First Edition: September 3, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Starving Seniors: How America Fails To Feed Its Aging
Army veteran Eugene Milligan is 75 years old and blind. He uses a wheelchair since losing half his right leg to diabetes and gets dialysis for kidney failure. And he has struggled to get enough to eat. Earlier this year, he ended up in the hospital after burning himself while boiling water for oatmeal. The long stay caused the Memphis vet to fall off a charity’s rolls for home-delivered Meals on Wheels, so he had to rely on others, such as his son, a generous off-duty nurse and a local church to bring him food. (Ungar and Lieberman, 9/3)

Kaiser Health News: How To Get Bargain Dentistry And A Vacation To Boot
“Do you want numbing gel?” the dental technician asked me as she prepared to plunge into my mouth. In the entire history of dentistry, from caveman days to now, who has ever said no to more painkiller? Smear that gel around like spackle! She did. And then ground and scraped. And scraped and ground, for a full hour and a half. (Salmon, 9/3)

Kaiser Health News: Firing Doctor, Christian Hospital Sets Off National Challenge To Aid-In-Dying Laws
A Christian-run health system in Colorado has fired a veteran doctor who went to court to fight for the right of her patient to use the state’s medical aid-in-dying law, citing religious doctrine that describes “assisted suicide” as “intrinsically evil.” Centura Health Corp. this week abruptly terminated Dr. Barbara Morris, 65, a geriatrician with 40 years of experience, who had planned to help her patient, Cornelius “Neil” Mahoney, 64, end his life at his home. Mahoney, who has terminal cancer, is eligible to use the state’s law, overwhelmingly approved by Colorado voters in 2016. (Aleccia, 8/30)

The Washington Post: Democrats Press Trump, GOP To Tighten Gun Controls After Odessa Mass Shooting
Democrats on Sunday pleaded with President Trump and congressional Republicans to tighten gun restrictions in the wake of a mass shooting in West Texas that pushed the number of people killed in such incidents to more than 50 in August alone. Trump dismissed tougher background checks — “they would not have stopped any of it” — and suggested that Saturday’s shooting, which left seven dead and 19 wounded, had done little to change his calculus on gun control as talks continue between administration officials and some in Congress. (Sonmez and Winfield Cunningham, 9/1)

The Associated Press: Trump Says He'll Work With Congress To Stop Mass Shootings
President Donald Trump expressed a commitment Sunday, hours after the latest deadly mass shooting, to work with a divided Congress to "stop the menace of mass attacks." He said any measures must satisfy the competing goals of protecting public safety and the constitutional right to gun ownership and seemed to cast fresh doubt on the merits of instituting more thorough background checks for gun purchases. Trump spoke shortly after the death toll in Saturday's rampage in West Texas rose to seven as authorities worked to understand why a man pulled over for a traffic infraction opened fire on state troopers and fled. He shot more than 20 people before he was killed by police. A motive has not been released. (Superville, 9/1)

USA Today: Texas Shooting Unites Odessa Teens 'As One' To Make A Difference
They gathered as the children they are near the statue of a cowboy-hat wearing Prairie Dog in Prairie Pete Playland Park. But they left radiating the best qualities of adulthood — defiance, determination and benevolence. Nearly 100 teens from two area high schools, Odessa High School and Permian High School, met Monday evening with the simple purpose of deciding how they could help the victims of Saturday’s mass shooting, which has left seven dead and 25 wounded. (Della Cava, Schroeder and Frank, 9/2)

CNN: White House Focuses On Death Penalty In Piecemeal Gun Control Package
The Trump administration is preparing a package of legislative measures responding to a spate of recent mass shootings, aides said Monday, even as White House and congressional staffs remain far apart on the best path forward. The package will include legislation that would expedite the death penalty for people found guilty of mass killings, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff told reporters. But it's unlikely to include new provisions expanding background checks on gun sales after President Donald Trump backed off support for such steps following outcry from the National Rifle Association and warnings about the political consequences. (Liptak, 9/2)

Reuters: White House To Propose Expedited Death Penalty For Perpetrators Of Mass Shootings
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has drafted legislation that would speed the death penalty for people who have committed mass murder, a White House official said on Monday. Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, told reporters on Air Force 2 that the measure would be part of a package of gun legislation that the White House intends to propose to Congress. (9/2)

