Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
NIH Updates Website About Link Between Alcohol, Cancer After Criticism That It Soft-Pedaled The Risk
Stat: NIH Alcohol Institute Changes Online Explanation Of Cancer Risk From Drinking
In response to criticism that it soft-pedaled the cancer risk from consuming alcohol, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism changed information on its website to say that “there is a strong scientific consensus of an association between alcohol drinking and several types of cancer” and that the Department of Health and Human Services lists alcohol as a known human carcinogen. The new description of the cancer risk of alcohol brings NIAAA’s website in line with the National Cancer Institute’s. Previously, in wording that dates to 2013, NIAAA’s website had said, “Drinking too much alcohol can increase your risk of developing certain cancers.” (Begley, 9/17)
CNBC: Mark Zuckerberg Is Selling Up To $13 Billion Of Facebook Stock To Fund An Ambitious Project To End Disease: Here's An Early Look Inside
Zuckerberg has begun to use the fortune he earned from creating one of the world's most valuable companies to invest in [The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative]. In October, he revealed that he plans to sell up to 75 million shares, worth more than $12 billion at the time, by March 2019 to fund the project. ... CZI has been around now for about two and a half years, and has ballooned to 250 employees, with about half of them hailing from the technology sector. ... Zuckerberg shared a few more details onstage in a 2016 conference call, where he declared "we have a real shot at preventing, curing or managing" most diseases in the next 100 years, particularly heart disease, cancer, stroke, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. (Farr, 9/15)
The New York Times: What 13,000 Patents Involving The DNA Of Sea Life Tell Us About The Future
Whether a single private entity should be able to set the direction of how the genes of so many living things are used was a piece of a broader debate at the United Nations this month. There, delegates from across the world were discussing the development of a global legal framework for genetic resources in the high seas, a vast realm outside any one nation’s control. For those interested in the future of innovation, inequality and even dairy alternatives, a closer look at what exactly is being patented offers intriguing hints. (Murphy, 9/17)
The Associated Press: New Era In Virtual Reality Therapy For Common Phobias
Dick Tracey didn't have to visit a tall building to get over his fear of heights. He put on a virtual reality headset. Through VR, he rode an elevator to a high-rise atrium that looked so real he fell to his knees. "I needed to search with my hand for something solid around me," he said. (9/18)
Boston Globe: Biotech’s Idea For A Better ACL Treatment Gets Funding From NFL Players Union
A torn ACL, the tiny band of tough connective tissue in the center of the knee, has marked the downfall of many a football star. ...On Monday, a privately held biotech startup in Boston said it has raised $22.5 million to continue developing its new treatment for the often devastating injury. Among the investors: the union that represents National Football League players. (Saltzman, 9/17)
The Washington Post: Scientists Identify Four Personality Types
Personality tests are hugely popular, though if you ask working psychologists, they’ll tell you the results are little better than astrological signs. But a new study, based on huge sets of personality data representing 1.5 million people, has persuaded one of the staunchest critics of personality tests to conclude that maybe distinct personality types exist, after all. In a report published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior, researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois identify four personality types: reserved, role models, average and self-centered. (Guarino, 9/17)
WBUR: As Probiotic Labels Tout Benefits, A Call To Examine Risks
Dr. Pieter Cohen of Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance has raised red flags in the past about the quality and claims of supplements — vitamins, herbs, all sorts of substances sold to improve health but regulated far, far less than medical treatments. Now, he warns in a JAMA Internal Medicine piece titled "Probiotic Safety — No Guarantees" that probiotics face similar issues. (Goldberg, 9/17)
NPR: Getting Over Your Ex: Can Brain Science Help Heartbreak?
When a relationship ends but love remains, it can be both frustrating and embarrassing. Dessa, a well-known rapper, singer and writer from Minneapolis, knows the feeling well. She'd spent years trying to get over an ex-boyfriend, but she was still stuck on him. "You're not only suffering," she says, "You're just sort of ridiculous. Discipline and dedication are my strong suits — it really bothered me that, no matter how much effort I tried to expend in trying to solve this problem, I was stuck." (Cole and Kellman, 9/18)
The New York Times: Yet Another Worrisome Subway Statistic: More People Are Going On The Tracks
The man stood casually on the subway tracks, his face showing no sign of terror as he stared down a 360-ton train. The train operator spotted him and stopped the train just in time, sparing his life. Then the man climbed onto the platform and disappeared. “It was totally bizarre how he was so calm,” Doug Latino, a subway rider, said of the man he recently saw on the tracks at Grand Central Station in Manhattan. (Fitzsimmons, 9/17)
The Associated Press: Coca-Cannabis? Coke Analyzing Cannabis In Wellness Drinks
The Coca-Cola Company said Monday it is "closely watching" the expanding use of a cannabis element in drinks, another sign cannabis and cannabis-infused products are getting more acceptance in mainstream culture and a harder look from long-established pillars of American business. (9/17)
