Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Each week, KFF Health News finds longer stories for you to enjoy. Today's selections are on funding cuts, Alzheimer's drugs, chronic disease, and more.
The Washington Post:
Inside The Upheaval At Trump’s NIH: Lasting Consequences For U.S. Science
The Trump administration’s orders have created more turmoil and damage at the National Institutes of Health than was previously known. (Johnson and Achenbach, 3/5)
The New York Times:
Where Being Gay Is Punishable By Death, Aid Cuts Are ‘Heartbreaking’
Uganda’s L.G.B.T.Q. population was already struggling to cope with the fallout of a harsh anti-gay law when the disruption of U.S. aid put people at even greater risk. (Dahir, 3/4)
NPR:
What It's Like To Take Alzheimer Drugs
There are now two fully approved drugs on the market that can, sometimes, slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease. One is marketed as Leqembi and the other, Kisunla. Both have been shown to slow down the mental decline of Alzheimer's by more than 25%. But that's in a group of patients—an individual may do much better, or not be helped at all. NPR Science Correspondent Jon Hamilton has been talking to people who've taken these drugs. Today he has the story of two patients to receive them. (Hamilton, Grayson, Barber and McCoy, 3/3)
The New York Times:
She’s A Foot Soldier In America’s Losing War With Chronic Disease
In places like Mingo County, W.Va., where working-age people are dying at record rates, a nurse learns what it takes to make America healthy. (Saslow, 3/2)
The Washington Post:
Can Reprogramming Our Genes Make Us Young Again?
For those hoping to cure death, and they are legion, a 2016 experiment at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego has become liminal — the moment that changed everything. The experiment involved mice born to live fast and die young, bred with a rodent version of progeria, a condition that causes premature aging. Left alone, the animals grow gray and frail and then die about seven months later, compared to a lifespan of about two years for typical lab mice. (Reynolds, 3/6)
