|
Making Headlines |
Five Ways to Keep Kids from Ruining Your Sex Life
Today Show January 28, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22883868/
(By Dr. Laura Berman)
Kids are a delight, but they can also be problematic when it comes to keeping the spark alive between you and your spouse. In today’s child-centric society, it can be difficult to find couple time, especially when romance is in order. Luckily, you can safeguard your relationship from this common problem by following these five simple steps:
1. Embrace separate beds
Unless you are Suzanne Somers, three is not company. This is especially true when you and your husband aren’t able to bond (wink, wink) due to the pitter-patter of little feet that head to your bedroom every night. It might be hard to turn away the kiddies, especially when they are so fun to cuddle with, but don’t forget that cuddling your partner is important too! More importantly, your children need to learn how to sleep on their own and be independent. Help your children adjust to sleeping on their own by making it a treat—buy special sheets with their favorite cartoon characters, get them a nightlight, and remind them that big kids sleep in their own room. If they’ve been sleeping with you for a while, it’ll be a process to get them out of your bed and into their own, but if you are consistent and don’t give up, they’ll soon make the transition and you’ll get back those stolen moments in bed for you and your partner.
Dr. Laura Berman is director of the Berman Center in Chicago, a specialized health care facility dedicated to helping women and couples find fulfilling sex lives and enriched relationships. She is also an assistant clinical professor of ob-gyn and psychiatry at the Feinberg School of Medicine at NORTHWESTERN University. She has been working as a sex educator, researcher, and therapist for 18 years.
Cancer Fight Could Advance Via Thin Film
Chicago Tribune January 28, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-mon_notebook_0128jan28,0,4568148.story
Chemotherapy drugs are intended to kill the fast-growing cancer cells that populate tumors, but the poison kills a lot of innocent bystander cells as well. Nanotech researchers who seek ways to send chemokillers where they’re needed while avoiding healthy tissue had some good news last week in the form of a film so thin as to be virtually invisible.
The film, developed and tested by scientists at NORTHWESTERN University and the University of California at Los Angeles, is only several molecules thick, and is made from a polymer that combines both water-attracting and water-repelling properties in a way that mimics natural cell walls. It appears to be a promising medium to deliver cancer drugs to tumors. This means the nanofilm is invisible to a creature’s immune system and can be implanted and left in place to slowly leak cancer drugs for days or weeks, said Dean Ho, an assistant professor at NORTHWESTERN and senior author of the study, published last week in ACS Nano. “When a patient has surgery to remove a tumor, the surgeon doesn’t get all of the cancer cells,” said Ho. “We see doing surgery and then putting a film mixed with a chemodrug on the tumor site to mop up the cells left behind.”
Making the nanofilm is neither difficult nor expensive, Ho said, and early tests suggest it isn’t toxic to animals. “It’s a very straightforward process,” Ho said. “If it were too difficult or expensive it wouldn’t be practical.” Besides concentrating chemodrugs where they are needed to avoid side effects, the nanofilm could also be useful as a coating on devices implanted in patients to supply therapy, making the devices invisible to the patient’s immune system, Ho said.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
Ivanhoe January 29, 2008
Nanomaterials Control Drug Delivery
http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=17992
New Therapy for Stroke Patients
Ivanhoe Newswire January 28, 2008
http://news14.com/content/headlines/592176/new-therapy-for-stroke-patients/Default.aspx
CHICAGO—Each year, about 750,000 Americans will suffer a stroke. Today, nearly six million stroke survivors are alive, and many continue to struggle with lasting side effects, like paralysis. Now, a new treatment could retrain the brain to get patients moving again. Robert Levy, MD, PhD, a neurosurgeon at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, says 50 percent of stroke survivors will have lasting paralysis. “It takes away their independence, and it takes away their ability to control their lives,” Dr. Levy says.
Now he’s studying brain stimulation that will re-grow neural pathways to reverse that paralysis. “Until now, no really effective way exists to re-grow pathways within the brain,” Dr. Levy says. Surgeons place electrodes internally over the injured brain area. They’re powered by a battery implanted in the chest. The brain is stimulated only during intense physical rehab that involves the paralyzed arm. “This is one of the single biggest advances in stroke therapy that I’ve witnessed in my entire career,” Dr. Levy says.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
WCPO (Cincinnati, OH, ABC Affiliate)) January 29, 2008
Stroke Therapy
http://www.wcpo.com/content/news/localshows/healthyliving/story.aspx?content_id=6c0a7a8b-2f82-4c4b-af21-e39ff8ab3ac7
Zoning Panel Should OK Children’s Hospital, Heliport
Chicago Sun Times January 24, 2008
http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/757330,CST-EDT-edit24b.article
The city’s Zoning Committee should authorize construction of the proposed $1 billion Children’s Memorial Hospital today. The sooner the Children’s Hospital and its heliport are approved, the sooner it can start saving children’s lives. The best interests of Chicago and its children will be better served when the hospital can move from its outdated facility in Lincoln Park into its new Streeterville location, attracting top doctors and medical researchers to an innovative campus next to the brain trust of NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
Not everyone, though, thinks Children’s should be allowed to transport sick children by helicopter, which would require landing on the roof of its new hospital next to residential high-rises. Children’s uses helicopters, on average, 73 times a year. That’s six helicopter landings a month, most of them during the day or early evening when people aren’t even home.
England Helps Elderly to Stay Home Longer
Evanston Review January 24, 2008
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/751324,on-smartaging-012408-s1.article
The British health care system is an egalitarian one; it is paid for by the taxes of citizens so that one day, when they need it, health care will be provided without leading to poverty. The National Health Service (NHS) still fulfills this role for the majority of people; however it is not always simple. Since the NHS exists on a limited budget, it is not able to provide all people with all the services that they may desire. Many people as they age require extra help, especially in the last few months of their lives. It is here where the NHS does its bit. Once a person requires assistance from a doctor or admission to hospital, you begin to receive the benefit of having paid your taxes. The public health system means that no one is denied health care and assistance when they require it most.
