Media Coverage

Do you need an annual checkup? New guidance on doctor office dos and don’ts

David Liss, PhD, research associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine says, “Not everyone needs an annual checkup.” Instead of an exam, think of visits as check-ups. And that check up may not include a comprehensive physical exam or routine lab testing. “When you talk about unnecessary testing, you can often have false positive results and when you have false positive results, that can lead to more testing patient worry and patient anxiety,” he said. So, who should get annual check-ups? People ages 65 and older, people who are overdue for recommended preventive care, patients at high risk of undiagnosed chronic illness and people who rate their health as poor or fair. “In these groups, there’s a lot of reasons why annual check-ups can be quite helpful,” Liss said.“ People who are already regularly getting primary care, there’s a good chance that these conditions are being detected,” Liss said.

The Life-Changing Magic of a Urologist

Urologists often deal with health problems that arise from two intimate functions: peeing and sex. There are two parts of a urologist’s job. “There’s the serious illness stuff, like cancers,” said Nelson Bennett, a professor of urology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who specializes in male sexual function. “But there’s a big chunk of our practice that is basically quality of life. I tell my patients that no one dies of not having an erection, but they’re still suffering.” All of this may be why people who have seen a urologist (present company included) sometimes say the results are life altering. There are treatment options for almost every erectile problem, including oral medications, injectable medications, surgery and cognitive behavioral therapy, Dr. Bennett said. Although it can be tempting to furtively order medications such as Viagra on direct-to-consumer websites, a practice that Dr. Bennett found, in a 2021 study, is dramatically increasing, he said there are several reasons to see a specialist instead. “We can actually begin to figure out why you’re having the problem, as opposed to just taking medication to cover it up,” he said. Some medications can also affect erections, such as antidepressants, which can cause orgasms to be delayed, or vanish altogether. And a urologist can screen for those, he said.

California massacres suggest phenomenon of ‘mass shooting contagion’: Experts

Following four California mass shootings in the span of eight days that left 25 people dead and 17 injured, some gun violence researchers said they’re concerned that a phenomenon known as “mass shooting contagion” is occurring across the state. “There are mass shootings waiting to happen, so one of them can influence the other,” Lori Post, director of the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News. Post, who keeps a database of mass shootings dating back to 1966, added, “If a would-be shooter sees all the attention of another mass shooter, it may incentivize him to carry out his plan. But one mass shooting does not inspire a normal person to commit a massacre.”

Many mass attackers motivated by personal and work grievances, report says

Half of mass attackers in the United States were retaliating for personal, domestic or workplace-related grievances, and many used firearms that were obtained legally. The researchers found that three-quarters of the perpetrators had displayed behaviors or communicated in a way that concerned others before the attack. About 29 percent of attackers were described either by themselves or others as “withdrawn, loners or anti-social,” the report said, and more than half had experience mental health symptoms before the attack. Lori Ann Post, PhD, who studies mass killings as a public health issue at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said mass shooters age 26 and older tend to be acting in retaliation for a perceived loss or failure. “The older ones seem to have left home; they’ve separated from their parents, but then they self implode and destroy their life,” she said. “They want revenge, they’re disgruntled, they want payback.” She said the report should have more narrowly defined mass attacks as incidents in which a perpetrator killed four or more people, because such attackers tend to be more organized and thoughtful in their planning. However, “No matter who you are, what data you use, there is an escalation going on,” she said.

Do you need an annual checkup? New guidance on doctor office dos and don’ts

David Liss, PhD is a researcher with Northwestern Medicine.

“Not everyone needs an annual checkup,” he said.

That’s the key message from Liss, who helped craft new guidelines from the Society of General Internal Medicine.

“When you do go in you don’t necessarily need a physical exam,” he said.

Norovirus is making the rounds — here’s what parents need to know about this ‘intense’ stomach bug

“Unfortunately, it does not take many of the virus particles to cause an infection, which usually develops within 24 to 48 hours,” says Dr. Michael Bauer, a pediatrician and medical director at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, tells Yahoo Life.

Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, is a new threat in the opioid epidemic: What we know

A new threat has emerged in the United States’ illicit drug supply: an animal tranquilizer called xylazine. The drug is showing up in synthetic opioids, particularly fentanyl, leading to more overdoses and alarming side effects. Xylazine was created in the 1960s and is used in veterinary medicine to sedate animals during procedures or diagnostic testing, according to the DEA. Xylazine is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for human use. While it has been given in the past for household pets, the sedative is now typically used for larger animals like horse, sheep and elk. Anecdotal reports indicate using xylazine causes open wounds to “spontaneously develop,” said Maryann Mason, PhD, associate professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. These open wounds may lead to necrosis, or dead tissue, and eventually amputation of affected limbs, she said. There is no amount of xylazine that is safe for humans as humans are about 10 to 20 times more sensitive to xylazine than animals are.