Genealogical Sleuthing Sets Scientists On The Trail To Better Understanding Inherited ALS

Stat: Appalachian Odyssey: Hunting For ALS Genes Along A Sprawling Family Tree
The man had come for a third opinion. Other doctors had told him he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a neuromuscular disease that causes progressive paralysis, but he didn’t believe them. In his hometown of Ewing, Va. — just east of the state’s mountainous meeting point with Kentucky and Tennessee — a handful of his relations had had the same thing, and they knew it as cancer of the throat. They lost the ability to chew, swallow, and speak, they lost weight, and then they died. (Boodman, 8/5)

The New York Times: The Age That Women Have Babies: How A Gap Divides America
Becoming a mother used to be seen as a unifying milestone for women in the United States. But a new analysis of four decades of births shows that the age that women become mothers varies significantly by geography and education. The result is that children are born into very different family lives, heading for diverging economic futures. First-time mothers are older in big cities and on the coasts, and younger in rural areas and in the Great Plains and the South. In New York and San Francisco, their average age is 31 and 32. (Bui and Miller, 8/4)

The Washington Post: Nonprofit’s Plan To Take Over The U.S. Organ Network Is Thwarted
A government legal opinion has dashed the hopes of an upstart nonprofit organization that wants to take over operation of the nation’s organ transplant network. Organs for Life, a new nonprofit critical of the way the transplant system is run, hoped to bid for the fiscal 2019 contract to oversee the vast and complex U.S. organ transplant system. That network includes more than 800 transplant programs and other organizations that serve them. (Bernstein, 8/3)

The Washington Post: Is Moderate Drinking Healthy Or Is Alcohol Bad For You?
Research on alcohol consumption is in a pickle. There’s no question that pounding one drink after another is bad for your health. Things get murkier when it comes to “moderate” drinking. What does that mean? What’s the limit? Can a health-conscious person serenely order a second round? The alcohol industry has long embraced the notion that alcohol in moderation not only won’t harm you but is actually good for you. The hypothesis gained traction in the early 1990s when “60 Minutes” reported on what is called the French Paradox. (Achenbach, 8/5)

The Washington Post: Almond Breeze Soy Milk Recalled Because It Was Tainted By Cow's Milk
In the decades-long war over milk — with purveyors of cow juice on one side and the people who make an increasing array of ecru-colored plant- and nut-based drinks on the other — this is as close to consorting with the enemy as it gets. The manufacturer of a popular brand of almond milk has announced a recall for what some would say sacrilegious act: Somehow, cow's milk got into their almond milk. (Wootson, 8/4)

PBS NewsHour: Most Babies Aren’t Breastfed In Their Critical First Hour Of Life, Study Shows
Research has linked breastfeeding in a baby’s first hour of life to reduced infant mortality. But worldwide, most babies are not breastfed during that critical first hour, according to a recent report, and that concerns many public health and child nutrition experts. (Santhanam, 8/3)

PBS NewsHour: As Calls To The Suicide Prevention Lifeline Surge, Under-Resourced Centers Struggle To Keep Up
On July 23, the House passed the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act, which seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the Lifeline and the feasibility of implementing a 3-digit dialing code like 911, a number that could be easier to remember than the current 10-digit number. But some local crisis center directors that field Lifeline calls and advocates say this could place more pressure on an overwhelmed and underfunded network. (Kim, 8/5)

The New York Times: The Illness Is Bad Enough. The Hospital May Be Even Worse.
When she moved from Michigan to be near her daughter in Cary, N.C., Bernadine Lewandowski insisted on renting an apartment five minutes away. Her daughter, Dona Jones, would have welcomed her mother into her own home, but “she’s always been very independent,” Ms. Jones said. Like most people in their 80s, Ms. Lewandowski contended with several chronic illnesses and took medication for osteoporosis, heart failure and pulmonary disease. Increasingly forgetful, she had been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. She used a cane for support as she walked around her apartment complex. (Span, 8/3)

Boston Globe: ‘There’s A Window, And Once It Closes, It Closes Forever’: Seniors’ Decision On Leaving Home Is Fraught With Concern
Len Fishman, director of the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Gerontology Institute, was talking about an urgent issue in a society that values “aging in place”: deciding the right time to leave your home and move into housing for seniors. ... Many older people are happier after moving to a place where life’s chores are eased, activities and social opportunities are on site, and a van goes right to the grocery store. (Teitell, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Since The Darkest Days Of AIDS, These Men Have Offered Succor To The Sick
For Les Ralston, 1991 was a dark time. The AIDS crisis had ravaged the gay community, and many of his friends were dead or dying. No effective treatment had been found for HIV, and many people were afraid to go near those with the disease. “A lot of people were dying at home without any food,” Ralston recalled. So when he saw a note on a billboard seeking volunteers to help a D.C. organization, Food & Friends, deliver meals to people with AIDS, Ralston, a systems analyst for the IRS, signed on. By 1995, he had quit his government job and was working full-time for the organization. (Bahrampour, 8/4)

Austin American-Statesman: What Is Snapchat Dysmorphia? People Seeking Plastic Surgery To Look Like Snapchat Filters
Snapchat offers several features that can animate your face with special effects. However, doctors believe people are seeking plastic surgery to permanently look like the filtered versions of themselves. (Parker, 8/4)

WBUR: The Pot Breathalyzer Is Here. Maybe
As legalization of recreational and medical marijuana continues to expand, police across the country are more concerned than ever about stoned drivers taking to the nation's roads and freeways, endangering lives. With few accurate roadside tools to detect pot impairment, police today have to rely largely on field sobriety tests developed to fight drunk driving or old-fashioned observation, which can be foiled with Visine or breath mints. (Westervelt, 8/4)