Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Climate Change Means Fungal Infections Will Be More Common
NBC News: Fungal Infections To Become More Common As Their Ranges Expand
“We’re definitely seeing disease in locations that we previously have not,” said Dr. George Thompson, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, Davis. “And that’s concerning, because if we’re recognizing those locations, where are the places it’s occurring that just have not been recognized quite yet?” (Yang and Bendix, 11/21)
On the importance of health screenings —
Stat: A Simple Screening Could Help Millions Of Women Prevent Heart Disease
Early one afternoon in 2000, Monique Shields, just a few weeks shy of her 30th birthday, left her busy day as an executive assistant at Starbucks’ corporate headquarters to go to her routine prenatal checkup. Following standard care practice, the nurse checked Shields’ blood pressure. It was sky-high. Her health care team sent her to the emergency department for monitoring. (Courage, 11/22)
Detroit Free Press: Updated Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines: Who Is Eligible
Anthony Patterson got lucky — twice. His first stroke of good fortune came in 2011, when a fall led him to the emergency room of a local hospital. While he was there, doctors noticed his heart wasn’t beating as it should. A pacemaker was implanted, potentially saving his life. (Jordan Shamus, 11/21)
In other health and wellness news —
USA Today: Seasonal Depression: How Many People Have It? Symptoms, How To Combat
As the days grow colder and daylight becomes more scarce, some Americans are oversleeping, overeating, experiencing weight gain and social withdrawal or hibernating. The symptoms are part of a condition called seasonal affective disorder, also known as SAD or seasonal depression. (Martin, 11/22)
The New York Times: With Anxiety On The Rise, Some Children Try ‘Exposure Therapy’
Audrey Pirri, 16, had been terrified of vomiting since she was a toddler. She worried every time she shared a meal with family or friends, restricting herself to “safe” foods like pretzels and salad that wouldn’t upset her stomach, if she ate at all. She was afraid to ride in the car with her brother, who often got carsick. She fretted for hours about an upcoming visit to a carnival or stadium — anywhere with lots of people and their germs. But on a Tuesday evening in August, in her first intensive session of a treatment called exposure therapy, Audrey was determined to confront one of the most potent triggers of her fear: a set of rainbow polka dot sheets. (Hughes, 11/21)
Los Angeles Times: Kidney Specialists Revisit Bruce Lee's Cause Of Death
Did too much water kill Bruce Lee, the martial-arts legend known for saying, “Be water, my friend”? That’s the notion put forth in a new research paper by a group of kidney specialists from Spain. (D'Zurilla, 11/21)
The FERN: Why America’s Food-Security Crisis Is A Water-Security Crisis, Too
Deepak Palakshappa became a pediatrician to give poor kids access to good medical care. Still, back in his residency days, the now-associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem was shocked to discover that a patient caring for two young grandchildren was food insecure. “Our clinic had set up one of those food drive boxes, and near the end of a visit, she asked if she could have any of the cans because she didn’t have food for the holidays,” he recalls. Thirteen years later, Palakshappa’s clinic team now asks two simple questions of every patient to ascertain whether they’ll run out of food in a given month. (Nargi, 11/20)
