Washington Post, How to create a sleep-friendly bedroom by Eustacia Huen — Keep the lights out: Lights out is essential to bedtime. In particular, avoid exposure to the blue light from LED bulbs and electronic devices, says Pablo Castillo, sleep medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic. “The body reacts to this artificial light as if it [were] still daytime,” he said in an email, “and the pineal gland will stop producing the sleep hormone melatonin, resulting in poor sleep quality.” That’s why you should stay away from bright light for at least three hours before bedtime, reduce screen time, and set devices on night mode an hour or two before bed, plus use blue-light-blocking coating on screens or glasses if you “use computers and digital devices heavily,” Castillo wrote.

Washington Post, I thought the rashes were insect bites. I actually had shingles, and it was horrible. by Crhstine Lehmann — Pritish Tosh, an infectious disease physician and researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, also suggests keeping the lesions covered in public, washing hands after changing the bandages or dressings, and not sharing towels. If you have children at home who have not had chickenpox or not been vaccinated, Tosh recommends talking to your pediatrician for guidance.

Wall Street Journal, Medical Schools Are Pushed to Train Doctors for Climate Change by Brianna Abbott — The movement, recently backed by the American Medical Association, is showing emerging signs of impact. At the University of Minnesota, medical, nursing and pharmacy schools, among others, have added content or tweaked existing classes to incorporate climate-related topics. The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign added a diagnosis exercise about worsening asthma due to increased wildfires from climate change. The Mayo Clinic is starting discussions this month on how to integrate the topic into its medical school’s curriculum.

New York Times, A brain scan may predict Alzheimer’s. Should you get one? by Paula Span — …Multiple trials have failed to find drugs that prevent, reverse or slow Alzheimer’s disease, perhaps because these treatments were introduced too late in the disease’s course. Results from a different approach, an infusion drug being tested in older people with amyloid but without cognitive impairment, remain several years away. “As a clinician, would I like amyloid information about my symptomatic patients? Yes,” said Dr. Ronald Petersen, a neurologist and director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “Am I going to be able to do something about it? Not at present.” Additional coverage: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

New York Times, These Medical Devices Are Inserted Into 500,000 Patients Each Year — but Are Tough to Sterilize by Roni Caryn Rabin — The procedure, called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, is used to diagnose and treat diseases of the pancreas, bile duct and gallbladder, such as life-threatening jaundice, tumors, blocked bile ducts and stones. More than half a million such procedures are performed each year in the United States. The alternative is open surgery, which carries its own risks, said Dr. Bret Petersen, a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “Taking a gallstone out surgically would be almost unheard of today,” he said. But the inability to properly clean the instrument between patients has proved to be its “Achilles heel,” he added. The devices cannot be exposed to high heat to be sterilized, as many instruments are.

USA Today, Things you didn't know about C-sections: There's still postpartum bleeding by Rasha Ali —Yes, C-sections are considered surgeries, but you most likely won't be put to sleep for them…Don't worry, you won't feel it though. These C-sections are done under regional anesthesia, which numbs only the lower part of your body, the Mayo Clinic reports. If you were expecting a vaginal delivery and end up having C-section, the doctor said that they can reinforce the epidural to make it stronger so that the mom can still be awake.

ABC News, Tech companies want your smart speaker to take on health care by Janet Rae-Dupree — …Because Amazon also holds patents on monitoring blood flow and heart rate through an Alexa-enabled camera, Alexa could send vitals to a doctor’s office before you head to your appointment and continue to monitor your condition after you get home. “It opens possibilities to deliver care at a distance,” said Dr. Sandhya Pruthi, lead investigator for several breast cancer prevention trials at the Mayo Clinic, which has been on the front lines of using voice assistants in health care. “Think about people living in small towns who aren’t always getting access to care and knowing when to get health care,” she said. “Could this be an opportunity, if someone had symptoms, to say, ‘It’s time for this to get checked out’?”

