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For the month-long study, researchers had 44 cancer survivors sit very close to a light box early every morning for 30 minutes. The patients were randomly assigned to therapy with either bright white light or dim red light. More than half of the participants suffered from what’s known as poor sleep efficiency, a measure of how much time in bed people spend asleep. After a month of treatment, however, 86 percent of the people exposed to bright white light had normal sleep efficiency, while 79 percent of the people exposed to dim bright light still had poor sleep efficiency. It’s possible that the bright white light helps cancer survivors reset their internal clocks, or circadian rhythms, so that their body can more easily rest at night and wake during the day, said study leader Lisa Wu of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

So, how do you know whether that wrenching pain is just a garden variety stomach upset that will pass as soon as that pesky gas works its way through your system — or something much worse? The clues, experts say, are in the character of the pain — how long you’ve had it, its severity, where it’s located — and whether there are certain symptoms accompanying it. “Most people who have abdominal pain in the absence of what we call ‘red flag symptoms’ will not have a bad cause for the pain,” says Dr. Stephen Hanauer, a professor of medicine and medical director of the digestive health center at Northwestern University.

In the throes of your toddler’s rage, it’s perfectly healthy to wonder whether you’re observing normal childhood behavior, or the beginnings of a behavioral problem. Here’s how to know for sure. Fortunately, there’s a way to measure whether your child’s tantrums are abnormal. The temper tantrum scale, developed by Lauren Wakschlag of Northwestern University in Chicago, identifies normal tantrum behaviors and duration. Her study also highlights red flags parents can use to determine whether their children are acting out more aggressively than expected.

Dr Matthew Davis, a physician who’s the head of academic general pediatrics at Northwestern University, said CHIP’s vital role was in doubt. “What I have noticed with CHIP is that it puts parents’ and grandparents’ minds’ at ease and it lets us focus on the most important work — which is to let every child be healthy,” Davis said. “Parents who have kids with special or complete health needs are especially concerned that CHIP — that has already been allowed to expire — will never come back,” Davis said.

“The antiquated concept that the uterus is a disposable organ needs to be put to bed,” says Dr. Robert Vogelzang, professor of radiology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “Women who undergo hysterectomies face a number of problems, from early menopause to pelvic floor disorders [which affect a person’s ability to control the muscles in their pelvic floor to have a bowel movement] and sexual dysfunction.” Research has shown that hysterectomy increases the long-term risk of cardiovascular and metabolic conditions, even when the ovaries are conserved, he says.

While it’s commonplace to hear the internet and smartphones described as addictive, it’s not necessarily medically accurate to use the term – though Dr. Danesh Alam, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist with Northwestern Medicine, says that could change. “There is a developing consensus that there may really be a syndrome. It’s not currently recognized by the scientific community, but I think there is a consensus that’s developing,” Alam said.

Hearing is a vital part of learning language. Important for a child’s speech development, it also influences literacy skills. For children born with significant hearing loss, listening and language ability are boosted by a device called a cochlear implant (which amplifies sounds and makes them more clear). “The literacy of deaf children on average in the era before cochlear implants was fourth grade, which is not functional literacy,” said Dr. Nancy Young, ­­medical director of audiology and cochlear implant programs at Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern University professor.

Poor sleep quality can impair mood, performance and health, noted Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology (sleep medicine) at Northwestern University. “We need to understand . . . how to mitigate these effects because people are not going to stop using (electronic devices),” said Knutson, who did not work on the German study.

To his toolbox of Botox, fillers and plastic surgery, cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Murad Alam has added a new, low-cost, noninvasive anti-aging treatment: facial yoga. Dermatologists measured improvements in the appearance of the faces of a small group of middle-age women after they did half an hour of daily face-toning exercises for eight weeks, followed by alternate-day exercises for another 12 weeks. The results surprised lead author Alam, vice chair and professor of dermatology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Long-term studies also haven’t proven how much routine screening can help reduce the number of adults with scoliosis who suffer from breathing problems, back pain, disability or reduced quality of life, the Task Force points out. Parents should still see a doctor if they’re concerned that their child might have scoliosis, said Dr. John Francis Sarwark, author of an accompanying editorial in JAMA and a researcher at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.