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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NBC 5 Chicago
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Post-COVID insomnia? Experts weigh in on new study showing sleep impacts of COVID
If you’ve had trouble sleeping following a COVID diagnosis, you aren’t alone. In fact, a new study seems to have found a connection between the two, particularly in milder cases of COVID-19, that experts say isn’t entirely unexpected. “So after SARS-CoV-2 infection, there’s certainly a lot of neurocognitive issues that come about. So specifically, people tend to have symptoms of what we call brain fog, or issues with memory and their attention span, and a lot of these are linked to primary neurological brain issues and ailments from whatever COVID has done to their body in terms of inflammation, or other biological patterns to it. And so it’s not really surprising that actually, given that your brain also manages your circadian rhythms, that people might have issues with either sleep disordered breathing on the aspect of insomnia, fractured sleep, or even sleep apnea in many individuals,” Marc Sala, MD, the co-director of the Comprehensive COVID Center at Northwestern Medicine. “So I think that’s still being fleshed out in the research, but that actually isn’t very surprising to me that people who have long COVID might also have a detriment to some form in their sleeping patterns, knowing what it can do to people’s processing speeds, memory, attention, and all other aspects that relate to the brain to begin with.”
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Yahoo! News
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Magic Hangover Pills Are Popping Up Everywhere—But Do They Actually Work?
Hangovers are a multi-part affair. It’s like your whole body gets together the morning after you drink to talk about how to ruin your life the following day. Alcohol’s diuretic or dehydrating effects cause most hangover symptoms: the bleary-eyed headache and incessant need to pee, and alcohol also disrupts your GI system, leading to gastro issues like diarrhea and nausea. But another issue with hangovers is the accumulation of alcohol’s most toxic byproduct: acetaldehyde. That’s where these supplements come in. “When you drink, there’s a hormone that’s suppressed, and it causes you to urinate more, and you can become dehydrated, but you’re not losing just water, you’re losing other minerals and electrolytes from your body too,” explains Aarati Didwania, MD, who specializes in internal medicine at Northwestern Medicine. “The way that all these pills are being marketed is that they’re replacing what you’re losing. Some of them also seem to claim that they’re helping the way that your liver metabolizes the alcohol.” “For the majority of the population, [these hangover supplements are] not going to cause any harm. But it’s the fact that they’re unregulated, and you don’t really know the exact quantities of everything that’s in them or who’s monitoring what’s written on the outside of the packaging versus what’s actually in the pill that I think is the danger,” Dr. Didwania says, adding that if you’re taking a multi-vitamin daily, you’re probably getting the same benefits. Another worry is that people might falsely assume that taking these supplements means they’re protected from the effects of alcohol, which could then encourage excessive drinking—something that study after study proves isn’t healthy.
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CNN
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What is a typical degree of cognitive ability for a person in their 80s?
Concerns about age and mental fitness have been a recurring theme through the past two presidencies and are set to only mount in 2024 with two frontrunner candidates nearing or exceeding the age of 80. Common changes in thinking as people age include slower word and name recall, difficulty with multitasking and mild decreases in attention span, according to the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. These skills are part of what scientists call fluid abilities, which decline steadily throughout our lifetimes. “Fluid abilities are things like processing speed, attention, working memory. This stuff requires cognitive efficiency,” said Molly Mather, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “It’s thought that general wear and tear happens as we get older and chips away at cognitive efficiency.” Natural changes happen in the brain as someone ages. Certain parts that are important to learning and other complex mental activities shrink, connectivity between neurons may become less effective, blood flow may decrease, and inflammation may increase.
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Nature
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Turbocharged CAR-T cells melt tumours in mice – using a trick from cancer cells
Cancer cells are the ultimate survivors, riddled with mutations that let them thrive when healthy cells would die. These same mutations can boost the ability of game-changing cell therapies to quash cancer, a study in mice shows. Among these therapies are chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, which are already used to treat several types of blood cancer. The new study shows that engineered CAR T cells carrying a mutation that was first found in cancerous T cells can vanquish tumors that don’t respond to current CAR-T therapies. “It’s a very special molecule, it seems to be able to beat all the tests we put to it,” says study co-author Jaehyuk Choi, a dermatologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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NPR
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You can order a test to find out your biological age. Is it worth it?
These days, you can order up a test to find out your biological age, an estimate of how quickly or slowly you’re aging compared to your peers. It’s based on an analysis of modifications in your DNA. If you take one of these tests, you’ll get back a number — an estimate of your biological age. You probably shouldn’t put too much stock in it, researchers say. No test can tell you exactly how long you’ll live, of course. What the test can do is estimate how fast or slow you’re aging compared to your peers. Let’s say you’re 50 and you get back an age of 45. That means you’re aging slower than the average 50-year-old. Your rate of aging is more like that of a 45-year-old. This score could be useful when combined with other measurements, says Doug Vaughan, MD, the director of the Human Longevity Lab at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “I think knowing can provide a person with some information about the overall state of their health and provide some prediction for them about what they can look forward to in the years to come,” Vaughan says. But, Vaughan points out that DNA age tests are just one measure of biological age and overall health. His lab uses a variety of tests, including AI-generated computations of cardiovascular health and retina health, to give a more integrative assessment. When the measures are combined, a more comprehensive picture of your health and potential life span emerges.