STAT, The vaccine whisperers: Counselors gently engage new parents before their doubts harden into certainty by Eric Boodman — As public health tactics go, it sounded counterintuitive. Across the American border, the measles caseload was inching its way toward a 27-year high. In some hard-hit communities, authorities would respond by threatening the unvaccinated with fines, banning them from public spaces, and temporarily shuttering their schools. Dr. Robert Jacobson, a Mayo Clinic pediatrician who’d been flown in to teach New York state clinicians how to combat vaccine hesitancy, likes to emphasize that “the parent … really is hoping that the professional can give the professional’s recommendation.”

MSN, This is the best exercise to pump up aging muscles by Sarah Max — For decades, competitive athletes have used high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to improve their performance. Now this exercise approach—alternating brief periods of intense exercise with short recovery breaks—has caught on with people of all ages and fitness levels. “You are pushing yourself to a point where, for 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, you are giving everything you can give,” says Brad Prigge, a wellness exercise specialist at the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program in Rochester, Minn. “Then you let yourself recover, catch your breath, and you do it again.”

Post-Bulletin, Answer Man: Mayo Clinic's first African American doctor was an overachiever by Jeff Kiger — Mayo documentary follow-up question: Mayo hired its first African-American physician in 1979. Do you know that person's name? — Shane…While I'm not the esteemed documentarian Ken Burns (… or am I?), I can help you with that bit of Rochester history. One of my eager helpers reached out to Mayo Clinic to track down this for you. The name you are looking for is Dr. Franklyn G. Prendergast. Mother Mayo added this overachiever to the fold 1979 with multiple medical and scientific degrees to his name.

Post-Bulletin, Secrets on display: PostSecret founder visits Rochester by John Molseed — …The PostSecret project and Warren have also become a part of broader conversations about mental health. Warren works to bring awareness to mental health issues and suicide prevention. Through PostSecret, he has helped raise more than $1 million toward suicide prevention initiatives. That’s why Friends of the Rochester Public Library brought Warren and his live show to Rochester. The event was part of the summer-long Mind Matters collaboration between the Rochester Art Center, the Rochester Public Library and Mayo Clinic. Mind Matters features exhibits, events and collaborations regarding mental illness.

KTTC, New Minnesota e-cigarette indoor ban responds to growing trend among teens by Nicole Valinote — A new Minnesota law banning the use of e-cigarettes in most indoor workplaces and public places went into effect on Thursday. The law subjects e-cigarettes and vapes to the same restrictions as cigarettes, banning them from restaurants, bars and almost all indoor workplaces, under the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act. The law’s goals are two-fold, according to Dr. Taylor Hays, the Director of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center: to keep the air that people breathe clean and to reduce the number of people vaping. “We all deserve to breathe clean air,” Hays said. “People who aren’t using these devices shouldn’t have to breathe the chemicals that come from them.” Restrictions like this tend to encourage people to quit using the product, Hays added. Additional coverage: FOX 47

KAAL, The Clean-Air Act and its Potential Impact — During a sit-down with the Director of the Nicotine Dependency Center for Mayo Clinic, Dr. Taylor Hays, he explained that indeed, regular cigarettes are believed to be more harmful, but only because officials don't know enough about the long term effects from e-cigs. We are well aware of the harmful and life-threatening conditions caused but long term nicotine use, stemming from lung cancers, and heart conditions, but we didn't always know.  Dr. Hays referred back to when people didn't know how dangerous smoking was. He compared this generation to those who tried tobacco for the first time in the 1920s and 30s and points out that when cigarettes emerged there was no data to prove the deathly consequences.

KAAL, Virtual Medicine Becoming More and More The Norm — "I think you are seeing trends across all industries; banking, travel, everything we do in life, things are getting more convenient for the customer or in this case, the patient," said Dr. Steve Ommen. Dr. Ommen is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and the medical director for Mayo's Center for Connected Care. He says virtual healthcare at Mayo Clinic goes even further than Express Care Online. "There are some emergency care situations where we can deliver care faster without waiting for helicopters or ambulances to transport people between cities. So for instance, babies that are born in unexpected distress. The historical way would be to transfer that baby to a NICU like we have here in Rochester. But now we can use video technology tools to transmit our doctors to where the baby is and they can start the process with the local care team," said Dr. Ommen.

