across the U.S.
Hormone stability is imperative for a healthy sex drive and for a normal, stress-free life during menopause. HRT and anti-aging treatments for women balance the hormones that your body has altered due to perimenopause or menopause.
HRT for women is a revolutionary step in helping women live their best lives, even as they grow older. However, at Global Life Rejuvenation, we know that no two patients are the same. That's why we specialize in holistic treatments that utilize HRT, combined with healthy nutrition, supplements, and fitness plans that maximize hormone replacement treatments.
If you've been suffering through menopause, is HRT the answer? That's hard to say without an examination by a trusted physician, but one thing's for sure. When a woman balances her hormone levels, she has a much better shot at living a regular life with limited depression, weight gain, mood swings, and hot flashes.
Here are just a few additional benefits of HRT and anti-aging treatments for females:
Hormone imbalance causes a litany of issues. But with anti-aging treatments for women, females can better process calcium, keep their cholesterol levels safe, and maintain a healthy vagina. By replenishing the body's estrogen supply, HRT can relieve symptoms from menopause and protect against osteoporosis. But that's just the start.
Global Life Rejuvenation's patients report many more benefits of HRT and anti-aging medicine for women:
If you're ready to feel better, look better, and recapture the vitality of your youth, it's time to contact Global Life Rejuvenation. It all starts with an in-depth consultation, where we will determine if HRT and anti-aging treatments for women are right for you. After all, every patient's body and hormone levels are different. Since all our treatment options are personalized, we do not have a single threshold for treatment. Instead, we look at our patient's hormone levels and analyze them on a case-by-case basis.
At Global Life Rejuvenation, we help women rediscover their youth with HRT treatment for women. We like to think of ourselves as an anti-aging concierge service, guiding and connecting our patients to the most qualified HRT physicians available. With customized HRT treatment plan for women, our patients experience fewer menopausal symptoms, less perimenopause & menopause depression, and often enjoy a more youth-like appearance.
Growth hormone peptides are an innovative therapy that boosts the natural human growth hormone production in a person's body. These exciting treatment options help slow down the aging process and give you a chance at restoring your youth.
Sermorelin is a synthetic hormone peptide, like GHRH, which triggers the release of growth hormones. When used under the care of a qualified physician, Sermorelin can help you lose weight, increase your energy levels, and help you feel much younger.
Human growth hormone (HGH) therapy has been used for years to treat hormone deficiencies. Unlike HGH, which directly replaces declining human growth hormone levels, Sermorelin addresses the underlying cause of decreased HGH, stimulating the pituitary gland naturally. This approach keeps the mechanisms of growth hormone production active.
Ipamorelin helps to release growth hormones in a person's body by mimicking a peptide called ghrelin. Ghrelin is one of three hormones which work together to regulate the growth hormone levels released by the pituitary gland. Because Ipamorelin stimulates the body to produce growth hormone, your body won't stop its natural growth hormone production, which occurs with synthetic HGH.
Ipamorelin causes growth hormone secretion that resembles natural release patterns rather than being constantly elevated from HGH. Because ipamorelin stimulates the natural production of growth hormone, our patients can use this treatment long-term with fewer health risks.
One of the biggest benefits of Ipamorelin is that it provides significant short and long-term benefits in age management therapies. Ipamorelin can boost a patient's overall health, wellbeing, and outlook on life.
When growth hormone is produced by the pituitary gland using Ipamorelin, clients report amazing benefits. Some of those benefits include:
Whether you are considering our HRT and anti-aging treatments for women in Little Ferry, NJ, we are here to help. The first step to reclaiming your life begins by contacting Global Life Rejuvenation. Our friendly, knowledgeable HRT experts can help answer your questions and walk you through our procedures. From there, we'll figure out which treatments are right for you. Before you know it, you'll be well on your way to looking and feeling better than you have in years!
After almost 20 years of shuttling ferry commuters between New York and Monmouth County, NY Waterway lost a contract to operate the service to rival Seastreak LLC, which provides ferry service between the Highlands area and New York.The Monmouth County Board of Commissioners awarded a contract on June 21 to operate the service from the county-owned Belford ferry terminal in Middletown, citing a techn...
