Media Coverage
The work done by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine faculty members (and even some students) is regularly highlighted in newspapers, online media outlets and more. Below you’ll find links to articles and videos of Feinberg in the news.
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NPR
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Move aside, BMI: There’s a better way to define obesity, commission finds
An international committee of scientists has proposed a change to the way obesity is defined and diagnosed. The goal is to offer a more nuanced and objective way to assess body composition, by adding more metrics, such as waist circumference, to the criteria.The current BMI-based measure of obesity can both overestimate and underestimate how much body fat a person has, explains Robert Kushner, MD, an endocrinologist at Northwestern University who is part of the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission. “About 40% of the adult population in America has obesity, when it’s defined solely by BMI,” Kushner says. But do all of these millions of Americans have a disease? And do they all need treatment? Kushner says the commission aims to give some clarity to the confusion.
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ABC News
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New report proposes redefining obesity by adding body fat and health status to BMI
New guidance from a team of health experts around the world proposes expanding the definition of obesity beyond the popular body mass index (BMI) measure. The new guidance comes from the Commission on Clinical Obesity, which is led by dozens of medical experts from various medical specialties around the world. The commission recommends the inclusion of body fat measurements and the presence of existing health issues — and cautions against using BMI alone as an individual measure of health. Pre-clinical obesity refers to excess fat without organ dysfunction but increased risk of developing clinical obesity and other long-term health problems such as cardiovascular disease, and Type 2 diabetes. “In other words, their organs are functioning well. They have no metabolic diseases, and they have a fairly good quality of life,” said Robert Kushner, MD, a commissioner and professor of medicine and medical education at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, in an interview with ABC news.
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The New York Times
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What to Know About Covid Right Now
There are few constants when it comes to Covid, but one thing has held true over the years: Cases climb in the winter. In the weeks after the holidays, especially, more people tend to get sick, as we spend time together indoors, sharing germs and spreading infections. Complicating matters is that a slew of other illnesses are spreading rapidly in the United States right now: the flu, respiratory syncytial virus, whooping cough, walking pneumonia. “It’s a cornucopia of a lot of different things this year,” said Marc Sala, MD, a co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Covid-19 Center in Chicago.
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Yahoo! News
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Not all belly fat is created equal. Here are the different types and how they impact your health.
With New Year’s resolutions in full swing, lots of Americans are committing to being more fit and losing weight. One stubborn area that many of us will be battling is that squishy part around our midsections, and it’s not just the consequence of overindulging in holiday treats. Linda Van Horn, PhD, RD, a professor of preventive medicine and chief of the nutrition division at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life that while subcutaneous fat acts as a protective layer, excessive fat above a body mass index (BMI) of 30 constitutes obesity and is considered a risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension and some forms of cancer. Van Horn says visceral fat is also comprised of biologically active cells and cytokines, or proteins, that can contribute to inflammation and other harmful effects on your health. You cannot target fat loss from a specific area like your midsection, however focusing on overall weight loss and healthy habits can help you stay holistically fit while reducing belly fat. These include making healthy eating choices, being physically active and getting plenty of rest.
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WBEZ Chicago
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Is one drink a day OK? Here’s what to consider
On the heels of the Surgeon General’s warning about the cancer risks of alcohol, there’s a growing consensus that less is better. A review underway may lead to changes to U.S. guidelines this year. And many experts agree the current advice, which is up to 14 drinks a week for men and seven for women, is out of date and may be too high. “I do think a change is needed,” says Aashish Didwania, MD, a primary care physician and medical educator at Northwestern University. “My guidelines would be that drinking fewer than seven drinks a week would be a healthier way to use alcohol,” Didwania says, based on his interpretation of the evidence. Didwania says, personally, he feels comfortable drinking alcohol, but limits his consumption. “I’ll have one to two cocktails a couple days a week,” he says. When it comes to the harms of alcohol, the science is clear that there’s a dose response. The more you drink, the higher the risk of bad outcomes.
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NBC News
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New report sheds light on why young Asian Americans are 40% more likely to develop allergies
Today, 6 million American children live with food allergies, and young Asian Americans like Wong’s son, now in college, are 40% more likely to develop one compared to the general population. Scientists have struggled to explain this disparity since it was first documented in a landmark 2011 study. Now, a recent Stanford University study of nearly half a million California pediatric records is one of the first to look at subgroups of Asians in the U.S. under 18 to try to understand why Asian Americans are so at risk. The study found Filipino, Vietnamese and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are particularly vulnerable. Where Asian American children fit into this trend remains unclear. Few longitudinal studies include them, an oversight Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, a pediatrician and allergist at Northwestern University, calls a missed opportunity. As the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S., Asian Americans provide a unique window into nationwide food allergy trends, she said. Genetics alone can’t explain the dramatic rise or the disproportionate impact on Asian American children. The time frame — just a few decades — is too short for significant genetic changes. Additionally, Gupta’s research in countries like India hasn’t identified the same allergy patterns seen in American children with similar ancestry. “Studying Asian Americans might uncover the missing link to rising allergy rates for all children,” Gupta said.
