Drunken Driving Epidemic Has Mostly Stagnated Over Past Decade. Experts Say It’s Time To Focus On Root Cause.
Experts say law-enforcement authorities need to do a better job assessing all offenders to determine their risk of repeating. “It’s not as simple as saying don’t drink and then drive. These are people who have underlying issues we need to get to,” said traffic-safety consultant Pam Fischer. In other public health news: a miraculous story about the heart's resilience, new dementia therapies, a testicle transplant, the responsibility of psychotherapists and porn-consumption, the cops' use of lie-detecting software, and more.
The Wall Street Journal:
New Approach Needed To Combat Drunken Driving, Report Says
Nearly 30% of all vehicular-crash deaths in the U.S. last year were alcohol-related, and a group representing state highway-safety offices says focusing on repeat offenders is needed to tackle the problem. Last year, 10,511 people died in crashes involving at least one driver with a blood-alcohol concentration of at least .08%, the legal cutoff in every state except Utah, federal figures show. While that represented a 3.6% drop from 2017, alcohol-related fatality levels have largely stagnated for the past decade. (Calvert, 12/9)
The New York Times:
Cold Stopped A Woman’s Heart For 6 Hours, Then Helped Save Her Life
Audrey Mash arrived at a Spanish hospital cold to the touch and all but dead: Her heart had stopped beating hours earlier, as she clung to her husband in a mountain snowstorm and her body temperature collapsed. But the cold that nearly killed her also helped to save her life. After six hours in cardiac arrest she began to breathe again, rescued by doctors who said that her hypothermic condition — almost 35 degrees below normal — protected her brain from fatal damage. (Schaverien, 12/6)
The New York Times:
New Therapies Help Patients With Dementia Cope With Depression
Ms. Firmender, who has a history of mental health problems, was in therapy for depression. But she also has mild cognitive impairment and can have trouble remembering what day it is. So Dr. Kiosses was treating her with a novel approach called Problem Adaptation Therapy, or PATH. The therapy, developed at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City and White Plains, N.Y., focuses on solving tangible problems that fuel feelings of sadness and hopelessness. It incorporates tools, like checklists, calendars, signs and videos, to make it accessible for people with memory issues. A caregiver is often involved. The approach is one of several new psychotherapies to treat anxiety and depression in people with cognitive impairments, including early to moderate dementia. (Petersen, 12/8)
The New York Times:
Surgeons Transplant A Testicle From One Brother To His Twin
A 36-year-old man born without testicles received one transplanted from his identical twin brother in a six-hour operation performed on Tuesday in Belgrade, Serbia, by an international team of surgeons. The surgery was intended to give the recipient more stable levels of the male hormone testosterone than injections could provide, to make his genitals more natural and more comfortable, and to enable him to father children, said Dr. Dicken Ko, a transplant surgeon and urology professor at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, who flew to Belgrade to help with the procedure. (Grady, 12/6)
Los Angeles Times:
Should Psychotherapists Be Required To Report Patients Who Look At Child Porn?
For years, California law required psychotherapists to report any patient who admitted developing, duplicating, printing or exchanging material depicting an obscene act involving a child. The therapists accepted that requirement. They regarded it as an obligation to report producers and distributors of child pornography. (Dolan, 12/8)
The New York Times:
When A DNA Test Says You’re A Younger Man, Who Lives 5,000 Miles Away
Three months after his bone marrow transplant, Chris Long of Reno, Nev., learned that the DNA in his blood had changed. It had all been replaced by the DNA of his donor, a German man he had exchanged just a handful of messages with. He’d been encouraged to test his blood by a colleague at the Sheriff’s Office, where he worked. She had an inkling this might happen. It’s the goal of the procedure, after all: Weak blood is replaced by healthy blood, and with it, the DNA it contains. (Murphy, 12/7)
ProPublica/South Bend Tribune:
Why Are Cops Around The World Using This Outlandish Mind-Reading Tool?
