Viewpoints: Eating Disorders Do Not Discriminate By Gender — Boys Can Get Them, Too

USA Today: Yes, Anorexia Afflicts Boys, Too: A Survivor's Story
I grew up in a household with no short supply of hunter’s orange, Sunday night football and diesel trucks. I am a stereotypical teenage boy from Montana — and a survivor of anorexia nervosa. Confused? That’s the problem. (Zach Schermele, 10/6)

Stat: Male Doctors Called My Cancer Incurable. A Female Doctor Showed It Wasn't
When my silent assassin emerged last autumn, I pressed my surgeon about the prognosis for a form of peritoneal cancer that strikes women in stealthy fashion. “Do you really want to know?” he replied. “Your cancer is incurable.” As I gazed at him in disbelief, he coolly recommended palliative care at a nearby regional hospital with an easy commute. (Doreen Carvajal, 10/4)

Stat: We Mustn't Let The Mental Health Parity And Addiction Equity Act Languish
Ten years ago, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush. It was a milestone — a major acknowledgment of the importance of mental health. It was also a challenge for the health care system and culture to rectify decades of fragmentation that kept mental health separate and distinct. (Patrick J. Kennedy and Benjamin F. Miller, 10/5)

The Washington Post: I Watched A Rape. For Five Decades, I Did Nothing.
I was both an observer and a participant in a teenage rape. I was 17, and it was 1969, about a year before I would be drafted into the Army. I went to a small Catholic school in Pittsburgh called St. Justin, for the children of mostly blue-collar workers, and I had been invited to a party by a friend from another Catholic high school. Many football players from that school would be there. I wasn’t very popular with these boys at the time, so I went; I wanted to be friends with them. I knew a few of them and wanted to get to know the rest. These boys were from the suburbs, and their parents mostly had more money than mine. (Don Palmerine, 10/5)

The New York Times: That New Apple Watch EKG Feature? There Are More Downs Than Ups
The newest version of the Apple Watch will feature a heart monitor app that can do a form of an electrocardiogram. Many have greeted this announcement as a great leap forward for health. The president of the American Heart Association even took part in the product launch. For a more measured response, it’s worth looking at potential downsides, and it turns out there are a few. (Aaron E. Carroll, 10/8)

The Star Tribune: A Flu Shot Not Only Protects You, But Everyone Around You
I marked an anniversary last week by getting a flu shot. It has been 100 years since the pandemic of 1918, during which an estimated 50 million people worldwide — 675,000 in the United States — died from influenza. Last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the flu killed more than 80,000 people in the U.S.Avoiding becoming a statistic is not my primary motivation for getting the shot. (Kelly Maynard, 10/5)

Dallas Morning News: A Federal Ban On Bump Stocks Is Close, Trump Says — And It Can't Come Soon Enough
In the divisive political debate over gun laws, it's been tough going to get agreement on the right way forward in curbing massive gun violence. Our best hope for real action has to start with plowing areas where there is common ground. That's why we're encouraged by President Donald Trump's declaration that a ban on bump stocks is "two or three weeks away." It's long overdue. (10/8)

The Hill: United States Is Undergoing A Chemical Weapons Attack
Is the United States under attack from Chemical Weapons in the form of dangerous and toxic chemicals, as defined by the Chemical Weapons Convention, camouflaged as narcotics for illicit distribution resulting in death tolls rivaling those levels from the Chemical Warfare of WW I? I only see the “body count” increasing, from 13,000 deaths in 2015 to over 19,000 in 2016 and 27,000 in 2017 according to the Centers for Disease Control and NBC. That represents a 40 percent increase in each of the last few years or a doubling in two years – with no end in sight. (John M. DeMaggio, 10/7)

The New York Times: The Importance Of Medical Touch
It started, as it does for thousands of women every year, with a routine mammogram, and its routine process of having my breasts — like a lump of dough — manipulated by another woman’s hands and placed, albeit gently, into tight compression. It’s never comfortable, but you get used to it because you have to. Unlike previous years, though, my next step was a biopsy, for which I lay face down, my left breast dangling through a hole in the table. Several hands reached for what’s normally a private and hidden body part and moved it with practiced ease, compressing it again into position for the radiologist’s needles, first a local anesthetic and then the probes needed to withdraw tissue for sampling. (Caitlin Kelly, 10/8)

The New York Times: More Trees, Happier People
The scene in a tiny pocket park outside Plaza Mariachi here on Nolensville Pike last Wednesday was like a tableau from a Norman Rockwell painting, 21st-century style. Surrounded by signs advertising the Hispanic Family Foundation, Dubai Jewelry, the Dominican Barber Shop and restaurants offering Peruvian, Chinese, Mediterranean and Indian food — as well as a Game Stop franchise and H&R Block — was a small sign that read, “Today: Free trees.” (Margaret Renki, 10/7)

The New York Times: I'm Just A Middle-Aged House Dad Addicted To Pot
My name is Neal, and I’m a marijuana addict. A year ago I wouldn’t have said that, because it would have meant giving up marijuana. I would rather have given up breathing. When I had my first cup of coffee in the morning, I pressed the little button on my vape pen, waited for the blue glow, took a huge inhale and then blew it into the mug so that I could suck in the THC and caffeine at the same time. Then I took another hit, and another. In the afternoons, I’d smoke a bowl, or pop a gummy bear, or both. At night, I got high before eating dinner or watching the ballgame. Maybe I’d stop getting stoned a little bit before bed, but what was the point? If I went to bed high, I could wake up high, too. (Neal Pollack, 10/6)

The Oregonian: Do We Owe Celebrities For Reversing The Mental Health Stigma?
Every day, it seems like a new celebrity opens up about their struggle with mental illness. Most recently, Emma Stone told Glamour about her life-long struggle with anxiety. Many people are praising these celebrities for being honest about their mental health, saying their efforts break the stigma. Meanwhile, others still feel the pain of that stigma acutely and believe there is much more work to be done before it's broken. Have celebrities changed the stigma when it comes to mental health? (10/5)