Men Report Less Pain In Studies When Researcher Is Female, And Other Ways Gender Influences Experiments

NPR: A Scientist's Gender Can Skew Research Results
The results of an IQ test can depend on the gender of the person who's conducting the test. Likewise, studies of pain medication can be completely thrown off by the gender of the experimenter. This underappreciated problem is one reason that some scientific findings don't stand the test of time. Colin Chapman found out about this problem the hard way. He had traveled to Sweden on a Fulbright scholarship to launch his career in neuroscience. And he decided to study whether a nasal spray containing a hormone called oxytocin would help control obesity. The hormone influences appetite and impulsive behavior in obese men. (Harris, 1/10)

Kaiser Health News: Fallout From ‘Nuclear Button’ Tweets: Sales Of Anti-Radiation Drug Skyrocket
A Twitter battle over the size of each “nuclear button” possessed by President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has spiked sales of a drug that protects against radiation poisoning. Troy Jones, who runs the website www.nukepills.com, said demand for potassium iodide soared last week, after Trump tweeted that he had a “much bigger & more powerful” button than Kim — a statement that raised new fears about an escalating threat of nuclear war. (Aleccia, 1/11)

The CT Mirror: Forensic Psychiatrist Aims To Publicize Trump’s ‘Dangerousness'
Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist who teaches at Yale and spent much of her career on the study of violence and ways to prevent it, says she was flooded with emails and phone calls the day after President Donald Trump was elected. People from all over the country – and around the world – but especially in the Northeast United States told her they were concerned about Trump’s mental state and his ability to serve in office. (Radelat, 1/11)

PBS NewsHour: Biden Addresses Possible Link Between Son’s Fatal Brain Cancer And Toxic Military Burn Pits
Former Vice President Joe Biden said he thinks toxins found in smoke from burning waste at U.S. military installations in Iraq and at other facilities abroad could “play a significant role” in causing veterans’ cancer. ...Biden’s comments shed light on a debate that has roiled physicians, former service members and the Department of Veteran Affairs about whether the health of some U.S. military personnel was compromised by garbage disposal methods used by contractors and the military at overseas bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Sagalyn, 1/10)

NPR: ER Visits Linked To Alcohol Are Rapidly Rising
Most Americans drink safely and in moderation. But a steady annual increase in trips made to emergency rooms as a result of drinking alcohol added up to 61 percent more visits in 2014 compared with 2006, according to a study published this month in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Visits to hospital emergency rooms for alcohol-related issues rose rapidly over a nine-year period, though it's unclear why. (Lloyd, 1/11)

The New York Times: R.S.V.? She Hadn’t Heard Of It. Then Her Child Was Hospitalized.
It started out as a runny nose and a cough — typical cold symptoms. Then things took a turn for the worse. Courtney S. Martin noticed that her 19-month-old son, Calvin, was having coughing fits. He started breathing rapidly, his nostrils flaring. He refused to eat or drink. (Caron, 1/10)

Los Angeles Times: Distrusting China’s Medical System, Patients Turn To U.S. Doctors Online
The doctor told Renee Gao's parents that the tumor in their teenager's chest wasn't disappearing. The girl would need a costly operation that could leave her sterile — if she survived. Then he ushered them out.Gao Jiang and Yu Wenmei had dragged their ailing daughter across this capital city of southern Yunnan province, then north to the best cancer hospitals in Sichuan and Beijing. The family stood in hours-long lines and called in favors from colleagues at Gao's life insurance company to speed up the wait. But no one would tell them why the cure for their 16-year-old's lymphoma might threaten her life. (Meyers, 1/11)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Study: Heart Attack Care For Women Pales In Comparison To Men
A new study recently revealed that heart attack care is alarmingly unequal for women when compared to men. Researchers found that many women who have had the most serious type of heart attack − where the coronary artery is completely blocked − don't receive the same tests and treatment that men receive under similar circumstances. (Caldwell, 1/10)

The New York Times: Antacids During Pregnancy Tied To Asthma In Children
Using antacids during pregnancy is linked to asthma in offspring, a systematic review of research has found. Researchers pooled data from eight observational studies and concluded that the risk of asthma in childhood increased by 34 percent when the mother used proton pump inhibitors and by 57 percent with the use of histamine-2 receptor antagonists. The study is in Pediatrics. (1/11)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Lead Poisoning: FDA, CDC Warn About Recall
As many as 7 million tests performed on children over the course of the three years could have been wrong, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The manufacturer of the tests in question, however, is confident the number is millions lower. (Blackmore Smith and Sparling, 1/10)

The New York Times: Fresh Embryos As Good As Frozen Ones For In Vitro Fertilization
For most women undergoing in vitro fertilization, fresh embryos work just as well as frozen ones. Previous trials have suggested that using only frozen embryos might improve pregnancy rates in women with polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, a hormonal disorder that affects about 10 percent of women. (Women with this condition ovulate irregularly and typically have a poorer response to IVF treatment.) But in two large randomized trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found using fresh or frozen embryos makes no difference for the majority of women who do not have PCOS. (Bakalar, 1/10)

Boston Globe: Baby Boomers’ Failing Ears Drive Search For A Cure For Hearing Loss
Millions of boomers are now grappling with hearing loss — some of it caused by turning the volume to 11 — prompting companies to develop treatments that improve upon the expensive and often limited-value hearing aids and surgical implants that have been around for decades. At least half a dozen biotechs, including two well-funded local startups, are working on potential breakthroughs in the way hearing loss is treated. (Weisman, 1/10)

Kaiser Health News: For Elder Health, Trips To The ER Are Often A Tipping Point
Twice a day, the 86-year-old man went for long walks and visited with neighbors along the way. Then, one afternoon he fell while mowing his lawn. In the emergency room, doctors diagnosed a break in his upper arm and put him in a sling. Back at home, this former World War II Navy pilot found it hard to manage on his own but stubbornly declined help. Soon overwhelmed, he didn’t go out often, his congestive heart failure worsened, and he ended up in a nursing home a year later, where he eventually passed away. (Graham, 1/11)