Attendees gathered on May 11 for Alzheimer Day, an annual event hosted by the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease to showcase dementia and aging research conducted throughout Northwestern and bring those discoveries to the community.
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More NewsNorthwestern Medicine scientists have uncovered how peptides produced by bones during inflammation prevent anemia in mice, according to a recent study published in the journal Blood.
Huda Yahya Zoghbi, MD, the inaugural winner of the 2016 Mechthild Esser Nemmers Prize in Medical Science at Northwestern University, returned to Feinberg on Monday as part of the Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics Distinguished Lecturer Series.
CT scans are better at predicting a middle-aged person’s risk for a heart disease, such as a heart attack, than genetics, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study published in JAMA.
Salt substitutes may be effective in lowering blood pressure and reducing cardiovascular events in residents of elderly care facilities, according to a recent multi-center study published in Nature Medicine.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have shed new light on how the deadliest form of thyroid cancer becomes more aggressive, according to research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
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More Media CoverageAfter two months of tests, a mom of three was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS impacts the nerves that control our muscles, causing them to weaken and atrophy. There’s no cure. “It was devastating to realize that our plans for our young family were completely upended by my diagnosis,” Rankin said. Dr. John Coleman, a critical care pulmonologist at Northwestern Medicine and a member of Rankin’s extensive care team, says Rankin is not alone. “I think she is a testament of the younger generation of people who have ALS. ALS has always been kind of thought about as a disease that has affected older people, maybe in their 60s or 70s, but we’re seeing more and more young people being diagnosed with ALS,” Coleman said.
How to control your cholesterol and when to consider taking statins
Sometimes it may seem as if half the population of the United States takes medication for high cholesterol levels. About 40 million Americans are taking statins such as atorvastatin (Lipitor and generic), lovastatin (Altoprev) and simvastatin (Zocor), which are by far the most commonly prescribed of all types of cholesterol drugs. Statins can be quite effective. Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, shares advice on how to lower cholesterol. Regular consumption of unsaturated fats (olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds) and soluble fiber (oats, barley, psyllium) may lower LDL cholesterol by about 7 to 15 mg/dL. Limit full-fat dairy, red meat and fried food because their saturated fat can raise LDL, says Donald Lloyd-Jones, chair of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Cardiovascular disease is poised to kill more older people
Cardiovascular disease — the No. 1 cause of death among people 65 and older — is poised to become even more common in the years ahead, disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic communities and exacting an enormous toll on the health and quality of life of older Americans. “Whatever focus we’ve had before on managing [cardiovascular]disease risk in Black and Hispanic Americans, we need to redouble our efforts,” said Clyde Yancy, chief of cardiology and vice dean for diversity and inclusion at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. He was not involved with the research.
The US Food and Drug Administration’s independent vaccine advisers voted Thursday in favor of recommending approval of a new vaccine to prevent infants from respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV. RSV is the No. 1 reason for child hospitalizations in the US. In a single year, there are about 34 million episodes of RSV-associated lower respiratory tract infections in children under the age of 5, and about 10% need to go to the hospital for treatment, studies show. Nearly 80% of children hospitalized with RSV before age 2 had no underlying medical conditions, the FDA said in its presentation to the committee Thursday. Once at the hospital, most kids improve with supportive care, but there is no specific drug to treat RSV. In some cases, the infection can turn into pneumonia and become deadly. Dr. Bill Muller, an infectious disease physician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, said anything that would decrease RSV infections would be a “welcome intervention.” Additionally, “Just decreasing the amount of disease that we see would really be an important advance in pediatric medicine,” said Muller, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.