Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Advocates Want To Raise Awareness Of Medical Personnel's Ability To Identify Human Trafficking Victims
The Washington Post: Nonprofits, Medical Profession Tackle Human Trafficking As A Health-Care Crisis
An emergency room patient has a broken bone. Could she suffer from human trafficking, too? Thanks to a growing call to treat trafficking as a public health problem, an ER worker who treats a trafficking victim might be able to connect the dots. Trafficking occurs when someone exploits someone else sexually or makes them perform labor against their will. According to the United Nations’ International Labor Organization, an estimated 24.9 million people are being trafficked worldwide. The vast majority are women, and 1 in 4 victims are children. (Blakemore, 1/4)
The New York Times: Everyone’s Resolution Is To Drink More Water In 2020
Water is pretty boring, as far as beverages go. It doesn’t have a catchy jingle, a secret family recipe or even a taste, really. Yet people can’t seem to get enough of it. “I get people in my office every day, every week, saying something like, ‘I’m concerned I’m not hydrated,’” said Lauren Antonucci, a nutritionist in New York City. Their concerns may be based on conventional wisdom. One well-known recommendation suggests drinking eight glasses of water a day; another warns that if you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. (LeClair, 1/4)
The New York Times: Millions Of Australians Are Choking On Smoke From Wildfires
Australia’s capital, Canberra, has been blanketed by a thick haze of smoke from nearby fires for more than a week. The city recorded its worst air quality day on Jan. 2, with readings of dangerous fine particulate pollution spiking to over 200 micrograms per cubic meter on average during the worst hour, according to Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit research group that aggregates data from air-quality monitoring sites. (Popovich, 1/3)
The New York Times: Early Treatment For Autism Is Critical, New Report Says
In December, the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a new clinical report on autism, an extensive document with an enormous list of references, summarizing 12 years of intense research and clinical activity. During this time, the diagnostic categories changed — Asperger’s syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder, diagnostic categories that once included many children, are no longer used, and we now consider all these children (and adults) to have autism spectrum disorder, or A.S.D. (Klass, 1/6)
The New York Times: Older People Need Geriatricians. Where Will They Come From?
Linda Poskanzer was having a tough time in her late 60s. “I was not doing well emotionally,” she recalled. “Physically, I didn’t have any stamina. I was sleeping a lot. I wasn’t getting to work.” A therapist in Hackensack, N.J., Ms. Poskanzer was severely overweight and grew short of breath after walking even short distances. Her house had become disorganized, buried in unsorted paperwork. The antidepressant she was taking didn’t seem to help. Her son, visiting from Florida, called his sisters and said, “Mommy needs an intervention.” (Span, 1/3)
The New York Times: New Hope For Migraine Sufferers
If you live with or work with someone who suffers from migraine, there’s something very important you should know: A migraine is not “just a headache,” as many seem to think. Nor is it something most sufferers can simply ignore and get on with their lives. And if you are a migraine sufferer, there’s something potentially life-changing that you should know: There are now a number of medications available that can either prevent or alleviate many attacks, as well as a newly marketed wearable nerve-stimulating device that can be activated by a smartphone to relieve the pain of migraine. (Brody, 1/6)
The New York Times: Even A Single Dose Of HPV Vaccine May Provide Protection
The HPV vaccine is highly effective against the cancer-causing types of human papillomavirus, but only half of teenagers and young adults have gotten all three of the doses recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now a new study in women ages 18 to 26 suggests that one shot might be enough. The analysis, in JAMA Open Network, included 1,620 women whose average age was 22. The prevalence of HPV infection was much higher among the 62 percent who were unvaccinated, but there was no significant difference between rates in those with a single dose versus those who had more. (Bakalar, 1/6)
The Washington Post: Not Using Seatbelts In The Back Seat Can Be A Fatal Mistake.
When Uber driver Oguzhan Beliren picks up passengers in his Hyundai Sonata, they almost always buckle up in the front seat, and if they don’t, he reminds them to. But that’s not the case in the rear. “I’d say that 70 to 80 percent of my passengers don’t put on a seat belt in the back seat,” Beliren said during a ride in Washington last month. “People don’t think they’re required to, and I don’t ask them to do it in back, unless there are kids sitting there or if the weather is bad.” (Bergal, 1/4)
NPR: Inspiration To Get Fit: Exercise Gives Purpose, Courage And Social Connection
If ever there was a time to up your fitness game, the arrival of the new year and the new decade is it. But after the allure of the new gym membership wears off, our sedentary habits, more often than not, consume our promise of daily workouts. It doesn't have to be this way, says health psychologist and author, Kelly McGonigal. In her new book, The Joy of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage, the Stanford University lecturer offer new motivation to get moving that has less to do with how we look, or feeling duty-bound to exercise, and everything to do with how movement makes us feel. (O'Neill, 1/4)
Boston Globe: Looking Into The Eyes For Early Signs Of Alzheimer’s Disease
The three organizations on Monday announced the launch of a five-year, $5-million clinical trial of a retinal screening process that could help detect Alzheimer’s more than two decades before symptoms appear. The study is seeking 300 volunteers between the ages of 55 and 80. (Fitzpatrick, 1/6)
