Media Coverage

Thyroid Medicine Recall Sparks Concern, Confusion. Here’s What to Know

A thyroid medicine is being recalled at the FDA’s highest risk level − and it’s causing confusion and concern among the many Americans who use such medications to manage thyroid conditions.

Compared to the “over 80 million prescriptions for thyroid hormone annually in the United States,” this recall is “fairly small,” explained Dr. Jared Friedman, an endocrinologist at Northwestern Medicine, in a statement to USA TODAY.

After Menopause, Ovaries May Transform Into Organs With Immune Powers

Francesca Duncan’s team at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine reports this month in Molecular Human Reproduction that the ovaries of old mice become infiltrated with immune cells and may secrete immune signals into the body.

The consequences of these changes aren’t clear, but a similar transformation in humans could have health implications after menopause, Duncan and other researchers say.

A Controversial, Cancer-Detecting Blood Test Just Got Backed By Key FDA Panel

“The key plain takeaway: (This type of testing) may complement current screening by identifying lethal cancers that are otherwise undetected earlier and with limited downstream burden,” Dr. Mohamed Abazeed, chair and professor of radiation oncology at Northwestern University, who was not involved with the study, previously told USA TODAY.

The Ovary Is Surprisingly Active After Menopause. Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out Why

When Francesca Duncan, a reproductive biologist at Northwestern University, decided to take a look at what was going on in postmenopausal ovaries, she assumed she wouldn’t find much of interest.

Instead, Duncan found that aged ovaries were anything but stagnant. When looking at the protein composition of ovaries of postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 75 years old, her team found that the molecular signatures differed significantly across the decades.

How Northwestern Medicine Is Changing Emergency Care for Older Adults

By 2040, 80 million American adults will be 65 or older. This massive shift threatens to overwhelm traditional hospital emergency rooms, which simply aren’t built for the unique needs of aging patients.

To fix this, ER doctors like Scott Dresden, the director of Geriatric Emergency Department Innovations (GEDI) for Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine, are working to improve care and coordination for vulnerable patients with GEDI teams.

Woman Details Losing Vision in 1 Eye After Taking GLP-1 As Hundreds of Patients Sue Drug Companies

In patients who take GLP-1s, many papers have found an association with a two- to four-fold increase in risk, which still makes the condition very rare, said Dr. Manjot Gill, a retina specialist and professor of ophthalmology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“The take-home message would be that while there is an increase in relative risk — and this is really an association, we haven’t determined an absolute causation — the absolute risk is still very small,” Gill told NBC News.

How Are Overdoses and Cardiac Arrest Related?

With a cardiac arrest, the “heart stops and cannot do its vital function to pump blood to the rest of the body,” Dr. Quentin Youmans, a heart failure and heart transplant specialist at Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, told USA TODAY in a statement.

While irregular heart rhythms cause most sudden cardiac arrests, recreational drug use can cause cardiac arrest in otherwise healthy people.