As in the United States, most people in England want to be able to live and age in their own homes. The NHS provides for this to a limited extent. Doctors, physical therapists, podiatrists and home caregivers are all able to come to visit you in your own home with the expense falling onto the NHS. Being at home is regarded as a much better environment than being in hospital or in residential care, and it is more fiscally manageable as well.
The Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society is located at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Visit www.NORTHWESTERN.edu/aging.
Rejecting Defeat
Boston Globe January 24, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/24/rejecting_defeat/
Dr. David H. Sachs was full of optimism when the third patient in his $1 million study was wheeled into the recovery room at Massachusetts General Hospital after an experimental kidney transplant. The first two patients had thrived, adding credibility to an unorthodox idea that Sachs had pioneered over his career, that transplanting a donor’s bone marrow along with the kidney could solve the problem of organ rejection, sparing patients a lifetime of powerful antirejection drugs.
“This is landmark work,” said Dr. Joshua Miller, an organ transplant researcher at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Other researchers cautioned that only the healthiest patients may be able to endure the rigorous treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation, that precede the transplant.
Do Your Homework on Take-Home Medical Tests
Redbook January 23, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22813341/
Should you trust at-home health tests? They’re fast and private—but do they work? Redbook magazine gives you the lowdown on the latest medical trend: Worried about high cholesterol or infertility? You could wait days for a doctor’s appointment and then another week (or more) for the test results. Or you could take one of those at- home health tests and have results in minutes. Sure, faster sounds better, but some health problems can’t be properly diagnosed at home, experts say. Here’s the scoop on the latest drugstore kits.
You pee onto a testing stick on the third day of your period to reveal your levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), an indicator of your ability to produce viable eggs. What the experts say: Infertility is a complex problem that isn’t amenable to quick analysis, says Lee P. Shulman, MD, professor of ob-gyn at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. For example, shape, size, volume, and speed are equally important factors in sperm health. And a single check of FSH doesn’t reliably tell you whether you have a healthy egg supply. If your results are normal, you may be lulled into false assurance. And if the test indicates trouble, the results would need to be double-checked by a doctor. “This just adds one more costly step to the expensive process of infertility testing,” says Shulman.
Abraxis’ Taxane Therapy Wins EU Approval
Pharma Times January 23, 2008
http://www.pharmatimes.com/WorldNews/article.aspx?id=12695
U.S. biotechnology group Abraxis Bioscience says it plans to launch its taxane therapy Abraxane for breast cancer in Europe in mid-2008, after regulators gave the final seal of approval for the drug. Specifically, the agent has been cleared for use in patients with metastatic breast cancer who have failed to respond to first-line treatment or are unable to take standard, anthracycline-containing therapies. And it seems this clinical success has already been translated to the marketplace across the Atlantic, where Abraxane is becoming the “taxane therapy of choice for oncologists” given the superior patient outcomes demonstrated in studies, according to principal clinical trial investigator William Gradishar, professor of medicine at NORTHWESTERN University.
U.S. High Court Rules That University Owns Lab Specimens Claimed by Former Researcher
Associated Press January 22, 2008
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SCOTUS_RESEARCHER?SITE=TXBEA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with a university Tuesday in a fight with a researcher over who owns human cancer tissue. The justices without comment let stand lower court rulings that said Washington University in Missouri owns the tissue. Thousands of patients provided lab specimens to Dr. William J. Catalona before he left the university and moved to NORTHWESTERN University in Illinois in 2003.
Catalona’s old university sued after thousands of Catalona’s patients asked the institution to send their tissue to the prostate cancer researcher, one of the pre-eminent urologists in the country. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Missouri, and a federal district judge ruled that the patients relinquished all rights to their tissues and said Washington University owned them. Lawyers for Catalona and seven of his patients who joined him in the court fight say that institutions that receive federal money are barred from getting research subjects to waive any of their legal rights.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
Chicago Tribune January 23, 2008
ELSEWHERE
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-nat_elsewhere_23jan23,0,7905776.story
Chronicle of Higher Education January 22, 2008
University Owns Disputed Tissue Samples, Supreme Court Says
http://chronicle.com/news/article/3785/university-owns-disputed-tissue-samples-supreme-court-rules
Study: Stem Cells May Prevent Amputations
United Press International January 21, 2008
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/01/21/study_stem_cells_may_prevent_amputations/3777/
EVANSTON, Ill., Jan. 21 (UPI)—NORTHWESTERN University researchers have launched the first U.S. trial in which stem cells are used to grow new blood vessels to prevent leg amputations. Scientists are transplanting a purified form of subjects’ own adult stem cells into their legs that have severely blocked arteries. The goal is to grow new small blood vessels and restore circulation. The first two subjects in the 20-site national trial recently underwent the stem cell transplant process at NORTHWESTERN
Memorial Hospital.
Scientists at the university’s Feinberg School of Medicine who are leading the study said severely blocked arteries in the leg and sharply diminished blood flow can result in wounds that don’t heal, tissue breakdown, and gangrene. That condition, called critical limb ischemia, results in the amputation of more than 100,000 limbs annually in the United States. The research targets patients who have exhausted all other medical options including angioplasty, stents, and bypass surgery to repair blocked circulation in their legs. “They’re at the end of the therapeutic road, and they’re ultimately facing potential amputation,” said Dr. Douglas Losordo, the study’s principal national investigator. “This is hopefully a way to help them avoid that.”
