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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New York Times
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22 Out of 25 Melatonin Products Were Mislabeled, Study Finds
A tiny, berry-flavored gummy of melatonin carries a big promise: better sleep. But a new research paper, published in the medical journal JAMA on Tuesday, highlights a critical issue: When it comes to melatonin, as with other supplements, what you see on the label isn’t always what you get.
The higher the dose of melatonin, the more likely you are to experience side effects, said Dr. Sabra Abbott, a sleep medicine specialist at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. Large amounts of melatonin aren’t likely to be dangerous for most adults, experts say, but some people report feeling groggy or hung-over the morning after taking the supplement, or having vivid, unnerving dreams.
Melatonin gummies can pose serious risks to children if they consume too many. Calls to the American Association of Poison Control Centers related to pediatric melatonin consumption jumped 530 percent from 2012 to 2021, according to research published last summer. -
Yahoo! News
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What Happens To Your Body When You Sleep in Contacts?
About a third of contact lens wearers report sleeping in their contacts. Sleeping in contact lenses, especially if done regularly, creates an optimal environment for bacteria to get into the eye area. Contact lenses are worn by 45 million Americans and are considered quite safe. But caring for them improperly or keeping them in for too long—especially while you sleep—can have serious impacts on eye health, experts warn. Contact lenses can make it more difficult for enough oxygen to get to the cornea, which can actually lead to damage to the surface cells of the cornea, called the epithelial cells. “If those tears aren’t making it to the cornea easily and you’re not getting oxygen to the cornea, then the cornea can tend to break down and then be vulnerable to the bacteria that are harbored in the contact lens,” said Robert Feder, MD, director of cornea service in the department of ophthalmology and professor of ophthalmology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Soft contacts hang on to water, Feder explained, but can also cling on to debris or bacteria that accidentally gets in the eye throughout the day. If lenses aren’t frequently cleaned, people run the risk of getting an infection. The risk is even higher if they sleep in their contacts.
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NBC Chicago
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Team of Northwestern Women Surgeons Saves Patient’s Life
In the medical field, women are the minority when it comes to a career as a surgeon. But one local man is especially thankful for the female surgeons who literally saved his life. The team of surgeons included Leah Tatebe, MD, associate professor of surgery in the Division of Trauma and Critical Care, Katie Bandt, MD, associate professor of neurological surgery, and Vehniah Tjong, MD, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery.
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Long COVID Treatment Not ‘One-Sized-Fits-All
Investigators in the new study looked at the first 600 long COVID patients who were evaluated at the Northwestern Medicine Neuro COVID-19 Clinic, either in person or via telemedicine, between May 2020 and August 2021. Researchers compared those who had been hospitalized for acute COVID-19 pneumonia to those who had had milder forms of the disease (100 vs. 500 patients, respectively). Patients were seen, on average, about 7 months after the start of their COVID illness. Only about 60% of patients regarded themselves as “recovered” from their illness. Both groups of people showed an average of seven neurological symptoms, while more than nine out of 10 said they had more than four symptoms. “An important take-home message of our new study is that COVID affects the nervous system and causes severe decrease in quality of life and also causes cognitive dysfunction in patients,” said senior author Igor Koralnik, MD, chief of neuroinfectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
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CBS Chicago
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Long COVID study reveals difference in symptoms based on severity of first infection
Researchers at Northwestern Medicine have been studying the impact of long COVID for months, and now a new study shows there might be a correlation between the severity of an infection and the long-term effects on your brain. Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of neuro-infectious diseases at Northwestern, explains what the study found.
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New York Times
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Why Do Some People Develop Allergies in Adulthood?
Experts don’t know how common it is for different kinds of allergies to develop in adulthood, said Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a professor of pediatrics who specializes in allergy at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Though we do have some data as it relates to food allergies. In one survey of more than 40,000 adults in the United States published in 2018, for instance, Dr. Gupta and her colleagues found that about 45 percent of those who had food allergies developed at least one new food allergy in adulthood. Of this group, a quarter never experienced food allergies as children.
An important question for researchers, Dr. Gupta said, is what exactly might cause adults to develop an allergy to a food they’ve eaten before. Right now, she said, we don’t know. -
Chicago Tribune
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Stress is a silent killer for pregnant Black women
Racism in health care likely contributes to the misidentification of symptoms, mistreatment of conditions and inadequate access to high-quality health care resources that, combined, lead to poor maternal health outcomes among Black women.
“We don’t take walk-ins,” the receptionist at my obstetrician-gynecologist’s office at a large academic medical center told me when I showed up without an appointment on a Friday afternoon and asked to be seen by a nurse.
I was close to 28 weeks pregnant. I’d suffered severe headaches throughout my pregnancy. For the past several days, my feet and ankles had been so swollen that I could not lace up my sneakers. The night before, while receiving an award, I was so short of breath that I had trouble speaking. -
The Washington Post
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What SuperAgers show us about longevity, cognitive health as we age
Ageing often comes with cognitive decline, but “SuperAgers” are showing us what is possible in our golden years. “These are like the Betty Whites of the world,” Emily Rogalski, PhD, said. She is a cognitive neuroscientist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and associate director of the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease. She was part of the research team that coined the term “SuperAgers” 15 years ago. It describes people older than 80 whose memory is as good as those 20 to 30 years younger, if not better. What researchers are learning from SuperAgers and about dementia prevention could allow us to discover new protective factors in lifestyle, genetics and resilience for common changes that arise with aging. “It’s invigorating to know that there are good trajectories of aging,” Rogalski said. “It’s possible to live long and live well.” It is not known what percent of the general population qualifies as SuperAgers, but they appear to be rare, Rogalski said. Even when researchers tried to screen only participants who believed they had good memory, less than 10 percent met the definition.
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WBEZ
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Illinois abortion providers say they will continue to provide mifepristone
Medication abortion remains legal and available in Illinois, despite a recent U.S. appellate court decision that put tighter rules on the drug. Katie Watson, an attorney and a bioethicist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the judges in Texas and Washington have equal authority.
Abortion providers across the state — a haven for abortion services — say they will continue to offer the two-pill combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, which are typically taken up to 48 hours apart to end a pregnancy. -
NBC 5 Chicago
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Northwestern Researchers Hope to End Extensive Wait Lists for Autism Diagnosis
Waitlists for families looking to evaluate their young children for autism are extensive in Illinois, but a new study from Northwestern University hopes to speed up that process. “The waitlists to get an autism evaluation are exceptionally long. They were long before COVID, but then, because we shut down, everything became longer. So waitlists that were nine months now became 24 months,” said Meg Roberts, an associate professor and part of the Northwestern University Early Intervention Research Group. Roberts’ team has received a $3 million grant to help reduce that wait time for Illinois families, as an official diagnosis is often the key to increased access to earlier interventions. “If you have an autism diagnosis, you are eligible for additional services through a health insurance company,” Roberts said. Through the grant, Roberts and her team are conducting virtual evaluations, which they believe improves access for all, improving health equity.
