Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev, CEO of Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, recently addressed the United Nations about the plight of the children who were kidnapped from Israel by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. 

She said that 38 of the 253 people who were abducted that day were children. The youngest was Kfir Bibas, just eight months old at the time. 

The child is still in captivity, along with his parents, Yarden and Shiri Bibas, and his brother, Ariel, who turned five last month.

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Bron-Harlev, a pediatrician, said children released after 50 days in captivity are still, to this day, waking up terrified in the middle of the night.

“They were not allowed to cry, not allowed to laugh, not even allowed to stand up.”

She said the children appeared “like shadows of children. No impressions on their faces. They were not happy. They were not crying. They were mostly very, very silent.”

Dr. Hagai Levine, chair of the Israeli Association of Public Health and head physician of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, also reported seeing children being afraid to speak. 

“In captivity, they were told, ‘If you speak, you will be killed’ — that’s very, very traumatizing,” he told Fox News Digital.

In addition to psychological trauma, the hostages were also in extreme physical danger. 

Levine, who is also an epidemiologist, said the risks to the hostages’ lives ranged from the threat of “being murdered to lack of food to lack of oxygen, lack of water (and) infectious diseases.”

‘Every child has a right to health’ 

Referencing the recent polio outbreak in Gaza, Levine noted that he sent a letter to UNICEF and the World Health Organization reminding the organizations “that every child has a right to health — and this includes Kfir and Ariel Bibas.” 

Levine said he was on a bus this summer with children who were formerly hostages as well as children who are relatives of hostages. 

“They have the unique ability to cope.”

The young ones attended a U.S. summer camp in July, he said. 

“A couple of people called me a White supremacist. A couple of people called me the N-word.” 

“I saw songs and jokes,” he said, recalling his observations. “I’m not saying they were happy, but they have the unique ability to cope.”

The doctor said he knows these children have had to grow up quickly — but the “plasticity of the brain” helps children rehabilitate, he said. 

Dr. Hagai Levine, chair of the Israeli Association of Public Health, is shown speaking at a press conference near the headquarters of the families of the abductees in Tel Aviv on Nov. 15, 2023.   (Hadar Badar)

He said he has encouraged them to play and dance. 

However, “there is always a shadow” holding them back, he said — given that at this moment, there are still other hostages held captive. 

Helping them regain trust

Levine said these children grew up in a tight-knit community of a kibbutz — and seeing hostage posters everywhere of their neighbors is very real to them. 

“It’s really difficult for them to really recover,” he said.

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It is a long process to get these children to be able to trust again, Levine said, and they need someone who is a constant in their lives, especially if their parents were murdered. 

He said physical, psychological and educational rehabilitation, such as speech therapy and equine therapy, can help them to regain trust and feel in control.

They “have been in this horrible nightmare” for nearly a year. 

He also noted that relatives of the hostages are experiencing survivor guilt, severe depression, anxiety, insomnia and physical symptoms such as tremors. 

They are traumatized because they don’t know what happened to their loved ones, and they “have been in this horrible nightmare” for nearly a year at this point, he said.

‘Could have been me’ 

Roxanne Saar, the aunt of released hostage Gali Tarshansky, age 13, told Fox News Digital, “I feel like it could have been me.” 

Saar had been staying at her father-in-law’s home at Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 6, 2023, when she decided to return home that night. 

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The next day, 101 civilians at Be’eri were killed by Hamas terrorists and 32 people were kidnapped, according to JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). 

Gali Tarshansky’s brother, Lior, 15, and her uncle, Noy Shosh, 36, were among the murdered victims. 

Adults from left, above: Roxanne Saar, Gonen Saar (Aroussi), Yehuda Aroussi, Gali Tarshansky, Noy Shosh, Mahol Shosh, Lliya Tarshansky, Reuma Aroussi Tarshansky and Lior Tarshansky. (Family of Gali Tarshansky)

Saar said that the first question the young teenager asked when she was released from captivity after 54 days was, “Where is Lior?”