KAAL, Continuing to Foster Innovation in Rochester — Rochester is the third most innovative city in the country, that’s according to a Business Insider report released last month. It comes as no surprise, as city leaders have been working to foster that innovation for years. Three and a half years ago, the Destination Medical Center (DMC) and Mayo Clinic launched the first Investor & Innovator Forum. "We knew that Rochester had a lot of people coming up with great ideas, whether that’s in healthcare or technology or whatever it might be. The origins of this was let’s get these people with these great ideas in front of and together with people who can invest in those technologies and take them to market," said Chris Schad, DMC Director of Business Development for Discovery Square.

KIMT, Investors and innovators collaborating on growing Rochester by Jeremiah Wilcox — We say this a dozen times each week, the Med-City is booming. The Destination Medical Center Board and city leaders want to make the city a place where entrepreneurship thrives. Today DMC and Mayo Clinic held the third annual "Investor & Innovator Forum.” The room was filled with businesses young and old all eager to grow.

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Mortenson plans second, bigger Discovery Square building in Rochester by Mark Reilly — M.A. Mortenson Co., one of the key players in Rochester, Minnesota's multibillion-dollar Destination Medical Center project, is moving ahead with plans for a second office building in the city's Discovery Square development downtown.  The Post-Bulletin reports that the Golden Valley-based construction firm has filed plans for a five-story, 121,295-square-foot building called Two Discovery Square. The company was hired last year by Mayo Clinic to build One Discovery Square, a four-story, 89,000-square-foot office building that's currently under construction. (The total Discovery Square development is expected to eventually stretch over 16 blocks.) Additional coverage: Post-Bulletin

Pioneer Press, Former Vikings guard Mike Harris back in the game by Chris Tomasson —Three years after a congenital brain condition ended his playing career, Mike Harris will be back on an NFL field… In June 2016, Harris suffered an episode during organized team activities that he told the Pioneer Press in 2017 “felt like … a stroke.” Tests conducted by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester determined Harris had a congenital condition known as brain arteriovenous malformation. He officially retired in 2017.

Duluth News Tribune, Vaping ban hopes to stem the risks still unknown by Paul Scott — As of Aug. 1st, Minnesota became the 20th state in the nation to ban vaping in workplaces, public places, restaurants and bars…"I think it's the right thing to do," says Dr. J. Taylor Hays, Director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at Mayo Clinic. "Minnesota was a leader in smoke-free indoor air. With their widespread use and the impression among some users that they are completely safe, we need to protect people from second hand aerosolized nicotine vapors released by electronic cigarettes indoors. We all have to breathe the same air. We don't have good scientific evidence about the effects of breathing second-hand vapor and what's in it. People have a right to breathe air free of unknown substances." Additional coverage: West Central Tribune, Brainerd Dispatch

Duluth News Tribune, The truth about 'brain freeze' — Leave it to medical scientists to take all the fun out of a familiar phenomenon. The correct (but boring) term is “cold-stimulus headache,” according to Dr. Amaal Starling, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic. But he's talking about brain freeze. In a “Mayo Clinic Minute” from the Mayo Clinic News Network, Starling explains the reason for that blast of pain when you sip a cold slushy too fast.

KSMQ, Mind Matters exhibit — Interview with Dr. Bruce Sutor.

First Coast News, Gene-editing used in the US for the first time to treat sickle cell disease — Dr. Klaas Wierenga is interviewed.

News4Jax, 2019 First coast heart walk — Ashley Spicer sits down with Ashley Zimmerman and Dr. Sabrina Phillips to talk about the upcoming heart walk and the signs of congenital heart disease.

