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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New York Post
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I got prostate cancer at 47 despite having no symptoms — why my doctor sent me for a screening
The Chicago-based artist and Northwestern Medicine employee was hit with crushing news: He had prostate cancer at just 47 years old. The real kicker? He had zero symptoms. “It shocked me,” said Jones, who didn’t know at the time that black men are 70% to 110% more likely to develop prostate cancer than their white peers — and twice as likely to die from the disease. Being proactive about screening is critical, as prostate cancer grows slowly and many men show no symptoms until it’s in advanced stages, Adam Murphy, MD, MBA, MSCI, a urologist at Northwestern Medicine, told The Post. “When people come in with symptoms, it’s usually things like blood in the urine or difficulty urinating, which means that you have a large tumor or cancer spread,” he said. “That makes it less curable.” The biggest impact of his cancer journey has been the new outlook it gave him on life. “I just want to help people,” Jones said. He’s made it his mission to raise awareness about prostate cancer and the importance of screenings, sharing his message with family, friends and even strangers.
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Chicago Tribune
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Mundelein home to latest example of evolving cannabis industry; ‘If moms are using it, it’s legitimate’
A few weeks ago, representatives of Terrabis stood before the Mundelein Village Board discussing their proposal to turn a former bank building into their newest cannabis shop location. The board members were deciding whether or not to give a thumbs-up to the company to move ahead with more planning. The company’s co-founders had backgrounds in the corporate world of McDonald’s and Insomnia Cookies, and their shop’s design looked closer to a new fast-food restaurant than a drug store. According to Richard, Miller, MD, an emeritus professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, perceptions related to marijuana have changed repeatedly throughout history. Cannabis goes back beyond recorded history, he said, and had an “enormous number” of medical benefits in ancient times. Miller and Ashlee Humphreys, a professor at Northwestern University who studies the legitimization process for industries, both noted that cannabis use was used to stigmatize marginalized communities, including people of color, immigrants and low-income individuals. But in the decades since, perceptions have shifted, Humphreys said. “We’ve seen that change,” she said. “The stigma with marijuana use is really just not as present as it was even 20 or 30 years ago.” The real turning point in the perception of cannabis can be credited, or blamed, on mothers, Humphreys said. “I think when it went over to moms, that was the new test,” she said. “If moms are using it, it’s legitimate.”
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US News & World Report
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Double Lung Transplant Saves Mother Of Twins
he timing of Cornelia Tischmacher’s pneumonia couldn’t have been worse — eight months after the Berlin mom gave birth to twins. But the pneumonia just wouldn’t go away, so Tischmacher went to a doctor in January 2018. Tests revealed that the then-40-year-old had stage 3 lung cancer. The diagnosis shocked Tischmacher, an active nonsmoker with a busy career as an art historian and gallerist. Her road to survival eventually led to the United States, where Tischmacher received a double-lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago the day after Christmas 2024. “During our first telehealth visit with Cornelia, it was clear to us that she was at the end of the road,” Ankit Bharat, MBBS, chief of thoracic surgery and director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, said in a news release. “Cornelia had failed every other medical treatment available to her, including surgeries, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, but the cancer continued to progress to stage 4 and became so advanced that it was causing her lungs to fail,” said Bharat, who performed Tischmacher’s surgery. “She couldn’t breathe, and a lung transplant was her only option to fix the lung failure, remove all the cancer cells from her body, and give her a fighting chance to be there for her twins,” Bharat said. “With how quickly her disease was progressing, it was clear to us that Cornelia would not be able to leave the hospital without receiving a lung transplant,” Krishnan Warrior, MD, a lung transplant pulmonologist at Northwestern’s Canning Thoracic Institute who has been caring for Tischmacher, said. Tischmacher, now 48, spent one week recovering at Northwestern Memorial before being discharged to an apartment in Chicago. She’ll spend a year in the city to be near her transplant team.
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TODAY
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Her inability to swallow was dismissed as an eating disorder. She had a rare condition
About 14 years ago, when Jessica Herrala, then 34, tried swallowing, it felt as if something was lodged in her throat. “I honestly thought I had a tumor,” Herrala, 48, of Chicago, tells TODAY.com. Worried, she visited a doctor who told her she was fine and sent her home. Then she began “to regurgitate food constantly.” Other doctors had few answers, and one suggested her she had bulimia. Eventually, Herrala was diagnosed with a rare swallowing disorder called achalasia. While rare, achalasia causes devastating symptoms. “The actual word in Latin means failure to relax,” John Pandolfino, MD, chief of gastroenterology at Northwestern Medicine, tells TODAY.com. “The thing that causes most of the problem is that your lower esophageal sphincter … doesn’t open up when you swallow.” Doctors are uncertain why people develop achalasia. While some medications help some people manage their symptoms, others, like Herrala, undergo surgery. “Doctors dissect out the lower esophageal sphincter area and then they cut muscle through the esophagus,” Pandolfino says. “When they’re done, they take part of the stomach, and they flap it over. So it actually protects the area that they cut and also prevents some reflux.”