Politico: Trump Steers Clear Of Background Checks As Possible Solution On Guns
Following Saturday’s shootings in West Texas, President Donald Trump on Sunday remained firm that his “administration is committed to working with Congress to stop the menace of mass attacks” but did not include universal background checks as part of the solution this time. Trump largely attributed the shootings to mental health issues and said the mass attacks have “been going on for a long time” and that he wants to reduce them. (Quilantan, 9/1)

Reuters: Trump Says Background Checks Would Not Have Prevented Recent Gun Violence 
Trump said at the White House that "for the most part, as strong as you make your background checks, they would not have stopped any of it." Last month, a gunman killed 22 people and wounded another 24 in El Paso, Texas, while another assailant killed nine and injured 27 in Dayton, Ohio. (Holland and Shalal, 9/1)

The New York Times: 2020 Democrats Demand Gun Control, But Differ On Tactics
Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, two of the leading candidates for the 2020 Democratic nomination, made the case on Monday for muscular new gun control proposals, but differed on whether it was possible to reach compromise with congressional Republicans. Mr. Biden said it was not. Ms. Warren seemed more open to the idea. As much of the Democratic field fanned out across Iowa and New Hampshire to campaign this holiday weekend, Mr. Biden told reporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that the only solution for major new gun control legislation was to defeat Republicans in the elections 14 months away — “flat-out beat them,” as he put it. (Epstein and Astor, 9/2)

The Hill: Gun Debate To Shape 2020 Races
Lawmakers return to Washington next week with both sides vowing a robust debate on gun reform following a pair of deadly mass shootings in Texas and another in Ohio. But the discussion promised by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is a far cry from assured action, and the GOP leader’s long history opposing tougher firearm laws has left many Democrats skeptical that any meaningful reforms will move through the Republican-controlled Senate. (Lillis and Wong, 9/2)

Politico: Hours After Shooting Rampage, Texas Gun Laws Loosened
Several new firearm laws took hold in Texas on Sunday, loosening restrictions as to when and where weapons can be carried, one day after the state was rocked by a shooting in which a gunman killed seven and wounded at least 21. A man opened fire during a traffic stop in Midland, Texas, on Saturday afternoon, firing at random as he drove down the highway and into Odessa. The shootings came less than a month after a gunman killed 22 people in El Paso and wounded two dozen more. Texas has seen 4 of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern history. (Dugyala, 9/1)

The Wall Street Journal: As Texas Deals With Recent Violence, Looser Gun Laws In State Take Effect
Supporters of the new laws argue they empower law-abiding citizens who carry firearms legally and ensure they are not defenseless when violence breaks out. The backers also said these changes protect their constitutional right to bear arms. “It makes no sense to disarm the good guys and leave law-abiding citizens defenseless where violent offenders break the law to do great harm,” said Texas state Sen. Donna Campbell, a Republican, said earlier this year. Gun-control groups have criticized these laws, arguing that instead of protecting public safety, they put more people in danger. (Fung and Findell, 9/1)

The New York Times: West Texas Shooting Spree Terrorized Two Towns And Killed 7
The 36-year-old man who terrorized two West Texas towns with an assault-style rifle Saturday had been fired from his trucking job a few hours before he led the authorities on a chaotic high-speed chase that ended with his death and the deaths of seven others. Along a 15-mile stretch between the sister cities of Midland and Odessa, the aftermath of the gunman’s rampage — in which he indiscriminately fired on motorists and police officers with an AR-15-style rifle while driving — clashed with the typically serene and dusty rural landscape of the region. (Holt and Fernandez, 9/1)

The Associated Press: FBI: West Texas Gunman 'Was On A Long Spiral Of Going Down'
The gunman in a West Texas rampage "was on a long spiral of going down" and had been fired from his oil services job the morning he killed seven people, calling 911 both before and after the shooting began, authorities said Monday. Officers killed 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator on Saturday outside a busy Odessa movie theater after a spate of violence that spanned 10 miles, injuring at least 25 people in addition to the dead, authorities said. (9/2)

