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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Fox News
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Monosodium glutamate, or MSG, gets a fresh look from experts
Monosodium glutamate, or MSG — a food additive that is often found in Asian cuisine — has had something of a negative reputation over the last 60 years. Some food experts insist that’s unfair. The change in view on MSG is typical of “our world of nutrition research and trying to understand exactly how our diet influences our health,” Linda Van Horn, PhD, RDN, a professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. It is added to foods in recipes much like salt and other spices, and MSG is naturally found in many foods, including tomatoes and mushrooms. MSG has considerably less sodium than table salt, noted Van Horn, something the food industry is “very interested in” amid a push to “reduce the amount of sodium in the diet and look for ways to enhance flavor,” she said. “We eat far too much sodium in our diet, which relates to the No. 1 burden of disease, which is hypertension,” she said. Van Horn stopped short of giving MSG a green light, saying that “it’s really not clear at this point” if the additive is safe for humans in unlimited amounts.” There really isn’t a definitive answer when it comes to, ‘Is it or is it not something that should be regulated, reduced and otherwise prevented in terms of our overall diet,’” she said.
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USA Today
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Northwestern surgeons perform first-of-its-kind double lung transplant on cancer patient
Doctors in the DREAM program, housed in Northwestern Medicine’s Canning Thoracic Institute, treat cancer patients who have no other options by performing double lung transplants. Surgeons have done more than 40 lung transplants. They track the patients’ progress in a registry. Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery and director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, did Wilk’s surgery. He said the DREAM program typically treats three types of patients: (1) patients who have stage 4 lung cancer, (2) patients whose cancer originated in organs outside the lungs but spread to the lungs and (3) patients who have cancer and were undergoing chemotherapy or immunotherapy leading to damage to their lungs. The goal, he said, is to replace both lungs and rid them of any type of cancer. Where it gets even more complicated is the fact that many types of cancer can develop in the lungs. “Every drop of blood in our human body has to pass through the lung, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why they’re the most common organs for cancer metastasis,” he said. Bharat said a double lung replacement is an extensive procedure for any patient because it requires doctors to remove two of the body’s biggest organs. “For anybody to go through that process is a very big operation,” he said. “Someone who has phase 4 disease, who has gone through chemotherapy and immunotherapy, is somewhat compromised.” Bharat said DREAM program doctors first performed a double lung transplant on COVID-19 patients. “We had developed that and the lessons that we learned in taking out these heavily infected COVID lungs,” he said. “We had to take all of these heavily infected lungs out without trying to disseminate the organisms in the body.” Bharat stressed the need for more opinions on treatment. In Wilk’s case, one doctor told her there wasn’t much that could be done, but her persistence led to treatment that changed her life.
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HealthDay
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Federal Assault Weapons Ban Could Have Stopped 38 Mass Shootings Since 2005
The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (FAWB) would have prevented as many as 38 mass shootings that have taken place since the law lapsed in 2005, a new study estimates. Enacted by Congress in 1994, the ban prohibited the sale and manufacture of certain military-style semiautomatic weapons in the United States – including notoriously deadly weapons like AK-47s, AR-15s, TEC-9s and “Street Sweeper” shotguns with high-capacity revolving cylinders. While the ban was in place, would-be mass shooters denied access to an assault weapon did not turn to other types of firearms to carry out a massacre, researchers found. “These results suggest that the FAWB discouraged potential perpetrators from committing a mass shooting with an assault weapon, and, furthermore, that these potential perpetrators did not simply carry out attacks with other types of weapons,” said lead researcher Alexander Lundberg, PhD, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University School of Medicine, in Chicago. “During the FAWB, we found a downward trend in mass shootings where a perpetrator did bring an assault weapon,” Lundberg said in a university news release. “However, we found no difference in trends for mass shootings where the perpetrator did not bring an assault weapon.”