Boarding School for Overweight Teens
Health News Digest January 21, 2008
http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Teen_Health_290/Boarding_School_for_Overweight_Teens.shtml
Academy of the Sierras (AOS), the world’s first boarding school for overweight children and teens, start a new year at the California and North Carolina campuses today. The two programs remain the only year-round boarding schools for weight loss in the world. “We’re very excited to start another year with our students on the East and West Coasts,” said Dr. Daniel Kirschenbaum, vice president of clinical services and a professor at NORTHWESTERN University’s medical school. “AOS has helped hundreds of students safely lose very significant amounts of weight and keep it off at home. We base all elements of our approach on decades of scientific research to help students transform the way they eat, move, and think about their lives. Our educational and cognitive- behavior therapy programs help students master the formidable cultural and biological challenges of long-term weight control.”
Cup of Contradictions
Newsweek January 21, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/96552
In the age of Starbucks venti lattes, it’s tough for expectant moms to go cold turkey on caffeine. But they may want to cut back because of the possibility that the popular stimulant increases the risk of miscarriage. One other thing to note is that the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology study linking caffeine and miscarriage was an “observational” trial, not a proective, double-blind controlled trial that injected some women with caffeine and others with none. It relied on the self-reports of pregnant women who were members of a Kaiser Permanente health care program in northern California. “What people report to you they’ve done isn’t necessarily what they’ve done,” says Dr. Alan Peaceman, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and an expert in high-risk pregnancy.
Peaceman notes that some women develop “terrible headaches” without their coffee. And he wants to avoid “creating hysteria here.” “I tell women not to be guilty about a cup of coffee a day if that’s really what they need,” he says. “A lot of people are hooked on caffeine, including myself. Some women, if they don’t have it, have nausea and vomiting, and then their nutritional status diminishes. I’d rather have them have a cup of coffee. Women have to deal with so much guilt when they have a bad outcome in pregnancy. The vast majority is not within their control.” But he also wants women to consume as little as they can get away with just in case. “When I tell a woman she can have a cup of coffee, I’m not talking about a double espresso venti,” he says. “I’m talking about a regular, eight-ounce coffee.”
Seen & Noted: Cigar Smokers Puff Together
Crain’s Chicago Business January 21, 2008
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=29146&seenIt=1
Cigar smokers are drifting into the few remaining public areas where they can legally smoke after the state ban, including tobacco shops and private rooms in restaurants. Its next dinner-and-drinks fundraiser, Havana Day Dreaming, will be at Erie Cafe on March 21. For $200 per person, cigar smokers can sample brands, with proceeds benefiting NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
A New Gay Disease?
Newsweek January 20, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/96130
The headlines this week about a new “gay” infection were dramatic. FLESH-EATING BUG SPREADS AMONG GAYS, said one Australian newspaper, referring to a study about an antibiotic- resistant bacterial infection affecting homosexual men in San Francisco and other American cities. EPIDEMIC FEARED–GAYS MAY SPREAD DEADLY STAPH INFECTION TO GENERAL POPULATION, shouted a press release from the Concerned Women for America, a conservative public-policy group. Awareness of the symptoms of a potentially serious bacterial infection can help contain the spread.
Experts note that this and other community-associated forms of MRSA, generally begin as a pimple-like sore that looks like a spider bite and starts to get bigger. “Someone says, ‘I think I’ve got a spider bite’,” says Dr. Gary Noskin, an infectious disease specialist at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Typically, it’s “localized” and remains in a specific area of the body. Noskin has seen some infections the size of a dime and some that are five to six inches. Doctors typically give patients antibiotics and lance their boil. Infections are more likely to occur if there is some opening in the skin, such as from a shaving nick or a needle puncture, that breaks the body’s “protective barrier,” says Noskin. “Direct contact with an open wound would increase the likelihood.”
Is Daily Aspirin a Good Idea?
Newsweek January 18, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/94991
Yes, aspirin can save lives. Studies have found that this inexpensive pain reliever helps prevent blood clots and decreases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, so it’s no wonder 43 million U.S. adults—19.3 percent of all Americans over 18 and nearly half of all Americans 65 or older—take an aspirin every day or every other day. “There’s no mystery,” says New York University cardiologist Nieca Goldberg, a spokesman for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Campaign and and author of “Dr. Nieca Goldberg’s Complete Guide to Women’s Health.” “Unlike other medications, it’s been around for a long time.”
But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for everyone. One problem: too much of it can cause gastrointestinal upsets and stomach bleeding. How much is too much? Doctors generally recommend that at-risk adults take 81 milligrams (a baby aspirin or low-dose adult aspirin). Higher doses increase the risk of bleeding. “People who take aspirin do notice that if they nick themselves shaving, it’s harder to stop the bleeding,” says Dr. Stephen Persell of NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Aspirin also isn’t a good idea for kids or even teens because of the risk of Reye’s syndrome, which can cause brain swelling and even death in young people.
Before becoming a regular aspirin user, ask your doctor about two issues: “What’s your risk for developing cardiovascular disease like heart attack” and “what’s your risk of having bleeding in your stomach,” says Persell. Risk factors for heart disease include high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and diabetes. To figure out your risk of heart disease, based on factors like your gender, your age, your blood pressure, your cholesterol, and whether you smoke, visit the National Institutes of Health online calculator. “A woman in her 40s or 50s who doesn’t have other risk factors has a very low risk of having a heart attack, but a bleeding ulcer would be a bad thing for her,” says Persell.
UI Trustees Seek Assistance for Medical School
Champaign News-Gazette (IL) January 18, 2008
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/01/18/major_medical
CHICAGO—The nation’s largest medical school faces “desperate” times unless the state steps up to help, University of Illinois trustees say. The high cost of educating doctors, dentists, and nurses and caring for low-income patients  jeopardizes the viability of the UI College of Medicine, officials said Thursday. Meanwhile, medical faculty are leaving the UI for higher-paying jobs at nearby NORTHWESTERN University and the University of Chicago. Those medical schools have larger endowments and more income because they treat more private-pay patients than the UI Hospital, where 42 percent of the patients are low income.