After almost 20 years of shuttling ferry commuters between New York and Monmouth County, NY Waterway lost a contract to operate the service to rival Seastreak LLC, which provides ferry service between the Highlands area and New York.
The Monmouth County Board of Commissioners awarded a contract on June 21 to operate the service from the county-owned Belford ferry terminal in Middletown, citing a technical deficiency with NY Waterway’s bid.
Surprised commuters learned the news when they were handed letters from NY Waterway on Wednesday, announcing the change.
“We’re stunned, and so are the riders we’ve served these past 20 years,” Armand Pohan, NY Waterway CEO and president, said in a statement. “Our bid offered the most frequent service and the lowest ticket prices, yet it was thrown out based on a technicality in which the county didn’t follow its own rules. That’s a bad deal for riders in Monmouth County, and we intend to fight it.”
NY Waterway’s bid was rejected because of missing a document providing proof that the company was financially able to provide the service.
“After initial review of the proposals, the county found that NY Waterway’s bid was non-compliant because it failed to submit a Consent of Surety, a mandatory bid item, with its bid proposal,” said Thomas A. Arnone, Monmouth County Commissioner Director. “The bid proposal from Seastreak was found to be compliant with all bid requirements and specifications. The county notified NY Waterway regarding the non-compliance and rejection of its bid.”
Under the two-year contract, Seastreak would take over the Belford service in October 2022 and the county has two, one-year options to renew it.
But at the County Commissioners’ June 21 work meeting, prior to the regular board meeting, Pohan said more than three months went by between submission of the bid and notification that the Consent of Surety was missing. A ferry company attorney said it was suppled 24 hours after the notification.
Pohan asked the board why the substance of the contract between the two companies wasn’t compared. NY Waterway’s fares were cheaper (at $21.50) than the $28 fare he said Seastreak proposed, and that NY Waterway offered more morning and evening trips.
Seastreak officials said commuters would get more value and flexibility for their fares because Belford service would be linked with the company’s other ferry routes.
“We plan to connect Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and Belford, either by a boat or bus, so you could get on a Seastreak ferry anywhere and get back to your car at the end of the night,” said James D. Barker, Seastreak marketing and communications vice president.
Another advantage is “our boats are a little faster and will cut the trip time by 10 minutes and carry 100 passengers more,” he said.
But Pohan asked the board if it was in the best interest of commuters to have one company provide all the ferry service in the county.
“They’ll have a Monmouth-opoly. They’ll have complete control with no competition,’ he told the county commissioners. “You commuters will suffer.”
However, a county attorney told the board there was “no legal impediment” to voting on the contract.
“I think it’s great for commuters, it adds flexibility to the ferry by combining services,” Barker said.
The vote could be the final chapter in a rivalry for the prestigious Belford to New York ferry service that was a preferred commute by executives and Wall Streeters to the longer train and bus trip that required use of several modes of transportation.
That competition reached new heights when both companies built larger, luxurious commuter ferries for their Monmouth County to New York service in the last six years.
NY Waterway had the 400-seat Betsy Ross and the Molly Pitcher ferries built in New Jersey in 2015 for Belford service, the first ferries built jn the state in a century. They travel at 33 mph — faster than other NY Waterway ferries.
Seastreak countered in June 2018 with construction of the 600-seat Commodore and a sister ship, the Courageous, launched in December 2021. Both have top speeds of 44 mph.
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Lacey Road in Whiting is going to be a whole lot busier. According to a report, there are plans to put in a Starbucks (with a drive-thru), a Jersey Mike’s Subs, and an AT&T store.The Asbury Park Press says that the Manchester Planning Board approved a new building in the Whiting Commons shopping center. The location is currently vacant.It should m...
Lacey Road in Whiting is going to be a whole lot busier. According to a report, there are plans to put in a Starbucks (with a drive-thru), a Jersey Mike’s Subs, and an AT&T store.
The Asbury Park Press says that the Manchester Planning Board approved a new building in the Whiting Commons shopping center. The location is currently vacant.
It should make for some interesting coffee wars; there is already a Wawa on the corner of Lacey Road and Route 70 and across the street from that is a Dunkin’ (next to the Mavis Tire Center).
