NIH Wooed Alcohol Industry To Foot Bill For Study That Could Show Benefits Of Daily Drinking

The New York Times: Federal Agency Courted Alcohol Industry To Fund Study On Benefits Of Moderate Drinking
It was going to be a study that could change the American diet, a huge clinical trial that might well deliver all the medical evidence needed to recommend a daily alcoholic drink as part of a healthy lifestyle. That was how two prominent scientists and a senior federal health official pitched the project during a presentation at the luxurious Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2014. And the audience members who were being asked to help pay for the $100 million study seemed receptive: They were all liquor company executives. (Rabin, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Colorectal Cancer Month Draws Attention To Deadly And Silent Disease
Pop quiz: What’s the third most common cancer?If you’re stumped, you’re not alone. The answer is colorectal cancer, a type of cancer that can be silent. Yet it’s the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. March is Colorectal Cancer Month, so it’s a good time to brush up on your knowledge about symptoms and screenings. (Blakemore, 3/18)

Los Angeles Times: Erasing Stephen Hawking's Disability Erases An Important Part Of Who He Was
In the days since Stephen Hawking's death, obituaries have described him as being "confined" or "chained" to a wheelchair, as someone who "overcame" his disability and succeeded in spite of it. None of those things are true. Stephen Hawking had a disability, and Stephen Hawking used a wheelchair. His work was possible because of those things, not in spite of them. (Roy, 3/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Sulston’s Work On Lowly Worm Led To Major Role In Mapping Human Genome
The nematode worm known as C. elegans is only a millimeter long and leads what appears to be a fairly dull existence. It eats bacteria, wriggles around and reaches adulthood in three days. “It consists basically of two tubes, one inside the other,” the English biologist John Sulston wrote in a memoir. Although some colleagues thought he was wasting time, Dr. Sulston for years spent up to eight hours a day peering through microscopes at these worms. His findings on the genetics of worms won him a Nobel Prize for physiology in 2002. (Hagerty, 3/16)

NPR: Marijuana's Secondhand Smoke Poses Risks To Heart And Lungs
The inspiration arrived in a haze at a Paul McCartney concert a few years ago in San Francisco. "People in front of me started lighting up and then other people started lighting up," says Matthew Springer, a biologist and professor in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "And for a few naive split seconds I was thinking to myself, 'Hey, they can't smoke in AT&T Park! I'm sure that's not allowed.' And then I realized that it was all marijuana." (Ortega-Welch, 3/19)

Kaiser Health News: Docs Worry There’s ‘Nowhere To Send’ New And Expectant Moms With Depression
Lawmakers in California will begin debate next month on a bill that would require doctors to screen new moms for mental health problems — once while they’re pregnant and again after they give birth. But many obstetricians and pediatricians bristle at the idea, saying they are afraid to screen new moms for depression and anxiety. “What are you going to do with those people who screen positive?” said Dr. Laura Sirott, an OB-GYN who practices in Pasadena. “Some providers have nowhere to send them.” (Dembosky, 3,19)

The New York Times: The Struggle To Build A Massive ‘Biobank’ Of Patient Data
This spring, the National Institutes of Health will start recruiting participants for one of the most ambitious medical projects ever envisioned. The goal is to find one million people in the United States, from all walks of life and all racial and ethnic groups, who are willing to have their genomes sequenced, and to provide their medical records and regular blood samples. (Kolata, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Alexander Disease Afflicts Their Little Boy, And A Family Fights Back
Laura and Josh Ledbetter know they have only have a few years left, at the most, until their 5-year-old son, Grayson, dies. A year ago, Grayson was diagnosed with Alexander disease, an extremely rare type of leukodystrophy that destroys the white matter that protects the nerve fibers in the brain, resulting in debilitating mental and physical delays, and in most cases, death by age 10. It’s a disease so rare that only about 500 cases have been reported since 1949. (Moss, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Can A 1-Year-Old Reason Like A Scientist? Yes, New Research Concludes.
In intriguing research, a team of scientists may have discovered the earliest age at which a person can reason logically: 12 months .For decades, psychologists have considered language a necessary and essential indicator of inferential thinking — the complex ability to “read between the lines,” to reason one’s way to a correct interpretation of an event when the evidence is not obvious. As recently as 2014, experiments by prominent developmental psychologists suggested such thinking began between 3 and 5 years of age. (Nutt, 3/17)

Columbus Dispatch: Report: Racial Disparity In Homelessness Not Just Result Of Poverty
Black people are dramatically overrepresented in both the national and local homeless populations, and the inequity is too vast to chalk up to poverty alone. That’s the key finding in a report released last week that examines the relationship between race and homelessness in the United States. (Price, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Swallowing Hurt, Her Digestion Was Bad, And Doctors Didn't Know Why
Jill Sherrill stepped on the scale at her gym and blanched. Her weight had slipped, again. In the previous 10 months, Sherrill, who is 5-foot-5, had lost 22 pounds without trying. Her friends had urged her to consult her doctor about worsening digestive problems, but for a variety of reasons Sherrill had opted to treat herself. But on that day in August 2015, the reading — 112 pounds — “scared me to death. I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I’m dying,’ ” she recalled. (Boodman, 3/17)

WBUR: More Than A Job: Home Care For A Mom With Alzheimer's Disease
As the elderly population in the United States grows, an increasing number of people require extra help in their daily lives. Because of this, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts employment for home health aides will grow 40% between 2016 and 2026. ...Luckily, there are federally and state-funded programs across the country that allow elderly individuals like [Celina] Raddatz's mother to use Medicaid funds to hire their own personal caregivers - including family members. (Monahan, 3/18)

The New York Times: Astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly Are Still Identical Twins, Despite What You May Have Read
After a flurry of similar news coverage was widely shared this week, NASA put out a statement on Thursday to set things straight: Mark Kelly and Scott Kelly are just as much twins as they were before Scott went to space. “Scott’s DNA did not fundamentally change,” the space agency said. “What researchers did observe are changes in gene expression, which is how your body reacts to your environment. This likely is within the range for humans under stress, such as mountain climbing or SCUBA diving.” (Victor, 3/16)