It was not until after she returned to Israel that she discovered her brother and uncle had been killed, along with her dog, Mocha, as well as friends she grew up with from her kibbutz.

She was held hostage in homes in Gaza with Nova festival survivors and a couple from Kibbutz Be’eri. The husband, Ohad Ben Ami, is still a hostage, Saar said.

“There was no showering, there was no water.”

Saar said that in Gaza, “there was not enough food, there was not enough medicine, there was no showering, there was no water … There was psychological terror.” 

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She said the young woman’s captors, some of whom were armed, told her, “Israel does not exist. Your family doesn’t want you anymore.’”

Saar added, “I’m not sure if we know everything … I don’t have any expectations from terrorists who are capable of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl.”

It is crucial, she said, for the remaining hostages to be freed in order for the released hostages to heal.

Gali Tarshansky, above, in July 2023, with her brother Lior Tarshansky. “I don’t think there is anyone in the world who can understand the potential future impact of what happened,” the siblings’ aunt told Fox News Digital, referencing Oct. 7, 2023 and its aftermath. “Everybody wants to help, but how can someone help with something that we never knew before?” (Family of Gali Tarshansky)

Saar said Gali Tarshansky is living in a different area of Israel today, attending a new school. She is in therapy. 

Said Saar, “I don’t think there is anyone in the world who can understand the potential future impact of what happened … Everybody wants to help, but how can someone help with something that we never knew before?”

‘Takes a long time’

Professor Merev Roth, PhD, an analyst who works with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, told Fox News Digital that therapists who are treating released hostages are in uncharted territory. 

“Will he come back when I’m really old?”

“All of this is new,” she said. “There is not one case in history that so many kids and families were kidnapped from their houses for such a long time and in such a brutal massacre.”

Roth is one of the founders of First Line Med (FLM), an organization that offers pro bono treatment to victims of Oct. 7. 

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She supervises child therapists and treats adult family members of child hostages who were released after 50 or 54 days in captivity.

Roth said she had to treat some of the families in their homes or hotels initially, because they were afraid to go outside. 

Tarshansky, left, with her half-sister Eden Tarshansky — who suffered the loss of her mother, Silvia Ohayon, who was killed in Kibbutz Be’eri.  (Family of Gali Tarshansky)

She recalled seeing how frightened a three-and-a-half-year old toddler was when the child heard a gardener working outside. 

“I remember the girl running into her mother’s body, and her mother immediately took her in her arms. The girl didn’t say a word. She was white, she was shaking, she didn’t even cry,” Roth said.

Another time, when the little girl heard noises outside, Roth said the girl asked, “Are they coming for us again?”

Roth said another child released from captivity is unable to get through a full day of school in kindergarten. 

Merev Roth, an analyst who works with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, told Fox News Digital she recalled seeing how frightened a three-and-a-half-year old toddler was when she heard a gardener working outside.  (Yehoshua Yosef)

Her father is still a hostage, and Roth said she knows he is in danger and asks her mother, “Is Father dead? Will he come back when I’m really old?”

Roth said the children who were separated from their parents in captivity, or witnessed family members being murdered or wounded, “shattered in the most extreme, brutal way” a child’s sense of safety and trust in the world. 

“They become easily frustrated, angry and disassociated.”

Some children had captors who were abusive and threatening; other hostages experienced Stockholm Syndrome, where they identified with their captor, Roth said. 

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Antisemitism spreading across the globe is “a big blow,” said Roth. “It added to the feelings that the world went crazy, that everything is distorted.”

She said these children are suffering from “trauma syndrome symptoms,” such as anxiety, depression, sleeping disorders and social withdrawal. 

They become easily frustrated, angry and disassociated, which means “you are disconnected from your emotional response … You become confused. You cannot concentrate and you don’t react emotionally in your full scope. You are a bit numb,” she said.

The released children (not pictured) are suffering from “trauma syndrome symptoms,” such as anxiety, depression, sleeping disorders and social withdrawal, one expert said. (iStock)

Dissociation can also be self-protective, Roth noted.

