Latest Morning Briefing Stories
Editorial writers weigh in on these health topics and others.
Families are finding they are able to keep loved ones with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases at home longer with special apps, but if those devices fail then life becomes tricky once again. News on Alzheimer’s looks at early warning signs and the burden on the African-American community, as well.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health topics and others.
Editorial pages focus on these health topics and others.
Brief sessions of specialized brain stimulation can reverse decline in working memory by targeting key regions and synchronizing neural circuits in those areas. The method is appealing for several reasons, perhaps most of all because it is noninvasive.
Accusations that former Vice President and potential 2020 candidate Joe Biden is too handsy have brought attention to the idea of personal space. Scientists and researchers have been studying the universal phenomenon for years, but questions about it, and how it works in our brains, still remain. In other public health news: cancer, violence, sexual partners and your microbiome, IVF, miscarriages, and more.
Editorial pages focus on these health issues and others.
How Viruses Tag-Team With Bacteria To Trick Immune System By Providing A Decoy
A chance observation a few years ago has provided insight into how viruses and bacteria work together during infections. In other public health news: pain, pedestrian deaths, mental health, allergies, ADHD, genetics, and mosquitoes.
First Comes The Grief Of Losing An Infant Unexpectedly. Then Come The Questions From The Detectives.
When a baby dies from sudden infant death syndrome, parents don’t have long to recover before they’re faced with questions and paperwork from detectives. The policies are in place to protect from abuse or neglect, but can often bleed over to accusatory for parents in the worst moments of their lives. In other public health news, the mysteries of aging, exercise, schizophrenia, smoking and marijuana extract.
Drug after drug after drug that targeted a brain compound called beta amyloid have failed over the years. “We are running out of excuses” for why beta-amyloid treatments aren’t working, said Zaven Khachaturian, editor-in-chief of the medical journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. But drugmakers “keep trying, hoping that the path they are on is going to give blockbuster drugs.”
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care issues and others.
New Treatments Might Provide Hope To Patients With Rare Genetic Disease That Turns Tissue Into Bone
The genetic disease, fibrodysplasia ossificans, in which the body’s machinery for healing goes awry, growing immovable bone where it doesn’t belong, had been languishing as nothing more than a medical curiosity. But a community of patient advocates rallied, and now there are three medicines in human trials, the most advanced of which could win Food and Drug Administration approval next year. In other public health news: weight lifting, primate emotions, the “bliss point” in food, and psychic mediums.
Where Pharma Has Failed To Offer Hope For Alzheimer’s Treatment, Medical Devices Have Shown Promise
A new study shows that a combination of lights and buzzing activate cells to start cleaning up the brain of mice who have Alzheimer’s, stimulating activity throughout many parts of the brain.
Advocates on social media are targeting scientists who release studies that don’t fit into their views on the diseases, going so far as to wishing for the demise of their careers because of a research paper. Scientists say it can dissuade researchers for wanting to do work on certain diseases, setting off a vicious cycle where patients are the ones who suffer. In other public health news: memory, drug side effects, dieting and aging.
Editorial writers weigh in on these public health issues and others.
The Trump administration is mulling whether it should continue approving accreditation groups that also have consulting arms. Many hospitals hire an organization called the Joint Commission, but that organization also has a subsidiary that offers consultants-for-hire that help hospitals attain accreditation. The commission has defended the practice, but others see it as a conflict of interest. In other CMS news: nursing home star ratings and Medicare penalties for hospitals.
National Rate Of Suicide, Alcohol And Drug Deaths Hits Record High
Advocates say the country needs to better understand what drives “these devastating deaths of despair.” In other public health news: Alzheimer’s, the flu, migrant health, depression, and more.
The research was halted years ago over safety concerns, but has once again received the go-ahead from the government. However, officials didn’t give a reason for the about-face, and scientists, who say the research could unleash a pandemic either by accident or through terrorism, are outraged. In other public health news: supplements and dementia, black women and HIV, health technology, stress, and more.
The study’s findings will not change anyone’s “day-to-day life or medical practice any time soon,” said Heather Snyder, the Alzheimer’s Association’s senior director of medical and scientific operations. But they do give greater insight into what causes the disease. In other public health news, sleep, Ebola, trans fats, stress, child poverty, and health technology.
Editorial pages focus on these health issues and others.