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HealthDay
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Depression and Anxiety Increasing Steadily in Kids and Teens, Study Warns
Depression and anxiety are increasing steadily among children and teenagers. According to a new study, 10.6% of young people experienced anxiety in 2022, up from 7.1% in 2016. At the same time, depression among children hit 4.6%, up from 3.2%. Lead researcher Marie E. Heffernan, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, says these “findings underscore the critical need to prioritize youth mental health, which continued to worsen even as we emerged from the pandemic.” She says parents and schools need more support to better help children experiencing depression and anxiety. The researchers analyzed data from the National Survey of Children’s Health and found while mood disorders are increasing, some physical conditions are decreasing. Asthma and severe headaches or migraines declined significantly between 2016 and 2022, according to the results. Behavior and conduct problems remained about the same. The authors say continued resources are needed at the national level to determine why anxiety and depression are worsening in children and adolescents.
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US News & World Report
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Conversion Therapy Harms Heart Health
Young adults assigned male at birth were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure if they’d been exposed to conversion therapy, a discredited practice that attempts to alter a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, researchers reported May 6 in JAMA Network Open. These young adults also had higher levels of inflammation and elevated blood pressure levels, both of which are potentially damaging to heart health, researchers report. “This is the first study, to our knowledge, to document elevated blood pressure and systemic inflammation, important factors shaping the risk of adverse cardiovascular health outcomes, among sexual and gender minority people exposed to [conversion therapy],” concluded the research team led by senior author Brian Mustanski, PhD, director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University in Chicago. “The detrimental psychological effects of (conversion therapy) include heightened risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidality,” researchers added. Researchers tested heart health measures including blood pressure and blood markers for inflammation, and asked participants if they’d been diagnosed with high blood pressure. Results showed that people sent through conversion therapy were nearly 2.9 times as likely to have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, even though their average age was around 27. They also were more likely to have elevated blood pressure at the time of the researchers’ health check, and their blood showed more markers for inflammation.
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US News & World Report
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Seasonal Allergy Symptoms and How to Treat Them
For millions of allergy sufferers, spring and summer mean sneezing, runny noses and itchy eyes. Plumes of pollen from trees, grasses and plants (such as ragweed) get released into the air and trigger seasonal allergies – also referred to as hay fever and allergic rhinitis – for nearly 1 in 4 American adults and nearly 1 in 5 children. Allergies can also cause coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing in people with asthma. “These symptoms are actually very bothersome and can affect not only your nose and your lungs, but they can affect your daily life and quality of living,” says Anju Peters, MD, an allergy and immunology specialist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. “It can definitely affect your overall school performance, work performance and mental well-being in general.” Seasonal allergies occur when an allergen – such as pollen from trees, grass and weeds or mold spores – enters the body. In response, the immune system overreacts and produces antibodies, called immunoglobulin E (IgE), that signal to cells to release histamines, a chemical that fights off invaders, causing allergy symptoms. Ultimately, pollen is a fact of life. You can only avoid it for so long, but thankfully, you can nip pesky allergy symptoms in the bud. “You don’t have to suffer,” Peters says. “We have good treatment options, so you can try over-the-counter medications or go see an allergist … to tailor your treatment based on what you’re allergic to.”
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ABC 7 Chicago
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Northwestern study finds benefits of virtual singing for older adults
A new Northwestern University study found group singing virtually has major benefits, especially for adults over 55 including people with conditions like dementia. It looked at the value of virtual group singing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when most older adults were isolating. Borna Bonakdarpour, MD, FAAN, FANA, shares, “One thing about music is that even listening to music, people have done studies, it is, for people, like they are talking to someone. music is so social, that even if you’re doing it by yourself there’s a social benefit to it.” He further explains about the social and emotional connection that the members of the choirs felt after participating in the group singing.
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Chicago Tribune
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Diagnosed with colorectal cancer at age 44, WGN’s Mike Lowe shared his battle with viewers. Now, he’s at a turning point.
About 20% of colorectal cases were in people ages 54 or younger in 2019 — almost double the percentage as in 1995, according to the American Cancer Society. Scientists aren’t sure exactly what’s causing the increase in diagnoses among younger patients, but they’re urging people to see their doctors if they experience unusual symptoms such as abdominal pain, changes in bowel habits, diarrhea, bloody stools or constipation. Colorectal cancer is the fourth-most common type of cancer in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. John Gaetano, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine (gastroenterology and hepatology) was one of WGN-TV reporter Mike Lowe’s doctors at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital. “It is a public health crisis in this country where younger and younger people are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer,” Lowe said. “I feel like I owe it to anyone who’s dealing with cancer, if I can be the voice, whether it’s for fundraising, awareness or even if it’s just to comfort them, to show them, ‘Hey you can get through this,’ because at the time you get the diagnosis, it doesn’t always seem like that. It seems like a pretty steep hill to climb,” Lowe said.
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New York Post
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Can the minimalist ‘caveman method’ save your skin — or destroy it? Docs weigh in on viral trend
The “caveman method” has gone viral after a woman on TikTok revealed she’s spent more than six weeks not using any products — including water — on her face in a bid to let her skin barrier “rebuild” itself naturally. But so far, her results have hardly been a selling point for other women, and several experts have warned of some serious downsides. The “caveman method” is as minimal as it gets. No cleanser. No moisturizer. Not even a splash of water. The idea is that going back to basics — to ancient times when people didn’t have 10-step nightly skincare routines — can “reset” your skin and return it to its healthiest, most natural state. “Skincare does not have to be a complicated 10-step process, however, washing your face daily is recommended to remove oil, sweat and pollutant buildup,” Jennifer Shastry, MD, a dermatologist at Northwestern Medical Group, told The Post. “The ‘caveman’ routine is most likely contributing to her scaly appearance as the normal skin cell turnover that occurs with gentle washing is not happening,” she said.
