Media Coverage

Data was gathered through online surveys taken by 200 sexually experienced teens in the United States and is the first known study on the topic. “I was surprised we didn’t know this information when we started the study, but a lot of folks don’t do research on people under the age of 18, especially on LGBTQ teens under the age of 18, for a variety of reasons,” said Dr. Kathryn Macapagal, an author on the study and research assistant professor of medical social sciences at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “But we found that teens in this study were super excited that somebody was paying attention with what was going on in their lives and how these apps played a role in their sexual development and coming-out process,” she said.

The short audio clip has sharply divided the Internet since it was posted on Twitter by Cloe Feldman on Monday. Why would people hear two totally different words? To answer this, we consulted experts in how human brains perceive sound. Nina Kraus, a neurobiology professor at Northwestern University, says, “It is not at all surprising to me that two different people will take a sound that is admittedly acoustically ambiguous and hear it differently.” “Acoustically ambiguous” in this case means that it’s a very poor-quality file. That is crucial in explaining why people are hearing different things.

Based on the observational nature of the study, the researchers were unable to show causality, meaning it is unclear whether the sleep disturbances caused the mental health problems or vice versa. “It’s a cross-sectional study, so we can’t say anything about cause and effect or what came first, the mood disorder or the circadian disruption,” said Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

“The main role of circadian rhythm is to anticipate what you’re going to be doing at certain points of the day,” says Kristen Knutson, PhD, associate professor of neurology and sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “When there’s a mismatch and you’re not doing what your biology expects at a certain time, your body may not handle it as well; it may not process food or glucose as rapidly, for example.”

There’s a new tool in the fight against gastrointestinal diseases – and it’s housed at Northwestern University. The tissue bank, known formally as the Digestive Health Foundation BioRepository, stores blood and tissues samples from patients and their family members who suffer from any digestive disorder treated at the Northwestern Medicine Digestive Health Center. Researchers there will use those tissue samples to generate more knowledge around gastrointestinal diseases and to develop new treatment options for these diseases, which affect around 60 to 70 million Americans each year. Dr. Stephen B. Hanauer, co-founder and medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Digestive Health Center, says people who suffer from gastrointestinal diseases “require a great deal of support both emotionally and medically.”

Many parents want their children to reap the benefits of sports participation. In addition to socializing with their peers and enhancing self-esteem, sports participation fosters a child’s overall health and bone density and reduces the risk of overweight, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, risk-taking behavior and teen pregnancy, noted Dr. Cynthia LaBella, pediatric orthopedist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and co-author of an editorial on youth sports injury prevention in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Since the surgery is non-invasive, recovery time tends to be quick. Patients are usually monitored for about 2 hours after the procedure. If vital signs are strong and patients can walk down a long hall with a nurse successfully, then they’re generally discharged that same day, according to Northwestern Medicine. “Kidney embolization procedures are generally well tolerated,” John Friedewald, M.D., medical director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, told Women’s Health on Monday, adding that it causes only minor side effects such as fever, pain or bleeding at the injection spot.

Some nutritionists say collagen’s absorption could be counteracted by other ingredients in foods or beverages. “A lot of the studies look at collagen alone, but we don’t know what happens when it’s used in combination with other ingredients,” says Ashley Barrient, a dietitian with the Northwestern Medicine health system in Chicago, who says as many as five patients a month ask her whether they should take collagen.

The guidelines list symptoms, as well as risk factors for bleeding. They also suggest ways hospitals can prepare for hemorrhages, like having a cart dedicated to treating this emergency. “You want a cart with all the things you might need already pre-supplied so you’re not running all over doing a search mission,” says Dr. William Grobman, a professor and vice chair for clinical operations in obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

We’ve long known that a financial shock causes immediate distress. Suit-clad men leaping from buildings were dismal hallmarks of the Great Depression, and soon after a major recession began in 2007, there were notable spikes in clinical depression, substance abuse and suicides. But what about the effects of such a shock over a more extended period? “Does the stress of losing one’s wealth also create a long-term risk?” asked Lindsay Pool, a Northwestern University epidemiologist and the lead author of the new study. Published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, her research investigated how losing one’s life savings in the short term might curtail one’s lifespan in the long term.