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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WGN Chicago
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Local doctor and veteran help Ukraine war amputees
For veterans, phantom limb pain after amputation can be a lifelong burden. Doctors knew it was a nerve and tissue problem, but other than prescribing pain medication, they could do little to help. Now there is a new approach that has been studied in Ukrainians due to the massive limb loss in recent years. And the answer could help all those who suffer, from amputees to spinal cord injury patients. For Northwestern Medicine anesthesiologist Steven Cohen, MD, the research is personal. “I’m a retired army colonel,” he said. “I treated many, many patients with war trauma.” The anesthesiologist was contacted by doctors in the war-torn country searching for solutions for amputees suffering with intense pain. “When a nerve is cut or when a nerve is injured, it forms a tangled web and that can send spontaneous pain signals into the stump into the phantom, the nerve can become entrapped,” he said. To help patients, Cohen brought his expertise and potential new treatments, including what’s called hydro dissection. “Hydro dissection resulted in decreased pain when we looked at 12-week outcomes. It resulted in decreased anxiety and depression and decreased opioid use,” Cohen said. The simple treatment may help other types of patients, not just amputees.
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TODAY
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12 best pelvic-floor exercises for pregnancy
“‘Do your kegels!’ is the advice most people will hear during pregnancy,” adds Karen Weeks, DPT, a pelvic floor physical therapist with the Northwestern Medicine Women’s Integrated Pelvic Health Program. “While we know that pelvic-floor muscle exercises are an important component to continence, pelvic organ support, a more efficient labor and delivery process, and postpartum recovery, pelvic-floor health can (and should!) be a lot more than just doing your kegels.” Weeks says it’s not only about strengthening the pelvic floor, but also training it to lengthen and relax, that is important during pregnancy. “We know that the pelvic-floor muscles stretch up to three times their length during a vaginal delivery,” she says. “So a truly healthy pelvic floor must relax and stretch, not just contract and tighten. This coordination of relaxing and lengthening the muscles during pushing for delivery is now getting much more attention as pregnant people seek out ‘birth prep’ resources that pelvic health physical therapists are now increasingly providing.” Weeks reminds pregnant women to always check with their healthcare provider before starting any exercise routine. And if any exercises hurt, stop and seek out care.
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AP News
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Pope Francis stable a day after respiratory crisis, spent ‘long periods’ off noninvasive ventilator
Pope Francis suffered an isolated coughing fit on Friday that resulted in him inhaling vomit and requiring non-invasive mechanical ventilation, the Vatican said in relaying an alarming setback in his two-week long battle against double pneumonia. The 88-year-old pope remained conscious and alert at all times and cooperated with the maneuvers to help him recover. He responded well, with a good level of oxygen exchange and was continuing to wear a mask to receive supplemental oxygen, the Vatican said. John Coleman, MD, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the episode as relayed by the Vatican was alarming and underscored Francis’ fragility and that his condition “can turn very quickly.” He further said, “I think this is extremely concerning, given the fact that the pope has been in the hospital now for over two weeks, and now he’s continuing to have these respiratory events and now had this aspiration event that is requiring even higher levels of support”. Doctors did not resume referring to Francis being in “critical condition,” which has been absent from their statements for three days now. But they say he isn’t out of danger, given the complexity of his case.
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Yahoo! News
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Can you lose fat in just your face? 7 tips to make your face look slimmer, according to experts
Facial exercises, or “face yoga,” won’t help you to lose weight in your face, experts say. In fact, the point of facial exercises is to make your face appear fuller and therefore younger, Murad Alam, MD, vice chair of dermatology at Northwestern University, explained. As you age, the fat in your face, known as fat pads, becomes less plump, and face exercises may help to replace some of that lost volume: “The purpose of the facial exercises seems to be to help to grow muscles under the fat pads such that, as you exercise them, they become larger in size and begin to perform some of the functions the fat pads were performing before to make your face look fuller,” said Alam. But Alam and other experts shared there’s not enough evidence to conclude that these exercises can slim your face or reduce wrinkles. Reducing inflammation will likely improve the look of your face, but losing weight in general is the only way to reduce face fat. But remember — fat in the face looks youthful! So the best solution may be to appreciate the “baby face” volume you have.
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WGN Chicago
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Drug may prevent some migraine attacks in children and teens
For children and teens living with migraine, there may be a new preventive treatment, according to a preliminary study released February 26, 2025, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 77th Annual Meeting taking place April 5–9, 2025, in San Diego and online. Researchers found the drug zonisamide, which has been used to treat seizures, may reduce migraine days in this age group. This study does not prove that zonisamide reduces migraine days; it only shows an association. “Migraine disease is debilitating and can lead to kids having to miss school and other activities,” said author Anisa Kelley, MD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “Currently, there is only one FDA-approved migraine preventative medication for this age group. Our results are encouraging, showing zonisamide may be another option for reducing migraine attacks.” Further, “It’s very exciting that we may have an effective way to treat difficult migraine disease in children and teens, however it’s important to note that our study did have limitations,” said Kelley. “For instance, our study did not compare people taking the medication to people who did not take the medication. Future studies are needed with control groups to confirm our results.”
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Yahoo! News
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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.
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CBS News Chicago
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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.
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ABC News
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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.
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US News & World Report
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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.
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NBC 5 Chicago
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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.
