Many Treatments Might Not Make Us Better. Others Harm Us, But Getting Doctors To Stop Using Them Takes A Long Time, Group Says.

The New York Times: Why Doctors Still Offer Treatments That May Not Help
When your doctor gives you health advice, and your insurer pays for the recommended treatment, you probably presume it’s based on solid evidence. But a great deal of clinical practice that’s covered by private insurers and public programs isn’t. The British Medical Journal sifted through the evidence for thousands of medical treatments to assess which are beneficial and which aren’t. According to the analysis, there is evidence of some benefit for just over 40 percent of them. Only 3 percent are ineffective or harmful; a further 6 percent are unlikely to be helpful. But a whopping 50 percent are of unknown effectiveness. We haven’t done the studies. (Frakt, 8/26)

The New York Times: When College Dormitories Become Health Hazards
Annemarie Cuccia saw the black mold spread through rooms in her dormitory — five on her floor in a span of about two weeks last September. Soon she spotted some mold in her own room as well, growing on walls and furniture. Ms. Cuccia, now a sophomore at Georgetown University, and her roommate told a maintenance worker about the mold, and workers came to clean it off a few days later. But her problems did not end there. “About a month later, I started getting really, really terrible pains in my ears,” said Ms. Cuccia, 19. She had an ear infection, caused by black mold spores. (Jun, 8/25)

The Associated Press: AARP Chief: How Living To 100 Changes Our Ideas About Aging
Jo Ann Jenkins is the CEO of AARP, the world's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization. AARP is focused on helping people "improve their quality of life" as they age; it has more than 38 million members. Jenkins joined AARP in 2010 and became CEO in 2014. Previously she was chief operating officer at the Library of Congress, one of her many roles in public service. She is the author of "Disrupt Aging: A Bold New Path to Living Your Best Life at Every Age," a book about changing society's views on aging. She is the first woman to be named CEO of AARP on a permanent basis. (8/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Kids Should Call The Robot ‘It’
If you want your preschooler to grow up with a healthy attitude toward artificial intelligence, here’s a tip: Don’t call that cute talking robot “he” or “she.” Call the robot “it.” Today’s small children, aka Generation Alpha, are the first to grow up with robots as peers. Those winsome talking devices spawned by a booming education-tech industry can speed children’s learning, but they also can be confusing to them, research shows. Many children think robots are smarter than humans or imbue them with magical powers. (Shellenbarger, 8/26)

The Wall Street Journal: When An Epidemic Threatens The Globe, This Doctor Jumps Into Action
When an infectious disease threatens to become a pandemic, it is up to John Hackett to keep the world’s blood supply safe. He is known as the “chief virus hunter” within Abbott Laboratories , where Dr. Hackett is in charge of a global team that plays a prominent public-health role whenever an outbreak occurs. Dr. Hackett’s job is to consult Abbott’s vault of more than 60,000 viral strains of HIV and hepatitis to determine whether a diagnostic test to detect the particular virus exists, brainstorm a plan for developing one in the event of a new viral strain, and collaborate with government agencies to coordinate a public health response. Today his tests are used to screen more than 60% of the world’s blood supply. (Higgins, 8/24)

NPR: How To Talk To Kids About Weight
Dale Knuth, now 58, says that in childhood her weight was a source of anguish — largely because of how her family treated her. "I had a brother who tormented me constantly," she says. "If I came home from school and was hungry and ate an apple, I'd be called a cow, or a pig or whatever." Her parents, she says, did nothing to stop her brother "except to say, 'Yeah, you're getting fat.' " She had no physical outlet for her frustration — she wanted to play softball, but her mother wouldn't allow it. (Neilson, 8/25)

ProPublica: TSA’s Body Scanners Are Gender Binary. Humans Are Not.
On Sept. 15, 2017, Olivia stepped into a full-body scanner at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. When she stepped out, a female Transportation Security Administration officer approached. On the scanner’s screen was an outline of a human body with the groin highlighted. The officer told Olivia that because of something the scanner had detected, a pat-down would be necessary. As a transgender woman, Olivia, 36, had faced additional TSA scrutiny before. On those occasions, a manual search at the checkpoint had been enough to assure TSA officers that there wasn’t a weapon or explosive hidden in her undergarments. (Waldron and Medina, 8/26)

NPR: Low-Dose Steroids Questioned In Prevention Of Asthma Attacks
Steroid inhalers commonly used to prevent asthma attacks may not work any better than a placebo for many people with mild asthma, according to recent research. Synthetic corticosteroids mimic the steroid hormone cortisol, reducing inflammation in the airways. But the drug targets a type of inflammation that may be found in far fewer patients than previously thought, research in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine finds. (Dembosky, 8/26)

The New York Times: PTSD Made Him Walk Away From Public Life. Now He’s Heading Back.
Jason Kander was a rising political star, in the homestretch of a race for mayor of Kansas City that he was widely expected to win. And he was moments away from upending it all. His campaign manager, Abe Rakov, stopped him and asked, “Are you sure this is the thing you want everyone in the world to remember about you forever?” Mr. Kander said yes. So his manager pressed Send. (Philipps, 8/25)

NPR: Summer Heat Can Inflame Illness
A little Shakespeare came to mind during a recent shift in the Boston emergency room where I work. "Good Mercutio, let's retire," Romeo's cousin Benvolio says. "The day is hot, the Capulets abroad, and, if we meet, we shall not 'scape a brawl." It was hot in Boston, too, and people were brawling. The steamy summer months always seem to bring more than their fair share of violence. (Dalton, 8/24)

The New York Times: Malnutrition Case Stirs Debate About Vegan Diets For Babies
It happens every once in a while: A child being raised vegan develops serious health problems, setting off an emotional debate over whether such diets are suitable for the very young. Experts say it is possible to raise healthy infants and children on a totally plant-based diet. Planning helps, as babies are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition and are unable to choose the foods they eat. (Fortin, 8/24)

The New York Times: Alternatives To Surgery For An Enlarged Prostate
Ed Goldman, a retired bookbinder who says he’s “pushing 80,” does not let his age or enlarged prostate curtail his physical activities and desire to travel. He walks the streets of his beloved New York for about two miles a day, five or more days a week, and knows every possible bathroom stop along his usual routes. When arriving in foreign territory, he immediately checks out the location of lavatories to avoid an embarrassing accident. “The urgency, when it hits, can be pretty scary,” he told me. (Brody, 8/26)

Kaiser Health News: Coming Out About Mental Health On Social Media
Susanna Harris was sitting in her lab class for her graduate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when she received an email that told her she had failed what she describes as “the most important exam in grad school,” the doctoral qualifying exam. She took the rest of the day off, went home and baked cookies. Harris continued with her regular schedule: lab, work, home, repeat. Everything seemed fine until she realized she was having a hard time focusing due to lack of sleep. (Lofton, 8/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Getting Pulled By A Horse Can Actually Be Serious Exercise
Ken Weckstein doesn’t even fit his own profile of what a top athlete looks like. He’s a 66-year-old who puts in long hours as a lawyer. But he’s found an unusual sport to scratch his competitive itch: harness racing, the sport where a horse pulls a two-wheeled cart occupied by a driver. Mr. Weckstein, a partner with Brown Rudnick, has spent nearly three decades riding in harness races at Rosecroft Raceway in Fort Washington, Md., and Ocean Downs in Berlin, Md. He splits his time between the Washington, D.C., area and Ocean City, Md., and competes from February through mid-December, racing three to four times a week, sometimes up to three races a night. (Murphy, 8/25)