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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WBEZ Chicago
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Spring forward? Here’s how to ease the time change.
Clocks will “spring forward” as daylight saving time takes effect at 2 a.m. Sunday, meaning we jump ahead one hour. While the extra evening sunlight might be welcome, the lost hour of sleep can leave people feeling groggy and out of sync. Clara Peek said the key to a smoother transition is simple: Plan ahead. “When we adjust to a shift in our circadian phase — like the one hour change when we spring forward — two main factors come into play,” said Peek, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at Northwestern University with 15 years of experience researching circadian clock disruptions. “First, there’s sleep deprivation. Losing an hour of sleep can lead to fatigue, changes in blood pressure and cognitive impacts. Second, there’s the shift in our circadian rhythm itself. What makes spring forward particularly disruptive is that we wake up earlier, which means losing exposure to morning light.” That means Sunday morning will feel darker than usual, as the sun will rise an hour later. To ease the shift, Peek recommends getting outside as soon as possible. “Morning light is a critical signal for our internal clocks. Even if it’s cloudy, being outside provides much more natural light than staying indoors,” she said.
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USA Today
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RFK Jr. touts vitamin A for measles prevention. Doctors disagree.
Late last month, the U.S. had its first death from measles in a decade when a school-aged child died in Texas, the epicenter of a current outbreak. Measles is a vaccine-preventable disease that was formerly eradicated in the U.S. in 2000. The vaccine is usually given early in childhood as the standard set of immunizations required to attend school. Newly-appointed Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of pushing anti-vaccine sentiments, has since urged parents to consider vaccination. He has also, however, touted other measures of prevention and treatment that doctors and health experts say are not medically or scientifically sound. “Vitamin A will reduce measles mortality, and this is especially in low-to middle-income, resource-limited countries where vitamin A deficiency and malnutrition is very common,” Tina Tan, MD, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a professor at Northwestern University Feinberg University School of Medicine, said during a briefing on Tuesday. However, “in persons that are not malnourished, studies have actually shown that vitamin A really has no effect,” she added. Further, you can have too much Vitamin A. Vitamin A toxicity can cause symptoms including, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, joint pain, bone pain, fatigue, skin changes, liver damage, blurred vision and increased intracranial pressure, warned Tan. In children, it can cause developmental problems and other types of neurologic defects.
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Yahoo! News
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Expert: Prevent eczema flare-ups by teaching immune system to tolerate allergenic foods
Contrary to commonly held beliefs, current research shows that cutting out certain foods makes little difference in controlling the skin disease eczema, a renowned U.S. dermatologist said Friday. The latest probes into the complex links between diet, food allergies and eczema — also known as atopic dermatitis — reveal eczema may be better controlled or even prevented by building up tolerances to allergenic foods at an early age, according to Peter Lio, , a dermatology and pediatrics professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Eczema is a chronic disease that usually begins in childhood in which the skin becomes extremely itchy. Scratching it can lead to further redness, swelling, cracking, “weeping” clear fluid, crusting and scaling, according to the National Institutes of Health. Among Lio’s key points at the Orlando conference is that recent studies generally refute long-held “common sense” beliefs held by many eczema sufferers that their conditions must somehow be related to what they eat. “Many patients and families start the visit by explaining that they are convinced that food must be the ‘root cause’ of their eczema. It would be fantastic — and easy — if it were just food causing the eczema. But, in my experience, and more importantly, when carefully reviewing the literature, we find that this very rarely the case,” he told UPI in emailed comments. And yet, food allergies do indeed appear be associated with eczema — but maybe just not in the way commonly believed.
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CBS News
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Researchers seek to demystify the biology of aging
Medical researchers in Chicago are studying the difference between a person’s chronological age — how many years they’ve lived — and their biological age, how old their body actually is. “We are in a place where the biology of aging has been demystified,” said Douglas Vaughan, MD, director of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and the head of the study. “…If we can slow down aging, just a little bit, we can push back the onset of disease, and we can give people a longer health span.” The researchers use a series of tests to calculate biological age, including a scan of the retina and an analysis of participants’ physical movement. “Artificial intelligence gives us the opportunity to find patterns in the data that we can’t find with our eyes, that we can’t detect with a human brain,” said Josh Cheema, , a cardiologist with Northwestern Medicine involved in the project. The work has a special focus on people in marginalized communities and those living with long-term medical problems. “We are really interested in finding out ways to slow down aging in people that are disadvantaged,” Vaughan said.
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ABC News
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Vitamin A, While Helpful for Measles, Is Not a Replacement for Vaccination
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend vitamin A for all patients with measles — not just severe cases — but experts warn that this shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for vaccination. In a recent opinion piece for Fox News, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote that studies support the administration of vitamin A “under the supervision of a physician for those with mild, moderate, and severe infection” and that it can reduce mortality from the disease. Tina Tan, MD, of Northwestern University, who is president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said vitamin A “really plays an important role in maintaining a healthy immune system and supports the function of immune cells so the body can fight off infections like measles.” However, taking vitamin A won’t prevent a child from getting measles in the first place. Tan emphasized that vaccination is the only way to stop more measles outbreaks like the current one in west Texas, where 159 cases have been identified since late January, with 22 hospitalizations and one death — the first measles death in the U.S. since 2015. Tan said that the “number of unvaccinated individuals is growing, and that basically increases the risk for spread of measles, because measles is one of the most contagious viruses.”
