Media Coverage

Everyone could use an extra hour of sleep. On Sunday, Nov. 5, most of the United States — except for Hawaii and most of Arizona, which don’t observe daylight saving time — will enjoy an extra hour of sleep, but is it actually a good thing? Although the day the clocks “fall back” gives you an extra hour of sleep before your alarm goes off, daylight saving time ending in November has multiple health implications. “Just that one hour can change the amount of sleep you get, the quality of sleep that you get,” Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, a sleep researcher at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said per The Associated Press. “Off-kilter sleep can affect people’s ability to multitask, stay alert and even maintain their balance, making them more prone to accidents.” Many people, especially those with preexisting conditions, can experience darker moods following the clock change and through the fall and winter months.

Next week across most of the US, the sun will set well before many folks step foot out of the office, leaving them to run errands or take walks in utter darkness. Come November 5, daylight saving time is out and standard time is in, and will last until March 10. Besides scheduling stumbles and sleep habit disruptions, experts say the twice-yearly ritual can have more serious effects on human health. Many Americans are already sleep-deprived, and a change in time messes with sleep schedules even more, says Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, a sleep researcher at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago and professor of neurology (sleep medicine) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, although she says “falling back” and gaining an extra hour is generally easier on the body than “springing forward” and losing one. “Just that one hour can change the amount of sleep you get, the quality of sleep that you get,” Zee said. Off-kilter sleep can affect people’s ability to multitask, stay alert, and even maintain their balance, making them more prone to accidents.

Staying in sync with the sun is important to maintaining our circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles and overall health. Every morning, sunlight resets our internal clock to put us in sync with a 24-hour day. Then, after the sun sets, the lack of sunlight allows our bodies to produce hormones such as melatonin, which promotes sleep. Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, a neurologist and chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said without that sunlight, we can slip into circadian misalignment — “when your internal body clocks fall out of sync with that of the sun clock and your social clocks.” This weekend, 48 states and the District of Columbia will reset their clocks and fall back into standard time. You may notice that you feel better with the time change and the extra morning sunlight it brings.

Northwestern Medicine’s Women’s Infectious Disease Program is turning to an uncommon practice of treating hepatitis C in pregnant women, in an effort to stem the tide of rising infection rates for the disease. The standard of care for treating hepatitis C in a pregnant person is to initiate treatment immediately postpartum, a Northwestern Medicine statement said, but that approach has significant limitations. During pregnancy, hepatitis C has been associated with low birth weight, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and preterm birth, the statement said. “Our goal is pretty simple — we want to improve the lives of pregnant patients with hepatitis C and their infants,” Lynn Yee, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and director of the Northwestern Medicine Women’s Infectious Disease Program, said in the statement. “Although treatment during pregnancy is not yet common, our professional societies support a shared decision-making process, including discussing with patients what is known versus unknown. We believe that by including pregnant people in hepatitis C research and treatment programs, we will work towards the public health goal of eliminating hepatitis C as well as addressing historical issues of excluding pregnant people from life-changing therapies.” Rising hepatitis C rates are driven by the ongoing opioid epidemic and the sharing of needles, the statement said.

Thousands of migrants sleeping at police stations woke up to freezing cold conditions on Halloween morning as city officials, volunteers and faith-based organizations scrambled to find warmth Tuesday for a population, mostly from Venezuela, that has never experienced cold. Scott Dresden, MD, MS, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine physician, said he wasn’t sure how the thousands of migrants that have arrived since last August would influence the numbers of people he treats in emergency departments over the next few months. “This is certainly a unique winter with a larger population who are without housing than we are used to,” he said. When someone has mild hypothermia they will start shivering, Dresden said. As the body shuts down, confusion will set in. The shivering will stop. He said severe hypothermia can cause cardiac arrest.