South Florida Reporter, Why Eating More Vegetables, Less Meat Is Healthy (Video) — Is eating more vegetables and cutting back on meat really good for your health? Dr. Donald Hensrud, director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program, encourages people to include more plant-based foods in their diets.

Mankato Free Press, Double heart transplant recipient is Sturgis bound by Brian Arola — “Needing a second transplant is not very common,” said Dr. Rocky Daly, Dale’s surgeon and the surgical director of heart and lung transplantation at Mayo Clinic Hospital-St. Marys in Rochester. “Most people do well after heart transplantation and they do well for quite a long time.” He said a rejection process in Dale’s body damaged the heart, preventing it from working as hoped. Multiple transplants are more common in younger patients who need their hearts to last for longer lifespans.

KEYC Mankato, Mayo Clinic ranked No. 1 hospital nationwide by U.S. News & World Report — Mayo Clinic in Rochester was ranked as the No. 1 hospital nationwide in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019-2020 “Best Hospitals” rankings. In addition to its No. 1 overall ranking, Mayo Clinic in Rochester has more No. 1 rankings in medical specialty areas than any other U.S. medical center. “Being recognized as the No. 1 health care provider in the nation is a tribute to the incredible work of our staff because it recognizes both our medical expertise as well as our commitment to compassionate, individualized care,” says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, Mayo Clinic. “Each day, we strive to bring hope and healing to our patients.” Additional coverage: Duluth News Tribune

SaukValley.com, Measles now an ‘explosive outbreak’ — Measles infections are now confirmed in 30 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “We have more measles cases than we have had in the last 30 years,” says Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group. “This is an explosive outbreak.” “This is a reflection of people not being vaccinated and not understanding the severity of measles,” says Dr. Poland. “If you get measles, you have about a 1 in 1,000 chance of having encephalitis. That is an infection of the brain, and it will change your life forever if you survive it.”

WKBT La Crosse, Mayo Clinic brings Mobile Teaching Kitchen to farmers market — Mayo Clinic Health System is whipping up healthy food for people today with its mobile teaching kitchen.

WXOW La Crosse, Hospitals ready to respond to a mass casualty situation by Mike Beiermeister — Gundersen, Mayo Clinic Health System and local first responders must be on the same page, so they practice drills throughout the year should the time come…Both Gundersen Health System and Mayo Clinic Health System are planning to participate in another community wide training with first responders in October.

TIME, The Best Sports and Exercises to Avoid Injury by Markham Heid — A recent study in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that, compared to solo exercise pursuits, activities that involve spending time with others are associated with longer life expectancies. Studies have independently linked both exercise and social interaction with longer lifespans, so it makes sense that combining the two would be beneficial. But while healthy, many of these activities nonetheless carry a high risk for injury.

AMA Magazine, Revealing the ripples of burnout — Dr. Liselotte Dyrbye is featured – page 38.

Radiology Business, Could professional coaches help radiologists battle burnout? by Michael Walter — Physician burnout continues to be a problem in the United States, and numerous studies have highlighted its impact on radiologists. According to new findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine, professional coaching could help alleviate burnout among physicians and lead to better overall patient care.  Led by Liselotte Dyrbye, MD, and Colin West, MD, both from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the researchers examined how external professional coaches impacted a group of 88 practicing physicians.  “Helping physicians navigate career decisions and manage the stress of their job is crucial,” Dyrbye said in a prepared statement. Additional coverage: Healio

Healio, Professional coaching intervention may reduce physician burnout — Professional coaching sessions reduced burnout and improved quality of life for practicing physicians, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. “Coaching is distinct from mentorship and peer support and involves inquiry, encouragement, and accountability to increase self-awareness, motivation, and the capacity to take effective action,” Liselotte N. Dyrbye, MD, MHPE, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues wrote. “Coaches do not need to be physicians or directly involved in health care. Professional coaching can be tailored to focus on the aspects desired by recipients and can assist individuals in their effort to navigate their professional life, their choices, and the direction of their career. We hypothesized that professional coaching would result in measurable improvements in well-being, job satisfaction, resilience, and fulfillment in physicians and measurable reductions in burnout.”

