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.
-
Yahoo! News
–
Meet The New Drugs That Can Slow Down Early Alzheimer’s
When people have Alzheimer’s disease, their brains slowly accumulate abnormal clumps of two proteins: amyloid and tau. At some point, researchers believe, those protein clumps start wreaking havoc, damaging and killing brain cells and causing symptoms of dementia. Amyloid clumps (often called plaques) start building up early in the Alzheimer’s process. In fact, people can have amyloid in their brains for up to 20 years before they show any symptoms, Allison Elizabeth Lapins, MD, a neurologist and dementia specialist at Northwestern University in Chicago shared. Researchers aren’t entirely sure why that happens to some people and not others, but DNA is part of the story. People who have a gene called APOE e4 are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than people without it—especially if they carry two copies (one from each parent). In the drug trials, Dr. Lapins notes, some patients did say they felt better—as if they’d stabilized. The drugs lecanemab and donanemab are definitely a step forward, Dr. Lapins says, but not the final word—and a combination of treatments may ultimately be what’s needed.
-
CBS News Chicago
–
Chicago doctor concerned about Texas measles outbreak
A measles outbreak in the U.S. as of Monday had grown to nearly 100 cases — primarily affecting children and teenagers in Texas, with nine cases also in New Mexico. As a Chicago doctor explained, people born after 1957, but vaccinated before 1968, may not have the best immunity from infection — because vaccines at that time were not as effective. CBS News Chicago also asked Santina Wheat, MD, MPH, a family physician at Northwestern Medicine, how likely it is that the outbreak will spread to Chicago. “Although it is down south and far away, we do know that measles is very contagious,” said Dr. Wheat. If someone has not been vaccinated, Wheat is worried. She said measles starts out like many upper respiratory viral infections — fever, runny nose, sore throat, runny eyes — but the infection then progresses to white spots on the mouth, and the defining sign of a rash on the body. Doctors say those who are immunocompromised should not get the vaccine. Those who are pregnant, got another vaccine, or are severely ill should wait to get one.
-
ABC News
–
Trump, RFK Jr. go after antidepressants, weight loss drugs. Here’s what the science says
Shortly after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for a team to study the use of antidepressants, antipsychotics and obesity medications in children, claiming these medications may cause a “threat” to adolescents. Psychiatrists and obesity experts tell ABC News that Kennedy and the Trump administration may be missing some context in how antidepressants — and other drugs used to treat mental health conditions – and obesity medications are prescribed. “As somebody who studies pediatric chronic diseases, I think the intent to focus on childhood chronic diseases and the crisis around them is a really good one,” Justin Ryder, MD, an associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and vice chair of research for the department of surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, told ABC News. “The focus on medical treatments as a source of exacerbating chronic diseases, I don’t think necessarily is really great,” Ryder said, adding that these medications are helpful rather than harmful.
-
US News & World Report
–
COVID, Flu and RSV: Why Older Adults Need to Get Vaccinated
Illnesses like COVID-19, influenza (flu) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are all respiratory viruses that spread through droplets and virus particles released into the air when an infected person breathes, talks, coughs, sneezes or laughs. Because aging affects your immune system, older adults are more likely to contract these respiratory illnesses, making vaccinations and boosters all the more important. “As we age, there’s a natural decrease in the effectiveness of our immune systems to fight off viruses,” says Jeffrey Kopin, MD, chief medical officer of Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital. “If you’re older, you may get a more severe infection than a younger person would, especially if you have an underlying chronic condition.” While vaccines don’t prevent older adults from getting viruses, they do help to keep the illnesses from becoming serious and life-threatening. “Vaccinations don’t always prevent illness, but there is a great deal of evidence that they keep older adults who get vaccinated from getting very ill compared to those who don’t get vaccinated,” Kopin says. To prevent these viruses, you should consult with your doctor, who will help you stay up to date on when and how often to get them.
-
NBC 5 Chicago
–
President Trump signs executive order to make IVF more affordable
President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week, aiming to make fertility treatments more affordable and accessible to families. In vitro fertilization, or IVF, involves retrieving a woman’s eggs and combining them in a lab with a man’s sperm to create a fertilized embryo. That embryo can then be transferred into her uterus to create a pregnancy. The process can be expensive and can take several cycles to complete. “The medications are very expensive, these are really specialized medications,” said Emily Jungheim, MD, the division chief of reproductive endocrinology at Northwestern University. “When you think of what needs to be done to keep eggs and embryos safe during IVF, I mean if you think about what we’re actually doing here we’re helping to bring a baby into the world. That’s a big deal.” Jungheim says the executive order, depending on how it pans out, could help people at an individual level where insurance doesn’t already cover the cost.
