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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Yahoo! News
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“A Lot Of People Hold Tension In Their Faces” — Experts Are Sharing How Facial Yoga Can Help You Look Years Younger
There are more than two dozen individual muscles on either side of your face, but you won’t find any equipment at your gym to help strengthen or tone any of them. If you’ve been diligent in exercising your body, can you do the same thing for your facial muscles? And while several expensive spas and salons offer “face gym” type services, you can do facial yoga at home, for free. Here’s what experts say about it. There is some scientific evidence to prove the effectiveness of facial toning exercises, also known as facial yoga. During a five-month Northwestern Medicine study, a 30-minute daily or alternate-day facial exercise program improved the facial appearance of middle-aged women, resulting in a younger appearance, with fuller upper and lower cheeks. Evaluators observed almost a three-year decrease in age appearance over the five-month study. “There’s some evidence that facial exercises may improve facial appearance and reduce some visible signs of aging,” said lead author Murad Alam, MD, vice chair and professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine dermatologist, when the study was released. “The exercises enlarge and strengthen the facial muscles, so the face becomes firmer and more toned and shaped like a younger face.”
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US News & World Report
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Being a Dad May Take Toll on Men’s Hearts
The old joke holds that fatherhood causes a man’s hair to go prematurely gray. Whether or not that’s true, being a father does appear to put men at greater risk of poor heart health later in life, a new study finds. “The changes in heart health we found suggest that the added responsibility of childcare and the stress of transitioning to fatherhood may make it difficult for men to maintain a healthy lifestyle, such as a healthy diet and exercise,” said researcher John James Parker, MD, an assistant professor of pediatrics and general internal medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Although fathers had worse heart health, the study also found they actually have lower death rates than men without kids. That might be because fathers have a better social support system, and social connectedness has been linked to a lower risk of death, Parker said. “Fathers may also be more likely to have someone as their future caretaker [i.e., their children] to help them attend medical appointments and manage medications and treatments as they get older,” Parker noted in a Northwestern news release. “We also found that fathers had lower rates of depressive symptoms than non-fathers, so mental health may be contributing to the lower age-adjusted death rates in fathers,” Parker added.
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CNN
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Kids are starting menstruation earlier, study shows. Here is what that means for their health
Younger generations are getting their first periods earlier, and the length of time it takes to become regular is changing — which could point to later health problems, according to a new study. Menstruation is like a vital sign, said Eve Feinberg, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She was not involved in the research. “You want to make sure that the body is regulated,” Feinberg said. “And when cycles are not regular, it’s generally a sign that something else may be going on.” Scientists and health care providers already know that early periods and a longer time for cycles to regulate are associated with poor effects on health, including cardiovascular disease and cancer, Wang said. And an early period itself may pose problems, Feinberg added. For an 8-year-old to be going through puberty, there is often a disconnect between the age of the child’s mind and body, she said. Physicians should evaluate children with early periods or a long duration of irregular cycles to make sure there isn’t an underlying problem, Feinberg said.
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CNN
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New US liver transplant policy raises cost and equity concerns, according to new study
Changes to the policy that governs how liver transplants are allocated in the United States were meant to increase the number of transplants and make the process more equitable, but a new study raises concerns that it’s putting certain underserved communities at a greater disadvantage. The new liver allocation policy changed the geographic parameters that guide which people receive donated organs. Instead of operating within defined regional service areas, the new policy prioritizes the sickest liver candidates who are listed at transplant hospitals that are within a 500-nautical-mile radius of the donor hospital. While it’s clear that not all transplant centers are “equally resilient in responding to changes in national allocation policy,” the sample of centers used in the new analysis might not be nationally representative, wrote the authors, led by Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH, founding director of the Northwestern University Transplant Outcomes Research Collaborative. Federal data suggests that liver transplants did increase in the US overall, despite the decrease observed in the sample of 22 centers. Right now, liver allocations are predominantly concerned with reaching the sickest patients soonest based on individual patient scores on a model for end-stage liver disease. But the new model would also focus on improving efficiency in the system instead of relying completely on urgency.
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New York Times
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For Some Families of Color, a Painful Fight for a Cystic Fibrosis Diagnosis
People from minority communities have struggled to receive lifesaving care for cystic fibrosis for decades, in large part because many doctors were traditionally taught that the disease almost exclusively affects white people. Rowland’s experience underscores why doctors can’t rely on screening alone, said Susanna McColley, MD, a professor of pediatrics in pulmonary and sleep medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She said that children who have symptoms or a sibling with the disease should be referred to a cystic fibrosis center for a definitive diagnostic test, called a sweat test, regardless of their screening results. Before universal screening, doctors “used to do a lot more sweat tests for kids with poor growth, recurrent respiratory symptoms or both,” Dr. McColley said.
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New York Times
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Should You Delay Your Morning Caffeine?