The addition of a third major java chain within a block will give the residents of Whiting (and Manchester as a whole) plenty of coffee options; all we need is a QuickChek to complete the coffee battle royale.
The location of the new building will actually be closer to the Stop and Shop (and Wendy’s) than the Wawa/Dunkin’ corner; Stop & Shop is the anchor of the Whiting Commons.
There is still one available store space in the planned building; according to the Press, the company that operates the mall, Paramount Realty Service, is in talks with a national retail chain regarding that vacancy. There is also the possibility of a new sit down restaurant; four new liquor licenses have become available in the town.
Manchester Mayor Robert Hudak told the Press that a new restaurant would be welcome,
"The residents there have been begging for something like that," Hudak said. "They want more variety. This will add to the mix of restaurants that are out there."
No timetable for construction was announced.
The new Starbucks will have a drive-thru and an outdoor seating area.
There are over 100 Jersey Mike’s Subs in New Jersey
There’s a Dunkin’ right down the street from the proposed Starbucks
The Wawa across the street completes the coffee trifecta.
Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.
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CARTERET – Longtime plans to build a passenger ferry terminal in the borough take another step forward after federal transportation officials earmarked $6 million for the project.Mayor Dan Reiman and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J. 6th District, announced the funding on Wednesday.The Carteret Intermodal Transportation Center has been designed for the borough’s waterfront with a three-story ferry terminal including a waiting area, restrooms, food court/snack bar, operations center, meeting space and a public roof...
CARTERET – Longtime plans to build a passenger ferry terminal in the borough take another step forward after federal transportation officials earmarked $6 million for the project.
Mayor Dan Reiman and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J. 6th District, announced the funding on Wednesday.
The Carteret Intermodal Transportation Center has been designed for the borough’s waterfront with a three-story ferry terminal including a waiting area, restrooms, food court/snack bar, operations center, meeting space and a public rooftop observation deck.
It’s on the heels of last month’s announcement that NY Waterway (officially Port Imperial Ferry Corp.) would provide the first 149-passenger ferry, under a contract after a winning public bid of $2.25 million.
Funding for that first ferryboat purchase came from a $1 million grant from NJ Transit, as well as a separate $1.25 million grant from the Port Authority Capital Fund.
Back in September, the state Department of Environmental Protection approved a permit to dredge the Arthur Kill River.
Two, 80-foot ferry boats — each with a 149 passenger capacity — would utilize the terminal, under those plans approved by the DEP — pending completion of the dredging project and final approval from the Army Corps of Engineers.
NY Waterway currently operates ferries out of Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Edgewater, Belford, and was just awarded a contract for South Amboy — with four terminals in Manhattan.
The $6 million announced this week would be distributed through the DOT Passenger Ferry Grant Program, which funds capital projects that help eligible project sponsors support existing passenger ferry service, establish new ferry service, and upgrade ferry boats, terminals, and related facilities and equipment.
“This is great news for New Jersey residents and tourists who commute to downtown Manhattan. This funding will help improve efficient and reliable transportation options and help reduce vehicle traffic,” Pallone said in a written statement.
“The ferry terminal building is an important next step in our efforts to provide environmentally friendly transportation service for commuters within Carteret and throughout Central New Jersey,” Reiman said in the same written release.
Erin Vogt is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach her at [email protected]
The Eagle project consisted of creating a Memorial Reading Garden in memory of longtime English teacher Sharon Aguilar at Memorial Middle School in Little Ferry.HASBROUCK HEIGHTS/LITTLE FERRY, NJ - A member of Hasbrouck Heights Boy Scout Troop 17 recently earned his Eagle Scout rank by completing a project in honor of a longtime Little Ferry teacher.Mario Gabriel Fanego advanced to the rank of Eagle Scout at the Court of Honor ceremony in late February. It was the culmination of his journey, from Scout to Eagle...
The Eagle project consisted of creating a Memorial Reading Garden in memory of longtime English teacher Sharon Aguilar at Memorial Middle School in Little Ferry.
HASBROUCK HEIGHTS/LITTLE FERRY, NJ - A member of Hasbrouck Heights Boy Scout Troop 17 recently earned his Eagle Scout rank by completing a project in honor of a longtime Little Ferry teacher.