When a cold or flu strikes, choosing among hundreds of products can be overwhelming. But to clear up a stuffy nose, doctors and pharmacists say consumers should choose medicine wisely. A key ingredient found in many over-the-counter medicines—oral phenylephrine—just doesn’t work, according to a finding last month by advisers to the Food and Drug Administration. A few weeks after that determination, CVS Health stopped selling certain oral medicines with the ingredient. There are plenty of convenient alternatives for relief from a cold or flu, but the first step is to consider your symptoms: Congestion? Congestion with a runny nose? “The most important thing is for people to always think about, ‘What is going on? What am I feeling?’ That helps you understand what’s best for you,” said Sterling Elliott, a clinical pharmacist and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. There is one medicine that is the time-honored standard for relieving congestion from cold and flu: Pseudoephedrine. The decongestant shrinks blood vessels in the nasal area and prevents blood from flowing into them, stopping the congestion. “We know that it works because when people take it they certainly report benefit and relief,” said Elliott.

Drug-maker AstraZeneca announced this week that the FDA is currently considering approving the needle-free option for home use. Called FluMist, the vaccine must be refrigerated and would be shipped in insulated packaging to people’s homes. FluMist has been around for more than two decades and is approved for people ages 2 to 49 years old. It’s fallen in and out of favor over the years, including one period where a CDC advisory panel highlighted FluMist as the preferred flu vaccine for children. AstraZeneca expects the FDA to make a decision on whether to allow home use of FluMist by Spring 2024. The convenience of home administration could increase the number of people who get a flu vaccine, said Ravi Jhaveri, MD, Chief of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Vaccination rates for children and adults under 50 years of age declined in the 2022-2023 flu season, highlighting a need for more accessible solutions,” said Jhaveri in an AstraZeneca press release. “The ability for individuals and parents to choose where to administer an injection-free flu vaccine could help increase access and, subsequently, vaccination rates, and greatly benefit those most impacted by this serious and contagious respiratory illness.”

While cases are not as high as they were at the end of this summer, newer variants are spreading, and experts predict that the patterns often seen over the last three years of the pandemic – the temperature drops, people cluster indoors, cases rise – will play out again this fall. As the holiday season approaches, here is a quick refresher on how to navigate the pandemic. Risk largely boils down to how crowded a place is and how long you spend there. If you’re popping into a convenience store, for example, your risk is probably minimal; if you’re lingering unmasked for hours in a full concert hall, it’s higher. “Any time you’re indoors with a lot of people, the risk is still there,” said Marc Sala, MD, co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Covid-19 Center in Chicago. It’s a good idea to wear a mask on the subway or bus. Planes are likely less risky because of their ventilation, but you still may want to mask, especially when boarding and deplaning. As the coronavirus has evolved, the amount of time between being exposed and developing symptoms has shortened.

Too much stress is bad for our health – putting us at risk for conditions like depression, heart disease and memory problems. But life is full of commitments and pressures that make relaxation seem impossible, and finding ways to soothe can be difficult. “Stress happens. Stress is normal. Negative emotions are normal,” said Judith T. Moskowitz, a professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “But, whatever stress you’re experiencing, there are things you can do to bring more positive emotions.” Some book titles experts recommended include “Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It” by Ethan Kross, “Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life,” by John Kabat-Zinn, “Rest Is Resistence: A Manifesto” by Tricia Hersey, “The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook” by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman and Matthew McKay, and “Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Judson Brewer.

As the severity of the child mental health crisis came into full view during the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois state officials became serious about writing policy that could help transform how families and children find and access treatment in communities across the state. Audrey Brewer, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and attending physician at Lurie Children’s Hospital, says she often treats young patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, as well as trauma-like symptoms, including stress, anxiety and depression, especially among older children and teenagers. Some patients have even come to Brewer after reporting suicidal ideation, a phenomenon Brewer has studied extensively. In a 2022 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Brewer and her team found that child emergency department visits for suicidal ideation spiked nearly 60% from 2016 and 2017 to 2019 and 2021 in Illinois, with an additional 57% surge in hospitalizations during 2020 — the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The possibility that mental health screenings in schools could provide intervention for struggling children before they reach such an acute crisis makes Brewer supportive of the Blueprint for Transformation’s effort.