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New York Times
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Get Your Cholesterol in Check
While 86 million adults in the United States have high cholesterol levels, one third of Americans say they haven’t had their numbers checked in the last five years. Getting your cholesterol tested — and under control — is critical to preventing heart disease and other serious health problems. But figuring out when to test and what to make of the numbers can feel daunting. Most people don’t have any symptoms until their arteries are already severely clogged. That’s why doctors look to cholesterol levels to catch and treat cardiovascular problems early, said John Wilkins, MD, an associate professor of cardiology and epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. A doctor may recommend cholesterol-lowering drugs if you have already had a heart attack or stroke or if an ultrasound or angiogram shows significant blockages in your arteries. A provider may also consider medication if your LDL cholesterol is 190 or higher. For most other people, doctors consider cholesterol levels in combination with age, family history of heart disease, smoking history and other factors before deciding whether to prescribe a drug, Wilkins said “No one has zero risk,” he said. “But there’s a lot you can do to mitigate it.”
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USA Today
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Americans don’t sleep enough. The long-term effects are dire, especially for Black people
Poor sleep is linked to a host of health problems, among them some of America’s greatest killers, most of which plague Black Americans. The data indicates quality sleep is harder to come by for Black people, with economic, social and environmental factors all playing a role. Along with heart health, poor sleep is linked with increased risk of hypertension, diabetes and obesity, as well as cognitive issues like Alzheimer’s – all of which disproportionately plague Black communities. For instance, 47% of Black adults have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, compared to 36% of white adults. Black men have a 70% higher risk of heart failure than white men; for Black women, the figure is 50%. Black adults have the highest incidence of severe obesity, and 59% of Black adults have hypertension, the highest rate among all racial and ethnic groups. Additionally, they are more likely than white adults to have strokes and more likely to die as a result. Mercedes Carnethon, PhD, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said research now needs to go more than skin-deep to determine what is driving the disparities. “The reasons are not the color of one’s skin,” Carnethon said. “They’re socioeconomic factors, household characteristics, and cultural values around sleep. They’re the occupations that people hold. It’s not race as biology but race as social factor, and by identifying the social factors, we can think of strategies to address them.”
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The Washington Post
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‘Bachelor’ hopeful Daisy Kent has Ménière’s disease. Here’s what to know.
Daisy Kent, a 25-year-old from Becker, Minnesota, a contestant on The Bachelor, has emerged as an early fan favorite, in part because of her openness about her profound hearing loss after developing a rare condition called Ménière’s disease. Experts said Kent is helping raise awareness about a condition that is not very well-known or understood, and they are hopeful that this can drive more research on the disease. Kent also recently wrote a children’s book called “Daisy Doo: All the Sounds She Knew” about living with a cochlear implant. Ménière’s disease is a condition in which people experience fluctuating hearing loss, feelings of fullness in their ear, tinnitus, dizziness and episodes of nausea-inducing spinning sensations called vertigo. Typically, Ménière’s disease impacts one ear, though experts estimate that anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of patients will eventually get symptoms in their second ear. Kent has said she has symptoms in both ears. At first, someone with Ménière’s disease usually experiences fluctuating symptoms. “It’s like a smoldering fire, and then all of a sudden it flames up,” said Alan G. Micco, MD, professor of otolaryngology, medical education and neurological surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. There’s no known cure for the condition. But, there are treatments to manage a patient’s flare-ups or attacks, which can be targeted to their specific triggers.
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TIME
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Some Hospitals Are Requiring Masks Again. Will Other Public Places Be Next?
Hospitals have recently brought back mask mandates. The rising number of COVID-19 hospitalizations is prompting many healthcare systems to require masks once again. Masks aren’t perfect, and some are more effective than others, but studies show that they do reduce transmission on the whole. “Masks work,” says Robert Murphy, MD, professor of medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. “If you’re interested in public health, requiring masks in places like hospitals is what we need to do. If everybody is wearing a mask, it works even better to prevent transmission of disease.” Hospitals aren’t the only places vulnerable people gather, so Murphy suggests mask mandates could be extended to long-term care facilities and assisted living spaces. He also believes mask requirements in these settings should become a regular feature every year during respiratory season. “It’s probably a very good idea, from a public health standpoint, to say that this is something that happens every winter from December to February,” he says. “It just makes common sense. If universal masking is never going to be accepted at this point, let’s protect the most vulnerable, and hospitals are places where there are a lot of vulnerable people.” Murphy is also aware that “people in the U.S. are very nervous about getting into wider mask mandates.” While masks make sense in the healthcare setting, public health experts aren’t naïve enough to believe that they will return to other public places.
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NPR
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Scientists can tell how fast you’re aging. Now, the trick is to slow it down
It turns out, we all age at varying rates. Super-agers may have great genes, but research shows our habits and routines — everything from what we eat and how we move our bodies to who we spend our time with — matter a lot, when it comes to aging well. Many scientists are optimistic that we’re on the cusp of breakthroughs. Not only to help us live longer, but — more importantly — to extend the number of years we live with good health. This is the goal of researchers at the Human Longevity Lab at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. They’re recruiting study participants so they can test what kinds of interventions may slow the rate of aging. Our biological age may be malleable. The hope is that we can slow down our rate of aging — by making changes to lifestyle. Down the line, there may be anti-aging pills or other interventions. “That’s the big ray of optimism that comes through all of this — the possibility that we can slow down aging and extend the health span of people,” says Douglas Vaughan, director of the Longevity Institute. Health span is the number of years we live with good health. “It can be changed very rapidly in experimental models and probably in people, too,” he says. “There are lots of people who’ve been dealt a bad hand with regard to aging,” Vaughan says. Their goal is to find affordable, evidence-based interventions that can benefit everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status.
