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“Timing is what’s important, and earlier seems to be better,” said study author Kristen Knutson, an associate professor at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “Our ability to process the food we eat works better in the morning.”

“Currently, many transplant centers are worried about the risk of transmission of COVID-19 from donors, particularly for lung transplants, and are unnecessarily discarding these organs,” said Dr. Michael Ison, infectious diseases and organ transplantation specialist at Northwestern Medicine, in a news release.

The pandemic has brought a form of grieving for everyone, and this is certainly true for grandparents with the time lost in their relationships with their grandkids. Reset talks with two aging care experts on what grandparents are going through at this time and to share advice on how to support these bonds.

GUESTS: Kerry Byrne, founder of The Long Distance Grandparent; aging care researcher

Dr. June McKoy, professor of medicine in geriatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

According to Dr. Borna Bonakdarpour, a professor of neurology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, the feelings of brain fog can be caused by a wide range of factors, including isolation, anxiety, lack of sleep, a decreased level of exercise and more. All of those feelings can fatigue the brain, especially the frontal network, which contributes to memory, recall and attention.

It’s important to take breaks, says Dr. Gaurava Agarwal, a psychiatrist and well-being coach with Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the director of physician well-being. We need to make sure “we are resting and calming our brain down because brains aren’t designed to work this hard, this long, chronically,” he says. “And so taking that five minutes in an hour or one day a week to your ability to recuperate is going to be a big part of dealing with that exhaustion.”

“What I tell my patients is, ‘I really don’t know which is going to be better. Why don’t you just try them out to see which is relaxing for you?'” said Dr. Phyllis Zee, who directs the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Pink noise has become popular because it’s the choice of a number of researchers who are experimenting with improving memory during sleep.

When someone has had the coronavirus or has received a vaccine to protect against it, the body’s immune system produces antibodies and protective T cells, a white blood cell that helps protect against the disease. Yes, those immune responses are stored throughout the body. But the amount that would be taken during blood donation would not be enough to matter, said Rob Murphy, an infectious-disease expert at Northwestern University.

For patients with advanced liver disease, that often leaves no options for curative treatment. Some need a liver transplant to survive, but they won’t qualify if they’re still drinking. “Unfortunately, transplantation is finite,” says Dr. Haripriya Maddur, a hepatologist at Northwestern University. “There aren’t enough organs to go around. What it unfortunately means is that many of these young people may not survive, and die very young — in their 20s and 30s. It’s horrific.”

More adults with diabetes and prediabetes are likely to be identified with this lowered age cutoff, said Dr. Matthew O’Brien, an associate professor of medicine and preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Moreover, the new screening criteria will likely result in more diagnoses of prediabetes and diabetes in Black and Hispanic individuals, he said in an email. A 2016 Northwestern University study, set in federally funded community health centers, found that 6.3 percent of white patients, 40 and younger, developed diabetes within three years, he said. The proportion of Black patients, 40 and younger, who developed diabetes during this same time period was 11.1 percent, and 17.6 percent among Hispanic patients.

Washington Post, 3/15
Benjamin D. Singer, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said “vaccination provides better and more durable immunity than natural infection.” He pointed to research findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine this year.