Media Coverage

Do you need an annual checkup? New guidance on doctor office dos and don’ts

David Liss, PhD is a researcher with Northwestern Medicine.

“Not everyone needs an annual checkup,” he said.

That’s the key message from Liss, who helped craft new guidelines from the Society of General Internal Medicine.

“When you do go in you don’t necessarily need a physical exam,” he said.

Norovirus is making the rounds — here’s what parents need to know about this ‘intense’ stomach bug

“Unfortunately, it does not take many of the virus particles to cause an infection, which usually develops within 24 to 48 hours,” says Dr. Michael Bauer, a pediatrician and medical director at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, tells Yahoo Life.

Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, is a new threat in the opioid epidemic: What we know

A new threat has emerged in the United States’ illicit drug supply: an animal tranquilizer called xylazine. The drug is showing up in synthetic opioids, particularly fentanyl, leading to more overdoses and alarming side effects. Xylazine was created in the 1960s and is used in veterinary medicine to sedate animals during procedures or diagnostic testing, according to the DEA. Xylazine is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for human use. While it has been given in the past for household pets, the sedative is now typically used for larger animals like horse, sheep and elk. Anecdotal reports indicate using xylazine causes open wounds to “spontaneously develop,” said Maryann Mason, PhD, associate professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. These open wounds may lead to necrosis, or dead tissue, and eventually amputation of affected limbs, she said. There is no amount of xylazine that is safe for humans as humans are about 10 to 20 times more sensitive to xylazine than animals are.

What would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade sees protests, celebration

For the first time in five decades, the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade is being marked in a post-Roe world. On Sunday, the 50th anniversary of the court’s milestone ruling making abortion a protected, constitutional right, marches are taking place across the country amid uncertainty about the current state of reproductive rights. “Roe v. Wade, the case, has been overturned, but Roe is not dead,” Katie Watson, JD, an associate professor of medical education, medical social sciences and obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine said. “Roe is something larger than the case. It’s also a cultural phenomena that shaped the lives of all American women for 49 years. It’s also not dead in the sense that its principles have been carried forward in state legislation and in state constitutional analyses.” Watson further says, “American women aren’t standing still for this. They are not surrendering to this brutal hostage taking effort of their state governments to say, we’re going to force you to create another human being against your will. They’re literally moving. They’re literally getting out of Dodge, and seeking those abortions.”

10 Nutrition Myths Experts Wish Would Die

One myth includes the idea that you should never feed peanut products to your children within their first few years of life. For years, experts told new parents that the best way to prevent their children from developing food allergies was to avoid feeding them common allergenic foods, like peanuts or eggs, during their first few years of life. But now, allergy experts say, it’s better to introduce peanut products to your child early on. If your baby does not have severe eczema or a known food allergy, you can start introducing peanut products (such as watered-down peanut butter, peanut puffs or peanut powders, but not whole peanuts) at around 4 to 6 months, when your baby is ready for solids. Start with two teaspoons of smooth peanut butter mixed with water, breast milk or formula, two to three times a week, said Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. If your baby has severe eczema, first ask your pediatrician or an allergist about starting peanut products around 4 months. “It is also important to feed your baby a diverse diet in their first year of life to prevent food allergies,” Dr. Gupta said.

Woman welcomes twins after cancer diagnosis takes her ovaries and fallopian tubes

A woman received two bundles of joy after a bout with aggressive breast cancer that caused the removal of both her fallopian tubes and ovaries. With her cancer diagnosis came the devastating thought of not having any more children. So, before starting chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and removing her fallopian tubes, the woman named Shelly Battista met with Dr. Kara Goldman, “She knew that this chemotherapy would save her life but would likely take her fertility,” Goldman said. With that, eight healthy embryos were frozen. After one year following her cancer treatment, Battista was cleared for pregnancy. “There’s a tremendous misconception that you have to have ovaries in order to carry a pregnancy, but actually, the ovaries and uterus function quite separately from each other,” Goldman said. It was a challenging process nonetheless. Battista underwent two failed embryo transfers, but the third time was the charm. “We didn’t want to get our hopes up too high, right? So, when we got the phone call from Dr. Goldman, she called us herself. We were very, very ecstatic,” Battista said. As they went to their first ultrasound, there was yet another surprise.