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 Times
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3-D Mammograms Are Overtaking Traditional Scans. But Are They Better?
Women going in for routine mammograms are increasingly being screened with a new type of imaging tool: digital breast tomosynthesis. The new technology, which is sometimes referred to as 3-D mammography or D.B.T., lets doctors look at the breast in greater detail. Some research has shown that it can detect slightly more cancers with fewer false positive results than conventional mammograms — though it’s still too early to know whether these benefits will translate to fewer cancer deaths. The most convincing evidence in favor of D.B.T., experts said, is that it reduces false positives that require patients to come back for additional imaging. Sarah M. Friedewald, MD, a professor of radiology (breast imaging) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said she would encourage everyone who can have D.B.T. to do so. “It’s just a better mammogram,” she said. (Dr. Friedewald consults for Hologic, which makes tomosynthesis equipment.)
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Yahoo! News
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Jennifer Aniston, 54, swears by peptide injections for youthful skin: What they are — and can skincare help?
Jennifer Aniston shared that weekly peptide injections have worked to keep her skin looking supple. Before we dive into peptide injections, let’s first discuss what peptides even are. Amy Taub, MD, FAAD , Board board-certified dermatologist and assistant professor at Northwestern University School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life, “Peptides are molecules composed of short chains of amino acids (anywhere from 4-50) that are often smaller fragments of proteins. Different types of peptides serve a myriad of different roles within the body.” Peptide agents used for skincare are administered directly to the face to provide anti-aging benefits, accelerate and promote cell turnover and act as anti-inflammatory agents. Ultimately, weekly peptide injections to the face are designed to ward off fine lines and wrinkles and improve the skin’s overall texture. Sounds great, right? Well, there’s a catch: “While peptide injections might be gaining in popularity amongst Hollywood, most peptide injections are not approved by the FDA,” says Dr. Taub.” Finding a dermatologist who will administer peptide injections may prove to be quite the issue, “I don’t inject anything that is not FDA-approved,” insists Dr. Taub. However, plenty of skincare serums and moisturizers are packed with peptides. “Peptides have been used in skincare creams and serums for years, explains Dr. Taub, “examples of peptides known for topical use include argeriline, tripeptide-1 and tetrapeptide-21.”
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HealthDay
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Lower Levels of Total Cholesterol Seen in More Recent Birth Cohorts
More recent birth cohorts have lower levels of total cholesterol and fasting triglyceride levels, and higher levels of fasting glucose, according to a study published online Dec. 6 in JAMA Network Open. Xiaoning Huang, PhD, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues quantified national trends in total cholesterol, fasting triglyceride, and fasting glucose levels among cohorts born between 1920 and 1999 to examine the association of these patterns with body mass index (BMI) using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2000 to 2017-2020 cycles. “While the mean lipid profile in younger generations was improved compared with older generations, this improvement hinges on an ongoing push to continue to educate the public and health care professionals about modifying risk even at a young age,” the authors write.
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Yahoo! News
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After decades of progress, younger generations are facing worse heart disease risks, study suggests
Younger generations in the U.S. have higher blood sugar levels than their older counterparts, fueled in part by the ongoing obesity epidemic, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open. While medications and increased awareness have helped to steadily drive down the average cholesterol and triglyceride levels for the last several decades, the researchers found that the encouraging decline in these lipids is starting to slow. Using data on hundreds of thousands of Americans born between 1920 and 1999, researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine calculated the average cholesterol, triglyceride and glucose levels for each birth cohort (people born in each decade). They also assessed how average body mass index had changed over time. Experts, including the study’s lead author, Northwestern research assistant professor of cardiology Xiaoning “Jack” Huang, PhD, credit treatment improvements for the win when it comes to lipid levels. “We have been doing tremendous things with the use of statins to reduce [lipids] in the general population in recent decades,” Huang tells Yahoo Life. Statins act on the liver to prevent the body from overproducing cholesterol and triglycerides. They can reduce “bad” cholesterol by between 30% and 50%, and lower triglycerides by 10% to 50%. The American Heart Association sums up what you can do to reduce your cardiovascular risks including: eat better, be more active, quit tobacco, get healthy sleep, manage weight, control cholesterol, manage blood sugar and manage blood pressure.
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Yahoo! News
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Ways to Help You Beat Holiday Loneliness and Discover True Joy
In fact, 61 percent of Americans feel lonely this time of year, according to a 2023 survey. If you’re struggling or feel isolated, just know that you are far from alone. Here, psychologists and researchers share nine heartfelt ways to foster connection, community and true contentment this season—and beyond. The first thing to know about loneliness? “It’s a very common emotion, especially during a time of year couched in such deep nostalgia,” says psychologist Eileen Kranz Graham, PhD, Assistant Director of the Lifespan Personality and Health Lab at Northwestern University. She explains that while nostalgia can be uplifting, it’s often tinged with sadness. “During such an emotionally charged season, it may make some of us withdraw further. But just knowing everyone is experiencing strong emotions this time of year can help you feel less alone.” If you don’t have family nearby this holiday, take heart: Simply saying “hi” to acquaintances or enjoying a bit of small talk with your barista—or so-called “weak ties”—is shown to lift your mood for hours, says Graham. In short, when you feel lonely, just taking a moment to lift someone else up will help lift you up.