“It takes a long time until they come back into their senses, which is a good thing, because their psyche protects them from feeling all that they would feel if they were connected, and it would be overwhelming for them.”

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The therapist said these children are struggling to feel normal. 

“They do find any channel they can to be smiling and friendly and cooperative. They’re really trying … They are amazing in their coping, but they are injured.”

Play therapy, she said, enables children to reenact real experiences through imaginary scenarios, and gives therapists insight into their inner thoughts. 

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“You can see the split of the world into total good and total bad creatures fighting each other … I see complete evil, revenge, abuse and angels,” she said. 

“You can also see the other side … life saviors that came from nowhere to save them.” 

A seven-year-old boy said he was the “cat hero,” helping the cats he drew to fall asleep and feel less afraid.

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He also wrote a touching story with his therapist about a family of kittens who had been kidnapped and were found. Roth said that the child told his therapist, “Now we can finish therapy, because the kitties are back home.”

Said Roth, “I’m always overwhelmed by the beauty and the strength and the resilience.”

The latest strain of the COVID-19 virus, XEC, is circulating across the country.

The new variant has been reported in at least 25 U.S. states, according to data from the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS), as WebMD reported.

Some of the states with the highest cases — 10 or more each — include California, New Jersey and Virginia, the data showed.

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As of Friday, the variant is not yet being tracked by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO).

KP.3.1.1 is still considered the “predominant variant” of the virus, according to the CDC’s website.

Jake Glanville, PhD, an infectious diseases expert and CEO of Centivax in San Francisco, California, told Fox News Digital that XEC represents a shuffling of two descendants of last year’s JN.1 strain. 

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“Coronaviruses are mutating continuously, so when new strains become dominant, it tends to be because that strain has an infection or transmission advantage over all the other circulating mutant strains out there,” he told Fox News Digital during an on-camera interview. 

XEC is an example of such a new, mutated strain, the doctor confirmed.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for the 2024-2025 season. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

“So far, it doesn’t appear to have any distinct symptoms or mode of infection,” Glanville said.  

“It might be a little more infectious than some other strains, which is why it’s becoming dominant, but there’s no unique cause for concern for the public.”

The current vaccines are based on the KP.2 strain, which itself is also a descendant of JN.1 and a reasonable match for XEC, Glanville noted.

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“As XEC doesn’t appear to have any unusual infection symptoms, and is pretty similar to the vaccine strains chosen by the FDA this year, XEC is not a unique concern at this time,” the expert said. 

“It’s something that vaccine developers monitor to try to understand at what point they need to make a new vaccine, because eventually XEC or some other strain will mutate enough to escape the current vaccine designs.”

“Vaccine makers monitor these strains, because eventually XEC or some other strain will mutate enough to escape the current vaccine designs,” an infectious diseases expert said. (iStock)

It’s always possible that a new variant will evolve into mutations that cause new types of symptoms, Glanville said, but noted that isn’t currently happening with XEC.

“This looks like the coronavirus that we’re used to,” the doctor said.

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Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, agreed that the current 2024-2025 vaccines should cover the emerging XEC subvariant.

“Common symptoms include sore throat, congestion, cough, fatigue, nausea and loss of taste,” he told Fox News Digital.

“Eventually, XEC or some other strain will mutate enough to escape the current vaccine designs.”

Siegel recommends the updated vaccine for the elderly, people who are immunocompromised, those with chronic illness, and young children who did not get previous COVID vaccines.

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Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for the 2024-2025 season.

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The updated mRNA vaccines, Comirnaty and Spikevax, were fully approved for people 12 years and older, while the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were granted emergency authorization for children 6 months through 11 years of age, according to the FDA announcement.

Fox News Digital reached out to the CDC for comment.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a digestive condition that can cause substantial discomfort in those who have it. 

Medical professionals use the common symptoms associated with the disease as a driving factor in diagnosis and can help patients formulate a plan that prevents IBS from negatively impacting their quality of life. 

While there is no cure for IBS, there are plenty of adjustments to diet and behavior that can be implemented that have proven to be successful in easing symptoms. 