Gene Tests for Psychiatric Risk Polarize Researchers
Science Magazine January 18, 2008
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5861/274
Pablo Gejman, a psychiatric geneticist with Evanston NORTHWESTERN Healthcare and NORTHWESTERN University in Evanston, Illinois, is leading a project that he hopes can confirm or reject initial schizophrenia gene discoveries: a genome-wide association study of 4,500 people with this disease and 4,500 without. Results are due out later this year. (Kelsoe is leading a parallel study in bipolar disorder.) Gejman wonders if even larger trials—of 15,000 people, perhaps—will be necessary. This week, he published a paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry, reporting that none of 14 previously described schizophrenia genes played a big role in disease risk in nearly 3900 people.
Very Personal Medicine
Newsweek January 21, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/91659
The search is on for more-accurate ways to diagnose prostate cancer. How ‘biomarkers’ might save lives. PSA [also] falls short in its ability to distinguish potentially deadly cancers from insignificant ones. Some cancers spread rapidly, but many grow so slowly that they may never cause problems. For the slow-growing cancers, the side effects of treatment—which include impotence and incontinence—can be worse than the disease. “No one is entirely happy with PSA, including me,” says NORTHWESTERN University’s William Catalona, a prostate-cancer surgeon who helped pioneer PSA’s role in prostate-cancer screening.
For the past several years, researchers have been combing through blood and tissue samples in the hopes of finding some sort of biological change, or bio-marker, to more accurately diagnose prostate cancer and predict its behavior. Catalona has been studying a form of PSA called “free” PSA. (The other form is called “bound” PSA because it binds to proteins in the blood.) Today’s PSA tests measure total PSA, the sum of free and bound PSA. Catalona’s research has shown that a subcategory of free PSA called proPSA is superior to PSA in discriminating cancer from benign conditions. Its greater diagnostic accuracy, says Catalona, likely stems from the fact that proPSA is produced in the prostate’s outer zone, the area where most cancers arise.
Adult Drug Effective in Treating Psoriasis in Children
U.S. News & World Report January 16, 2008
http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/080116/adult-drug-effective-in-treating-psoriasis-in-children.htm
(HealthDay News)—The drug etanercept significantly improved psoriasis symptoms in children under 17 with moderate to severe psoriasis, researchers are reporting. The study found that 57 percent of the children and teens enrolled in the study had at least a 75 percent improvement in their symptoms, and their quality of life also improved.
“Psoriasis is not just some benign skin disease but can be truly life-altering for patients,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Amy Paller, chair of dermatology at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “In our study, etanercept positively impacted quality of life,” added Paller, who’s also a pediatric dermatologist at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.”This is the first trial that’s been done in children and adolescents in this whole category of biologics for psoriasis,” Paller said.
Etanercept is a tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNF). People with psoriasis have too much TNF, and entaercept reduces the amount of TNF. But, it can also lower the immune system’s ability to fight infections. To assess whether or not the drug was as safe and effective in children under 17 as it is in adults, Paller and her colleagues recruited 211 children and adolescents with moderate to severe psoriasis to participate in the trial. Paller said the researchers chose etanercept, because it’s already being used to treat children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and appears to be safe in that population.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
WebMD January 16, 2008
Enbrel Works for Kids With Psoriasis
http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/psoriasis/news/20080116/enbrel-works-for-kids-with-psoriasis
Telegraph (UK) January 17, 2008
Arthritis treatment could cut psoriasis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/17/narthritis117.xml
Asian News International January 17, 2008
New drug may reduce skin disease psoriasis flare-ups in kids
http://www.thecheers.org/news/Science/news_7909_New-drug-may-reduce%20skin-disease-psoriasis-flare-ups-in-kids.html
United Press International January 17, 2008
Drug effective on psoriasis in children
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Health/2008/01/17/drug_effective_on_psoriasis_in_children/7607/
Health News Track January 18, 2008
Enbrel, etanercept improved psoriasis in children and adolescents
http://www.healthnewstrack.com/health-news-130.html
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel January 20, 2008
A Closer Look: Research Findings…Psoriasis drug helps children, study shows
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=708877
USA Today January 21, 2008
Adult drug for psoriasis shown to be effective in children
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-01-21-psoriasis-drug-children_N.htm
Science News January 19, 2008
Getting the Red Out: Drug improves kids’ psoriasis symptoms
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080119/fob1.asp
On Television
ABC World News Now WMAR-TV (Baltimore), KYW-AM (Philadelphia), NECN (Boston), WXYZ-TV (Detroit) Jan. 17.
Dr. Katie Watson, assistant professor of medicine, discusses celebrity physicians promoting drugs.
On the Radio
WLS-AM Jan. 17.
Dr. Katie Watson, assistant professor of medicine, discusses celebrity physicians promoting drugs.
Encounter: Wayne Anderson, Medical Sketch Artist
North Shore Magazine January 2008
http://www.northshoremag.com/cgi-bin/ns-article
Anthrax. The Plague. Ebola. West Nile Virus. You’d think we’d have some clue as to what these villains—the world’s deadliest gang of killers—actually look like. But the scary thing is, we don’t. On a molecular level, these infectious diseases are faceless outlaws. Each has specific proteins that allow them to quickly replicate, but the best doctors in the world couldn’t pick those particular protein structures out of a lineup.
Enter the “sketch artist,” Dr. Wayne Anderson of NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Thanks to a $31 million check cut by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anderson, along with researchers at seven other institutions, is mapping the arrangement of amino acids that make up these pathogens.