-
TIME
–
Testosterone Therapy Is Trending—for Women. Here’s What to Know
Cisgender women across the internet are touting the anecdotal benefits of testosterone therapy, and some experts say those stories match what they’re hearing in their offices. But can testosterone therapy for women really lead to such profound health improvements? We asked experts to explain its potential benefits—and limitations. More than 30 different testosterone products are approved for men by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but the agency has never approved testosterone for women. However, doctors can still prescribe it off-label to women they feel would benefit. Historically, testosterone was used in combination with estrogen and progesterone, hormones that decline with age. But these days, it’s also prescribed as a standalone treatment, says Traci A. Kurtzer, MD, a gynecologist at the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause, opening the door to people who can’t or don’t want to take other hormones for various reasons. To determine if a woman is a good candidate for TRT, doctors typically start by checking hormone levels to make sure someone “isn’t already coming in on the high side of normal,” Kurtzer says.
-
Washington Post
–
Trump says there are ‘two sexes.’ Experts and science say it’s not binary.
On the first day of his second administration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the United States recognizes “two sexes, male and female” — but according to experts and a significant body of academic research, the definitions he used are oversimplified and inaccurate. Eve Feinberg, MD, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University, echoed the sentiment. “It’s scientifically incorrect,” she said of the order. “And I think it’s a disservice to people who don’t fall into one of those two sexes.” Trump’s order also says sex is determined “at conception,” but Feinberg, the Northwestern professor, says that term is religious rather than scientific. If by “conception” the order means “fertilization,” Feinberg notes that “internal reproductive organs don’t form at the time of fertilization. They form much later in the development of the fetus.” In the weeks since the order was issued, the Trump administration has sent notices terminating grants for transgender health services and research, The Washington Post reported. The nation’s premier health agencies also abruptly took offline several webpages that monitor HIV, health risks for youths and assisted reproductive technologies to comply with Trump’s order, though a federal judge ordered last week that they restore them.
-
Yahoo! News
–
Has Your Alcohol Tolerance Changed With Age? Or Could It Actually Be Perimenopause?
Conversations about menopause and alcohol seem to be popping up on social media more lately. But doctors say their patients have been mentioning it for years — saying things like they suddenly feel tipsy after a single drink in their 40s and 50s or that alcohol generally makes them feel lousy. “This is not something new,” said Lauren Streicher, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University, and host of Dr. Streicher’s Inside Information: The Menopause Podcast. “I’ve been doing this for decades, and women have often said to me, ‘Boy, I just can’t drink anymore. It makes my hot flashes worse. I’m already sleeping terribly. It makes my sleep worse.’” While Streicher said there’s “probably a connection” between alcohol tolerance and perimenopause and menopause, it hasn’t been well studied.
-
New York Times
–
Heart Failure Deaths Are Increasing. New Treatments Could Help.
Heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart can’t pump out enough blood and oxygen to meet the body’s needs. Deaths from it have been climbing steadily nationwide since 2012, wiping out earlier declines. Rising rates of metabolic disorders like obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure are likely contributing. There are medications to treat one of the two main types of heart failure, but they aren’t used as much as they should be, doctors said. High blood pressure is a major cause of heart failure, as are blocked arteries. High blood pressure increases the strain on your heart, while blocked arteries prevent the heart muscle from getting the oxygen it needs. Other risk factors are much the same as for heart attack and stroke, including obesity, diabetes and kidney disease. There are some additional risk factors specific to women, including menopause before age 45 and high blood pressure during pregnancy, said Sadiya Khan, MD, MSc, a preventive cardiologist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. “We’ve made remarkable advances in how we can treat, but now we have to do the hard part which is make it affordable, accessible and equitable,” Dr. Khan said.
-
US News & World Report
–
Juicing Diets Can Harm Health in Just 3 Days, Study Finds
Juice cleanses are a popular way to kickstart a health journey, but these diets may do more harm than good in as little as three days. A study published recently in the journal Nutrients found that consuming vegetable and fruit juice-only diets for three days triggered detrimental gut and oral bacteria changes linked to inflammation, memory and thinking problems. Exactly how juice-only cleanses trigger such changes is not fully understood, but researchers suggest it may owe to the lack of fiber in juice. “Most people think of juicing as a healthy cleanse, but this study offers a reality check,” said study author Melinda Ring, MD, FACP, ABOIM, director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “Consuming large amounts of juice with little fiber may lead to microbiome imbalances that could have negative consequences, such as inflammation and reduced gut health,” she said in a news release. When fruits or veggies are juiced, much of the fiber is stripped away. Fiber feeds good bacteria that produce anti-inflammatory compounds. Researchers said the findings point to a need for a deeper look at how juice and other diets affect the microbiome, especially in kids who often drink juice in lieu of eating fruit.
