Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
The Washington Post: New Generation Of Female Entrepreneurs Tackles Women’s Heart Health
When women complain to doctors of shortness of breath, fatigue and indigestion, they’re often told they’re stressed. Or worse, they go to the emergency room, and are diagnosed with a panic attack or a virus. Some learn later they’ve suffered heart attacks. Some die first. A new generation of female entrepreneurs is determined to address these shockingly common misdiagnoses and care delays that are among the reasons women are up to twice as likely to die of heart attacks as men. (Eisenberg, 1/16)
Grist: How Climate Disasters Hurt Adolescents' Mental Health
Young people traumatized by Hurricane Maria were more likely to report substance use. (Teirstein, 1/19)
The Washington Post: Psychedelics Gave Terminal Patients Relief From Their Intense Anxiety
When Brian Meyer received a Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis three years ago at age 62, he was determined to make the most of his remaining years. He immediately retired from a decades-long career in the grocery business and took every opportunity to hike, camp and — his all-time favorite — fish for salmon. Brian and his wife, Cheryl, regularly visited their two grown children and three grandsons and spent time with their many friends. But it was sometimes hard to keep his mind off his pain and the reality that life was nearing an end. (Landau, 1/13)
Undark: The Cost Of Freeing Drinking Water From ‘Forever Chemicals’
The EPA is set to limit PFAS in drinking water to barely detectable levels. Can water utilities meet the standard? (Schmidt, 1/15)
The Washington Post: Should Potatoes Be Classified As Vegetables?
Just as tomatoes are botanically considered a fruit, should potatoes really be considered a vegetable? That’s the surprisingly polarizing question under review by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, as part of its mission to assess the latest research and issue new health recommendations to the government every five years, with the next edition set for 2025. While most nutrition experts and botanists say that potatoes are a vegetable, a years-long debate over whether they should be considered a grain or part of another food group has raged on, often in the name of public health — and especially in the United States, where more than 40 percent of people age 20 or older are considered obese. (Cho, 1/18)
Undark: The Unseen Barriers Around Bathroom Breaks In The Field
Gawain Antell knew something was seriously wrong when students started vomiting. In spring 2019, the paleobiologist — then earning a Ph.D. at the University of Oxford — was working as a teaching assistant on a geological mapping field trip in Scotland when, after returning to the hotel, a handful of undergraduate women grew grievously ill. Antell soon learned that the students hadn’t been drinking enough water, a situation made worse by the unusually warm weather. Antell was particularly alarmed to discover that the students were deliberately dehydrated. And for one simple reason: They didn’t want to pee while out in the field. (Kreier, 1/17)
The Washington Post: The Ideal Vacation Length For Peak Relaxation, According To Experts
Health and travel experts have common advice for the amount of time it takes to disconnect from life’s obligations. (Sachs, 1/18)
A few good reads about health experts —
The Washington Post: Claire Fagin, Renowned Nurse And Researcher Who Led UPenn, Dies At 97
As a clinician, educator and advocate, she helped reshape American nursing. She was also one of the first women to lead an Ivy League school. (Smith, 1/19)
The Washington Post: Roy Calne, A Pioneer Of Organ Transplant Surgery, Dies At 93
While making the rounds at a London hospital in 1950, a medical student named Roy Calne was presented with a young man dying from kidney failure. Make him comfortable, Dr. Calne was told, because the patient would be dead within two weeks. The order troubled Dr. Calne (pronounced “kahn”), who had grown up tinkering with cars in his father’s auto shop, learning how to take apart an engine and put it back together again. Wasn’t it possible, he asked, to remove the failing kidney and swap in a working one, like replacing a spark plug or — his mind drifted to gardening — grafting a rose? Impossible, he was told. (Smith, 1/16)
Houston Chronicle: Baylor Chemist Wins Award For Developing Tech To Detect Cancer
One of the greatest challenges that surgeons face when they remove a cancerous tumor is determining the boundary between that tumor and the healthy tissues that surround it. A Baylor College of Medicine scientist is hoping to solve that problem with the stroke of a pen. Livia Schiavinato Eberlin is the developer of the MasSpec Pen, a device that uses a technique known as mass spectrometry to help doctors and scientists analyze cancer tissues. The pen — which is a bit larger than the one used for writing — provides an analysis of the tissue within about 15 seconds. (MacDonald, 1/18)
Harvard Public Health: A Q&A With Jen Gunter, The Internet’s OB/GYN
Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN and pain medicine physician, got her start as a writer more than a decade ago, after her sons were born prematurely. As she sought out information online to support their health, she discovered just how easy it is to fall down a rabbit hole of mis- and disinformation. Since then, she’s launched a blog, The Vajenda, that mixes evidence-based reproductive health information with righteous indignation. She’s also built robust followings on social media, where’s she’s known for her sharp-tongued takedowns of dubious health influencers and supplement peddlers (including a famous manifesto against Gwyneth Paltrow-endorsed “jade eggs”). (Roeder, 1/10)
