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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TODAY
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Hot flashes are a disruptive part of menopause
Most women, 80% will experience hot flashes as they reach perimenopause, and they can last anywhere from seven to 10 years. But there are several treatment options available that work to reduce hot flashes, including the newly FDA approved treatment Veozah (fezolinetant). While many might think that hot flashes are simply part of being a woman, they are linked to serious health conditions. “Our temperature control happens in the thermal regulatory zone in the brain and essentially there’s a number of mechanisms that keep the thermal regulatory zone functioning and one of them are these neurons, KNDy neurons, NK 3 neurons,” Dr. Lauren Streicher, a professor at Northwestern University, and host of “Dr. Streicher’s Inside Information: The Menopause Podcast,” tells TODAY.com. “One of the pathways that controls the KNDy neurons is estrogen. So, when you lose your estrogen, you lost that control factor.” When estrogen drops, the KNDy neurons “become hypertrophic” and “go into overdrive.” They stop working as well and fail to regulate body temperature correctly. Though there are multiple pathways that contribute to body temperature, which could explain why some do not experience hot flashes, Streicher says.
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TIME
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The Pandemic Didn’t Really Change How Americans Think About Sickness
Thomas McDade, PhD, professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine still remembers an advertisement he saw for cold medicine in 2019. The ad showed a visibly sick businessman walking through an airport, “and the message was, ‘You can soldier through this. You can make it.’” McDade said. That message didn’t age well. Countless op-eds and articles have argued that the pandemic would usher in a “new normal” where people were more thoughtful about disease, companies were more generous with sick time, and everyone stayed home when unwell. But now, with the pandemic effectively over – at least in terms of the federal response, if not epidemiologically – it seems that the promised new normal never fully materialized. In 2020, researchers surveyed people with COVID-like symptoms about whether they worked while sick. About 42% of people with COVID-19 worked either remotely or in-person while sick, and 63% of people sick with another respiratory illness did so. Many workers still feel pressure to show up even if they are under the weather.
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USA Today
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FDA approves new menopause drug for hot flashes, sweating and chills
The FDA has approved a once-a-day pill for dealing with uncomfortable hot flashes brought on by menopause. The new drug, Veozah (fezolinetant) differs from the traditional treatment of boosting the hormones estrogen and progestin to reduce menopause symptoms which include sweating, flushing and chills. This new drug addresses an “unmet need,” Dr. Lauren Streicher, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University and medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Menopause, told The New York Times. “When you think about the impact of vasomotor symptoms on work, on cognitive function, on sleep, on quality of life – the availability of another option is exciting,” she said. “This is something we’ve been anticipating for a long time.”
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New York Times
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What to Know About the New Treatment for Hot Flashes
The FDA approved a new nonhormonal oral drug Friday, under the brand name Veozah, designed to treat menopausal hot flashes. The drug provides women with a “safe and effective treatment option.” Hot flashes, also called vasomotor symptoms, affect roughly 75 percent of menopausal and perimenopausal American women. Decades of limited treatment options created a gaping “unmet need,” making Veozah, which is produced by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas, both groundbreaking and long overdue, said Dr. Lauren Streicher, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University and medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Menopause. “When you think about the impact of vasomotor symptoms on work, on cognitive function, on sleep, on quality of life — the availability of another option is exciting,” she said. “This is something we’ve been anticipating for a long time.”
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Yahoo! News
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Some ob-gyns have to wait until a woman faces ‘imminent death’ before performing an abortion. Experts say it’s putting patients’ lives at risk.
Access to reproductive care in the U.S. continues to evolve nearly a year after the fall of Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling establishing a constitutional right to an abortion. Now, decisions on abortion are left up to states – and some have highly restrictive measures. Some states have laws allowing for an abortion in this case of ‘medical emergencies’, a term that is difficult to define. As a result, many medical providers err on the side of caution and won’t intervene in a woman’s pregnancy until she’s gravely ill. Imminent death, from a medical perspective, means essentially someone has begun to die. Dr. Lauren Streicher, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. “It means that someone is in the process of dying,” she says. “The problem with ‘imminent death’ is that there’s no time frame. If someone is said to be imminently about to die, it may be in five minutes or a week. But what it suggests is that this trajectory is no longer reversible.”
