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 32 Chicago
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Heart attacks spike during the holidays. A Chicago doctor explains why
Heart attacks and strokes tend to surge during the last two weeks of December, and it’s important to be aware of the risks, according to one Northwestern Medicine cardiologist. “Cold temperatures cause blood vessels to constrict, which raises blood pressure and makes the heart work harder to pump blood,” said Patricia Vassallo, MD, associate professor of cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Vassallo added, “At the same time, stress around the holidays and disrupted routines — like less sleep, more alcohol and skipped medications — add to the strain. Overexertion from winter chores like shoveling heavy snow can further increase the risk, especially in people with existing heart conditions.” In the event of a stroke, Vassallo said to follow the mnemonic device FAST, which stands for: Face drooping, Arm or leg weakness on one side, Speech difficulty, Time to call 911.
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WGN Chicago
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College student beats the odds, celebrates Christmas with new heart after surgery
Christmas at home — it’s an extra special gift for a college student this year, who made a remarkable recovery after undergoing a life-saving surgery. 20-year-old Korey Meyers has a lot to be grateful for this Christmas. Not long after successfully undergoing surgery for a heart transplant at Northwestern Medicine’s Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, he was able to ring the transplant bell. Meyers health started declining while at school in Los Angeles. He flew home to Chicago to be with family and begin care at Northwestern Medicine under the care of Sarah Chuzi, MD who put Meyers on the heart transplant list. “When we see heart failure in people who are as young as korey, it tends to be due to some sort of genetic condition,” Dr. Chuzi said. “Organ donation and transplant is just like such a beautiful thing and I think it’s especially meaningful that he gets to go home right before Christmas,” Dr. Chuzi said. It’s a gift Meyers said he’ll always be grateful for. “I thank you to the person that gave me his heart to be able to share with me,” Meyers said. “So I’ll be able to take care of it and cherish it for the rest of my life.”
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Yahoo! News
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Heart attacks spike every Christmas. How cold weather, big meals — and yes, family gatherings — raise risks.
It’s no secret that heart attacks are more common around the holidays. Studies like this one from the American Heart Association (AHA), consistently find that more people in the U.S. have and die from heart attacks on Christmas Day than on any other day of the year. The yearly spike is often blamed on holiday stress. Experts say that stress does contribute to the elevated risks, but there’s more at play. You can’t necessarily feel the ways colder temperatures impact your cardiovascular system, but they’re very real, Patricia Vassallo, MD, a Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine cardiology professor, explained. “The cold weather does affect your biology,” she says. “The blood vessels constrict, and that raises the blood pressure and makes it harder for your heart to pump blood to your body.” While it’s difficult to pin the spike in heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems around the holidays on any one cause, experts agree that stress does play a role. “We often think of the holidays as very fun and happy, but there are lots of people who have lost loved ones, or even are stressed preparing to host a big party” says Vassallo. “Holidays are very stressful for many people and stress, at any time, increases hormones like epinephrine and norepinephrine, which increase the blood pressure and heart rate.” That, she says, can lead to heart attacks or strokes for those already at risk.
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Crain’s Chicago Business
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Northwestern scientists unlock cellular secrets of diabetes drug metformin
Before the explosive popularity of GLP-1 weight loss drugs, another “wonder drug,” metformin, has been at work lowering blood sugar levels for patients with Type 2 diabetes for decades, but scientists did not really know how, exactly, it works — until now, according to Northwestern Medicine. Millions of people take metformin, shown to work on Type 2, as well as evidence that it slows cancer growth, improves COVID outcomes and reduces inflammation, Northwestern said in a press release. Often, the release said, the relatively inexpensive drug is the first line of defense in treating Type 2, with some patients taking it alongside new semaglutides, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro. “This research gives us a clearer understanding of how metformin works,” corresponding author Navdeep Chandel, PhD said in the release. Chandel is an investigator with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “This research significantly advances our understanding of metformin’s mechanism of action,” Chandel said in the release. “While millions of people take metformin, understanding its exact mechanism has been a mystery. This study helps explain that metformin lowers blood sugar by interfering with mitochondria in cells.”
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Health.com
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People With Endometriosis May Have Higher Risk of Stroke
Research suggests that people with endometriosis may have a higher risk of stroke. More than 11% of people with female anatomy in the United States are believed to have endometriosis. The potentially higher risk of stroke for people with endometriosis may influence how the disease is treated. A 2022 study found that women with endometriosis had a 34% higher risk of having a stroke than those without the chronic inflammatory condition. The researchers did not have access to data on people assigned female at birth and who do not identify as female. Although previous research linking hysterectomy and oophorectomy did not look into causes, experts believe that menopause, triggered by the procedures, can impact the risk of stroke. “The data is limited on whether hysterectomy alone has any impact on cardiovascular health,” Angela Chaudhari, MD, chief of gynecology and gynecologic surgery at Northwestern Medicine, told Health. “However, there is data to suggest an increased risk of cardiovascular events such as heart disease and stroke are associated with oophorectomy that results in surgical menopause.” Postmenopausal hormone therapy—or hormone replacement therapy—can also affect hormone levels. “There is an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women placed on hormone replacement therapy, specifically a combined estrogen-progesterone combination,” said Dr. Chaudhari. Research indicates the risk of stroke is highest in the first year of hormone replacement therapy.
