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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Chicago Tribune
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Emergency room visits for flu spike in Kane County, as respiratory illnesses pick up nationwide
Following the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, flu is on the rise nationally, including in Kane County. For the week ending on Jan. 4, nearly 15% of emergency room visits in the county were for the flu, COVID-19 or RSV, according to the Kane County Health Department. Out of all visits to emergency rooms in Kane County that week, 9.62% were for the flu. Rates of influenza, COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, began ticking upward throughout December in Kane County. But data from the last week of December and first week of January reflects a sharp increase, particularly for the flu, which jumped from less than 2% of emergency room visits to more than 10% during December. Santina Wheat, who practices family medicine at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, also said she thinks area hospitals will see more flu cases in the coming weeks. “With kids going back to school … I do worry that we’ll see a little bit more continuing to go up as folks that had been traveling are coming back to school and back to work,” Wheat said. So what do you do if you’ve contracted a mild case of one of these respiratory illnesses? “When I chat with my patients, I often tell them that the advice their grandma gave them is a good one,” Wheat said. “Lots of fluid, warm showers, chicken soup. Taking medicine to help bring down your fever or to help with the body aches that go along with it. Those are all things that you can do at home.”
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New York Times
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7 Ways to Improve Your Heart Health
If you’re among the millions of Americans who made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, exercise or eat better, here’s one more reason to stick with it: Doing so can protect your heart. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. And habits like smoking, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle can lay the groundwork for disease long before symptoms appear. Doctors can use your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels to predict your risk for heart disease and suggest possible treatments. So start by visiting your primary care physician to get your numbers checked, said Sadiya Khan, MD, MSc, a preventive cardiologist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. A visit with your primary care doctor also offers an opportunity to talk about your health goals. You can discuss what might be getting in the way of meeting them — and map out a path for change. “It can feel overwhelming if you’re trying to do all of it at once,” Dr. Khan said. But you can talk to your doctor about starting with what’s easiest, or what changes would make the biggest difference. Quitting smoking is an important step to take for protecting heart health. Dr. Khan’s top tip for patients, after quitting smoking, is to see how many flights of stairs they can climb without getting winded — and then start building on that.
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US News & World Report
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Being Told to ‘Calm Down,’ Other Microaggressions May Raise Risk for Postpartum Hypertension
The words “calm down” are worse than unhelpful — they actually can increase blood pressure among new mothers of color, a study has found. Gender-based racism through such microaggressions significantly increased a new mom’s blood pressure, compared to women not subjected to these sort of comments, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 9 in the journal Hypertension. And effects on blood pressure were even more pronounced among women living in areas with high levels of structural racism. Women living in areas with more structural racism had even higher differences in blood pressure due to microaggression — systolic readings 7.55 points higher and diastolic readings 6.03 points higher. A preventive health expert not involved in the research, Natalie Cameron, MD, MPH called the effects observed in the study “profound.” “For many people, this can make the difference between needing blood pressure lowering medications or not,” Cameron, an instructor in preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a news release. Future research is needed to better explore how racism influences blood pressure, as well as its effects on the health of mothers and their infants, researchers said.
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WebMD
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Screen Use Again Tied to Preschoolers’ Sleep, Behavior Issues
Many 4-year-olds spend this prime year of early childhood perfecting the arts of picky eating, skipping naps, waking up before the adults do, and indulging in the digital babysitter. But new research suggests a specific relationship between screen time, sleep, and behavior problems that parents of young children should know about. Researchers in China found that greater screen time is linked to greater sleep problems among preschoolers. The two things are also linked to an increased risk of hyperactive behavior, attention issues, and emotional problems, which may lead children to seek to use screens even more. Ultimately, the researchers concluded, this can become a cycle. Prior research has linked screen time with a higher risk of attention and hyperactivity problems in children. It’s also well established that screens affect sleep in people of all ages. But don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re using screens with your young child, said child psychologist Miller Shivers, PhD, an infant and early childhood clinical psychologist at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The key is limits, and just as this latest study suggests, a focus on quality sleep may be more of a priority than counting every second that the digital babysitter is on duty. “If you’re using it just for the fact of ‘I’ve got to cook dinner, so let them just be entertained,’ that’s fine,” said Shivers, who is also an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Also, we know that if you’re a parent of little kids who have behavioral problems, you tend to use more screen time, right? Because you just need a break sometimes.”
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New York Times
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Day 5: One Change to Eat Healthier All Year
If you regularly eat ultraprocessed foods at meals — like a packaged fruit bar at breakfast or a frozen meal at dinner — keep doing that, but add one fruit or vegetable to your plate. It could be an apple at breakfast or some broccoli at dinner. “Then you don’t look at it as, ‘What do I have to get rid of?’” said Linda V. Van Horn, PhD, RD, the chief of the nutrition division at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. For one week, have a fruit or vegetable at one meal a day. The following week, see if you can add a fruit or vegetable to two of your daily meals, Dr. Van Horn suggested. These behavioral changes, Dr. Van Horn said, can prompt people to keep going, because they might start to feel better or realize that they enjoy the flavors of the fresh produce.