Research: Read This And Live!
AARP Bulletin January & February, 2008
Being able to read and understand health-related info may lengthen your life, according to researchers at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Among people 65 and older, during a six-year study, the risk of dying was 50 percent lower for those who had scored in the “adequate” range on a health-literacy test than for those in the “inadequate” range. People with poor health literacy may have a more difficult time managing illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease, researchers say.
On the Radio
WNYCC-FM January 15, 2008
Jack Kessler, MD, professor of neurology, discusses stem cell research.
Mathematical Fruit Fly Eye Model Created
United Press International January 14, 2008
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/01/14/mathematical_fruit_fly_eye_model_created/1889/
U.S. researchers have created a mathematical functional equation using only two parameters to show how cells pack together to create a fruit fly’s eyes. The NORTHWESTERN University researchers—led by Associate Professor Sascha Hilgenfeldt, Professor Richard Carthew and undergraduate researcher Sinem Erisken—said they hope their the equation can be applied to different kinds of tissues, leading to advances in regenerative medicine.
Drug Approved. Is Disease Real?
The New York Times January 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/health/14pain.html?em&ex=1200459600&en=bac45d5aff5a17d7&ei=5087%0A
Fibromyalgia is a real disease. Or so says Pfizer in a new television advertising campaign for Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat the pain condition, whose very existence is questioned by some doctors. For patient advocacy groups and doctors who specialize in fibromyalgia, the Lyrica approval is a milestone. They say they hope Lyrica and two other drugs that may be approved this year will legitimize fibromyalgia, just as Prozac brought depression into the mainstream. But other doctors—including the one who wrote the 1990 paper that defined fibromyalgia but who has since changed his mind—say that the disease does not exist and that Lyrica and the other drugs will be taken by millions of people who do not need them.
As diagnosed, fibromyalgia primarily affects middle-aged women and is characterized by chronic, widespread pain of unknown origin. Many of its sufferers are afflicted by other similarly nebulous conditions, like irritable bowel syndrome. Because fibromyalgia patients typically do not respond to conventional painkillers like aspirin, drug makers are focusing on medicines like Lyrica that affect the brain and the perception of pain.
On Television
KOTA-TV (Rapid City) WBOC-TV (Salisbury) Jan. 12.
Robert Levy, MD professor of neurological surgery, comments on stroke survivors.
Salons Make Business of Head Lice Removal
ABC News (ABC.com) January 11, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4120482&page=1
“Lice have really remarkable adaptive abilities,” said Russell Robertson, director of family medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “And some of the chemical treatments themselves have the potential to be not only toxic to the lice but toxic to the individual.”
Bad Bug: Protecting Yourself from Norovirus
CBS 2, Chicago January 10, 2008
http://cbs2chicago.com/health/bad.bug.norovirus.2.627506.html
CHICAGO (CBS) This is the cold and flu season. But CBS 2 Medical Editor Mary Ann Childers reports that there’s another bad bug out there that can make you very sick, very fast. It’s called norovirus, and doctors say it’s roaring through the Chicago area. It’s been called the “cruise ship virus” because outbreaks of this stomach flu at sea have made big news. So have epidemics in nursing homes. The culprit behind most of these illnesses is the norovirus.
Dr. Evan Anderson, with NORTHWESTERN Memorial Hospital’s infectious diseases unit, said, “It is like a switch is suddenly thrown, and all of a sudden you go to from feeling pretty well, to running as fast as you can to the closest bathroom.” Norovirus causes nausea, uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea, and dehydration. You can have cramps, fever, chills, and muscle aches. It’s incredibly contagious. “You are at primary risk from fecal to oral transmission meaning ingestion of other people’s stool,” Anderson said.
On the Radio
The Michael Reagan Show (Sirius Radio) Jan. 10.
William Gradishar, MD, professor of hematology/oncology, discusses breast cancer treatments.
WAMT-AM (Orlando) Jan. 10
Fred Turek, professor of neurobiology and physiology, discusses his research on sleep deprivation and obesity.
On Television
KOTA-TV (Rapid City) Jan. 10.
Robert Levy, MD, professor of neurological surgery, discusses stroke survivors.
Embracing Alternative Care
U.S. News & World Report January 9, 2008
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2008/01/09/embracing-alternative-care.html
The setting for the unorthodox therapy—an academic medical center—would have been startling just five or 10 years ago. [therapist Lynne] Morrison is on the staff of Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, a hard-nosed, tough-cases, research-oriented emblem of western medicine. It perennially ranks among America’s premier hospitals and is the principal pediatric teaching hospital for NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
Now it is more often called CAM, for complementary and alternative medicine, or integrative medicine, to avoid the loaded “alternative.” The message the new labels are meant to convey is that the therapies more often go hand in hand with traditional medicine than substitute for it. Children’s Memorial is just one of many academic hospitals where unconventional therapies have found a home.
Too Fat? No More Excuses
U.S. News & World Report January 8, 2008
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2007/12/31/too-fat-no-more-excuses.html
You may think your jiggling spare tire is just along for the ride, an inert mass that slows you down and forces a slackened belt. But far from just sitting there quietly, your body fat is talking. And what it’s saying—in a constant stream of messages to your brain, liver, muscles, and points in between—amounts to an urgent reason to finally follow through on that New Year’s resolution. Researchers worried about the obesity epidemic are furiously studying body fat in an effort to decode its effect on health. And they have discovered that fat is as active and important an endocrine organ as the thyroid or reproductive glands. In healthy amounts, it tightly regulates the amount of energy burned or stored by releasing a cadre of hormones. Fat cells, moreover, don’t seem to go away; while other cells are programmed to die, “you’ve bought them for life,” says Robert Kushner, professor of medicine and obesity care specialist at NORTHWESTERN University Feinberg School of Medicine. Thus, the goal of shedding pounds really is about slimming fat cells down, then keeping them from packing in triglycerides again.