Mario Gabriel Fanego advanced to the rank of Eagle Scout at the Court of Honor ceremony in late February. It was the culmination of his journey, from Scout to Eagle Scout, which included earning 54 Merit badges; the minimum number required is 21.
Fanego’s Eagle project consisted of creating a Memorial Reading Garden and outdoor chess and checkerboard in memory of his seventh grade English teacher Sharon Aguilar, who passed away suddenly. She was a teacher for over 30 years at Memorial Middle School in Little Ferry, NJ.
Hasbrouck Heights Councilperson Josephine Ciocia taught with Aguilar.
“Sharon taught in our schools and left an everlasting impact on our students. Her knowledge of the subject area that she taught, Reading, was exceptional, and her presentation was electric…she truly made reading fun,” said Ciocia. “From “Beach Parties” in the classroom to celebrate Read Across America, to lyrics for vocabulary words, “Words Fabulous Words,” to dressing up in character, Sharon made reading come alive. It’s no wonder that her students remember their 7th Grade Reading teacher with fondness and respect.”
Fanego proposed the project in October 2020, and fundraised to pay for its construction. With the help of his fellow Scouts, he began the project on May 1, 2021, and completed it May 31st. It was unveiled in a dedication ceremony to the residents of Little Ferry in June 2021.
“I wish that the Garden helps people take a moment and remember a great teacher and human being,” said Fanego. “The garden has a bench which can have teachers and students sit outside and read, which was Ms. Aguilar's passion. The outdoor Chess and Checkerboard is also dedicated in her memory because Ms. Aguilar was all about her students.”
“Thanks to Mario’s beautiful tribute to his seventh grade Reading teacher, I am able to sit and visit with my dear friend’s memory whenever the weather allows it,” observed Ciocia. “And when the weather does not cooperate, I can look out the window and remind myself of that larger than life friend who still inspires so many every day.The Memorial Reading Garden, Mario’s Eagle Scout Project, truly is a wonderful tribute to a remarkable woman.”
“I hope the Little Ferry students will be able to learn how to play chess and checkers which will improve their mathematical skills, and other academic skills,” he explained.
Faneog is a 14-year old freshman at Applied Technology High School at Bergen Community College, which is part of the Bergen County Technical Schools. He is enrolled in the Mechatronics Engineering program.
“I hope to be a Biomedical engineer so I could help people who need prosthetics,” he said.
And what are some of the lessons Fanego learned from successfully completing the project and earning his Eagle Scout?
“I learned about my community from my Eagle project and found it very rewarding,” said Fanego. “It taught me how people volunteer and are always open to help others and come together for a common cause.”
“Ultimately, I hope the garden will be a big ‘Thank You’ to all teachers who help each one of us become who we are,” he said.
The first signs of the COVID pandemic's next wave — or even of the next pandemic — will likely come from the waste we flush down the toilet.People infected with COVID shed virus in their feces. By analyzing regular samples from sewage treatment facilities, upticks in the amount of virus in a community — as well as the type of variants present — can be detected long before hospital emergency rooms fill up.That's been the case in Bergen County, where academic researchers have been sampling w...
The first signs of the COVID pandemic's next wave — or even of the next pandemic — will likely come from the waste we flush down the toilet.
People infected with COVID shed virus in their feces. By analyzing regular samples from sewage treatment facilities, upticks in the amount of virus in a community — as well as the type of variants present — can be detected long before hospital emergency rooms fill up.
That's been the case in Bergen County, where academic researchers have been sampling wastewater from a treatment facility in Little Ferry since the first wave of the COVID pandemic in May 2020.
The results provided county officials with early warnings of the delta and omicron surges, since infected people shed virus into the sewer system even before they feel sick and seek tests. Data collected from samples collected at 11 sites along the sewer system also identified areas where COVID concentrations suddenly increased.
“It allowed us to move into those areas and do more testing, and later, more vaccinating,” said Bergen County Executive James Tedesco.
Wastewater monitoring is “a new frontier of infectious disease surveillance in the U.S.,” said Dr. Amy Kirby, team leader of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Wastewater Surveillance Network.
Long used internationally for detection of the polio virus in polio eradication efforts, sewage samples can be analyzed for a variety of disease-causing viruses and bacteria.