It’s an idea that has been popularized by online influencers: Avoid consuming caffeine for 90 to 120 minutes after waking up, they say, and you will perk up more naturally, thwart the dreaded afternoon slump and have better sleep. Proponents explain the idea as if it’s supported by good evidence, with some people who have tried the method saying it has “been a game changer” for their energy levels. But scientists who study the relationship between caffeine and sleep say that while there may be some benefits to putting off your morning coffee, there’s not much research to back them up. In some cases, experts warn, the risks of delaying your morning caffeine could outweigh the purported benefits — or even be dangerous. Throughout the day, your body produces a chemical called adenosine, which binds to receptors in your brain and makes you feel drowsy. Caffeine perks you up by blocking those receptors, said Marilyn Cornelis, PhD, a caffeine researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. How long caffeine keeps you sharp “varies considerably,” based in part on your genetics, Dr. Cornelis said. Some people may have one morning brew and “ride that for much of the day,” she said. Others clear caffeine from their bodies more quickly and might want another cup within a few hours, she added.
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CNN
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New US liver transplant policy raises cost and equity concerns, according to new study
Changes to the policy that governs how liver transplants are allocated in the United States were meant to increase the number of transplants and make the process more equitable, but a new study raises concerns that it’s putting certain underserved communities at a greater disadvantage. The new liver allocation policy changed the geographic parameters that guide which people receive donated organs. Instead of operating within defined regional service areas, the new policy prioritizes the sickest liver candidates who are listed at transplant hospitals that are within a 500-nautical-mile radius of the donor hospital. It was implemented in February 2020 by the United Network for Organ Sharing, which is contracted by the federal government’s Organ Procurement and Transplant Network. While it’s clear that not all transplant centers are “equally resilient in responding to changes in national allocation policy,” the sample of centers used in the new analysis might not be nationally representative, wrote the authors, led by Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH, founding director of the Northwestern University Transplant Outcomes Research Collaborative. Federal data suggests that liver transplants did increase in the US overall, despite the decrease observed in the sample of 22 centers.
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New York Post
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Rise and grind? Researchers reveal the best time to drink coffee
Genetics play a role in how long caffeine keeps you alert. “Everyone responds to caffeine differently,” Marilyn Cornelis, PhD, a caffeine researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told the New York Times Wednesday. Genetics play a role in how long caffeine keeps you alert, Cornelis said — some only need one java to last them the day, while others are jonesing just hours later. A morning coffee may still help workers and exercisers stay focused, while delaying it may extend the effects of caffeine into the early afternoon. Caffeine can make it more difficult to fall asleep — and stay asleep — as it competes with adenosine, a naturally occurring chemical in the body that promotes drowsiness.
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Chicago Tribune
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Double lung transplants weren’t typically recommended for lung cancer patients. But a new technique developed at Northwestern has been successful.
For decades, double lung transplants were not considered a viable option for treating lung cancer. “It had been done, but it had always failed,” said Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine. “When you took out the lungs, the cancer cells would spread to the rest of the body, and it would come back a matter of months after the transplant.” But after developing a new technique to replace damaged lungs during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Northwestern Medicine’s Canning Thoracic Institute has now performed more than 40 successful lung transplants on cancer patients in just two and a half years. The operation has a 100% success rate for lung cancer patients today, and in January the hospital completed its first transplant on a patient with lungs affected by both COVID-19 and lung cancer. While lung transplants had typically been performed by removing the lungs one by one, cutting first the vein that takes blood from the heart to the lungs and then the vein that takes it back, surgeons had to figure out a way that would prevent COVID bacteria from moving from the lungs to the heart, according to Bharat. Doctors developed a technique to cut the veins simultaneously and later discovered the same technique could stop the spread of cancer cells. “We had to make the same modifications for lung cancer,” said Rade Tomic, MD, a pulmonologist at Northwestern Medicine who also worked on the transplant treatment. “We had to make sure we didn’t spread the cancer, or let it enter the bloodstream.”
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TODAY
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Why do babies say Dada first?
It can dash a mom’s hopes to hear their babies say “Dada” before “Mama,” but mothers shouldn’t take it personally, experts say. Kids go through predictable stages when babbling, says Elizabeth Norton, PhD, a developmental scientist and an associate professor at Northwestern University. “Kids first use vowels and then put a consonant at the beginning of that vowel and say, ‘Coo’ for example, before moving into ‘duplicated babbling’ which is saying a consonant and vowel over and over again,” she says. “Even when kids speak a language that doesn’t include ‘Mama or ‘Dada,’ kids will still say, ‘mamamamama’ or ‘dadadadadada.’” Other than “Mama” and “Dada,” says Norton, kids who speak a variety of languages most commonly express words related to their social routines that translate to “Bye,” “Thank you,” “No,” “Vroom” and “Ball.” And if your child isn’t saying “Mama,” don’t worry too much. “There are lots of ways that kids show that caregivers are important to them,” says Norton, “such as hugs, shared cuddles and time together.”