Healio, Burnout tied to racial bias in resident physicians — Symptoms of burnout were tied to racial bias among resident physicians, which could potentially lead to disparities in care, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. “Physicians’ negative emotional states have been shown to be associated with greater explicit racial bias in medical decision-making,” Liselotte Dyrbye, MD, MHPE, of the division of community internal medicine in the department of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, and colleagues wrote. “Negative emotions, like those characterized by burnout and depression, also can impede cognitive performance making implicit biases more likely to play a role in behaviors and decision-making.”

MEAWW, Racism in medical schools influences students’ decision to work with minority patients, communities by Mihika Basu — “The key conclusion from the study was that elements of medical school curricula, culture, and students’ interpersonal experiences might all contribute to a student’s decision about where to practice medicine. There are severe, and worsening shortages of physicians practicing in underserved areas, and this study provides evidence that medical schools may help address that trend by paying attention to the values and norms that are communicated to their students,” first author Dr. Sean Phelan, a Mayo Clinic health sciences researcher, told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW).

Nodaway News Leader, Mosaic in Maryville and Albany now have special access to Mayo Clinic by Mike Randleman — After successfully completing a rigorous evaluation process, Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville (MMCM) and Mosaic Medical Center – Albany (MMCA) now have access to the tools and services offered through the Mayo Clinic Network. The two medical centers join Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph which became a member of the network seven years ago.

TVH 11 CBS, Unity Health becomes first Arkansas facility to join Mayo Clinic Care Network — Unity Health became the first Arkansas facility to join the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Patients can receive care at The Pyeatt Family Cancer Center in Searcy.  The team of doctors at Unity Health can assist cancer patients from diagnosis through the duration of treatment and follow-up. On The Vine this morning, Ashley King talked with Dr. Ryan Koch about the team approach.

OneZero, Should You Save Your Cells Now to Fight Cancer Later? by Emily Mullin — …Dr. Yi Lin, a hematologist at the Mayo Clinic, argues that the odds of needing to use your banked T-cells for one of these therapies is “very low.” While Cell Vault says on its website that one in three people will get cancer in their lifetime — a number that comes from the American Cancer Society — the vast majority of those people will never undergo CAR T-cell therapy. That’s because CAR T-cell therapies are a last resort for these patients after chemotherapy and radiation fail — at least for now.

HealthDay, AHA News: Study Finds Racial Gap in Who Gets Critical Stroke Treatments — In the new study, published Thursday in the AHA journal Stroke, researchers from the Mayo Clinic analyzed 206,853 records of patients at 173 medical centers nationwide. They found 16 percent of black or Hispanic patients received the clot-busting drug compared to 21 percent of white patients. About 7 percent of black or Hispanic patients received a mechanical thrombectomy; whereas nearly 10 percent of white patients did. Among those with Medicaid or who were uninsured, black or Hispanic patients were less likely to get the thrombectomy procedure than their white peers.  "As disparities in stroke care in general have been repeatedly and consistently demonstrated, I would say the results were not surprising, though they remain frustrating and concerning," said the study's lead author Dr. Lorenzo Rinaldo, a neurosurgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

HealthDay, Could a 'Tickle' a Day Keep the Doctor Away? by Serena Gordon — A small electric "tickle" to the ear may affect the body's nervous system, and British researchers claim this can promote overall well-being and may potentially slow down some effects of aging…However, not everyone is convinced that a simple, non-invasive procedure might have such wide-ranging health effects.  Dr. David Knopman, a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said this study didn't provide evidence to support any claims of health benefits.  "The sample sizes are small. The studies were poorly controlled. I would question the claims about efficacy," he said.

