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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NPR
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Doctors say bystanders can do a lot to help someone who has stopped breathing
Damar Hamlin’s remarkable recovery may not have been possible if things had gone differently in the moments after he collapsed. Following his medical rescue, the American Heart Association says it’s seen a huge surge in page views on how to deliver hands-only CPR. And doctors say people who happen to be nearby can be tremendous help to someone who has collapsed and stopped breathing. Rod Passman, MD, professor of cardiology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, says bystanders can absolutely make a different. “This is a wake-up call land shows you how critical it is that people learn CPR. “Intervention, even by a bystander, could save a life” says Passman. The basic guidance from the American Heart Association is this – if you witness someone collapse suddenly and they’re not breathing, first, call 911. Then use your hands to start pushing hard and fast in the center of the person’s chest. One trick is to push to the beat of the disco song “Stayin’ Alive.” Dr. Passman says CPR is basically a temporary way to keep blood flowing. “It is a way of supporting the organs when your heart pump is no longer working and you’re no longer breathing to take in oxygen,” says Passman.
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WTTW
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Make a Resolution: Get Screened for Hypertension in 2023
According to the American Heart Association, about 55% of Black adults have high blood pressure. Black Americans also have disproportionately high rates of severe hypertension and tend to develop it earlier in life. Higher rates of obesity and diabetes among Black Americans increase the risk for high blood pressure, and uncontrolled hypertension is a major risk factor for stroke, heart failure and kidney disease. “There’s a lot of socioeconomic factors that make it pervasive [in the Black population],” said Pierre Blemur, MD, assistant professor of nephrology and hypertension at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Lack of access to medical care, lack of insurance sometimes plays a role. Lack of affordability of medications that can help control blood pressure unfortunately are prevalent issues in the Black community.” Blemur agreed that a proactive approach to hypertension is the best way to protect your health. “The sooner that you get diagnosed with it, the sooner you could do something about it. It’s not always you need medications in order to control it – there’s lifestyle changes, dietary changes, exercise…Things like that could help control blood pressure. But the sooner you find out about it, the more you can do about it, and I always say: It’s better that you find about it before it finds you.”
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The Washington Post
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Alzheimer’s drug that slows cognitive decline gets FDA approval
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved an Alzheimer’s drug that slowed cognitive decline in a major study, offering patients desperately needed hope — even as doctors sharply debated the safety of the drug and whether it provides a significant benefit. Doctors at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago described a woman’s case in a letter to the editor published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. They said an autopsy showed the woman had a condition called cerebral amyloid angiopathy — extensive amyloid in the brain’s blood vessels — and suggested lecanemab may have contributed to her death. Some experts believe lecanemab’s stripping away of amyloid, combined with tPA, could have weakened the patient’s blood vessels. In a response in the same publication, investigators who led the Clarity trial said they understand why the Chicago case generated concern but that tPA “appears to be the proximate cause of the death.” They said there have been cases in which people with the condition have experienced brain hemorrhages when given tPA, even though they hadn’t received anti-amyloid drugs.
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US News & World Report
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Could Weight-Loss Surgery in Teens Raise Risks for Alcohol Abuse?
For teens who are obese, weight-loss surgery can be life-changing, but not always in a good way. A new study finds a troubling downside to weight-loss surgery among 13- to 19-year-olds: They’re at increased risk of alcohol use disorders. And their risk stays higher for up to eight years after their surgery. “We have to be honest about both the risks and benefits of these procedures,” said study co-author Dr. Thomas Inge, director of adolescent bariatric surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and professor of surgery and pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Now, Inge and other researchers report that teens who have had weight-loss surgery are also more likely to develop alcohol use disorder. That’s based on tracking 217 teens for eight years and comparing their alcohol use before and after their surgery. The study found that they had eight times the odds for hazardous drinking, a pattern of alcohol use with a risk of harmful consequences; and five times the odds of showing symptoms of alcohol-related harm.
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US News & World Report
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FDA Approves 2nd Alzheimer’s Drug, Despite Safety Concerns
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a second Alzheimer’s drug, lecanemab, despite reports of rare brain bleeds linked to use of the drug in some patients. ER doctors at Northwestern University Medical Center in Chicago treated the woman with a common but powerful clot-busting drug, tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA). She immediately had substantial bleeding throughout her brain’s outer layer. Rudolph Castellani, a Northwestern neuropathologist who autopsied the woman, determined that she had amyloid deposits surrounding many of her brain’s blood vessels. The woman had been receiving biweekly infusions of Leqembi, which appears to have inflamed and weakened her blood vessels, Castellani said. These vessels then burst when exposed to the clot-buster, something that can happen even in conventional stroke cases. “It was a one-two punch,” Castellani told Science Insider. “There’s zero doubt in my mind that this is a treatment-caused illness and death. If the patient hadn’t been on lecanemab, she would be alive today.”