The Washington Post: Texas Gunman Who Killed 7 Was Fired From Job On Day Of Rampage
Authorities said Monday that Seth Aaron Ator, 36, had reached out to police and to the FBI after he was let go from Journey Oilfield Services. He and his employer called the Odessa Police Department that morning, police said. When police officers arrived at the company’s office, Ator had left. “Basically, they were complaining on each other” over the firing, Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke said. Ator did not make threats of violence. Later in the day, Ator left a “rambling” statement with an FBI tip line but did not make a specific threat, FBI special agent Christopher Combs said during a news conference Monday. (Guarino, 9/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Death Toll Rises To Seven In Texas Rampage
In a news conference Sunday, officials praised local law enforcement for stopping the shooter, speculating that he may have been heading into the Cinergy movie theater when he was killed. “Why would you go to a theater if you’re not planning on going into the theater?” Police Chief Michael Gerke said, adding that the movie theater is one of the most crowded places in Odessa on a Saturday. (Findell, 9/1)

The Washington Post: Sen. Bernie Sanders Teases Plan To Cancel $81 Billion In Americans’ Medical Debt
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders plans to release a new proposal to cancel $81 billion worth of medical debt Americans are struggling to pay off, adding to a suite of ideas that would represent the largest expansion of the nation’s social safety net in decades and likely cost tens of trillions of dollars. The senator from Vermont is seeking the Democratic nomination on promises of enacting Medicare-for-all, wiping away student loan debt and aggressively combating climate change, initiatives that together would cost an estimated $48 trillion or more over a decade, a tally of campaign estimates shows. (Sullivan, 8/31)

Reuters: Bernie Sanders Proposes Canceling $81 Billion U.S. Medical Debt
Sanders, an independent U.S. senator from Vermont, said in a statement that under his plan, the government would negotiate and pay off past-due medical bills that have been reported to credit agencies. The proposal, he said, would also repeal some elements of the 2005 Bankruptcy reform bill and allow other existing and future medical debt to be discharged. (8/31)

The Associated Press: Sanders: Medicare For All Means More Taxes, Better Coverage
Health care was the focus of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders' second day of campaigning in pivotal early-voting South Carolina, where lack of Medicaid expansion has left thousands unable to obtain health coverage. The Vermont senator focused on "Medicare for All," his signature proposal replacing job-based and individual private health insurance with a government-run plan that guarantees coverage for all with no premiums, deductibles and only minimal copays for certain services. (Kinnard, 8/30)

The Associated Press: Too Old For President? Health And Fitness A Better Question
Science says age is only a number, not a proxy for physical and mental fitness. But with three Democrats in their 70s vying to challenge the oldest first-term president in American history, age's importance will be tested as never before. Only a few years separate President Donald Trump, 73, from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 77, and former Vice President Joe Biden, 76. But as Trump mocks Biden for verbal missteps, suggesting age has slowed his Democratic rival, both Sanders and Biden have conspicuously showcased their physical activity during the campaign. (Neergaard and Schor, 8/31)

The New York Times: The Mysterious Vaping Illness That’s ‘Becoming An Epidemic’
An 18-year-old showed up in a Long Island emergency room, gasping for breath, vomiting and dizzy. When a doctor asked if the teenager had been vaping, he said no. The patient’s older brother, a police officer, was suspicious. He rummaged through the youth’s room and found hidden vials of marijuana for vaping. “I don’t know where he purchased it. He doesn’t know,” said Dr. Melodi Pirzada, chief pediatric pulmonologist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., who treated the young man. “Luckily, he survived.” (Kaplan and Richtel, 8/31)

The New York Times: Don’t Use Bootleg Or Street Vaping Products, C.D.C. Warns
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday warned people not to use vaping ingredients bought on the street, and to stop modifying either nicotine or cannabis e-cigarette devices, in an effort to curb the vaping-related lung sicknesses that have alarmed health officials in more than two dozen states this summer. Despite the lack of evidence pointing to a single flawed product or device common among many of the patients suffering respiratory problems, the agency took the unusual step of issuing several recommendations — including telling people worried about their health that they should not even use e-cigarettes and should consult a doctor if they are trying to quit smoking. (Kaplan, 8/30)

Politico: CDC Urges Vapers To Beware As Toll Of Lung Cases Rises To 215
There does not appear to be a single product involved in all of the cases, but many of the patients reported through Aug. 27 said they vaped THC or cannabinoids like CBD, the agencies said in a news release. Expressing growing concern about the outbreak, the agencies said they were "working tirelessly" to investigate the illnesses, which resulted in at least one death, in Illinois. (Owermohle, 8/30)

