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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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.
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CNN
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How music is medicine for these Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones
Long-term memory of music remains intact until the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, according to Borna Bonakdarpour, MD, FAAN, FANA, a neurologist at Northwestern Medicine. A study by researchers at University of Utah Health showed that music, especially that which holds personal meaning, can activate the brain even after other pathways are damaged. Listening to this kind of music also helped to improve the brain’s adaptability in patients with early Alzheimer’s or mild cognitive impairment, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto.
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ABC 7 Chicago
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Men’s Health Month: Former Army Green Beret shares importance of early prostate cancer screenings
November is men’s health month, and there is an important remind that prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer in men, and it’s easily detectable. “Prostate cancer in general is not rare,” Northwestern Medicine Urologist Hitan Patel, MD said. “One in eight men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and actually one in five veterans.” Dr. Patel said a case like Bosley’s is uncommon, but says prostate cancer rates for veterans are higher than the general population. Both he and Bosley say the stigma around getting tested is unwarranted. “Only about 10% of prostate cancers can be felt on a digital rectal exam,” Dr. Patel said. “90 plus percent are actually going to be diagnosed because that screening blood test was done or trended over time.” Bosley is now cancer free and on the road to recovery, but he says the earlier you catch prostate cancer, the fewer consequences there are down the road.
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ABC 11
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Boo-Yah event in honor of Stuart Scott recognizes researcher fighting racial disparities in cancer
Adam Murphy, MD, distinguished professor of health equity research in urology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine focuses his research on prostate cancer disparities in minorities and he is already changing outcomes. “We were able to really leverage the work that we did in the V Foundation, Stuart Scott Award, to create a Black Prostate Risk Calculator — the first one in the country tailored for Black men. We also proved that the Prostate Health Index assay works differently in Black men than it does in white men and should be used differently. That was key,” he said. Key to a disease that has also impacted him. “I have a family history of prostate cancer, from my father and grandfather and Godfather who died of prostate cancer,” he said. “His life was cut short, too young from cancer. And so I understood why this legacy was important, why this award was important, because we were growing attention to disparities in cancer, that a lot of the diseases that you see in cancer affect minority communities more strongly, more harshly, with higher mortality rates, worse treatment outcomes,” Murphy said. In hopes it impacts all of us a little less.
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US News & World Report
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Long COVID Hits the Young Harder Than the Old, Study Finds
It might sound counterintuitive, but new research shows that when Long COVID strikes, younger patients appear more prone to severe symptoms than older folks. “The impact of Long COVID is causing disproportionate morbidity [illness] and disability in younger adults in their prime who provide much of the workforce, productivity and innovation in our society,” said Igor Koralnik. He co-directs the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center, in Chicago. According to the researchers, neurological symptoms of Long COVID can include headache, numbness and tingling, problems with smell and taste, blurred vision, depression, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue and a decrease in cognitive function. “While deaths from COVID-19 continue to decrease, people still get repetitive infections with the virus and may develop Long COVID along the way,” said Koralnik, who is also chief of neuroinfectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine. “Long COVID is causing an alteration in patients’ quality of life,” he said. “Despite vaccinations and boosters, about 30 percent of COVID patients develop some Long COVID symptoms.”
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HealthDay
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For Some, ‘Tis the Season for Loneliness. Experts Offer Tips to Stay Connected
For many, the holidays are a time when you connect with others and share time with loved ones. But for some, the holidays are a painful exercise in loneliness. While a Northwestern Medicine study published last spring found loneliness is more prevalent in both younger and older adults, those feelings intensify around the holidays, said Eileen Graham, PhD, who co-authored that study. And those feelings are most pronounced for the oldest. “What was striking was how consistent the uptick in loneliness is in older adulthood,” Graham noted when the study was published. “There’s a wealth of evidence that loneliness is related to poorer health, so we wanted to better understand who is lonely and why people are becoming lonelier as they age out of midlife so we can hopefully start finding ways to mitigate it.” One way to ease loneliness for these folks is to invite them into your home. “Young adults who are living in unfamiliar cities and setting up new social networks will often find ways to celebrate with Friendsgivings because they might not be coming home for the holidays,” said Graham, an associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Others include older adults who have lost friends or spouses and, finally, people who have fewer resources.” Ideas for connecting during the holidays include finding community, exercise, practicing self-care and seeking counseling.
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Chicago Tribune
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As Americans are beyond burned out, Tricia Hersey’s Nap Ministry preaches the right to rest
The South Side native, Tricia Hersey tackles many of society’s ills — racism, patriarchy, aggressive capitalism and ableism — through an undervalued yet impactful action: rest. Hersey, who has degrees in public health and divinity, originated the “rest as resistance” and “rest as reparations” frameworks after experimenting with rest as an exhausted graduate student in seminary. Once she started napping, she felt happier and her grades improved. But she also felt more connected to her ancestors; her work was informed by the cultural trauma of slavery that she was studying as an archivist. Hersey described the transformation as “life-changing.” Jennifer Mundt, PhD, a Northwestern clinician and professor of sleep medicine, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, praises Hersey for bringing the issue of sleep and rest to the public. Mundt argues that our culture focuses too heavily on sleep as something that must be earned rather than a vital aspect of health and that linking sleep to productivity is harmful and stigmatizing. “Linking sleep and productivity is harmful because it overshadows the bevy of other reasons to prioritize sleep as an essential component of health,” Mundt wrote. “It also stigmatizes groups that are affected by sleep disparities and certain chronic sleep disorders.”
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Yahoo! News
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A radical new idea to speed up anti-aging research: Test ovaries, not mice
A study published in Nature Aging on Friday reveals a new and revolutionary way to rapidly test out potential antiaging drugs: Give them to women. Or, more specifically, test them out on aging ovaries, whether in well-controlled human studies, in the ovaries of mice, or in donor tissue samples. The finding could speed up the way that so-called geroprotective (aka longevity) drugs are evaluated, and ultimately brought to market, by making it easier for researchers to assess how well potential aging drugs are working. Researchers could measure the health of ovaries dosed with different drugs and supplements over a matter of months, instead of waiting years or decades to see what works. The study is the first of its kind. “This is the first time where you’ve seen a really solid study done by a leading aging researcher that is demonstrating that a very highly conserved pathway that drives aging is happening in the ovary,” Francesca Duncan, PhD, a professor of reproductive science at Northwestern University, explained.”We just don’t consider women in their 30s to 50s in that ‘old’ category,” she said. “But I think that tide has turned because we know this is an aging process and it has significant clinical and societal implications. So more and more people are paying attention to this concept of ovarian aging and considering it as a true aging process.”