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MSN online
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10 Places You’re Most Likely to Catch the Flu, According to Infectious Disease Experts
The American Lung Association estimates up to 20% of Americans will catch the flu in a given season—and this impact can be substantial. Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that between 2010 and 2023, 100,000 to 710,000 people with the flu wound up in the hospital each year. In a time when we’re all looking out for the latest Covid variant in circulation, these figures underscore how dangerous the flu can be. Ravi Jhaveri, MD, an infectious disease expert at Northwestern Medicine, points out that the flu primarily travels through droplets released when someone coughs, sneezes, or talks. Droplets are larger and heavier than aerosols, the other common route through which respiratory viruses (such as Covid) spread. The CDC notes that flu droplets spread more easily in crowded, poorly ventilated areas. A 2020 study in the scientific journal PLoS Pathogens supports this, showing lower transmission rates in well-ventilated spaces, even when people aren’t taking protective measures. This research spotlights the importance of good air circulation in reducing the spread of the flu, limiting the reach of these airborne droplets. The CDC notes that flu droplets spread more easily in crowded, poorly ventilated areas. A 2020 study in the scientific journal PLoS Pathogens supports this, showing lower transmission rates in well-ventilated spaces, even when people aren’t taking protective measures. This research spotlights the importance of good air circulation in reducing the spread of the flu, limiting the reach of these airborne droplets.
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Chicago Tribune
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Emergency room visits for flu spike in Kane County, as respiratory illnesses pick up nationwide
Following the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, flu is on the rise nationally, including in Kane County. For the week ending on Jan. 4, nearly 15% of emergency room visits in the county were for the flu, COVID-19 or RSV, according to the Kane County Health Department. Out of all visits to emergency rooms in Kane County that week, 9.62% were for the flu. Rates of influenza, COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, began ticking upward throughout December in Kane County. But data from the last week of December and first week of January reflects a sharp increase, particularly for the flu, which jumped from less than 2% of emergency room visits to more than 10% during December. Santina Wheat, who practices family medicine at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, also said she thinks area hospitals will see more flu cases in the coming weeks. “With kids going back to school … I do worry that we’ll see a little bit more continuing to go up as folks that had been traveling are coming back to school and back to work,” Wheat said. So what do you do if you’ve contracted a mild case of one of these respiratory illnesses? “When I chat with my patients, I often tell them that the advice their grandma gave them is a good one,” Wheat said. “Lots of fluid, warm showers, chicken soup. Taking medicine to help bring down your fever or to help with the body aches that go along with it. Those are all things that you can do at home.”
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New York Times
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7 Ways to Improve Your Heart Health
If you’re among the millions of Americans who made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, exercise or eat better, here’s one more reason to stick with it: Doing so can protect your heart. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. And habits like smoking, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle can lay the groundwork for disease long before symptoms appear. Doctors can use your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels to predict your risk for heart disease and suggest possible treatments. So start by visiting your primary care physician to get your numbers checked, said Sadiya Khan, MD, MSc, a preventive cardiologist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. A visit with your primary care doctor also offers an opportunity to talk about your health goals. You can discuss what might be getting in the way of meeting them — and map out a path for change. “It can feel overwhelming if you’re trying to do all of it at once,” Dr. Khan said. But you can talk to your doctor about starting with what’s easiest, or what changes would make the biggest difference. Quitting smoking is an important step to take for protecting heart health. Dr. Khan’s top tip for patients, after quitting smoking, is to see how many flights of stairs they can climb without getting winded — and then start building on that.
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US News & World Report
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Being Told to ‘Calm Down,’ Other Microaggressions May Raise Risk for Postpartum Hypertension
The words “calm down” are worse than unhelpful — they actually can increase blood pressure among new mothers of color, a study has found. Gender-based racism through such microaggressions significantly increased a new mom’s blood pressure, compared to women not subjected to these sort of comments, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 9 in the journal Hypertension. And effects on blood pressure were even more pronounced among women living in areas with high levels of structural racism. Women living in areas with more structural racism had even higher differences in blood pressure due to microaggression — systolic readings 7.55 points higher and diastolic readings 6.03 points higher. A preventive health expert not involved in the research, Natalie Cameron, MD, MPH called the effects observed in the study “profound.” “For many people, this can make the difference between needing blood pressure lowering medications or not,” Cameron, an instructor in preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a news release. Future research is needed to better explore how racism influences blood pressure, as well as its effects on the health of mothers and their infants, researchers said.
