Drug Developers Study People Whose Brains Are Loaded With Signs Of Alzheimer’s Disease But Display No Symptoms

Stat: They Have ‘Alzheimer’s Brains’ But No Symptoms. Why?
For years they were flukes of the Alzheimer’s world: elderly people who died at an advanced age and, according to postmortem examinations, with brains chock-full of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, the protein fragments whose presence in the brain is the hallmark of the disease. Yet these brains were off-script. Although Alzheimer’s orthodoxy says these sticky protein clumps between and inside nerve cells destroy synapses and kill neurons, causing memory loss and cognitive decline, these individuals thought and remembered as well as their amyloid- and tau-free peers. (Begley, 2/27)

Stat: Anti-Vaccine Activists Co-Opt A Populist Slogan To Oppose Immunization Law
The advertisements plastered across city bus stops and flooding television airwaves across Maine make a simple plea to voters: “Reject Big Pharma” by voting yes on a state-wide initiative. But the referendum that Maine voters will decide on Tuesday, known as Question 1, has little to do with drug prices. Instead, approval would overturn a 2019 law that requires all schoolchildren to receive vaccinations unless granted an exemption by a doctor. The advertisements, meanwhile, are funded in large part not by drug pricing activists but by a nationwide network of anti-vaccine groups. (Facher, 2/28)

PBS NewsHour: Are Today’s Military Helmets Better At Preventing Brain Injury? Not Always, Study Says
Your great-grandfather’s World War I helmet that’s stuffed in the back of the closet could be just as effective at preventing brain injury from some blasts as a modern-day military helmet, a recently published study from Duke University researchers suggests. The study is narrow in scope, looking only at effects from overhead explosions — a fact the researchers are first to admit. But it still raises questions about why today’s military helmet designs are not markedly better at protecting against certain kinds of shockwaves than those used more than 100 years ago. (Aronson and Frazee, 2/27)

Stat: Rejected From Five Clinical Trials, A Cancer Patient Waits For One To Say Yes
It’s hard enough for any cancer patient to get into clinical trials. It’s even harder for a patient with a rare cancer like Todd Mercer. Mercer, a 52-year-old defense industry professional, lives in Michigan with his wife and their two teenagers. At age 50, Mercer got a colonoscopy, as is recommended for people his age, and received a clean bill of health. Six weeks later, his appendix burst. (Robbins, Garde and Feuerstein, 2/28)

ABC News: For Bernie Sanders, Radical Views Once Extended To Theories On What Causes Cancer 
For nearly 20 years as an up and coming politician, Bernie Sanders supported ideas on what causes cancer outside of the mainstream, such as sexual inactivity as a cause of breast cancer. “The manner in which you bring up your daughter with regard to sexual attitudes may very well determine whether or not she will develop breast cancer, among other things,” Sanders wrote in an essay headlined “Cancer, Disease and Society” in 1969. “How much guilt, nervousness have you imbued in your daughter with regard to sex?” (Rubin, 2/27)

CBS News: Jimmy John’s Linked To New E. Coli Outbreak, A Day After FDA Warning 
Federal health officials are warning consumers who have eaten sprouts on sandwiches from restaurant chain Jimmy John’s to be on the lookout for E. coli symptoms, with a new outbreak striking more than a dozen people in five states. “We are advising consumers who may have recently eaten sprouts at Jimmy John’s to monitor for symptoms of an E. coli infection, and consumers should contact their health care provider if they have experienced common foodborne illness symptoms,” Frank Yiannas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s deputy commissioner for food policy and response, said in a statement. (Gibson, 2/27)

CNN: How To Tell If Your Kid Is Suffering From A Mental Disorder 
Children’s lives may not be as hard as adults’ lives, but sometimes their moodiness and sadness are more than just a phase. Around one in six US youth ages 6 to 17 has a mental, behavioral or developmental disorder such as anxiety, depression or attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder, according to a 2019 report in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The number of youth struggling with mental disorders such as depression and anxiety has increased by 52% between 2005 and 2017. (Rogers, 2/27)

Reuters: Walking May Be Best Treatment For Pain From Clogged Leg Arteries
Discomfort in the calf and upper legs during walking is a hallmark of narrowed blood vessels due to heart disease, but walking more – not less – can help ease the pain, experts say. This type of pain comes from intermittent claudication, when too little blood reaches the muscles, and it is usually a sign that blood vessels in the legs are clogged by atherosclerosis, a condition known as peripheral artery disease. (2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Risks Of Loneliness Among Seniors Aren’t Being Adequately Addressed, Report Warns
The U.S. health system is falling short in addressing the serious public health threat of loneliness and social isolation among America’s seniors, according to a new report by an influential advisory group. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said Thursday that nearly one-quarter of Americans aged 65 and older who live in community settings have few relationships or infrequent social contact. It concluded that four decades of research have produced robust evidence that social isolation is associated with a significantly increased risk for early death from all causes. (Adamy, 2/27)

CNN: A Woman Took 550 Times The Usual Dose Of LSD, With Surprisingly Positive Consequences 
Drug overdoses can be life-threatening, but for two women who accidentally took massive hits of LSD, the experience was life changing — and in a good way. A 46-year-old woman snorted a staggering 550 times the normal recreational dose of LSD and not only survived, but found that the foot pain she had suffered from since her 20s was dramatically reduced. Separately, a 15-year-old girl with bipolar disorder overdosed on 10 times the normal dose of the drug, which she said resulted in a massive improvement in her mental health. (Hunt, 2/27)

NPR: Brain Uses Left Side For Lyrics And Right For Melody
A song fuses words and music. Yet the human brain can instantly separate a song’s lyrics from its melody. And now scientists think they know how this happens. A team led by researchers at McGill University reported in Science Thursday that song sounds are processed simultaneously by two separate brain areas – one in the left hemisphere and one in the right. (Hamilton, 2/27)

Stat: AI Has Arrived In Medical Imaging. Now The FDA Needs To Monitor It
This is the moment of truth for the FDA’s regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine. That was the unmistakable theme of a two-day meeting here this week that focused on how the agency will keep tabs on the safety and effectiveness of new medical imaging devices that use AI to automate tasks performed by radiologists. Following a string of approvals, these products are now beginning to filter into hospitals and clinics around the country, posing a test of the agency’s review processes and ability to trace the impact of AI on doctors and patients in real-world settings. (Ross, 2/28)

ABC News: Social Media Exposure May Exacerbate Eating Disorder 
Katherine Ormerod remembers when she first signed up for Instagram.Even more than that, she remembers how it made her feel.”I was asked by my boss to set up a social media account — it became part of my professional life — but soon I realized it was having detrimental impact on my body,” Ormerod told ABC News. “I never had big problems with anorexia, but I just never felt good about my body because of social media.” (David and Safai, 2/27)