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NBC 5 Chicago
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Iron deficiency in adults may be more common than thought, study finds
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans may have an undiagnosed iron deficiency, a problem that can lead to fatigue, brain fog and difficulty concentrating, a new study suggests. An analysis of data from more than 8,000 adults in the U.S. revealed that 14% had low iron blood levels, a condition known as absolute iron deficiency, while 15% had the right iron levels but their bodies couldn’t use the essential mineral properly, known as functional iron deficiency, according to the report published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. Doctors don’t typically screen adults for iron deficiency, which is why the condition has been overlooked in many people. The rates of iron deficiency between men and women are more similar after the age of menopause, experts said. Both women and men can develop functional iron deficiency if they have an inflammatory condition, such as rheumatoid arthritis, said Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, director of the Cardiovascular and Renal Research Institute – Center for Molecular Cardiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Certain types of diets, such as vegetarian and vegan, can also leave people short on iron, said Ardehali, who was not involved with the new study. The best food source of iron is red meat, which contains heme, Ardehali said, adding that it can be hard to get enough iron in a diet without meat. According to Ardehali, other than meat, good dietary sources of iron include: seafood, shellfish, beans, dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, raisins, apricots and iron-fortified foods, such as cereals. Research has yet to prove these kinds of iron deficiency can lead to serious long-term health consequences.
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Yahoo! News
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Olivia Munn and John Mulaney froze embryos in hopes of having another baby after her breast cancer diagnosis. Here’s how the process works during treatment.
Olivia Munn was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer called luminal B in February. While Munn had previously had her eggs frozen, at age 33 and again at 39, she and Mulaney wanted to increase their chances of having more children, with the help of a surrogate. Embryos are eggs that have been fertilized with sperm. As with egg freezing, the first step in the process of freezing embryos is to give a woman hormone injections (usually over the course of about 10 days) to prompt the ovaries to make multiple eggs in a single menstrual cycle. Another drug prevents ovulation, the process by which an egg is released from the ovary into the fallopian tube, where it would normally wait for fertilization, Kara Goldman, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at Northwestern University. Instead, doctors then use a minimally invasive procedure involving a long needle and suction to gently extract the eggs from the ovaries. After that, the eggs themselves are either frozen, or fertilized with sperm (becoming embryos) and then frozen. The embryos can also be tested to be sure they’re sufficiently healthy and viable before freezing. Some cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, can affect fertility. “Even if you’re not having chemo, in anyone with an estrogen-positive tumor, like [Munn] has, there’s long-term ovarian suppression,” says Goldman. Ovarian suppression prevents the ovaries from making estrogen and fueling tumor growth, and can be done with medication or surgery to remove the ovaries. Munn initially tried medication but ultimately opted for surgery. “If a patient needs chemo they have two hits to their fertility: They’re at risk of loss of fertility due to chemotherapy and [also] due to time,” because fertility declines with age and may be lower by the time someone finishes treatment, Goldman explains.
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Yahoo! News
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5 Common Habits That Fuel Erectile Dysfunction
Having erection troubles every now and again is a normal part of having a penis. But when these issues are ongoing, they can interfere with the enjoyment of your life inside and outside of the bedroom. Drinking alcohol is one of the things that may have a major effect on erectile problems. Not only that, chronic alcohol use can lead to or worsen symptoms of depression and anxiety, both of which can have a negative effect on your sexual health, said Nelson Bennett, Jr., MD, professor of urology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Another is not getting enough sleep. “High cortisol levels lead to increased stress and anxiety, weight gain, moodiness and decreased mental performance,” Bennett said. “Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to fatigue and a diminished interest in sexual activity.”Plus, “poor sleep can lead to high blood pressure and poor circulation, which will lead to and exacerbate ED,” Bennett added. Overall, staying fit, getting proper sleep and maintaining a healthy diet are all important for good urologic health.
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The Washington Post
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Racism, other social factors may affect Asian Americans’ heart health
Immigration status, structural racism and other social factors may contribute to disparities in cardiovascular health among Asian Americans, according to a statement prepared by a group of clinicians and researchers and published in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation. Asian Americans are less likely than White adults to have or die of heart disease, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. But researchers in the Circulation article note that cardiovascular health can vary widely between subgroups of Asian Americans, and warn that combining different subgroups of people into a single “Asian” category could mask important differences. Socioeconomic factors, lack of English language proficiency and structural racism also may uniquely affect cardiovascular health among Asian Americans, the researchers note. “All of these social determinants of health are likely interrelated, and the cumulative impact of these structural and social risk factors contributes to suboptimal cardiovascular health in Asian Americans,” Nilay S. Shah, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of cardiology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and the statement-writing group’s chair, said in a news release. “There is an urgent need to understand these challenges and address them with effective prevention strategies to help improve their long-term cardiovascular health.”