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Read more about IBS diagnosis and symptoms below. 

1. How is IBS diagnosed?
2. How do you fix IBS?
3. Does IBS go away?

1. How is IBS diagnosed?

There is no single test that is done in order to diagnose IBS. 

Rather, doctors diagnose IBS by talking through the symptoms a patient is experiencing. 

“We make the diagnosis mainly based on symptoms, and there are criteria called the Rome criteria, which were developed by a worldwide group of experts in classifying disorders of gut brain interaction,” Dr. Laurence Bailen, chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, part of the Mass General Brigham system, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview. 

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“Everybody with irritable bowel syndrome needs to have abdominal pain as one of their main symptoms and associated with abdominal pain, they’ll have disorders of the function of the intestines,” Bailen continued. 

“They’ll either have constipation or they’ll have diarrhea, or there’s a group of patients who have a mixture between both diarrhea and constipation that alternates.” 

If you are experiencing prolonged digestive issues that are impacting your overall well-being, it is vital to speak with a doctor and begin to find answers as to why these problems are occurring. 

IBS is typically diagnosed based on a patient’s symptoms. (iStock)

2. How do you fix IBS?

There are many different ways to help ease IBS symptoms. 

The main ways to treat IBS can be broken down into three different categories: diet and lifestyle adjustments, behavior modification and medications, according to Bailen. 

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“From a diet standpoint, one of the main diets that has been recommended and shown to be beneficial in people with IBS in clinical studies, is what’s called the low FODMAP diet and that’s an acronym for fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols,” Bailen said.

“These are basically food substances. There’s fruits, vegetables, artificial sweeteners, certain gluten-containing foods, that have been shown to be more difficult to digest and absorb,” Bailen continued.”By eliminating those types of foods, and focusing on foods that have lower FODMAPs in them, that has improved symptoms of abdominal discomfort and bloating that are very typical for IBS.” 

Beyond diet, there are other lifestyle changes IBS patients can make to help ease their symptoms. 

For those with IBS, a shift in diet can help uncomfortable symptoms subside. (iStock)

This includes practices known to alleviate stress, such as acupuncture, meditation and yoga, as well as speaking with a therapist, Bailen said. 

In conjunction with diet and lifestyle changes, those with IBS are typically prescribed medication, which will coincide with what the individual’s primary symptom is, Bailen added. 

3. Does IBS go away?

IBS is a condition that usually remains with individuals for their lifetime. 

Typically, IBS is spotted at a younger age, commonly seen in people in their teens through their 30s, Bailen said. 

For those older IBS patients, Bailen said they’re typically diagnosed later because they were living with IBS, without consulting a doctor. 

Practicing mindfulness through yoga and meditation can help alleviate common IBS symptoms. (iStock)

While there are commonalities among IBS patients, the condition affects each person a bit differently. 

For example, when it comes to food sensitivities, not all IBS patients suffer from the same ones. 

“There are some patients who can tolerate foods that are on a low FODMAP diet, and other patients who just can’t at all, so it’s very variable,” Bailen said. 

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While each patient’s experience will be a bit different, there are foods on a general scale that those with IBS should try to avoid. 

“In general, though, avoid foods that have a high fat content,” Bailen said. 

“So any fried foods, oily, greasy foods are usually tolerated poorly, just because those foods in general, are more difficult for our guts to digest and absorb. Other foods that tend to be a big problem can be artificial sweeteners.”

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“Finally, lactose intolerance is really common and is the most common acquired food intolerance,” Bailen added. 

“It also can exacerbate underlying symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.”

The body isn’t the only thing that changes when a woman is pregnant.

A new study conducted by researchers at UC Santa Barbara mapped how the brain responds to rapid hormone changes during pregnancy.

Pregnancy is a “transformative period in a person’s life accompanied by profound hormonal and physiological changes,” study co-author Dr. Laura Pritschet said in a conversation with Fox News Digital.

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“Investigations that compare women pre- and post-pregnancy provide the strongest evidence to date that the human brain undergoes neural change during this period,” she said. 