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CBS News
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Sleep apnea, lack of deep sleep linked to damage in brain, study says
Uncontrolled sleep apnea — a disorder in which people stop breathing for 10 seconds or more at a time multiple times a night — may harm future brain health, a new study found. Having more white matter hyperintensities can slow the brain’s ability to process information, pay attention and remember, experts say. Lower levels of white matter have also been connected to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and irritability. “Their findings are consistent with the literature that indicates sleep, including slow-wave sleep, plays an important role in maintaining brain health,” said sleep specialist Kristen Knutson, PhD, an associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
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CBS News
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Sleep apnea, lack of deep sleep linked to damage in brain
Uncontrolled sleep apnea – a disorder in which people stop breathing for 10 seconds or more at a time multiple times a night – may harm future brain health, a new study found. People with severe sleep apnea who spent less time in deep, also known as slow-wave sleep, had more damage to the white matter of the brain than people who had more slow-wave sleep, according to the study. Having more white matter hyperintensities can slow the brain’s ability to process information, pay attention and remember, experts say. Lower levels of white matter have also been connected to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and irritability. “Their findings are consistent with the literature that indicates sleep, including slow-wave sleep, plays an important role in maintaining brain health,” said sleep specialist Kristen Knutson,PhD an associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “We have also seen associations between poor sleep quality and higher blood pressure, and high blood pressure can lead to brain lesions or stroke,” said Knutson, who was not involved in the new research.
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WGN
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Updated recommendations for breast cancer screenings can help with earlier detection
A radical change in advice about screening women for breast cancer was announced Tuesday. Get screened earlier. It will save lives. For Black women it’s even more important. After years of telling women to wait until 50 for their first mammogram, the nation’s top doctors are urging women to back that up by a decade. Dr. Sarah Friedewald is chief of breast imaging at Northwestern Medicine and associate professor of radiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “One in six breast cancers occur in women in their 40s,” she said. “If we are screening these patients, we will find a cancer, smaller and more easily treatable.” Friedewald said that’s the goal: find cancer early when it is most treatable. “Information is power,” she said. “Come, get your mammogram, find out if there’s anything wrong. And if there is, it’s something we can address and potentially save lives.”
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Is your job ruining your sleep? If so, this may be why
Sleeping poorly due to job stress? That may be due to a lack of support from coworkers and higher-ups, a new study found. However, receiving improved psychological and social support at your job allows you to more easily shut off from the workday, thus giving you precious downtime to de-stress and improve sleep, according to the study. “This study highlights the important role that workplace environment and stress have beyond the setting of work on overall well-being,” said Dr. Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Zee was not involved in the study. “Initiatives to improve well-being in the workplace can improve sleep, but at a personal level, what we can optimize is our sleep quality — which in turn can help to handle stress and ultimately increase resilience to daily challenges we face,” Zee said.
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TIME
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The Most Effective Way to Get Through to Parents Who Won’t Vaccinate Their Kids
As doctors and public health officials keep trying to persuade parents to get their kids vaccinated against childhood diseases, the entreaties don’t always do much. Part of the problem is the vocal anti-vaccine movement in the U.S. and a lack of access to adequate healthcare services. But another issue might be that the most effective pro-vaccine communicators aren’t being used. However, a recent study found that parents may feel inclined to get their child vaccinated if they heard from a trusted parent that they had vaccinated their own children. “This study tells us that parents really value what they hear from other parents who they trust when it comes to decisions about vaccinating their children,” says Marie Heffernan, PhD, lead author of the paper and assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “The current study was in the context of the COVID-19 vaccine for children, but we can think about this in terms of other routine childhood vaccinations as well.”