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WebMD
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Beyond Survival: Why Many Women Opt for a Double Mastectomy
A recent study published in JAMA Oncology hammered that point home. For patients with cancer in only one breast, their choice of surgery — whether lumpectomy or single or double mastectomy — made no difference in their risk of dying of the disease over the next 20 years. Many women with cancer in one breast opt to remove both. Double mastectomy rates began rising in this population in the late 1990s and have remained high, even after research in the late 2010s began to show that the more extreme surgery did not improve survival rates. Despite that data, a double mastectomy may offer some women a greater feeling of safety. For others, there’s the physical, mental, and financial toll of ongoing screenings and possible biopsies. And some women also prefer the aesthetic symmetry of removing both breasts. It can be hard to understand why a patient would want more surgery if it’s not necessary to treat the cancer, said Seema Ahsan Khan, MD, professor of breast surgery at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. But “I do think we really underestimate the burden of screening” and other issues, she said. Improving survival depends on other factors, including the use of hormone therapy, which has been shown to reduce the risk for recurrence and death from breast cancer in women with early-stage estrogen receptor–positive disease, the most common type. There are also potential risks associated with undergoing the more invasive procedure, with some data indicating that double mastectomies come with higher rates of adverse events. “The longer the procedure, the longer the recovery, and there’s the possibility of increased complications,” including infection, Khan said. Still, the data on this remains mixed, and other research has found no significant differences between the complication rates. It’s ultimately breast reconstruction surgery that more definitively bumps up a patient’s risks for complications.
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TIME
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Why Does Everyone Seem to Have IBS Now?
We’re in the midst of a weird cultural moment involving people’s bowel habits. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been trending on social media, including TikTok videos and posts about the disorder on Instagram, X, and other platforms. Billboards proclaiming that Hot girls have IBS have popped up over the past few years in Los Angeles and other cities. The increase in IBS prevalence also could be related to COVID-19 because “viral illnesses can induce disorders of the gastrointestinal system,” says Darren Brenner, MD, a gastroenterologist and professor of medicine and surgery at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Indeed, a 2023 review of studies on the subject found that COVID-19 infection was associated with new IBS diagnoses; this was especially true among women and people with depression or anxiety. While IBS isn’t life-threatening, it can be a miserable experience and negatively affect someone’s quality of life. “With IBS, a lot of people change their behavior to work around their symptoms,” Sarker says. This may lead them to decline invitations to parties or other social events because they’re worried about having a flare-up. Or, it may spur them to avoid physical activity for the same reason.
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Crain’s Chicago Business
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Northwestern scientists make first steps in delaying menopause — and the ills that come with it
Northwestern Medicine researchers have found a way to lengthen ovarian function, offering promise for delaying menopause, extending fertility and avoiding risk from hormonal loss. Northwestern Medicine researchers have found a way to lengthen ovarian function, offering promise for delaying menopause, extending fertility and avoiding risk from hormonal loss. While the drug used in experiments, pirfenidone, is commonly used to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, it would not be a viable option for human use because of the damage to the liver it can cause. But the prospects of using such a medicine bring up a multitude of opportunities, said corresponding author Francesca Duncan, PhD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Ducan said that as the average age of humans has increased over recent decades, the age of menopause — on average, it hits around age 51, she said — has stayed constant for hundreds of years. Medical science, Duncan said, has been focusing more on “healthspan,” how to live healthier for longer, than just lifespan, but it needs to consider the advantages of living longer with fully functioning ovaries. “We’ve changed the landscape of how we live,” she said, “and our ovarian function needs to catch up so that we have an organ that functions proportionately to maintain women’s healthspans longer.”
