Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
The Washington Post: She Has Saved People In Crisis. She Questions Why No One Saved Her Son
As a clinician, Jill Harrington has counseled first responders through some of their darkest thoughts following traumatic deaths and suicides they experienced on the job or in their families. There are people who “wouldn’t be on the planet if it wouldn’t have been for her,” said Adam Workman, a veteran and firefighter who has referred first responders in Virginia to Harrington as part of a peer-support network. But for the past four-and-a-half months, Harrington has been haunted by one life that wasn’t saved: her son’s. In his moment of need, she said, he didn’t receive what he deserved: “competent and compassionate lifesaving care.” (Golden, 7/26)
AP: Artists Turn Former Los Angeles Hospital Into Show About Emotions
Just beyond an ambulance and wheelchair ramp wait Dr. Moodswing and Dr. Feelgood, dressed in starched white lab coats and ready to check you in with a neon orange patient wristband. At this hospital though, it’s not your vitals that will be examined, but your feelings. The “Hospital of Emotions” is an immersive art experience that explores different facets of being human inside the long-shuttered St. Vincent Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles. (Furman, 7/29)
The New York Times: Should We Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent?
More light at the day’s end comes at a price: much later winter sunrises across much of the U.S. Scientists have documented consequences for public health and the economy. (Peeples, 7/27)
Newsweek: Scientists Study ‘SuperAgers,’ Make Surprising Alzheimer’s Discovery
Some people reach their 80s and 90s with memories as sharp as adults decades younger and longevity fanatics have always wondered why. Scientists have long worked to understand whether these so-called "SuperAgers" simply won the genetic lottery by inheriting little risk for Alzheimer's disease, or if their impressive cognition is down to something else. A new study sought to gain answers. Researchers led by teams at the Healthy Aging & Alzheimer’s Research Care (HAARC) Center at the University of Chicago and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) found that SuperAgers cannot be distinguished from their cognitively average peers based on inherited Alzheimer's risk genes. (Fleur Afshar, 7/28)
Stat and The Examination: Red Bull-Tied Science Has Shaped Energy Drink Policy
On a winter morning in a Long Island town about two hours east of New York City’s skyscrapers, a Dutch researcher told local officials that their concerns about mixing heavily caffeinated energy drinks with alcohol were overblown. (Chavkin, Okwuosa, Ruiz and Colman, 7/30)
The Wall Street Journal: Your Mouth Could Hold the Secrets to a Longer and Healthier Life
As scientists link oral bacteria to heart disease and cognitive decline, a push is under way to treat the mouth as a source of bodywide inflammation. (Landro, 7/26)
AP: Montana Man Hikes Himself To Rescue With Pole Impaled In His Side
David Cifaldi and his two hiking companions were crossing Montana’s ominous Froze-to-Death Plateau and approaching the top of the state’s highest peak when their adventure took a bizarre and dangerous turn: Cifaldi slipped and impaled himself on his trekking pole as he fell. The 44-inch (112-centimeter) steel-tipped pole passed through the flesh beneath Cifaldi’s left arm, missing any vital organs, and protruded from his back. After conferring with his friends — and considering the high cost of a helicopter rescue — Cifaldi knew who would save him: himself. (Brown, 7/30)
