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☆ Who will care for older adults? We’ve plenty of know-how but too few specialists
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Judith Graham | Kff Health News | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Research suggests each geriatrician should care for no more than 700 patients; the current ratio of providers to older patients is 1 to 10,000. In some respects, geriatrics has been remarkably successful in disseminating principles and practices meant to improve the care of older adults. Under this model, older adults with acute but non-life-threatening illnesses get care at home, managed closely by nurses and doctors. In July 2019, the American College of Surgeons created a program with 32 standards designed to improve the care of older adults. The bright lights, noise, and harried atmosphere in hospital emergency rooms can disorient older adults.

Persons: Jerry Gurwitz, “, ” Gurwitz, What’s, “ There’s, ”, geriatrician Gregg Warshaw, geriatrics, Michael Harper, Thomas Robinson, geriatricians, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, Lisa Walke, Harper Organizations: CNN, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, American Geriatrics Society, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, University of California, Seniors, American College of Surgeons, Initiative, Geriatric, American College of Emergency Physicians, Centers, Medicare, Medicaid Services, UCLA, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, UCSF, Get CNN, CNN Health, Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, KFF Health, Kaiser Health, KFF Locations: United States, San Francisco

CNN —This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their work on mRNA vaccines, a crucial tool in curtailing the spread of Covid-19. The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor, seen as the pinnacle of scientific achievement, in Sweden on Monday. Rickard Sandberg, a member of the Nobel Prize in medicine committee, said, “mRNA vaccines together with other Covid-19 vaccines have been administered over 13 billion times. They sold their car, Karikó told The Guardian, and stuffed the money – an equivalent of about $1,200 – in their daughter’s teddy bear for safekeeping. Weissman told CNN that their technology is much more efficient than traditional methods of producing vaccines.

Persons: Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman, “, Karikó, Weissman, Rickard Sandberg, ” Karikó, Steffen Trumpf, BioNTech, Penn Medicine J, Larry Jameson, . Weissman, ” Jameson, Drew, ”, Hope, I’m Organizations: CNN, University of Pennsylvania, Pfizer, Penn Medicine, UPenn’s School of Medicine, Kati, Temple University, Guardian, Moderna Locations: Covid, Sweden, Hungarian, American, Germany, Norway, Hungary, United States, Philadelphia, UPenn

☆ mRNA vaccine: 5 things to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-02 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Here are five things to know about Karikó and Weissman’s game-changing research and mRNA vaccines. What mRNA doesMessenger RNA, or mRNA, is a form of nucleic acid that tells cells what to do based on the information contained in DNA. Messenger RNA-based vaccine technology doesn’t rely on a modified version of a virus to produce an immune response. Potential beyond fighting Covid-19The advent of mRNA vaccine technology has led to safe and strong protection against Covid-19. And mRNA technology is also being checked out as a possible alternative to gene therapy for intractable conditions such as sickle cell disease.

Persons: Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman, Peggy Peterson, Robin Shattock, ” Shattock, —, Karikó, Weissman, ”, Roberts, Thomas Perlmann, it’s Organizations: CNN, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine, Imperial College London, Covid, Penn’s Perelman, of Medicine, Vaccine, Perelman School of Medicine, Nobel Assembly Locations: Hungary

☆ Why is RFK Jr.'s voice raspy? He has a neurological disorder called spasmodic dysphonia
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Kennedy, 69, previously revealed he was diagnosed in his early 40s with a rare neurological condition called spasmodic dysphonia. What is spasmodic dysphonia? Spasmodic dysphonia is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary spasms in the muscles of the voice box, also known as the larynx, according to John Hopkins Medicine. Spasmodic dysphonia may also be inherited, but a specific gene for the disorder has not yet been identified. Other notable people with spasmodic dysphonia include "Hellboy" actress Selma Blair, CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues, and journalist Diane Rehm.

Persons: Robert F, Kennedy Jr, spasmodic, John F, Kennedy, favorability, Oprah Winfrey, John Hopkins, Spasmodic, Winfrey, NewsNation, Selma Blair, Jeff Pegues, Diane Rehm Organizations: spasmodic dysphonia, Service, Democratic, John Hopkins Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, National, University of Pennsylvania Health, Penn Medicine, Neuroscience, CBS Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Is It Time to Toss My Skin Care Products?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Erica Sweeney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Q: I have a drawer full of skin care products of dubious age. Unless the product is classified as a drug, as acne treatments and sunscreen products are, you probably won’t find an expiration date on it, said Dr. Bruce Brod, a dermatologist at Penn Medicine. But that labeling is not required on skin care products or cosmetics either, Dr. Brod said. If skin care products are so old that you have forgotten when you bought them, you should avoid using them, Dr. Brod said. “It’s always better to be safe than sorry,” he added, since applying products that are past their prime can come with risks.

