In 2017, Humanity Across The Globe Had Its Gloomiest Year In More Than A Decade

The New York Times: It’s Not Just You: 2017 Was Rough For Humanity, Study Finds
Violence, bitter partisanship, an uncertain future. These are dark times. In fact, humanity just had its gloomiest year in more than a decade, according to a new survey of the emotional lives of more than 154,000 people around the world. More people reported negative experiences, defined as worry, stress, physical pain, anger or sadness, than at any point since 2005, when Gallup, the analytics and consulting company, introduced the survey. (Chokshi, 9/12)

Bloomberg: Another Smoking Alternative Isn't Better For You Than Cigarettes
British American Tobacco Plc hasn’t produced adequate data to show its Camel smokeless tobacco pouches are a less risky alternative to cigarettes, according to U.S. regulators, a sign the company may face hurdles as it attempts to develop less-harmful products. Although Camel Snus have lower levels of some potentially harmful chemicals compared with cigarettes, they contain higher amounts of arsenic, cadmium and nicotine, said Food and Drug Administration staff in a briefing document posted online on Tuesday. Those levels “may result in increased user exposures to carcinogens and other toxicants that may subsequently increase the risk for cancer, heart disease and reproductive or developmental effects,” FDA staff said. (Edney, 9/11)

Stat: FDA Urged To Take Stronger Action To Protect Medical Devices From Hacking 
Rapid advances in technology have been a boon to the medical device industry. They’ve also sparked growing concern that those devices can be hacked. Devices from hospital-room infusion pumps to pacemakers use wireless internet and network connectivity. Researchers and hackers have shown that networked devices — including some approved by the Food and Drug Administration — can be vulnerable to threats. Just last month, two cybersecurity experts made headlines when they said they had found security weaknesses in Medtronic pacemakers that made them hackable. (Thielking, 9/11)

Modern Healthcare: Caring For Latinos Requires More Than Knowing Spanish
For Griselda Cruz, the long drive from her home in Indiana to Alivio Medical Center in Chicago is well worth it. Cruz, 25, likes that she can speak with the Alivio providers in Spanish, her first language. She also feels they take good care of her and her three young children. Cruz visits Alivio for pediatric and women's healthcare appointments. “If my children are sick, they can see them on the same day,” she said in the waiting room of one of Alivio's clinics in the city's Little Village neighborhood, which has a predominantly Latino population. (Castellucci, 9/8)

The New York Times: Is Whole-Fat Dairy Good For The Heart?
A large new study links whole-fat dairy food consumption to a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease. The findings raise questions about current dietary guidelines, which suggest substituting fat-free or low-fat dairy for full-fat products. The study, published in Lancet, included 136,384 people in 21 countries followed for an average of nine years. (Bakalar, 9/11)

The New York Times: Sleep Apnea May Increase Risk Of Gout
New research has found that obstructive sleep apnea — a disorder in which breathing stops and starts during sleep — is associated with an increased risk for gout, a common cause of painful arthritis. Scientists studied 15,879 patients with apnea and 63,296 matched controls without, following them for an average of almost six years. Over that time, 4.9 percent of people with apnea developed gout, compared with 2.6 percent of those without the disorder. (Bakalar, 9/11)

San Jose Mercury News: Flu: Pediatrics Group OKs Nasal Spray For First Time In Three Years
Health officials are urging everyone over six months old to get their flu vaccine as soon as possible to help avoid another nasty season. And to encourage needle-phobic kids to get immunized, a leading pediatric group is softening its insistence that they get it in a shot rather than a painless nose spray. (Woolfolk, 9/11)

NPR: Barn Owls Help Researchers Understand How The Brain Concentrates
Kids with ADHD are easily distracted. Barn owls are not.So a team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is studying these highly focused predatory birds in an effort to understand the brain circuits that control attention. The team's long-term goal is to figure out what goes wrong in the brains of people with attention problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. (Hamilton, 9/11)

NPR: Bonobos Share Food When Chimps Won't — More Evidence That Bonobos Are 'Pro-Social'
An intriguing study published this week suggests that bonobos, among the closest relatives to humans, are surprisingly willing to hand over food to a pal. But they didn't share tools. The discovery adds a new wrinkle to scientists' efforts to understand the evolutionary origins of people's unusual propensity to help others. (Greenfieldboyce, 9/11)

NPR: Marijuana Use Increasing Among Older Adults
Members of the generation that came of age in the era of marijuana are reaching for weed in their golden years. A study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence this month suggests that increasing numbers of middle aged and older adults are using marijuana — and using it a lot. The analysis comes from data gathered in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2015 and 2016. About 9 percent of U.S. adults between ages 50 and 64 used marijuana in the the previous year, according to survey results. About 3 percent of people over 65 used the drug in that time period. (Gordon, 9/12)

Kaiser Health News: Doctor To The Stars Disciplined Over Use Of Controversial Menopause Therapy 
A Santa Monica doctor who touted a controversial menopause therapy on the Oprah Winfrey Network and received testimonials for her work from such celebrity patients as model Cindy Crawford and actress-author Suzanne Somers has been disciplined by California’s medical board for gross negligence. In a settlement approved late last month, the Medical Board of California put Dr. Prudence Hall on probation for four years, faulting her for being “unaware” of potential risks posed by the plant-based hormones — including cancer — and failing to monitor her patients properly. (Feder Ostrov, 9/12)