Livestrong.com, Can the Mayo Clinic Diet Really Help You Lose Weight? by Andrea Boldt — The Mayo Clinic Diet is not a fad diet that promises to help you lose stunning amounts of weight in a short period of time. This program, created by a team of experts associated with the renowned Mayo Clinic medical facilities, aims to help people learn to make smart meal choices and build healthy habits in order to lose weight and keep it off for a lifetime.

Popular Science, I flew in an F-16 with the Air Force and oh boy did it go poorly by Rob Verger — Nailing the G-strain is “a little bit like getting the right swing in golf,” says Jan Stepanek, a physician and chair of the Aerospace Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. Seasoned aviators like Flack rely on muscle memory to pull it off, know how many Gs they can tolerate before it becomes necessary, and can do it almost subconsciously. I’m not sure I did mine correctly.

Lifehacker, Is it Safe to Let a Dog Lick You? by Elizabeth Yuko — When you think about everything a dog licks or puts in its mouth—street garbage, toilet water, its junk, etc.—you probably aren’t going to want its tongue on your face. But according to Pritish Tosh, M.D. an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic, in most cases, dog kisses are probably fine. “Is it going to be harmful if you let your dog lick your face? Probably not,” he said in a video released by the Clinic, but it’s best to keep them away from open wounds.

Delta Sky Magazine, Overcoming Avoidance by David Jarnstrom — …Men are about half as likely to see a physician as women, says Donald Hensrud, M.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program. And much of that avoidance is due to hardwired habits.

WPVI-TV, Mayo Clinic experts on helping kids cope with tragedy — When a tragedy - such as a natural disaster, mass shooting or terrorist attack - occurs, you might feel helpless and it can be hard to talk to your child about what happened. But experts at the Mayo Clinic say it's important to have that conversation, to help your child cope. How do I start a conversation with my child about a tragedy? Talking to your child about a tragedy can help him or her understand what's happened, feel safe and begin to cope.

Star2.com, There is no magic vitamin to prevent dementia — Sales of purported brain-health supplements such as fish oil and jellyfish, are expected to reach US$5.8 billion (RM23.9bil) by 2023. However, in a report released on June 11, 2019, an AARP panel of brain experts called them a huge waste of money for healthy seniors seeking to avoid or reverse dementia. “The market is so large that they get by without rigorous documentation of the efficacy of their products,” says Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center director and neurologist Dr Ronald Petersen. He and other members of the Global Council on Brain Health do not recommend any dietary supplements to prevent, slow or reverse cognitive decline.

Express UK, Arthritis: One simple activity you can do at home to alleviate symptoms by Adam Chapman — The benefits carry on after a person has got out of the bath, according to Ann Vincent, MD, medical director of the Mayo Clinic’s Fibromyalgia Clinic in Rochester, Minn: “Patients report that soaking in a warm bath and stretching after that seems to help.” Evidence supports the health benefits of exercising in warm water to ease arthritis.

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Tags: alzheimer's disease, Brad Prigge, brain freeze, brain tumor, burnout, C-Sections, Christina Anderson, clean-air act, climate change, dementia, destination medical center, Discovery Square, DMC, Dr. Bruce Sutor, Dr. David Knopman, Dr. Donald Hensrud, Dr. Franklyn Predergast, Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, Dr. Gregory Poland, Dr. J. Taylor Hays, Dr. Liselotte Dyrbye, Dr. Lorenzo Rinaldo, Dr. Pablo Castillo, Dr. Pritish Tosh, Dr. Robert Jacobson, Dr. Rocky Daly, Dr. Ronald Petersen Dr. Bret Petersen, Dr. Sabrina Phillips, Dr. Steve Ommen, Dr. Yi Lin, E-cigarettes, exercise, gene-editing, heart transplant, mass casualty situation, Mayo Clinic Care Network, measles, medical school, Mike Harris, Mind Matters, Mortenson, Mosaic Medical Center, Nutrition, physician burnout, PostSecret, racism, shingles, skin cancer, sleep medicine, stroke, Teaching Kitchen, Telemedicine, Uncategorized, Unite Health, vaccinations, virtual medicine