“Yet, how the brain changes during gestation itself is virtually unknown.”

Pritschet and her team launched the Maternal Brain Project, which scanned a first-time mother’s brain, once every few weeks, from preconception through two years postpartum.

This allowed the researchers to record changes in the brain in “pretty exquisite detail,” Pritschet said, which is “something that hasn’t been captured before.”

“These findings reveal highly dynamic changes unfolding in the human brain during pregnancy — some of which did not fully return to preconception levels.”

“Our findings show that pregnancy is characterized by reductions in gray matter volume, cortical thinning, and enhanced white matter microstructural integrity that unfold in step with advancing gestational week,” she went on.

These changes in brain matter were also linked to a significant rise in estrogen and progesterone during pregnancy.

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“Together, these findings reveal highly dynamic changes unfolding in the human brain during pregnancy — some of which did not fully return to preconception levels,” Pritschet said.

This demonstrates a capacity for “extensive neural remodeling well into adulthood,” according to the researcher.

A reduction of gray matter in the brain isn’t necessarily a bad thing, she noted.

Researchers saw a decrease in gray matter and an increase in white matter in the brain of a first-time mother. (iStock)

A decrease in gray matter could indicate a “fine-tuning” of brain circuits, similar to how the brain changes and becomes more specialized as adolescents transition through puberty, Pritschet told Fox News Digital.

Some of the neurological changes were thought to be a response to the “high physiological demands” of pregnancy, which shows how adaptive the brain can be, the researcher said.

Overall, the study revealed evidence of “profound changes” happening in the brain, she noted, which could help validate the “wide range of experiences women have during pregnancy.”

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Dr. Earnest Lee Murray, a board-certified neurologist at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee, told Fox News Digital that he considers this study “interesting.”

Murray, who was not involved in the study, defined neuroplasticity as the brain’s ability to “reorganize neural pathways in response to changes in the brain, such as growth, chemical changes, environmental exposures or injury.”

“Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize neural pathways in response to changes in the brain, such as growth, chemical changes, environmental exposures or injury,” a neurologist told Fox News Digital. (iStock)

The extent of brain structure changes in such a short amount of time was one of the most “remarkable” findings in the study, Murray noted.

“This demonstrates the brain’s remarkable ability to respond to numerous changes and stressors,” he said.

“We know that women’s bodies go through many changes during pregnancy, but this is the first time changes in the brain have been documented with imaging during the different stages.”

Spotlight on women’s health

Pritschet emphasized that pregnancy should not be considered a “niche research topic,” as 85% of women experience it at least once in their lifetime, and about 140 million women are pregnant every year.

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“Asking these questions is long overdue, but we have good news — there is now a worldwide spotlight on women’s health at large, and the future is bright because of it,” she told Fox News Digital.

“Our hope is that this proof-of-concept study serves as a catalyst for more studies that take place in larger, more diverse cohorts of women.”

“Profound changes” happening in the brain could help validate the “wide range of experiences” women have during pregnancy, the researcher suggested. (iStock)

Using the new information from this study, the researchers plan to further investigate how brain changes may drive neurological conditions during pregnancy, like eclampsia, epilepsy, stroke and migraine.

“There are now FDA-approved treatments for postpartum depression (a condition that affects roughly one in five women), but early detection remains elusive,” Pritschet said. 

“The more we learn about the maternal brain, the better chance we’ll have to provide relief.”

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Murray agreed that this study will help lay the groundwork for additional studies looking at various psychological or neurological conditions women may face during pregnancy.

This study did not look at the neurological changes related to forgetfulness or “brain fog” — often referred to as “pregnancy brain” — or other side effects, Pritschet clarified.

“The more we learn about the maternal brain, the better chance we’ll have to provide relief.”

“We absolutely need more work in this space to understand how changes in the brain during pregnancy lead to or trigger cognitive, behavioral and health outcomes,” she said.

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“Everyone’s journey is different – some women report changes in mood or forgetfulness, while others do not – so we need to understand how and why these differences may emerge.”