Medical Notes: October 2, 2022
Your posture may be affecting your medication. Then, aging no longer means losing your memories. And finally…do generous people sleep more?
Social Science Sub-categories:
Parasocial Relationships: How Celebrities Influence Your Decisions
If you’ve ever felt connected to a movie star or celebrity, you’ve experienced a parasocial relationship. This one-sided connection gives the celebrity influence over your daily decision making and creates a feeling of friendship with someone you’ve never met.
How to Provide Support in the Wake of a Traumatic Loss
Two bereaved mothers recount their experiences of losing their children, and detail what good support looks like.
Medical Notes: January 2, 2022
A new finds that patients showing up at rural hospital ERs have extremely similar outcomes compared to patients in urban-area ERs. Then, new research sheds light on why more girls don't go into STEM. Plus, pandemic depression linked to sitting and lack of activity. And finally, Alexa and Siri aren't very helpful when it comes to health.
Advances That May Eliminate Scarring
Scars are a public health as well as aesthetic threat, as internal scars can compromise the function of organs and tissues. Scientists are now devising medications that promote healing without producing scars. One of the scientists on the front lines discusses how these medicines work and their possible uses.
Easing the Opioid Epidemic: How to Respond
Drug overdoses killed more than 100,000 Americans in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, as pressures built and users sometimes had to get their fix from unfamiliar sources. Experts discuss how the pandemic cost lives beyond Covid, and how surgical painkiller drug substitutions are beginning to keep some people from going down the opioid path.
New Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Category
Many people who need hearing aids never get them, in part because they currently require a prescription and expensive treatment. An expert discusses the FDA’s new proposed category of over-the-counter hearing aids.
Medical Notes: December 5, 2021
Research shows Black women have a higher risk of triple-negative breast cancers than previously known—nearly triple the risk of white women. Plus, online dating violence begins as early as age 12. And finally, science proves that when you’re nice to others, they’re more likely to be nice to you.
Medical Notes: October 31, 2021
An influential government task force issues new advice about low-dose aspirin. Plus, a study finds that people with natural immunity to Covid-19 don’t have it for very long. And finally, safe sex is still important--a quarter of people with STDs don’t tell their partners.
Medical Notes: October 24, 2021
A new study calls into question the six foot social distancing guidelines. Then, eating green vegetables and fiber can cut your risk of colon cancer in half, and spinach is especially effective. And finally…where you live may protect you from dementia.
Medical Notes: October 17, 2021
Research shows Covid vaccines have no effect on fertility and vaccinated mothers can pass along immunity to babies in the womb. A study shows the rules restricting how many passengers teen drivers can carry are working. Then, a new study says it's not just about how many steps you take per day, it matters how fast you walk. And finally, if the pandemic’s got …
The Loneliness Epidemic
Loneliness has been increasing across all ages even before the pandemic. It’s especially noteworthy among seniors, and it can dramatically affect health. An expert geriatrician who has studied the effects of loneliness and the leader of an organization that provides friendly visitors to the isolated elderly discuss.