SCAN, a product sold by a company called the Laboratory for Scientific Interrogation (LSI), has, in the words of four scholars in a 2016 study, “no empirical support” — meaning, there’s no dependable research showing that it works. Scientific Content Analysis is akin to other investigative tools scrutinized by ProPublica, including bloodstain-pattern analysis and photo analysis. These analytical techniques promise a degree of certainty — about how blood came to spray across a wall, or whether a particular plaid shirt was worn by a robber — that can guide an investigator or shore up a case. The trial evidence presented against Joyner included yet another example: a prosecution expert testified that two plastic garbage bags — one found in Joyner’s apartment, the other around Hernandez’s head — had “definitely” once been connected. (Armstrong and Sheckler, 12/7)
The Washington Post:
Terrible Itchiness During Pregnancy May Be A Sign Of ICP, A Condition That Can Lead To Stillbirths
Ashley Sicher had an invisible itch. It had begun in early spring 2017, in the third trimester of her first pregnancy. During the day, the itch was noticeable, but concentrated on her palms and feet. At night, the itch became unbearable, spreading up her arms and torso. She furiously scratched at the subterranean itch with the bristles of a hairbrush, until she broke the skin. Sicher had no rash, and her obstetrician at the time assured her that itching was a normal symptom of pregnancy. Yet this didn’t feel like a normal itch. It was a penetrating, psychologically infuriating itch. (Porter, 12/8)
The Washington Post:
Is Your Stomach Killing You, With Gas, Constipation, Diarrhea? It Could Be SIBO.
Your gastrointestinal system contains about a hundred trillion bacteria. That may sound scary, but it’s actually beneficial because these bacteria help with digestion, immunity and other important functions. Even though they are basically helpful, the bacteria can go astray in disagreeable ways. (Rosenbloom, 12/7)
The Washington Post:
More Pro Athletes Are Using CBD And Cannabis Products For Aches, Pains And Stress
There was a notable face missing at last fall’s Ironman 70.3 World Championships in France. Instead of racing as expected, American Lauren Goss, 31, who had a string of wins at the distance and was feeling fit and ready to compete, was stuck on the sidelines. She’d been banned from competition for six months, lost her main sponsor and is mulling retirement. (Loudin, 12/7)
CNN:
Athletes Have Healthier Brains That Can Actually Hear Better, Study Says
Listen closely: Can you hear that noisy static in your brain? Neurobiologist Nina Kraus can. At her lab at Northwestern University called "Brainvolts," she and her colleagues can attach a series of electrodes to your scalp and record the electricity your brain produces in response to a sound. (LaMotte, 12/9)
NPR:
Performing CPR On A Woman Is No Harder, Trainers Say. And It Can Save Lives
When students in wilderness EMT Alice Henshaw's training courses grab practice dummies for CPR drills, they have their choice of a traditional, flat-chested training manikin or one that looks a little different: a manikin zipped into a neoprene vest with silicone breasts. That's the Womanikin, a universal attachment for CPR dummies created by New York-based ad agency Joan Creative in partnership with The United State of Women. The idea behind this breasted vest — and the related awareness campaign — is to address gender disparities in training and performance of CPR, which is vital for anyone experiencing cardiac arrest. (Treisman, 12/7)
The New York Times:
Even A Little Alcohol May Raise Cancer Risk
Even moderate alcohol consumption may increase the risk for cancer. Japanese scientists compared the drinking habits of 63,232 cancer patients in Japan with those of an equal number of healthy controls. All reported their average daily alcohol intake and the number of years they had been drinking. (Bakalar, 12/9)
The New York Times:
Denmark Raises Antibiotic-Free Pigs. Why Can’t The U.S.?
How many rounds of antibiotics does it take to raise a Danish pig? If it is one of the 35,000 piglets raised each year on Soren Sondergaard’s sprawling farm, odds are the animal will get just a single course before it goes to slaughter. At times, a quarter or more of his swine arrive at the abattoir without ever having received any antimicrobial drugs at all. (Jacobs, 12/6)
PBS NewsHour:
How Building A Community Of Care Can Improve Farmworkers’ Health
Farmworkers face major challenges when it comes to staying healthy. They often spend hours daily performing physical labor that taxes the body, while language barriers and lack of employer-paid health insurance complicate their access to care. But the Southeast Arizona Area Health Education Center is working on a unique way to improve health care for these workers. (Abbott, 12/6)
