Dealing With The Loneliness Epidemic: ‘Tea With Strangers’ Group Is Latest Experiment To Bring People Together

The New York Times: Feeling Lonely? Perhaps You’d Like To Talk To Some Strangers
When Ankit Shah graduated from college and moved to the Bay Area in 2013, he didn’t know a single person there. Hungry for connections, he asked his Facebook friends to ask their Bay Area-based friends if they’d like to have tea with him, a stranger. “I was very nervous that people would be like ‘who’s this weirdo on the internet?’” Mr. Shah said. “But sure enough, my friends started tagging their friends in the comments — some even shared it on their own page — and eventually, there were more people interested in getting tea than I could keep up with.” (Hotz, 7/18)

NPR: New Study Suggests Increased Rates Of Memory Loss And Confusion In LGBTQ Elders
LGBTQ Americans were recently found 29% more likely to report memory loss and confusion — two early signs of dementia— than their straight, cisgender counterparts. The research, led by the University of California, San Francisco, was released at the 2019 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Los Angeles. A large phone-based survey was conducted across nine states. Out of more than 44,000 adults aged 45 and older, roughly 3% of participants identified themselves as a sexual or gender minority. (Matias, 7/17)

The Associated Press: Winners Overlook Rigged Games' Lack Of Fairness, Study Finds
When it comes to fairness and privilege, a new study finds it really is not about how you play the game. It's about whether you win or lose. A new experiment, played out as a card game, shows that even when the deck is literally stacked in people's favor — and they know it — most winners still think it's fair anyway. Losers don't, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Science Advances. (7/17)

The New York Times: The Sad Truth About Sleep-Tracking Devices And Apps
For the last two weeks, I’ve added an extra step to my bedtime routine: strapping a computer around my wrist. The new nightly move was prompted by a cascade of wearable gadgets from companies like Fitbit and Apple, which claim that their sensor-laden bracelets and watches can improve our lives by helping us detect health problems so that we can come up with solutions. (Chen, 7/17)

Kaiser Health News: Common Medications Can Masquerade As Dementia In Seniors
By all accounts the woman, in her late 60s, appeared to have severe dementia. She was largely incoherent. Her short-term memory was terrible. She couldn’t focus on questions that medical professionals asked her. But Dr. Malaz Boustani, a professor of aging research at Indiana University School of Medicine, suspected something else might be going on. The patient was taking Benadryl for seasonal allergies, another antihistamine for itching, Seroquel (an antipsychotic medication) for mood fluctuations, as well as medications for urinary incontinence and gastrointestinal upset. (Graham, 7/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Behind The Scenes Of Netflix’s Call To Alter ‘13 Reasons Why’ Episode
When Brian Yorkey was adapting Jay Asher’s book for the Netflix Inc. TV show “13 Reasons Why”—about a teen girl who commits suicide and the aftermath—he took creative liberty with the source material, changing the depiction of protagonist Hannah Baker’s death from an overdose of pills to a graphic wrist-slitting. That decision created more than two years of controversy for Netflix, as mental-health advocates criticized the portrayal and studies suggested the show could have been a factor in a spike in teen suicides in the month after the show premiered. (Flint, 7/17)

Stat: Do Elon Musk’s Brain Implants Have Potential? Experts Say They Might
The immediate aim of the San Francisco startup’s technology is a system enabling people who are paralyzed to use their thoughts to operate computers and smartphones. That has all been done before, including by Schwartz’s group and one at Brown University, where in 2011 two tetraplegic patients who had been implanted with the “BrainGate” neural interface system were able to control robotic arms with their thoughts, including lifting a bottle of coffee and drinking it. (Begley and Robbins, 7/18)

The New York Times: Heat Wave To Hit Two-Thirds Of The U.S. Here’s What To Expect.
Dangerously hot temperatures are expected to spread across the Central and Eastern United States on Wednesday through the weekend, with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the hardest-hit places, the National Weather Service has warned. And even when the sun dips below the horizon, temperatures in many places are expected to remain in the 80s. (Stockman, 7/17)

Stat: An AI System Predicts When Pancreatic Cysts Will Turn Cancerous 
Pancreatic cancer often kills people because they are diagnosed too late, after their tumors have spread. Other patients may die following the removal of harmless cysts that appear threatening amid a fog of imaging data and other clinical information. But a new artificial intelligence system unveiled Wednesday by doctors at Johns Hopkins offers to provide a clearer picture for patients: In testing, it displayed a superhuman ability to differentiate harmful lesions from ones that pose no threat at all. (Ross, 7/17)

Bloomberg: Why Sex-Related Infections Are Spreading Again: QuickTake 
Sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, are rebounding in rich countries after being firmly in retreat for decades. Syphilis, for example, can cause stillbirths and infant deaths, and years later can lead to blindness, dementia or paralysis. The resurgence is a result of multiple factors including inconsistent condom usage and the abuse of illicit recreational drugs. At the same time, some common STIs, such as gonorrhea and shigellosis, are becoming harder to treat because of antibiotic resistance. (Gale, 7/17)

The Associated Press: Scientists Find New Way To Kill Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes
Scientists say they nearly eliminated disease-carrying mosquitoes on two islands in China using a new technique. The downside: It may not be practical for larger areas and may cost a lot of money. In the experiment, researchers targeted Asian tiger mosquitoes, invasive white-striped bugs that can spread dengue fever, Zika and other diseases. They used a novel approach for pest control: First, they infected the bugs with a virus-fighting bacterium, and then zapped them with a small dose of radiation. (7/17)

The Washington Post: Tick In Eye: Doctor Removes Tick From Kentucky Man's Eyeball
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns people to check under their arms, around their ears and even inside their bellybutton for ticks after possible exposure. The agency may have to add another, especially cringeworthy tick harbor to the list: the eyeball. A Kentucky man says he went to the doctor for eye irritation and found out it was caused by one of the eight-legged, bloodsucking critters. (Knowles, 7/17)

Kaiser Health News: ‘Climate Grief’: Fears About The Planet’s Future Weigh On Americans’ Mental Health
Therapist Andrew Bryant says the landmark United Nations climate report last October brought a new mental health concern to his patients.“I remember being in sessions with folks the next day. They had never mentioned climate change before, and they were like, ‘I keep hearing about this report,’” Bryant said. “Some of them expressed anxious feelings, and we kept talking about it over our next sessions.” The study, conducted by the world’s leading climate scientists, said that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, by 2040 the Earth will warm by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius). (Knight, 7/18)