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US News & World Report
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‘Game of Roulette’: Flying With Food Allergies Brings Stress, Danger
Holiday travel is always stressful, but particularly so for people with food allergies. Airlines don’t always honor requests to protect the health of people with food allergies during flights, a new study published Dec. 5 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found. “These data clearly show that air travel is a major stressor for those affected by food allergy — to the point that food allergy-related airline policies were the single-most important consideration respondents identified when making air-travel decisions — taking priority over factors like the proximity of the airport to their home, flight duration and price,” said lead researcher Christopher Warren, PhD, director of population health research at Northwestern University’s Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research. “When you get to the gate and everyone acts like you’re crazy for bringing this up, that’s a terrible experience,” she said in a Northwestern news release. Senior researcher Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, director of Northwestern University Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research, said her personal experience dealing with in-flight allergy emergencies has been largely positive. “On the occasions when I have been called upon to treat in-flight health emergencies and have personally cracked open the in-flight medical bag, I have been pleasantly surprised each time I found unexpired epinephrine auto-injectors ready for immediate use,” Gupta said.
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Chicago Tribune
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Chicago biohub backed by Mark Zuckerberg publishes its first research, discovering way to continuously monitor inflammation
A Chicago biomedical research hub backed by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, has produced its first published research — on discovering a way to monitor inflammation in real time using sensors implanted under the skin. The study, co-led by Northwestern University researchers at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, was published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Science. “We hope that this is work that provides a foundation for us being able to track inflammation in the human body, which is important to do because many, many diseases really start as inflammation, where you have damaged tissue caused by the immune system,” said Shana O. Kelley, PhD, a senior author of the paper, president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago and a professor of chemistry and engineering at Northwestern. “If we could see inflammation kind of rising in the human body, we could intervene at a much earlier point and then hopefully the disease does not become as advanced, or, one day we prevent it all together,” Kelley said.
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USA Today
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The Kardashians love this ‘biological age test’ so I tried it. Here’s what I learned.
The short of it: I tried out a few biological age tests as part of my reporting on longevity to find out what all the fuss was about these types of measurements. Like many test results I’ve received in my life, I wondered how much to put stock in all this. Still, “this type of measurement is interesting but incomplete,” argues Douglas E. Vaughan, MD, professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the director of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute. “There are many other ways to measure biological age, including measuring levels of proteins in the blood” plus “a growing set of tools that use AI.” Diet, exercise and luck are the true names of the game for longevity. And you don’t need a scientist to tell you that.
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NPR
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Dizzy after one drink? Social drinkers on obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol
Many social drinkers who take obesity medications, such as Wegovy or Mounjaro, say they don’t enjoy alcohol as much. A new study of WeightWatchers members who take obesity drugs — and were in the habit of drinking — finds about half of them cut back after they started the medication. During some of the landmark clinical trials of GLP-1 drugs that demonstrated reductions in body weight, researchers heard anecdotal reports from participants about changes in habits. “They would tell us that they would drink less or even shop less,” says Robert Kushner, MD of Northwestern University, a GLP-1 researcher who is also a consultant to drug makers. People also reported less ‘food noise’ he says. Their “thinking of food diminished and the reward of food was diminished,” Kushner says. GLP-1 – which stands for glucagon-like peptide 1 – drugs increase the amount of insulin that the pancreas produces and boost the ability of the pancreas to release insulin. But the drugs also influence the brain’s reward system. “The drugs circulate throughout the body, including the brain, to reduce appetite,” Kushner says. So, Kushner says he’s not surprised by the results of this study pointing to less alcohol consumption. ” I think this is an extension of this reward based biology that we see that these drugs are affecting,” he says.
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USA Today
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What’s causing your hip pain? Here’s everything you need to know.
If you sit at a desk all day, or lie on your side at night, you might already be familiar with the achy, uncomfortable sensation that comes with experiencing hip pain. What exactly causes hip pain? The reality is: hip pain can stem from a multitude of underlying conditions. Hip pain can impact different areas of the hip joint, and sometimes, what you think might be hip pain could actually be a condition that’s causing pain to another area of your body. There are a few different areas of the hip that patients usually point to when experiencing hip pain: the front of the hip (close to the groin or hip crease area), the back of the hip (close to the buttock), and around the sides of the hip, says W. Christian Thomas, MD, an assistant professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Adult Reconstruction at Northwestern University. “Each of those different areas can have a different constellation of problems that go along with it,” says Thomas. The symptoms of hip pain will vary depending on the underlying cause. Hip pain is often characterized by a clicking and snapping around the hip, although it could also feel more deep-seated, with cramps and burns. Bursitis is another condition that impacts the tissues on the outside of the hip. This happens when the bursa, which is the protective padding where the tendon meets bone, becomes inflamed, Thomas adds.