The Washington Post: As Vaping-Related Lung Illnesses Spike, Investigators Eye Contaminants
State and federal health authorities are focusing on the role of contaminants or counterfeit substances as a likely cause of vaping-related lung illnesses — now up to 354 possible cases in 29 states, nearly double the number reported to be under investigation last week, The Washington Post has learned. Officials are narrowing the possible culprits to adulterants in vaping products purported to have THC, the component in marijuana that makes users high, as well as adulterants in nicotine vaping products. (Sun and McGinley, 8/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Lung Illnesses Linked To Vaping Rise, Says CDC
Patients, mostly teenagers and young adults, often first report symptoms like breathing difficulty, coughing, chest pain and fatigue, officials said, which gradually grow worse and have resulted in hospitalization. Some patients also experienced diarrhea and vomiting. Many patients needed assisted ventilation, and some had to be intubated, according to the CDC, and one adult in Illinois died after being hospitalized for severe respiratory problems linked to recent e-cigarette use. (Abbott, 8/30)

The New York Times: Faced With Criticism, Trump Administration Reverses Abrupt End To Humanitarian Relief
The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would reconsider its decision to force immigrants facing life-threatening health crises to return to their home countries, an abrupt move last month that generated public outrage and was roundly condemned by the medical establishment. On Aug. 7, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, without public notice, eliminated a “deferred action” program that had allowed immigrants to avoid deportation while they or their relatives were undergoing lifesaving medical treatment. (Jordan, 9/2)

Politico: Family Planning Clinics Watch Their Safety Nets Vanish
Some health clinics that quit the federal family planning program over Trump anti-abortion policies are cutting staff, charging for services that had been free and making other austerity moves to avert a major hollowing out of reproductive health care for poor women. At least four state health departments, hundreds of Planned Parenthood clinics and dozens of independent providers have withdrawn from the more than $250 million Title X program. Some have literally had to box up and return unused supplies bought with a government discount. They’re leaning on emergency funds, private donations and in some instances, state assistance. (Ollstein and Roubein, 9/1)

The Hill: Health Advocates Fear Planned Parenthood Funding Loss Could Worsen STD Crisis
Public health advocates are warning that record-high rates of sexually transmitted diseases could worsen as Planned Parenthood, a major provider of STD testing and treatment, faces a loss of federal funding under a new Trump rule. Planned Parenthood’s loss of $60 million a year in government funding is seen by advocates as a huge setback in the fight against “epidemic”-level STD rates that could lead to more low-income people going untreated. (Hellmann, 8/31)

The Washington Post: Sacklers Could Hold On To Most Of Personal Fortune In Proposed Purdue Settlement
The Sackler family, which grew into one of the nation’s wealthiest dynasties through sales of the widely abused painkiller OxyContin, could emerge from a legal settlement under negotiation with its personal fortunes largely intact, according to an analysis reviewed by The Washington Post and people familiar with the discussions. Under a novel plan to relinquish control of their company, Purdue Pharma, and resurrect it as a trust whose main purpose would be to combat the opioid epidemic, the Sacklers could raise most, if not all, of their personal share of the $10 billion to $12 billion agreement by selling their international drug conglomerate, Mundipharma, according to the documents and those close to the talks. (Bernstein, Davis, Rowland and Merle, 8/31)

The New York Times: Sacklers Vs. States: Settlement Talks Stumble Over Foreign Business
Purdue Pharma’s negotiations to settle thousands of lawsuits over the company’s role in the opioids crisis have turned into a standoff between members of the Sackler family, who own the company, and a group of state attorneys general over how much the family should pay and whether it can continue selling drugs abroad. The Sacklers are deep in negotiations that, if finalized, would force them to give up ownership of Purdue, the company widely blamed for the onset of the opioid epidemic with its aggressive marketing of the prescription painkiller OxyContin. But they want to keep selling OxyContin and other drugs abroad for as many as seven more years, through another company they own, Mundipharma, based in Cambridge, England. (Goldstein, Hakim and Hoffman, 8/30)

