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he study, published in June in the journal Nature Communications, also includes researchers from Xiamen University in China, University of Chicago and the University of Washington. Research funding was provided by the Department of Defense and the Veteran’s Administration. “Cancer cells are lethal because they move; they’re alive,” says Karl Scheidt, director of the Center for Molecular Innovation and Drug Discovery at Northwestern University, and co-leader of the study. “How do we slow down that process? That has been the Holy Grail to figure out. We’re looking at a completely different way of treating the disease.”

Even so, the results add to growing evidence suggesting that black adults have an elevated risk of developing hypertension and highlight the importance of early prevention efforts, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, chief of cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “It is unreasonable to consider population-wide screening in young adults but it is not unreasonable to appreciate how changes in diet and physical activity may delay and perhaps even reduce the onset of hypertension,” Yancy, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “Always better to prevent than to treat.”

Lymphocytic myocarditis is an “aggressive response” by the body to a viral infection — like a cold or flu virus — that leads to inflammation of the heart muscle, said Dr. Allan S. Anderson, a cardiologist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Often what happens is people will have a viral infection that they attribute to a cold,” said Anderson, who specializes in heart failure. “Subsequent to that they develop symptoms of heart muscle dysfunction, they’ll develop congestive heart failure or they’ll start having abnormal heart rhythms.”

People so young might not even realize that they can drink themselves to death so quickly, but they can, said liver specialist Dr. Haripriya Maddur of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. “Surprisingly, it only takes about 10 years of heavy drinking to actually lead to cirrhosis,” said Maddur, who was not involved in the study. “So when people start drinking in college and they start binge drinking, that can actually lead to end-stage liver disease at a much earlier age,” Maddur told NBC News.

A severe allergic reaction to food is much less serious in infants than in toddlers and older children, a new study concludes. “We found that infants, unlike older children, have a low-severity food-induced anaphylaxis, which should come as reassuring news to parents who are about to introduce their baby to potentially allergenic foods like peanuts,” said study author Dr. Waheeda Samady, from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Anaphylaxis is a whole-body allergic reaction that can include heart or respiratory problems. In older children, food-triggered anaphylaxis can be life-threatening, but in infants it mostly involves hives and vomiting, this study found.

MR patients often are not eligible for heart surgery because of advanced age, multiple existing diseases or conditions or other complicating factors. “It’s now easier to grasp leaflet tissue and bring both sides of the tissue together, even if the span is quite wide,” says Dr. Mark Ricciardi, director of Cardiac Cath Labs and Interventional Cardiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. “We’ve already seen durable results, even with some patients who we previously weren’t able to treat. We’ve been able to not only reduce the leaking, but almost completely abolish it in many cases.”

Millennial women are more likely to experience depression during pregnancy than their mothers’ generation, according to a JAMA Network Open study. The study was made up of a two-generation cohort: mothers and the mothers’ female offspring who later became pregnant. If a first-generation mother did not have a female offspring, then the pregnant female partners of the mother’s male offspring were included. Seventeen percent of the first generation reported having high depressive symptoms, compared with 25 percent of the second generation, according to the study’s results. Crystal Clark, a psychiatrist and assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said the increase in the likelihood of young women experiencing depression during pregnancy could be because there are not a lot of women in the same age group who have children.

For some eczema patients, their quality of life is poorer than those who have a wide range of other chronic health issues, including heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, the researchers added. “The more severe the atopic dermatitis [eczema], the worse the overall health, quality of life and life dissatisfaction,” said study author Dr. Jonathan Silverberg. “I see some of the toughest cases of atopic dermatitis around, so I can’t say I was terribly surprised by this,” Silverberg explained. “But I think most people who don’t live with atopic dermatitis are surprised to hear just how debilitating it can be.”

Heimlich’s technique is also the only thing Dr. Maura McKay, medical director at the Northwestern Medicine Convenient Care Centers at Central DuPage Hospital, was trained in as well, during basic life support certification courses many doctors take through the American Heart Association. “The only time you do back slaps is in an infant,” McKay said. “But never for adults.” Most Americans who aren’t medical professionals have been able to easily save lives by using the Heimlich in emergency situations, said Janet and Phil Heimlich.

Like Pearson, Inger Burnett-Zeigler believes that a lot of younger women’s depressive symptoms are driven by anxiety. “They’re anxious about expectations around motherhood and balancing that with their other obligations,” said Burnett-Zeigler, a clinical psychologist and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “A lot of them are feeling overwhelmed and are worried about who is going to help them. They are worried about whether the baby will be OK and whether they will be OK as moms.”