Persons: Bruce Brod, it’s, Brod, “ It’s Organizations: Penn Medicine

☆ Sleep Better at Every Age
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Dani Blum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +47 min

Sleep training, the process of teaching babies how to soothe themselves at night and sleep independently, can start when infants are 3 to 4 months old. While sleep training can be taxing for everyone involved, it can lead to better sleep for the whole household. If your child is struggling to sleep through the night at this age, consider talking to a pediatrician about possible solutions. The problem: Insomnia can strike at any age: Around 20 percent of children have difficulty falling or staying asleep. Plus, the older we get, the harder it is to bounce back from a night of poor sleep, Dr. Roth said.

Persons: ”, Craig Canapari, Canapari, Naptime, Tell, “, aren’t, Roth, Dr, Shannon Sullivan, Sullivan, Indira Gurubhagavatula, we’re, Gurubhagavatula, You’re, doesn’t, you’re, Sabra Abbott, Aric Prather, It’s, you’ll, Perimenopause, Abbott, Prather, don’t, — Organizations: Yale University ., Stanford Medicine, Yale University, Penn Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, University of California Locations: San Francisco, midlife, United States

☆ ChatGPT’s responses to suicide, addiction, sexual assault crises raise questions in new study
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And regulators could help monitor that such responses offer accurate and reliable information and resources. They’re underutilized already,” said John Ayers, an author of the study and a behavioral scientist at the University of California, San Diego. He said that now, while ChatGPT is still in development, is the time for public health experts and regulators to join forces with the chatbot’s developers to help curate responses to medical questions. The chatbot provided resources in two responses to a question about addiction, two responses for questions related to interpersonal violence and one response to a mental health-related question. “ChatGPT consistently provided evidence-based answers to public health questions, although it primarily offered advice rather than referrals,” the researchers wrote in their study.

Persons: They’re underutilized, ”, John Ayers, ChatGPT, “, –, ” Ayers, ” ChatGPT, “ ChatGPT, Ayers, Dr, Mike Hogarth, Sanjay Gupta, David Asch, Asch, ” Asch, he’d, Deidre McPhillips Organizations: CNN, JAMA, University of California, UC San Diego, Anonymous, Mental Health Services Administration National, Prevention, UC San Diego School of Medicine, Eating Disorders Association, CNN Health, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine Center, Health Care Innovation Locations: San Diego, United States

☆ Rectal Cancer Patients Could Be Spared the Brutal Effects of Radiation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Gina Kolata | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That was why researchers took another look at the standard treatment for rectal cancer. But the radiation puts women into immediate menopause and damages sexual function in men and women. Yet radiation treatment, the study found, did not improve outcomes. For colon and rectal cancer specialists, the results can transform their patients’ lives, said Dr. Kimmie Ng, a co-director of the colon and rectal cancer center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who was not an author of the study. “Now, especially, with patients skewing younger and younger, do they actually need radiation?” she asked.

Persons: Kimmie Ng, Dana, Dr, John Plastaras Organizations: Farber Cancer Institute, Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center

Shortness of breath, loss of taste and smell, and other lingering Covid symptoms tend to ease over time and may be gone within a year, according to new research. The study did not include patients who developed long Covid from omicron or its subvariants, but doctors in the U.S. say they do see new patients with long Covid symptoms following an omicron infection. Most common long Covid symptomsThree years into the pandemic, it remains unclear exactly how many people have long Covid. The findings are consistent with what long Covid experts in the U.S. have found. While the study found that many long Covid symptoms abate within a year, it remains clear that some patients continue to suffer long afterward.

☆ 2 women stopped binge eating after an implant started zapping their brains with electricity, a small study found
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A brain implant reduced two patients' binge eating for at least six months. The two patients were fitted with a brain implant to zap the part of the brain linked to cravings. The idea of targeting brain waves to fight cravings has been appealing, so much so that Elon Musk recently said his Neuralink brain implant could one day fight morbid obesity. The implant used in the study learned to recognize those brainwaves and zap that region with electricity to scramble them, which seemed to cut the cravings short. With just two patients, the scientists can't prove for sure that it was the implant causing the weight loss.

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