Kirby announced earlier this month that the CDC was adding daily updates of results from 400 testing sites to its COVID data dashboard.
The grassroots networking of researchers around the country had shown the usefulness of such wastewater monitoring, she said.
Plus, it has other advantages.
And it is a leading — not a lagging — indicator.
Like an early warning system, the information can enable hospital executives to prepare ahead of a major spike in cases, universities to offer tests to residents of a specific dormitory where high viral concentrations have been found, and public health officials to amplify their messages about mask-wearing, testing and isolation in targeted communities.
“Looking at wastewater is the same as getting everybody in the community tested every day,” said Kartik Chandran, a professor of engineering at Columbia University who leads the Bergen County study. He has also been involved in studies of virus concentrations in wastewater on the Columbia campus in New York, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and in southeastern Kentucky.
Wastewater monitoring in Bergen County, although not currently part of the CDC’s national surveillance system, has provided important research insights.
“The Bergen County work represents one of the longest running studies anywhere,” said Chandran. “We started in May two years ago and are still going.”
Chandran received a 2015 MacArthur “genius” award for his pioneering international work about transforming wastewater from a pollutant in need of disposal to a resource for useful products, such as chemicals, fertilizer and energy. In early 2020, as the pandemic struck the United States, he shifted his team’s focus from research about bacteria in wastewater to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID.
At first, his team focused on whether existing sewage treatment processes were adequate to prevent the spread of the virus, he said. Satisfied that they were sufficient, the team moved on to analyze trends in the virus concentration in wastewater over time.
They compared those trends with clinical trends from patient testing in the communities that used the wastewater system and found striking — and consistent — parallels. They also performed genetic sequencing of the virus from wastewater to identify variants of concern.
Chandran's COVID research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. A private company, AECOM, collaborated in the testing program at the Bergen treatment plant, particularly when it expanded to include thrice-weekly sampling at 11 manholes in outlying parts of the sewer system. Bergen County used $932,000 in federal CARES Act funds for the AECOM study and to purchase equipment to collect samples.
Currently, samples are gathered once a week from the Little Ferry and Edgewater water pollution control facilities and sent to Columbia University for analysis.
In Bergen County, signals of a rising number of COVID infections caused by the delta variant first showed up in sewage samples from the Little Ferry treatment site in October 2020, three weeks before hospitals and health care facilities reported a surge in delta patients, Chandran said.
Similarly, “we saw three weeks ahead” that another COVID wave was spiking before Christmas in Bergen County, he said.
This month, virus concentrations “have decreased considerably” since December, and “are currently at levels observed around May 2021 and August 2021,” he wrote in his most recent report to the county. The concentrations are lower than at the same time last year.
And that’s good news.
While no one is ready to declare victory, that matches state data showing a steady decline in patients hospitalized with COVID — to 865 on Thursday night, the first time it had dropped below 1,000 since late November.
“The spread is still slowing,” Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday at a pandemic briefing that he declared would be among his last.
Wastewater testing at the Bergen County Utilities Authority will continue, however.
Around the country, hundreds more sites are expected to add their data from wastewater surveillance over the coming months to the CDC’s national surveillance system. The CDC currently supports 37 states, four cities and two territories in their collection of information.
Two New Jersey wastewater treatment sites have signed up to submit their monitoring data to the CDC. And four sites in New Jersey are being sampled by state agencies in a project funded by the federal Food and Drug Administration, a Health Department spokeswoman said.
Surveillance of viral levels in sewage systems is just one tool among many when it comes to fighting the COVID pandemic, said Dr. Ed Lifshitz, head of the communicable disease division in the state Health Department. Standardizing the data from different treatment systems to compare results has been a challenge, he said.
“Exactly how beneficial wastewater analysis is when compared to other surveillance activities is still being determined,” he said. “It is likely more useful when case counts are very low to use as an early warning system — and may well become useful for other organisms down the road.”
Researchers see vast potential in this tool to detect infection levels in a community and prepare and prevent future pandemics.
“We would like to develop something that allows us to look for multiple pathogens,” said Chandran. “Now, we know what we are looking for — the virus that causes COVID.”
Lindy Washburn is a senior health care reporter for NorthJersey.com. To keep up-to-date about how changes in health care affect you and your family, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
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