Study: Sleep Deficit May Be Impossible to Recoup
Gannett News Service January 8, 2008
http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080108/NEWS01/801080309/1002
For years, sleep researchers have been preaching the dangers of lost sleep: People who are fatigued can’t pay attention to routine tasks, have trouble learning, and are prone to a laundry list of health problems, from depression to high blood pressure. New research suggests an added risk to losing sleep day after day: Humans and animals that have chronic sleep deprivation might reach a point at which the very ability to catch up on lost sleep is damaged, says Fred Turek, a sleep researcher at NORTHWESTERN University in Evanston, Ill.
His research on sleep patterns in rats appeared this summer in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” That, together with findings from a human study, suggests people who lose sleep night after night might not recover the alertness they need to perform well during the day.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix) January 7, 2008
WEEKLY REVIEW: SLEEP DEFICIT
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0107lostsleep0107.html
New to America, But Old and Lonely
Chicago Tribune January 8, 2008
Isolation is intensified in rootless suburbs that are nearly impossible to navigate without a car or driver’s license. And America’s fast-paced youth culture can leave little time for the reverence afforded to the elderly in their home countries. “These are kind of displaced old people,” said Celia Berdes, assistant professor at NORTHWESTERN University’s Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society. “They have lived their whole lives to be honored elders in their home cultures and then suddenly, for the sake of keeping their families unified, they have been transferred into a culture that does not honor elders. “They have the practical logistics of starting to live life as Americans and then they have this more existential problem, which is that their role has been removed,” Berdes said.
Can You Smell That Smell? Yes, Subliminally
Chicago Tribune January 8, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0108_scent_againjan08,0,2778110.story
When you take a walk with your dog, you recognize a few smells, like freshly mown grass or your neighbor’s rose garden. Your dog, meanwhile, revels in a cornucopia of scents at every turn. The truth is, you are not as clueless as you think. While you may be aware of a only few scents, you detect thousands subliminally. In fact, said Jay Gottfried, assistant professor of neurology at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, you can differentiate between about 10,000 scents, even those that differ by a single atom.
Now a study by Gottfried and his colleagues lends additional scientific evidence to the relatively young science of human olfactory ability. “We knew that we are aware of more scents subliminally than we realize, but there were few studies that helped us understand how it affects us,” Gottfried explained. “This study showed us that very low levels of scents—levels we are not even aware of—affect our behavior.” In the study, people were asked to sniff bottles with minute amounts of three scents—lemon (attractive), sweat (offensive), and neutral. The participants said they could not detect the scents.
Then they were shown a face with a neutral expression and asked to evaluate it. Those who had sniffed the lemon judged the face in the likable range, while those who had sniffed the sweat judged it unlikable. This is evidence, Gottfried said, that the sense of smell and its effects are underappreciated. “We consider this sense vestigial,” Gottfried said. “But it isn’t. I compare it to color vision. We may not be able to name thousands of colors, but we can differentiate between that many color variations. Ironically, when it comes to scents, Gottfried said, “less is more.” If a woman douses herself with perfume, he explained, a man may dismiss her as coming on too strongly.
The study was in the December issue of Psychological Science. Gottfried’s coauthors are Wen Li and Ken Paller from NORTHWESTERN and Isabel Moallem from Loyola University.
This story was also carried on the following news outlet:
“848” (WBEZ) Jan. 17.
Reference to research by Ken Paller, professor of neurobiology and physiology, on sense of smell.
On Television
CTV (Ottawa) Jan. 7.
Reference to research by Vadim Backman, professor of biomedical engineering, on a new diagnostic tool for colon cancer.
KPNX-TV (Phoenix), KTVK-TV (Phoenix) Jan. 7.
Reference to research by Joe Bass, assistant professor of medicine, on sleep deprivation.
Jogging Your Memory
Newsweek January 7, 2008
http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=334191
[But] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this year, Small at Columbia showed that exercise in 11 volunteers did even more. Aerobic exercise—an hour a day, four days a week for three months—led to changes on brain scans that seemed to indicate the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus. “My lab members are dusting off their sneakers,” he says. Mental workouts, too, encourage the formation of neural connections. Last month Peter Penzes at NORTHWESTERN University published a study showing that brain activity boosts the function of a protein called kalirin-7, whose function had been unclear. Penzes demonstrated that kalirin enlarges and strengthens synapses. By contrast, blocking kalirin causes synapses to shrink. “The old saying was right—use it or lose it,” he says.
Enzyme Opens for Business
Chemical & Engineering News January 7, 2008
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/86/8601sci2.html
CELIAC DISEASE, a condition that damages the small intestine and prevents nutrient absorption, is an autoimmune reaction both to an external substance-the protein gluten in wheat, rye, and barley-and an internal enzyme called transglutaminase 2 (TG2). But the way gluten and TG2 act together to cause celiac disease is largely unknown. A new structure of the enzyme sheds some light on that interaction and may even point the way to developing treatments for the disease. “Certainly, it’s an important structure,” says professor Laszlo Lorand of NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who has been studying mammalian transglutaminases for more than 40 years. “It gives you a better chance of dreaming up new inhibitors” that could be useful therapeutically, he adds.
