Media Coverage

Memory and Speech Are Their Everyday Struggles. Then They Get to Sing.

Recent research on music and cognition seems to back her up. Borna Bonakdarpour, the director of the music and medicine program at Northwestern University in Chicago, said by phone that there was a growing body of scientific literature supporting music as a treatment for neurocognitive disorders.

“With neurological diseases like dementia, a lot of patients do have anxiety, because of feeling lost,” Bornakdarpour said. “Music can help regulate emotions. After listening to music, the brain slows down, and it goes from a chaotic situation into an alpha rhythm, which is more meditative, and more receptive.”

Deaths from heart disease have dipped but it’s still #1 killer in the U.S.

A new report points to a decline in heart disease and stroke deaths, but cardiovascular disease remains the top cause of death in the U.S. Lifestyle changes could delay or prevent about 70% of cases.

Sadiya Khan, MD, Magerstadt Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology, told NPR: Improving high blood pressure with medicine has never been easier. There are so many inexpensive therapies available. And getting blood pressure under control can add years to life, as well as prevent heart disease, stroke and dementia.

Heart Disease and Stroke Behind Quarter of All Deaths in U.S.

Heart disease, which includes heart attack and heart failure, has been the leading killer of Americans for more than a century. Things started improving in the 1970s; less cigarette smoking, new medications for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and interventions like stents and bypass surgery contributed to a major decline in deaths over decades.

But progress slowed around 2010, as mortality from types of heart disease other than heart attack increased and risk factors like obesity and Type 2 diabetes increased. Then, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted access to care and increased the short- and long-term risks of heart attack, said Dr. Sadiya Khan, a preventive cardiologist at Northwestern University and vice-chair of the committee that wrote the new report. Deaths from cardiovascular disease surged to 932,000 in 2021 and to 942,000 in 2022.

Why Connecting With Others is Good For Your Health

People who live in the country or in an unsafe or hard-to-reach neighborhood are also at risk, as are recent retirees and those who have lost a loved one. Age matters, too.

“Over the course of the adult lifespan, we found that loneliness is higher in young adulthood and older adulthood. It dips during midlife,” said Northwestern University psychologist Eileen Graham.

What Is ‘Metabolic Health,’ and Why Does It Matter?

Not everyone with adiposity will immediately develop these other risk factors, said Dr. Sadiya Khan, a preventive cardiologist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. At first, high blood pressure might be the primary issue for one person, while cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes is for another. But as metabolic dysfunction progresses, people often develop more than one condition, she said.

It’s important to pay attention to change over time. For example, say your blood pressure isn’t yet very high, but it has crept up between doctor’s visits.

“If it’s heading in the wrong direction, that can be a sign,” Dr. Khan said.

Northwestern study finds cardiac care disparity within ‘Asian American’ demographic

In a study published by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology looking at data from 824 U.S. hospitals, researchers found certain ethnic groups among Asian American patients were at risk of getting worse heart failure care than white patients.

Particularly, the research by senior author Dr. Nilay Shah, assistant professor of cardiology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, found Vietnamese male patients and Filipina patients had lower odds of getting optimal medical therapy for heart failure.