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US News & World Report
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Unvaccinated New Mexico Adult Tests Positive for Measles After Death
A New Mexico resident who has died, tested positive for measles, the state health department said on Thursday, marking the second measles-related death in the United States in more than a decade. he unvaccinated adult patient did not seek medical care before death, and was the first measles-related death in the state in more than 40 years. Measles typically kills 1 to 3 people per 1,000 cases, said Tina Tan, MD, an infectious disease expert at Northwestern University in Chicago. She said two deaths out of a total of 164 cases suggest “a much higher mortality rate than we would normally see,” adding that there are probably many undetected cases. New Mexico’s health department said it will host two community vaccination clinics on March 11.
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WGN Chicago
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Local doctor and veteran help Ukraine war amputees
For veterans, phantom limb pain after amputation can be a lifelong burden. Doctors knew it was a nerve and tissue problem, but other than prescribing pain medication, they could do little to help. Now there is a new approach that has been studied in Ukrainians due to the massive limb loss in recent years. And the answer could help all those who suffer, from amputees to spinal cord injury patients. For Northwestern Medicine anesthesiologist Steven Cohen, MD, the research is personal. “I’m a retired army colonel,” he said. “I treated many, many patients with war trauma.” The anesthesiologist was contacted by doctors in the war-torn country searching for solutions for amputees suffering with intense pain. “When a nerve is cut or when a nerve is injured, it forms a tangled web and that can send spontaneous pain signals into the stump into the phantom, the nerve can become entrapped,” he said. To help patients, Cohen brought his expertise and potential new treatments, including what’s called hydro dissection. “Hydro dissection resulted in decreased pain when we looked at 12-week outcomes. It resulted in decreased anxiety and depression and decreased opioid use,” Cohen said. The simple treatment may help other types of patients, not just amputees.
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TODAY
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12 best pelvic-floor exercises for pregnancy
“‘Do your kegels!’ is the advice most people will hear during pregnancy,” adds Karen Weeks, DPT, a pelvic floor physical therapist with the Northwestern Medicine Women’s Integrated Pelvic Health Program. “While we know that pelvic-floor muscle exercises are an important component to continence, pelvic organ support, a more efficient labor and delivery process, and postpartum recovery, pelvic-floor health can (and should!) be a lot more than just doing your kegels.” Weeks says it’s not only about strengthening the pelvic floor, but also training it to lengthen and relax, that is important during pregnancy. “We know that the pelvic-floor muscles stretch up to three times their length during a vaginal delivery,” she says. “So a truly healthy pelvic floor must relax and stretch, not just contract and tighten. This coordination of relaxing and lengthening the muscles during pushing for delivery is now getting much more attention as pregnant people seek out ‘birth prep’ resources that pelvic health physical therapists are now increasingly providing.” Weeks reminds pregnant women to always check with their healthcare provider before starting any exercise routine. And if any exercises hurt, stop and seek out care.
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AP News
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Pope Francis stable a day after respiratory crisis, spent ‘long periods’ off noninvasive ventilator
Pope Francis suffered an isolated coughing fit on Friday that resulted in him inhaling vomit and requiring non-invasive mechanical ventilation, the Vatican said in relaying an alarming setback in his two-week long battle against double pneumonia. The 88-year-old pope remained conscious and alert at all times and cooperated with the maneuvers to help him recover. He responded well, with a good level of oxygen exchange and was continuing to wear a mask to receive supplemental oxygen, the Vatican said. John Coleman, MD, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the episode as relayed by the Vatican was alarming and underscored Francis’ fragility and that his condition “can turn very quickly.” He further said, “I think this is extremely concerning, given the fact that the pope has been in the hospital now for over two weeks, and now he’s continuing to have these respiratory events and now had this aspiration event that is requiring even higher levels of support”. Doctors did not resume referring to Francis being in “critical condition,” which has been absent from their statements for three days now. But they say he isn’t out of danger, given the complexity of his case.
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Yahoo! News
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Can you lose fat in just your face? 7 tips to make your face look slimmer, according to experts
Facial exercises, or “face yoga,” won’t help you to lose weight in your face, experts say. In fact, the point of facial exercises is to make your face appear fuller and therefore younger, Murad Alam, MD, vice chair of dermatology at Northwestern University, explained. As you age, the fat in your face, known as fat pads, becomes less plump, and face exercises may help to replace some of that lost volume: “The purpose of the facial exercises seems to be to help to grow muscles under the fat pads such that, as you exercise them, they become larger in size and begin to perform some of the functions the fat pads were performing before to make your face look fuller,” said Alam. But Alam and other experts shared there’s not enough evidence to conclude that these exercises can slim your face or reduce wrinkles. Reducing inflammation will likely improve the look of your face, but losing weight in general is the only way to reduce face fat. But remember — fat in the face looks youthful! So the best solution may be to appreciate the “baby face” volume you have.