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TIME
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Why Happiness Isn’t a Project of Pollyanna-ism
Looking at the world around us, happiness may seem an unattainable goal. Simply ignoring or denying stress, or suppressing your negative emotions and pretending everything is just fine, will not lead to enduring happiness. In most cases, negative emotions are, surprisingly, useful – they provide important signals about our environment and can guide us to an appropriate response. For example, fear signals that you might be in a potentially dangerous situation and you should try to get away; anger may motivate you to confront an injustice. Similarly, overly focusing on pursuing positive emotions like happiness can paradoxically result in less happiness, says Judith T. Moskowitz, PhD, MPH, professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The key to enduring happiness is not to rid your life of negative emptions; instead, the goal is to also experience positive emotions in the midst of difficulties. Research has demonstrated practicing specific skills that will lead to more happiness, even when life seems especially difficult. These skills include noticing and savoring positive events, mindful awareness, nonjudgment, gratitude and acts of kindness.
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TIME
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The Daily Habits of Happiness Experts
If anyone knows the secret to happiness, it’s surely the people who have dedicated their careers to studying it. The first thing they’ll tell you? Being happy all the time isn’t a feasible – or even desirable – goal. One of the most striking lessons centered on the importance of acknowledging negative emotions, rather than suppressing them. The idea that dodging resentment, fear, or anger is healthy is one of the major misconceptions about happiness, they agreed. We err when we assume that focusing on happiness means acting like a “Pollyanna,” ignoring the very real difficulties of life,” says Judith T. Moskowitz, a professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Instead, the experts say, we should aim to accept and appropriately deal with difficult feelings. The experts surveyed also had several happiness habits in common. These include spending time with family outside the house, and with friends in a non-professional setting, pursuing hobbies, and exercising/playing sports. Mental well-being has long been linked to sufficient sleep, and the respondents prioritized getting at least seven hours a night.
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CBS News
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What could have caused Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field? Doctors weigh in
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin remained in critical condition Tuesday after collapsing on the field during a game the night before in Cincinnati. Meanwhile, the speculation persists on what led up to Hamlin suffering cardiac arrest – saying it could have been something called commotio cordis, a disruption of the heart’s rhythm. Dr. Robert Bonow, a cardiologist at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute of Northwestern Medicine and professor of cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, explained more specifically what a commotio cordis is – and how it could be associated with a hit like Hamlin had just taken.”There’s somewhere between 500 to 1,000 cases that have been reported overall, and so it’s in the ballpark of 20 to 30 cases every year,” he said. “The timing, and the direction, and the position of the trauma is set just right that it can disrupt the cardiac rhythm,” said Bonow. He also explained how rarely a commotio cordis is reported. Bonow said a commotio cordis often occurs in “young individuals hit in the chest where the trauma can be more pronounced.” He also said, “The other possibility in any athlete where there’s a sudden cardiac event is an underlying cardiac condition that’s been previously undiagnosed and the stress of the moment could lead to a cardiac rhythm problem, unrelated to the trauma itself.”
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Associated Press
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Explainer: What happened to Damar Hamlin?
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during Monday night’s game, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game against the Cincinnati Bengals that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience. Cardiac specialists say it’s too soon to know what caused Hamlin’s heart to stop, but a rare type of trauma called commotio cordis is among the possible culprits. Commotio cordis occurs when a severe blow to the chest causes the heartbeat to quiver, leading to sudden cardiac arrest. The condition only happens during a rare set of circumstances: when a sharp hit lands directly over the heart “at the exact wrong location at the exact wrong timing” during the heart’s rhythm cycle, said Dr. Rod Passman, director of the center for arrythmia research and professor of cardiology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. More than 365,000 people in the U.S. have sudden cardiac arrests in non-hospital settings each year, according to the American Heart Association. Survival depends on quick CPR and shocking the heart back into a normal rhythm, as reportedly happened with Hamlin.
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NBC 5 Chicago
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‘Perfect Storm’: Cardiologist Examines What Happened to Damar Hamlin
Damar Hamlin suffered a “cardiac arrest” during the Buffalo Bills’ game against the Cincinnati Bengals Monday night, leaving many questioning: what caused a 24-year-old healthy athlete to suddenly collapse on the field? “From watching the events of last evening, some cardiologists may suspect a rare condition known as commotio cordis, which is a sudden strike to the chest and heart that can cause the patient to lose consciousness,” said Dr. Kannan Mutharasan, associate professor of cardiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and co-director of Northwestern Medicine’s sports cardiology program. “That is a rare condition that can happen in any contact sport. It’s not something you can screen, we don’t know the risk factors but do know the consequences. It is a very unfortunate occurrence.” One of the more common causes likely would have been detected already – a condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a disease in which the heart muscle becomes thickened. Northwestern Medicine said while HCM is common, it can be “underdiagnosed and associated with sudden death in younger athletes.” It’s important to note that while Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest, that is not the same as a heart attack. Although a heart attack and cardiac arrest both involve a destabilization of the heart, and they may look similar to a lay person, they are very different and should be treated differently, according to the American Heart Association. A heart attack occurs when the blood flow to the heart is blocked, often due to a blockage in a coronary artery. A heart attack often occurs alongside chest pain. Cardiac arrest, however, occurs when there is a sudden disruption to the electrical malfunction in the heart, which causes the heart to be unable to pump oxygen to the brain, lungs and other parts of the body. A person experiencing sudden cardiac arrest will collapse and not have a pulse. In Hamlin’s case, many experts are crediting health care staff who immediately performed CPR with potentially saving the player’s life.