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Chicago Tribune
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Bird flu: Here’s what Illinois residents should know, following the first US death from the virus
Bird flu is increasingly sparking concern across the country and in Illinois, following news this week of the first human death from the virus in the U.S., and of birds found throughout Illinois with suspected cases of the illness. Doctors, however, say there’s no need to panic at this point — though they’re watching the virus’s progression closely. In Illinois there have been no confirmed cases yet of humans with the virus. But there have been detections of bird flu in two commercial flocks of poultry in the last 30 days in Illinois, affecting 81,200 birds. It’s “very likely” that a person in Illinois will get the bird flu, if someone hasn’t already, given the number of animal cases in Illinois, said Robert Murphy, MD, professor of infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Some people with bird flu will experience no symptoms, while others can have symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Mild symptoms can include eye redness and irritation, a low fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headaches and fatigue. People with more serious cases can experience high fever, shortness of breath, altered consciousness or seizures. If people experience symptoms after contact with sick or dead birds, they should notify their local health department and any health care facilities they visit while seeking medical attention, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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WBEZ Chicago
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Surgeon General recommends cancer warning labels on alcohol
The Surgeon General is recommending warning labels on alcohol, just like you’d see on a pack of cigarettes. Right now, all alcoholic beverages have a surgeon general’s warning that speaks about the risks of drinking during pregnancy and the risks of drinking while driving or operating heavy machinery. However, there is discussion of adding a third risk, which surrounds cancer. Medical experts say that this is highly controversial, but there’s a lot of respect in the scientific community for the surgeon general’s clear warning here. Heavy drinking is harmful to health, but also increases the likeliness of getting cancer. Aashish Didwania, MD, vice chair of education in the department of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine explains” A number that you can kind of hold on to is a 10% increase by increasing your drinking to one drink a day. So if your lifetime risk of breast cancer is 11%, which is the estimate for the average woman, if you’re a moderate alcohol drinker, one drink a day, that risk increases by 10 to 12% in your lifetime.” He further shares “I think it’s information and education the public needs to understand and it’ll at least generate the conversations people should be having with their healthcare provider.” Overall, having a label on alcohol about the potential risks of cancer would serve a strong purpose of education and helping the public understand that the link is there.
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Yahoo! News
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No More Double Chin! Here’s How To Lose Weight in Your Face Naturally
While it’s a little easier to disguise unwanted pounds on your midsection or thighs, your face is out there for everyone to see. And whether that extra weight manifests as rounder cheeks or a double chin, many wonder how to lose weight in your face. There are things you can do to promote overall weight loss and lose facial fat in the process. One study in JAMA Dermatology had women aged 40 to 65 do a half hour of facial exercises daily at first, then every other day for a total of five months. At the end of the study, researchers found the women looked three years younger and showed a significant decrease in fullness in their upper and lower cheeks. “The exercises enlarge and strengthen the facial muscles, so the face becomes firmer and more toned and shaped like a younger face,” reported Murad Alam, MD, a professor of dermatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and one of the study’s authors. Diet is also important for overall physical appearance, including drinking enough water, and eating enough protein and fiber.
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Yahoo! News
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Telltale Signs You Need to See a Doctor for Your Cough
The odds are high you’ve had a cough before in your life, but each time can throw you for a loop. Even though you’ve been through this, it can be hard to know when to see a doctor for a cough and when to just continue to wait and see what happens next. You can further drill a cough down into a productive or nonproductive cough. “A productive cough is a cough that produces phlegm,” Dr. Youssef says. But a non-productive cough is more dry, says John M. Coleman III, MD, a pulmonary and critical care specialist with the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute. Meaning, you don’t cough anything up. “Symptoms also may not be as bad at night,” Dr. Coleman says. But if you’ve been dealing with a cough for a while, or if it feels like your cough is getting worse, he says it’s time to see a doctor.
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ABC News
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Former President Jimmy Carter lived to 100 with hospice care. Why it may help some live longer
Hospice care is viewed by many people as end-of-life care to help those who need it spend the final weeks or months of life in comfort. But hospice care may actually help certain patients live longer. People receiving hospice care for certain cancers or heart failure lived an average of 29 days longer than those who didn’t, according to researchers at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). Experts at the American Society of Clinical Oncology use a stoppage of chemotherapy in the last two weeks of life as a measure of receiving quality cancer care. “Deciding to stop anti-cancer treatments is difficult and may feel like choosing between quantity or quality of life,” Andrew Lawton, MD, a palliative medicine physician and an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News. Living longer after stopping cancer treatments and switching to hospice care may seem counterintuitive, experts note. “I’ve certainly seen patients live longer than expected with hospice care,” Lawton said.