The Washington Post: Ohio Attorney General Sues To Stop Upcoming Opioid Trials
Upcoming trials seen as test cases for forcing drugmakers to pay for societal damage inflicted by the opioid epidemic should be delayed until Ohio’s own lawsuits against the drugmakers can be heard, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost argued in a lawsuit. Yost, a Republican, said attempts to force drugmakers to pay should come in a single state action to allow equal distribution of money across Ohio. His lawsuit, filed Friday in federal appeals court in Cincinnati, comes amidst urgent negotiations over a potentially massive settlement between drugmakers and thousands of communities across the country. (Welsh-Huggins, 9/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Ohio Attorney General Seeks Delay Of Landmark Opioid Trial
Virtually every state has filed a lawsuit in the past two years, along with some 2,000 cities, counties and Native American tribes, alleging players in the pharmaceutical supply chain are to blame for fueling widespread opioid addiction. The situation has been particularly fractious in Ohio. Friday’s filing argues if the two counties are allowed to take their cases to trial, it “would fragment the State’s claims, pose a high risk of inconsistent verdicts, result in duplicative or overlapping damages, and misallocate funds in the State.” (Randazzo, 8/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Allergan To Pay $5 Million To Settle Ohio Opioid Suit
Allergan said it agreed to pay $5 million to settle its part of a landmark federal opioid trial slated to begin in Cleveland in October. The Dublin-based pharmaceuticals company said it would pay $1.9 million to Summit County, Ohio, and $3.1 million to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the two plaintiffs whose claims were chosen to serve as bellwethers in sprawling litigation over the opioid epidemic. Pharmaceutical company Endo International PLC earlier this month reached a $10 million settlement with the counties in the litigation. (Kellaher, 9/30)

Politico: ‘The Nightmare Everyone Is Worried About’: HIV Cases Tied To Opioids Spike In West Virginia County
A cluster of HIV cases in a rural West Virginia county represents what public health officials have long feared amid the nationwide opioid epidemic. Cabell County has reported 74 cases since January 2018, primarily among drug users sharing contaminated needles. The recent surge in infections represents the convergence of two major health epidemics, HIV and opioids, the Trump administration has pledged to fight. (Goldberg, 9/2)

Stat: Doctors More Likely To Prescribe Opioids Later In The Day — Or If Running Late
After seeing dozens of patients in a hectic and long day in the clinic, when a doctor is faced with another patient in pain, it may be easiest to prescribe opioids and move on to the next one. New research suggests that doctors who practice with this habit could be contributing to the opioid epidemic. A study published in JAMA Network Open on Friday reveals that physicians were more likely to prescribe opioids later in the day and when appointments were running behind schedule. (Corley, 8/30)

Los Angeles Times: Fentanyl Is Remaking The Mexican Drug Trade And Taking American Lives
Melissa and Daryl McKinsey first heard about “Mexican Oxy” last year when their 19-year-old son Parker called in tears. “I need to go to rehab,” he said. Several months earlier, a friend had given Parker a baby-blue pill that was stamped on one side with the letter M. It resembled a well-known brand of oxycodone, the prescription painkiller that sparked the American opioid epidemic. (Linthicum, 9/1)

The Washington Post: Indiana Seeks To Impose Slower, Kinder Work Requirements On Medicaid Recipients
When onetime governor Mike Pence and consultant Seema Verma ran Indiana’s conservative health-care system, they found a creative way to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act when many other red states rejected it. Now, with Pence as vice president and Verma as the head of the federal Medicaid and Medicare programs, Indiana is again blazing its own path on health care, with the Trump administration’s avid encouragement. Like other states, Indiana recently imposed work requirements on some of the state’s 1.4 million Hoosiers who receive benefits under the health program for low-income Americans. (Winfield Cunningham, 9/1)

The Washington Post: How Veterans Affairs Failed To Stop A Pathologist Who Misdiagnosed 3,000 Cases
By the time he and his wife Sara faced Veterans Affairs medical staff across a conference table in September, Kelly Copelin had lost 75 pounds and could swallow only small pieces of solid food. Radiation therapy had blistered his throat. This was the moment they would finally learn why their lives were so changed. Why when he went to the Fayetteville VA three years earlier with a severe earache, the biopsy came back negative — and he was given antibiotics instead of treatment for what was diagnosed 13 months later as late-stage neck and throat cancer. The pathologist who had misdiagnosed Copelin’s diseased tissue in 2015 was intoxicated, the hospital’s chief physician told the couple. He had failed to see the squamous cell carcinoma on the slide before him, the doctor said. (Rein, 8/30)

The Associated Press: Feds: Probe Into Deaths At VA Hospital Is 'Top Priority'
Federal prosecutors said Friday a sweeping criminal probe into a number of suspicious deaths at a Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia would be their "top priority." Bill Powell, the U.S. attorney in West Virginia, said his office is involved in a "comprehensive federal criminal investigation" into the deaths of up to 11 patients at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg. At least two of the deaths have been ruled homicides, according to attorneys representing families of men who died. (8/30)

