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While modest, past studies investigating higher doses of temozolomide and the use of antibody drugs that target the blood supply and growth of the tumor have not been able to deliver such gains. “This is a completely new therapy, the use of physical force on cancer cells,” said lead study author Dr. Roger Stupp, professor of neurosurgery and medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

For patients with strep throat, penicillin works and antibiotics are an effective and appropriate treatment, noted Dr. Jeffrey Linder, a researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “Most sore throats are not strep and should be treated symptomatically,” Linder, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. This means getting plenty of rest, drinking plenty of fluids, and taking over the counter medications for inflammation and pain, Linder advised. “You should only take antibiotics if you have a positive test for strep throat,” Linder added.

Dr. Patrick Lank, an emergency room doctor at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, says he believes the benefits outweigh the risk. “It is a life-saving medicine, and without it people absolutely die,” he said. Lank said it’s critically important that people who are given Naloxone immediately go to the ER.Numbers provided by the state show Naloxone use by emergency responders has increased 250 percent. The opioid epidemic is being called the deadliest drug crisis in American history. Nearly 2,000 people in Illinois died of an opioid overdose in 2016.

Dr. Joel Shalowitz, who teaches at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Kellogg School of Management, contrasted Illinois’ lack of disclosure with Medicare, which typically makes rates public. “My personal philosophy is that if it’s a public contract, it should be open to public scrutiny,” Shalowitz said. Meanwhile, the state is considering giving insurers a 1.5 percent rate increase.

Sleep expert Dr. Vikas Jain says sunlight improves our mood through higher serotonin levels. The Northwestern Medicine specialist says his patients often complain of feeling more groggy at this time of year. He says the prevalence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) increases the further away you get from the equator, so a trip south over the holidays can bolster your spirits.

What else should make up a heart-healthy eating plan? “It is increasingly difficult to isolate a specific food group and say it is related to heart health,” says Dr. Robert S. Nierzwicki, a specialist in cardiovascular disease and nuclear cardiology at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. “There are many confounding factors. When I look at a heart-healthy diet, I look at food patterns as opposed to individual foods.”

Phyllis Zee, a neurologist and neuroscientist at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, says the research connects a lot of dots between sleep and memory. She’s curious whether the results will hold up in adults who are at risk for neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

For nine years, these experts have been examining “SuperAgers” — men and women over age 80 whose memories are as good — or better — than people 20 to 30 years younger. Every couple of years, the group fills out surveys about their lives and gets a battery of neuropsychological tests, brain scans and a neurological examination, among other evaluations. “When we started this project, we weren’t really sure we could find these individuals,” said Emily Rogalski, an associate professor at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

If people with early Parkinson’s could brake the disease’s advance and delay their need to start medications, the researchers have reasoned, they might change the arc of their disease, delaying its most severe effects. That possibility recently led a consortium of researchers from Northwestern University, the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora and other institutions to look at exercise as a treatment.

It’s not unusual for anxiety to be expressed physically rather than emotionally—or for us to get so used to feeling anxious that we begin to ignore it and fail to link the physical symptoms with the anxiety. Which can make it difficult for doctors to make the right diagnosis since anxiety can produce a wide variety of symptoms. “That’s the challenge,” says Dr. Michael Ziffra, an anxiety specialist and psychiatrist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “You might be more prone to headaches and it’s not unusual for it to cause impairments in cognition, problems with attention, focus and concentration. You might even find your memory is impaired.”