Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Fantastically Promising' Trial For Drug To Treat Huntington's Giving Hope To Formerly Hopeless
The Washington Post: 'Phenomenal' Trial Results May Lead To A Treatment For Huntington's Disease, Experts Say
The discovery of a drug that may treat the fatal disease known as Huntington's is being hailed as “historic” by Louise Vetter, president and CEO of the Huntington's Disease Society of America, and “phenomenal” and “fantastically promising” by Huntington's researchers, including the woman who discovered the genetic mutation that causes the disease. “I'm ecstatic,” said Nancy Wexler, who in 1993 identified the mutation. “Huntington's is horrible, one of the worst diseases known to mankind, and certain death. . . . We know it’s a bad gene, making a bad protein, that makes people sick, that kills your brain cells. Anything that could impact that, we knew that that could be a cure.” (Nutt, 12/12)
The Associated Press: 5 Years After Sandy Hook, Mental Health Care Worries Linger
Anguished mothers with mentally ill children have sought out Liza Long for help ever since she wrote an essay, "I am Adam Lanza's Mother," comparing experiences with her son to the emotionally troubled 20-year-old who carried out the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The massacre sounded alarms nationally about gaps in mental health care and led to calls for better screening and services, especially for young people showing a propensity for violence, but some key reforms enacted in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting depend on funding that has yet to be delivered by Congress. And Long still hears almost daily from families overwhelmed by their children's behaviors and struggling to get treatment. (Haigh, 12/13)
The New York Times: Why You Need The Flu Shot Every Year
Most people know: If you got a flu shot this year, next year you’ll need it again. This is because the virus changes, usually rendering the previous year’s vaccine partly or totally useless. And it’s no secret that the flu vaccine’s effectiveness falls well short of what scientists and public health officials would like to see. Yes, it reduces the severity of influenza infections and prevents thousands of deaths and hospitalizations every year, but nowhere near other recommended vaccines. But why does the virus change so much every year? (Haelle, 12/12)
Los Angeles Times: Is 'Man Flu' Real? Medical Science Delivers Comfort To Helpless Male Snufflers
We've all seen him: The man who strides boldly into high-stakes negotiations, risks serious injury to win a pickup basketball game and fearlessly confronts things that go bump in the night, yet is brought low by a tiny virus. He snivels pitiably, wallows in his misery and tests the most forbearing caregiver with his abject helplessness. The diagnosis often comes with a roll of the eyes. It’s “man flu,” an infectious disease that renders healthy males utterly incapable of self-care. (Healy, 12/12)
The Washington Post: Trump Reportedly Drinks 12 Cans Of Diet Coke Each Day. Is That Healthy?
Those keeping tabs on President Trump's diet know that Wendy's and McDonald's are staples. While campaigning, Trump inhaled Filets-o-Fish and Big Macs and snacked on Oreos. He'd then wash it all down with a Diet Coke. Just how much diet soda the president consumes, though, was revealed Saturday by the New York Times, which reported that Trump has a button to summon household staff for one of the 12 Diet Cokes he drinks each day. (Eltagouri, 12/12)
Bloomberg: FDA Proposal Would Make Clear There's No Gluten In Your Pills
In draft guidance issued on Tuesday, the agency is pushing drugmakers to clearly label that medications taken orally don’t have ingredients from grains that include gluten like wheat, barley or rye. Currently there are no drugs marketed in the U.S. that contain gluten in a quantity that would exceed the amount in a gluten-free food product, the FDA said. The new rules are an attempt to reduce uncertainty for people with gluten sensitivities or diseases aggravated by ingesting gluten. (Koons, 12/12)
The Washington Post: Women Rate The Strongest Men As The Most Attractive, Study Finds
Heterosexual male gym rats, rejoice! Women, when asked in a study to judge photos of men's bodies, rated the strongest men as the most attractive. Height and leanness were appealing attributes, too, but strength played an outsize role in the ratings of a man's torso, per a report published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “No one will be surprised by the idea that strong men are more attractive,” said study author Aaron Lukaszewski, an evolutionary psychologist at California State University at Fullerton. “It's no secret that women like strong, muscular guys.” (Guarino, 12/12)
The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Joint Replacement Surgery Doesn't Work As Well For Obese Patients, Penn Study Finds
To be sure, the University of Pennsylvania study found most people who went through the pain and extended recovery of getting new hip or knee joints wound up better able to carry out everyday activities, no matter what they weighed. But 1 in 4 obese patients reported having more difficulty with bathing, walking, getting in and out of bed, or using the toilet two years after joint surgery, according to the analysis, published in the January issue of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. In comparison, about 1 in 5 patients who were normal weight or overweight reported becoming more disabled after surgery. (McCullough, 12/12)
Kaiser Health News: These Annual Checkups Help Seniors Not Only Survive But Thrive
Bea Lipsky shuffled into her wellness coach’s office one morning this fall and parked her walker by the wall. Lipsky, 89, had had a trying year, enduring a hernia operation and two emergency room visits for heart problems. She’s losing her hearing, and recently gave up her dream of riding in a hot air balloon for her 90th birthday. (Bailey, 12/13)
KQED: Just Because You Have A ‘Mild’ Concussion Doesn’t Mean You’re OK
Each year, about 2.5 million people in the United States are admitted to emergency rooms with traumatic brain injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The difficulties of studying concussions, with their vague symptoms and hidden physical damage, have turned brain injury into a “silent epidemic,” in the words of Pratik Mukherjee, a neuroradiologist at UCSF. (Vassey, 12/12)
San Francisco Chronicle: Life-Shortening Blood Disease Gets Rush Of Research
More than 50 years after the cause of sickle-cell disease was discovered, a dozen treatments for the painful and life-shortening inherited condition offer hope for long-overlooked patients. ...Bluebird Bio Inc. hopes to cure patients with a single injection of its gene therapy one day. (Cortez, 12/12)
