Extreme Weather Stresses Mental Health, Finds New Report That Paints Dire Picture On Climate Change
Researchers found that in warmer summers the mental health problems increased by about the same amount of percentage points as degrees. Short-term weather patterns, like rainy days, are also linked to an increase of self-reported symptoms. In other public health news: gene-editing, impotence, bullying, HPV, breast cancer and more.
Los Angeles Times:
Study Gives Depressing Look At How Climate Change Puts Americans’ Mental Health At Risk
Is climate change stressing you out? A new study linking weather and mental health in the United States suggests things could get much worse. The study outlines three separate ways that hotter and more extreme weather stand to undermine the mental well-being of the people forced to experience it. The effects will be most pronounced for women and for low-income Americans, the findings indicate. “Ultimately, if observed relationships from the recent past persist, added climate change may amplify the society-wide mental health burden,” the study authors wrote Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Kaplan, 10/8)
Stat:
CRISPR Cures Inherited Disorder In Mice, Paving Way For Genetic Therapy Before Birth
Nearly 40 years after surgeons first operated on fetuses to cure devastating abnormalities, researchers have taken the first step toward curing genetic disease before birth via genome editing: scientists reported on Monday that they used the genome editing technique CRISPR to alter the DNA of laboratory mice in the womb, eliminating an often-fatal liver disease before the animals had even been born. The research, by a team at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), is a very early proof of concept. But while CRISPRing human fetuses is years away, at best, the success in mice bolsters what Dr. William Peranteau, who co-led the study, calls his dream of curing genetic diseases before birth. (Begley, 10/8)
The Associated Press:
Genetic Glitch Increases Men's Risk Of Impotence, Study Says
Scientists say they've located the first well-documented genetic glitch that increases a man's risk of impotence, a step that might someday lead to new treatments. Most impotence isn't caused by genetics but rather things like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, smoking, drug and alcohol use, stress or anxiety. (Ritter, 10/8)
The Washington Post:
More Cellphone Use By Children Could Mean More Bullying — Online And Offline
Each year, more parents send their young child to elementary school equipped with a smartphone. For instance, the percentage of third-graders who reported having their own cellphone more than doubled from 19 percent in 2013 to 45 percent in 2017. Similar increases took place for fourth-graders and fifth-graders. About 50 percent of fourth-graders and 70 percent of fifth-graders went to school with a phone in 2017. (Englander, 10/8)
St. Louis Public Radio:
Gynecologists Cheer FDA Decision To Expand HPV Vaccine To Older Adults
Gynecologists hope the federal Food and Drug Administration's decision to approve human papillomavirus vaccine for older adults could protect more people. Missouri has one of the highest rates of cancer caused by the virus in the nation. (Fentem, 10/9)
NPR:
One Reason Breast Cancer Is More Lethal For Black Women
When she was in graduate school for public health, Niasha Fray found a job she loved: counseling women with breast cancer about sticking to their treatment. She offered what's called "motivational interviewing," a type of therapy intended to help women overcome obstacles keeping them from taking their medications — which can have unpleasant side effects. (Gordon, 10/9)
Kaiser Health News:
Spurred By Convenience, Millennials Often Spurn The ‘Family Doctor’ Model
Calvin Brown doesn’t have a primary care doctor — and the peripatetic 23-year-old doesn’t want one. Since his graduation last year from the University of San Diego, Brown has held a series of jobs that have taken him to several California cities. “As a young person in a nomadic state,” Brown said, he prefers finding a walk-in clinic on the rare occasions when he’s sick. (Boodman, 10/9)
The Washington Post:
Acute Flaccid Myelitis: 4-Year-Old Orville Young Battled Rare, Polio-Like Disorder In Minnesota
When Orville Young ran up to his mother, Elaine Young, to give her the mail, she noticed he was using his non-dominant hand. Although a seemingly insignificant detail, it made the Minnesota mom stop and think — her then-3-year-old son had developed a cough and a runny nose over the Fourth of July holiday, but she and Orville’s then-6-year-old sister were sick, too, so she assumed that Orville had simply caught their cold. It was not until nearly two weeks later — when everyone else was on the mend and Orville had come down with a fever — that she started to worry. (Bever, 10/8)