Four Illinois Residents Tested for TB
Chicago Tribune January 6, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-tbflight_bd06jan06,0,7697736.story
Health officials have tested four Illinois residents for tuberculosis infection after they shared a December flight from India to Chicago with a woman who was sick with a drug-resistant strain of the disease. Several others are still being sought for testing as part of a national effort to find and check passengers at risk for infection as a result of the flight, officials said Friday. If the woman on the flight exhibited symptoms of active tuberculosis such as coughing and fever, as has been reported, that would increase the risk of transmission to other passengers, said Dr. Michael Ison, assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases) at NORTHWESTERN University. The weeks that have elapsed since the flight should not interfere with effective testing and treatment, Ison said. “In the case of TB, it takes a period of weeks between when you first breathe in bacteria until you become sick and infectious to other individuals,” said Ison. “In the case of a severe, rapidly progressing disease, I’m sure the CDC would move at a much more rapid pace.”
On Television
News 8 (Austin), WPTV-TV (West Palm Beach) Jan. 6.
Robert Levy, MD, professor of neurological surgery, comments on his research on the brain and stroke victims.
Docs Admit Prescribing Placebos
United Press International January 3, 2008
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/01/03/docs_admit_prescribing_placebos/1439/
A survey found that U.S. doctors may prescribe placebos more often than patients are aware. The report from University of Chicago Medical Center said 45 percent of Chicago internists have prescribed a placebo at some point in their clinical practice. Study authors, Rachel Sherman, a medical student at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, and Dr. John Hickner, professor of family medicine, sent questionnaires inquiring about placebo use to 466 internists at the University of Chicago, NORTHWESTERN University and University of Illinois at Chicago.
Of the 231 physicians who responded, 45 percent said they used placebos in clinical practice. Thirty-four percent said they introduced the placebos to the patient as “a substance that may help and will not hurt.” Nineteen percent said, “It is medication,” and 9 percent said, “It is medicine with no specific effect.” Only 4 percent of the physicians explicitly said, “It is a placebo.”
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
Chicago Sun-Times January 4, 2008
Meds or sugar?
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/726025,CST-NWS-dummy04.article
U.S. News & World Report January 3, 2008
Almost Half of Doctors Have Prescribed Placebos
http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/080103/almost-half-of-doctors-have-prescribed-placebos.htm
Chronicle of Higher Education January 7, 2008
The Placebo Effect: Study Shows That Many Academic Doctors Prescribe Sham Treatments
http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/01/1119n.htm
Are Expensive Skin Creams Better Than Drugstore Brands?
Newsweek January 3, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/84018
Does price matter when it comes to over-the-counter skin-care products? No one knows for sure, since most companies do not publish clinical research on their creams. But many dermatologists agree that, generally speaking, expensive brands aren’t any better for you than less costly creams. “Price is irrelevant from the point of view of whether it works or not,” says Dr. Charles Zugerman, associate professor of clinical dermatology at NORTHWESTERN University’s medical school.
A Room That’s Nothing to Sneeze at
Sydney Morning Herald January 3, 2008
http://www.smh.com.au/news/united-states/hotels-introducing-hypoallergenic-rooms/2008/01/03/1198949968283.html
Slowly, ever so slowly, American hotels are recognising that travelers who suffer from severe asthma and allergies triggered by dust mites, mould, smoke, pollen, chemicals, and animal hairs might like to stay in hypoallergenic rooms—for a price. “Allergy patients suffer a lot whether it’s sneezing, nasal congestion or a runny nose, but more severe patients could have an asthma exacerbation and that could be life threatening,” said Dr Kris McGrath, an allergist and associate professor of clinical medicine at NORTHWESTERN University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “So an unsuspecting guest (entering a room vacated hours before by a guest travelling with a cat) could have an asthma attack triggered by cat protein, which is very potent.”
Look to Our Ancestors to See Why We Get Fat
Pioneer Press January 3, 2008
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/723416,on-doctorisin-10308-s1.article
By Russell Robertson
One would think that this is a question answered intuitively and without the need for any kind of technical information. In the aggregate, that is likely quite true. At the same time there are some subtleties that as time passes and as a nation we become increasingly obese that require some consideration. Because our frame of reference tends to be in the present, we compare ourselves with what and whom we see daily. In that light, let’s for a moment step out of 2007.
But before beginning our time travel—let’s make sure that we understand the definition of obesity. The present standard uses something called the body mass index (BMI) to determine one’s status. You can calculate your BMI by taking your weight in kilograms and divide it by your height in meters squared. Let me calculate mine. I weigh 180 pounds. To get my weight in kilograms, I divide my weight by 2.2 and get 82 kg. I am 6 feet tall and since 1 foot equals 0.3048 meters, I will multiply that number by 6 and get 1.83 meters. So I will divide 82 by 1.83X1.83 yielding a BMI of 24.8 for me squeaking in at the upper limit of normal.
Dr. Russell Robertson is chair of Family Medicine at Evanston NORTHWESTERN Healthcare and Feinberg School of Medicine at NORTHWESTERN University.
Find Your Best Diet for 2008
Canada.com January 2, 2008
http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=18d5a2cc-7acd-4bb9-9749-11b7fc8ea322&k=11131
[Then] in November, a study from the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill suggested that calories from drinks—this time including pure fruit juices as well as soft drinks—contribute to adult obesity and possibly diabetes. Another hot topic is the role of folate, a B vitamin found in green vegetables. Since 1999, folate levels have been boosted by the addition of folic acid to flour in Canada, to help prevent certain birth defects. A recent study at the University of York in Britain found that folate could also fight depression, and a NORTHWESTERN University study suggested that it lowers stroke risk.
Your iPod is Killing You Loudly
Mid-Day (Mumbai, India) January 3, 2008
http://www.mid-day.com/lifeatwork/funatwork/article?_EXT_5_articleId=861926&_EXT_5_groupId=14
Hip or harmful? You decide if iPod earphones cause permanent damage: Earphones can boost sound signal by as much as six to nine decibels. That’s about the difference between the sound of a vacuum cleaner and a motorcycle, a NORTHWESTERN University professor and audiologist said.
On the Radio
Martha Stewart Living Radio (Sirius) Jan. 2.
Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine, discusses children’s nutrition.
Issue of Drugs and Pain Strikes a Nerve
Associated Press January 1, 2008
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/state/story/9549193p-9461580c.html
The Franklin study didn’t draw any definite conclusions about why prescription narcotic rates rose in that time. But it suggested that people taking the drugs for chronic pain developed either a tolerance to them or an abnormal sensitivity to pain because of them. Deaths could be prevented, the study said, with “prudent” guidelines on the use of the narcotics for chronic pain. Judith Paice, who directs the cancer pain program at NORTHWESTERN University medical school in Chicago, said the data used in the Franklin study were flawed because they didn’t document the actual dosage taken by the 44 patients who definitely or probably died of an overdose. Paice, a registered nurse with a PhD, objected to Washington state’s guidelines on behalf of the American Pain Society, an association of scientists, clinicians and other medical professionals that tries to change public policy and clinical practice to reduce pain-related suffering.
More than half of her patients in Chicago take more than the equivalent of 120 mg of morphine a day. She said some are cancer survivors dealing with chronic pain from nerve damage. “I have survivors who can’t bend over and tie their shoe laces,” Paice said. It’s not practical, she contends, for doctors to refer patients at the maximum dosage to the kind of pain specialist the state is recommending. Such physicians are in short supply, mainly because they have to spend a lot of time with patients and aren’t reimbursed very well. “That’s the dirty truth,” Paice said.
Seattle Research to Map Disease with U.S. Grant
Seattle Times (WA) January 1, 2008
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004102262_betterdrugs01m.html
A three-dimensional model of a protein can reveal folds or slots where a drug could attach, said Valentina DiFrancesco, who oversees the project for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The institute also funded a second, $30 million structural genomics center at NORTHWESTERN University. Some scientists have questioned the value of a similar federal project to determine the structures of large numbers of proteins without regard to their function. The result, says an analysis published last year in the journal Science, is a lot of basic information—but not an impressive number of drug leads. Since the NIAID project will focus exclusively on compounds known to be important in disease, it should yield more promising compounds for drug developers to follow up on, DiFrancesco said.
Is Your Biological Clock Out of Sync?
WTAE (Pittsburgh, PA) December 31, 2007
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/health/14953043/detail.html
Your biological clocks regulate when you sleep, when you wake up and when you get hungry. Researchers, led by NORTHWESTERN University neurobiologist Joe Bass, found that as little as a week of eating a high-fat diet disrupted the body clocks in mice. “It would be as if you went to sleep at night, but an hour later, you woke up and went down to the refrigerator and started to eat,” said Bass. “You went back to sleep and two hours later, you went back to the kitchen again.” Bass’ team at NORTHWESTERN fed some mice regular chow while others got the equivalent of a “fast-food” diet. They monitored the animals’ sleep, activity and eating behaviors around the clock and also studied when their body clock genes were switched on and off. They wrote in the journal Cell Metabolism that the high-fat diet altered the genetic switches. “So, it would be as if the clock hands are stuck in one position and are only sort of, in a very erratic and abnormal way, advancing around the 24-hour cycle,” Bass said.
This story was also carried on the following news outlets:
ScienCentral December 30, 2007
Body Clocks and Obesity
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3? article_id=218393044&cat=all
Baltimore Sun December 27, 2007
FAT SEEMS TO EAT AWAY AT HEALTHY SLEEP
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.sleep27dec27,0,5079633.story?page=1
WMSN-TV (Madison), WCJB-TV (Gainesville), WJLA-TV (Washington, D.C.), KHOG-TV (Fort Smith), KVII-TV (Amarillo), KAIT-TV (Jonesboro), KLTV-TV (Longview), WBRZ-TV (Baton Rouge), KLKN-TV (Lincoln), WKOW-TV (Madison), KIFI-TV (Idaho Falls), KOAT-TV (Albuquerque), KTNV-TV (Las Vegas), WCTI-TV Greenville), KSAT-TV (San Antonio), WBKO-TV (Bowling Green) Dec. 31. |
Joe Bass, assistant professor of medicine, comments on his research into high-fat diets and body clocks.
Depression May Lead to Type 2 Diabetes
Chicago Tribune December 25, 2007
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-1225_health_diapress_rdec25,0,5338674.story
Study shows older adults more likely to be affected. Type 2 diabetes generally is thought to be a disease of lifestyle, with obesity and inactivity being primary causes. But medical researchers also see a relationship between chronic depression and development of this adult-onset diabetes. A recent study suggests for the first time that even adults ages 65 and older who are chronically depressed are more likely to develop this inability to produce enough insulin to get rid of excess blood sugar. Mercedes Carnethon, an epidemiologist and assistant professor of preventive medicine at the NORTHWESTERN University Feinberg School of Medicine, led the team that conducted this data analysis. They used information that the National Institutes of Health had gathered annually from more than 4,600 people 65 and older who were not diabetic at the beginning of the 10-year study. These people had responded to the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, answering questions about mood, irritability, energy level, concentration, and sleep. Carnethon’s team adjusted statistically for weight and activity levels, because people who report high depressive symptoms tend to be less physically active, which can lead to obesity. “When we accounted for that,” Carnethon said, “we still saw that high depressive symptoms were associated with the development of diabetes.”
|
The full text of most stories can be accessed in the Lexis-Nexis database via the Northwestern network at http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe. Stories from major newspaper, wire, television and radio sources can be obtained by selecting “News.” Stories from other media, including local outlets, can be accessed by selecting “Sources” instead of “News.” In both cases, you can search by keywords from the article’s headline. If you are searching by source, you will need to enter the name of the publication in which the article appeared before you enter keywords. Stories that include an html address with the headline can be accessed directly by clicking on the html address. |