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WebMD
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For Happier Holidays, Set Your Expectations – and Breathe
The holiday season is upon us, and with it, a flurry of activities and obligations. There are gifts to buy, parties to attend, cookies to bake, latkes to fry, and families to entertain. The stress can be relentless, and expectations can be off the charts. The solution lies not just in what you think about, but what actions you take. This practice of setting expectations (or setting intentions) is one of the most important strategies that Inger Burnett-Zeigler, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and associate clinical professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, recommends – not only for the holidays, but for daily living. “This is where you start taking care of yourself and are able to examine where lines need to be drawn,” she says. “It can apply to what limits you set if you are financially constrained so you don’t feel stressed about spending. Or what you are willing to do; for example, committing to doing only one part of the cooking and having others take care of the rest.”
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Yahoo! News
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Your winter illness guide: Why norovirus and RSV are on the rise, and what to expect from COVID-19 and the flu
‘Tis the season for gathering inside and being surrounded by loved ones — which, unfortunately, makes it much easier to spread and catch COVID-19, RSV, the flu and norovirus. And it’s not just cuddling by an open fire that puts you at risk: The hallmarks of the winter season, including lower temperatures, low humidity and indoor heating systems, also create the perfect conditions for viruses to thrive, while leaving our dried-out mucous membranes more vulnerable. The most recent CDC data shows emergency department visits related to COVID-19 nationwide as “minimal,” and Robert Murphy, professor of infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life that deaths from COVID-19 have been “hovering between 50 to 60 per day for the past several weeks” — down from around 200 per day in 2023. Flu season typically starts in December, rises significantly in January and February, and then starts to decline in March, “give or take a few weeks,” Murphy says. “We have the peak in the U.S. in late February with influenza,” Weber says. “We can peak as early as November and as late as April or May — but classically, we do peak in late February.”
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Yahoo! News
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Pricey weight loss drugs lose some disciples in 2024
People struggling with their body weight experienced joy when new, more effective prescription drug options became the rage in 2023, but it seems many folks stopped taking them in 2024. Research published earlier this year suggests more than half of those using two of these drugs discontinued treatment within 12 months, perhaps due to the cost and side effects. As a cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine, Sadiya S. Khan, MD, MSc prescribes the drugs “to reduce cardiovascular risk.” “This focus on cardiovascular risk is important for the framing and consideration of these medications,” Khan explained. In her view, because of the benefits of weight loss on heart health, the drugs should be considered “cardiovascular meds and not just weight loss meds,” said Khan, a professor at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. “We need to work on national policies to ensure cost and supply are not barriers, such as pharmaceutical coupon cards and assistance programs,” Northwestern Medicine’s Khan said.
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Yahoo! News
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The ones who need little sleep
Everyone has heard that it’s vital to get seven to nine hours of sleep a night, a recommendation repeated so often it has become gospel. Get anything less, and you are more likely to suffer from poor health in the short and long term — memory problems, metabolic issues, depression, dementia, heart disease, a weakened immune system. But in recent years, scientists have discovered a rare breed who consistently get little shut-eye and are no worse for wear. Natural short sleepers, as they are called, are genetically wired to need only four to six hours of sleep a night. “It’s not like there’s something magical about your seven to eight hours,” says Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University, near Chicago. Zee can imagine countless ways that short sleepers’ brains could be more efficient. Do they have more slow-wave sleep, the most restorative sleep stage? Do they generate higher amounts of cerebrospinal fluid, the liquid that bathes the brain and spinal cord, enabling them to get rid of more waste products? Is their metabolic rate different, helping them cycle in and out of sleep more quickly? Zee’s lab, for example, has tinkered with using acoustic stimulation to boost the slow waves of deep sleep that enhance memory processing and may be one of the secrets to short sleepers’ success. In a study, they played pink noise — a softer, more natural sound than white noise, more akin to rain or the ocean — while study participants slept. The next day those participants remembered more in a test of learning and recalling word pairs. “We can enhance memory, but we’re not making them sleep longer or necessarily shorter,” says Zee. “I think there’s a lot more to learn.”
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New York Times
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The Debilitating Toll of Back Pain
Roughly 16 million adults in the United States experience persistent back pain that gets in the way of daily activities. Back pain is among the most common medical problems in the country. It is also the leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Providers sometimes deliver steroid injections to help minimize discomfort. Patients with certain spinal injuries might undergo surgery to decompress nerves or stabilize the spine. People may also turn to treatments like chiropractic care, massage or electro-acupuncture, which some studies have suggested can provide modest relief from chronic back pain. However, some of the treatments themselves, including painkillers and surgery, can exacerbate back pain, said Wellington Hsu, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Northwestern Medicine. “It’s very difficult to predict how someone will react to having surgery, and having trauma to your back as a result of surgery can sometimes lead to even worse pain,” he said.