The New York Times: The Hospital Treated These Patients. Then It Sued Them.
The first time Carlsbad Medical Center sued Misti Price, she was newly divorced and working two jobs to support her three young children. The hospital demanded payment in 2012 for what Ms. Price recalled as an emergency room visit for one of her children who has asthma. She could not afford a lawyer, and she did not have the money to pay the bill. Ms. Price let the summons go unanswered, figuring she would settle the balance — with interest, about $3,600 — when she could. A few months later, she opened her paycheck and discovered the hospital had garnished her wages by $870 a month. (Beil, 9/3)

The New York Times: On The Job, 24 Hours A Day, 27 Days A Month
Tuesday night was rough. A sharp scent drifted into Marjorie Salmon’s dream world at 4 a.m. She was still trying to rouse herself when its source, her 77-year-old client, pounded on her bedroom door, yelling that he wanted to go home. “You’re home, Bob. This is your home,” Marjorie told him. She calmed him down, cleaned him off, showered him, dressed him and put him back to bed, but could not get herself back to sleep. (Newman, 9/2)

The New York Times: Getting Your Medical Records Through An App? There’s A Catch. And A Fight.
Americans may soon be able to get their medical records through smartphone apps as easily as they order takeout food from Seamless or catch a ride from Lyft. But prominent medical organizations are warning that patient data-sharing with apps could facilitate invasions of privacy — and they are fighting the change. The battle stems from landmark medical information-sharing rules that the federal government is now working to complete. (Singer, 9/3)

NPR: A Speedy Test For Norovirus Could Help Water Supplies Check For Contamination
Norovirus tends to makes the news when an outbreak occurs on cruise ships. But the virus affects many more people than ocean-going vacationers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates some 20 million people suffer acute intestinal illness from norovirus each year in this country. It's responsible for more than half of all cases of foodborne illness in the United States. (Palca, 9/30)

The New York Times: Weight-Loss Surgery May Reduce Heart Risks In People With Type 2 Diabetes
Every year, hundreds of thousands of obese Americans undergo weight-loss surgery in a last-ditch effort to shed pounds and control their Type 2 diabetes. Now a new study suggests that bariatric surgery may also have other significant health benefits, cutting the overall risk of serious cardiovascular events and premature death by almost half. (Rabin, 9/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Weight-Loss Surgery Has Other Benefits: Easing Diabetes And Heart Disease
Analyzing the electronic health records over eight years of 13,722 obese patients with Type 2 diabetes and other high-risk health problems, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found that those who had bariatric surgery—also known as metabolic or weight-loss surgery—were 39% less likely to experience a heart- or stroke-related event than those who had standard medical care. The surgery patients were also 41% less likely to die from any cause. Those effects were huge, said Ali Aminian, a bariatric surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and lead author. (McKay, 9/2)

The Washington Post: Congenital Syphilis Spikes, Leading To Birth Defects And Baby Deaths
Rates of congenital syphilis — which can cause miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects — are rising in the United States, and the number of babies infected with syphilis during pregnancy is now the highest in decades. Health experts are pushing for better education, testing and access to health care, and some states with the most cases of congenital syphilis are beginning to respond to the crisis. (Bever, 8/30)

NPR: Optimists Live Longer, Study Finds — And A Positive Outlook Is Teachable
Good news for the cheery: A Boston study published this month suggests people who tend to be optimistic are likelier than others to live to be 85 years old or more. That finding was independent of other factors thought to influence life's length — such as "socioeconomic status, health conditions, depression, social integration, and health behaviors," the researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health say. Their work appears in a recent issue of the science journal PNAS. (Neighmond, 9/1)

The New York Times: Wide-Awake At 3 A.M.? Don’t Just Look At Your Phone
The only thing worse than feeling completely wired at 11 p.m. when you’re ready for sleep is being stark awake at 3 a.m. Blissfully passing out at an appropriate bedtime is cold comfort when the brain wakes up too soon and refuses to take advantage of those eight full hours. I toss and turn and scrunch up my pillow every which way, exasperated and fixated on the impending doom of the alarm clock set to go off at 6 a.m. (Chen, 8/30)

