Media Coverage

Got 3 minutes? This habit may help boost hope and reduce stress

Our social media feeds can push us to the dark side, with content full of strife and anger, or videos that make us feel bad about ourselves. But there is a way to reprogram what you see by making different choices. And a new study finds three to five minutes of inspiring content each day can help you feel more positive.

“This finding is not a surprise at all to me,” says Judith Moskowitz of Northwestern University who studies the impact of positive emotions. “It’s great to have the science tell us what we sort of know intuitively — that if we look at positive content, we’re going to feel more positive and more hope,” she says.

Scientists uncover how some 80-year-olds have the memory of 50-year-olds

In studying nearly 300 SuperAgers for the past 25 years, the Northwestern researchers identified some common traits, including being “highly social and outgoing” and having strong interpersonal relationships.

“It’s really what we’ve found in their brains that’s been so earth-shattering for us,” noted co-author Dr. Sandra Weintraub, professor of psychiatry, behavioral sciences and neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in the release.

Heart Benefits of Wegovy Extend Beyond Weight Loss, Study Shows

A new analysis of a major clinical trial affirmed that Wegovy, the popular obesity drug, lowers the risk of major heart issues like heart attacks and strokes in some adults, but showed that weight loss could not fully explain the cardiovascular benefits.

But even with these unknowns, the new findings suggest that people who do not meet the medical definition for obesity but are overweight and have already established cardiovascular conditions could benefit from a drug like Wegovy, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, the chief of the division of cardiology at Northwestern Medicine.

“We may have to re-examine how we dispense these drugs,” Dr. Yancy said. “The science is profound. Now we have to work on the public health.”

Advice to feed babies peanuts early and often helped thousands of kids avoid allergies

Confusion and uncertainty about the best way to introduce peanuts early in life led to the lag, according to a commentary that accompanied the study. Early on, medical experts and parents alike questioned whether the practice could be adopted outside of tightly controlled clinical settings.

The data for the analysis came from a subset of participating practice sites and may not represent the entire U.S. pediatric population, noted the commentary, led by Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a child allergy expert at Northwestern University.

Some 60,000 kids have avoided peanut allergies due to landmark 2015 advice, study finds

A decade after a landmark study proved that feeding peanut products to young babies could prevent development of life-threatening allergies, new research finds the change has made a big difference in the real world.

The data for the analysis came from a subset of participating practice sites and may not represent the entire U.S. pediatric population, noted the commentary, led by Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a child allergy expert at Northwestern University.

Your toothbrush is bristling with bacteria – is it time to change it?

Erica Hartmann, PhD, an associate professor of engineering at Northwestern University in Illinois, US, who studies how microbes survive in real-world environments, isn’t convinced the toilet plume is as much of a concern as some fear. Her own team’s work didn’t find as many faecal-related bacteria as might be expected on 34 toothbrushes sent in by members of the public in Illinois. She points to research that suggests many of these gut-associated microbes don’t survive long when exposed to the air.

What is pneumonia, the lung infection that caused Diane Keaton’s death?

Beloved Oscar-winning actor Diane Keaton died from pneumonia, according to a statement her family shared with People magazine.

Dr. Ben Singer, a pulmonologist with Northwestern Medicine, said some kinds of pneumonia are caused by bacteria, but most commonly it’s caused by a respiratory virus, such as cold, flu or Covid.