The Wall Street Journal: For Those Who Don’t Identify As Male Or Female, Growing Acceptance—And Accommodation
A growing number of states and companies are allowing people to designate their gender as “X” instead of male or female on driver’s licenses and other forms of identification. The changes are a response to transgender Americans who don’t identify as exclusively male or female and others who feel binary gender categories don’t accurately describe them. Two years ago, Oregon became the first state to officially accommodate such residents by allowing them to select an X in the gender field of their driver’s license to convey that their gender is nonbinary or unspecified. (Adamy, 9/1)

The New York Times: Interventions To Prevent Psychosis
Tiffany Martinez was a 17-year-old college freshman when she began hearing voices, seeing shadowy figures and experiencing troubling, intrusive thoughts. Her friends at the University of Southern Maine, where she was majoring in psychology, noticed that she was acting strangely and urged her to get help. They most likely saved her from a crippling mental health crisis, prevented the derailment of her education and ultimately enabled her to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner who can help other young people avert a psychiatric crisis. (Brody, 9/2)

The Washington Post: Rare Childhood Disease Prompts Family To Seek Cure
It had been two agonizing years of not knowing what was wrong with their baby who, since birth, had frequent spells of eye flickering, uncontrollable muscle contractions, pain and temporary paralysis. Simon and Nina Frost had spared no expense, taking Annabel to all the best neurologists around the country. Finally a potential diagnosis emerged: alternating hemiplegia of childhood, an ultrarare genetic disorder. The Frosts’ initial excitement at having answers quickly waned, however. (Broder, 9/2)

The New York Times: Think Your Aging Parents Are Stubborn? Blame ‘Mismatched Goals’
To what extent, the researchers asked middle-aged adults, do your parents ignore suggestions or advice that would make their lives easier or safer? Ignore instructions from their doctors? Insist on doing things their own way, even if that makes their own or others’ lives more difficult, inconvenient or unsafe? (Span, 8/30)

The Washington Post: A Free Online Course Reveals The Scary Reality And Health Dangers Of Climate Change. But It Also Gets You Involved In Solutions.
Scientists warned for years about the ramifications of human-caused climate change. Now, those predictions are coming to pass as glaciers melt, wildfires rage and the global surface temperature continues to rise. But the polar ice caps and the Amazon rainforests aren’t the only things at risk. Climate change is expected to have a big influence on our health. (Blakemore, 8/31)

NPR: Measles Immunity: Some Millennials Need Another Shot
Destination: Bulgaria. It's a small country in Eastern Europe, often overlooked by American tourists. But my husband's father grew up in Bulgaria, so it's long been on our travel list. It's also on the list of countries with recent measles outbreaks. Bulgaria has had almost 800 cases this year, according to the World Health Organization. (Dembosky, 9/2)

The Associated Press: As With Adults, No Easy Way To Address Weight With Children
Red, yellow, green. It's a system for conveying the healthfulness of foods, and at the center of a debate about how to approach weight loss for children. This month, the company formerly known as Weight Watchers provoked a backlash when it introduced a food tracking app for children as young as 8. The app uses a well-known traffic-light system to classify foods, giving children a weekly limit of 42 "reds," which include steak, peanut butter and chips. (Choi, 8/30)

The Washington Post: Ranking Cheeses By Healthfulness
Americans love cheese. While U.S. dairy milk consumption has fallen, cheese consumption keeps on increasing year over year. According to an Agriculture Department report from 2018, per capita cheese consumption increased to a record 37.23 pounds. If you’re a die-hard cheese fan, you’re probably consuming your mozzarella and ricotta (Italian cheese are now the most popular in the United States) with a side of guilt. After all, cheese has long gotten a bad rap because of its high saturated fat content, which is considered bad for heart health. (Birch, 9/2)

The Washington Post: Liver Donor Ed Henry Puts Sister On Way To Normal Life
After donating about 30 percent of his liver to his sister this summer, Ed Henry is amazed at what happened next. Not only is his sister on the road to a normal life, but almost all of his liver grew back in less than six weeks. (Free, 8/31)

NPR: UK Biobank Gets Geneticists To Cooperate, Not Compete
There's an astonishing outpouring of new information linking genes and health, thanks to the efforts of humble Englishmen and women such as Chritopeher Fletcher. The 70-year-old man recently drove 90 miles from his home in Nottingham to a radiology clinic outside the city of Manchester. He is one of half a million Brits who have donated time, blood and access to their medical records to a remarkable resource called UK Biobank. (Harris, 8/31)