November 8, 2019

Mayo Clinic in the News Weekly Highlights for November 8, 2019

By Emily Blahnik

Quartz, Rare genetic mutations protected a woman from developing Alzheimer’s by Katherine Ellen Foley — This case study “leads us to think about the importance of such studies in relatively understudied populations,” says Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, a neurogeneticist with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, who was not involved with the study. Scientific knowledge of the Christchurch mutation suggests that it’s incredibly rare, but that could be because the majority of research on Alzheimer’s and dementia has been done on white populations. By including more diverse populations in future research, scientists can get a better idea of how this mutation works in other healthy populations—and ultimately, how it could mitigate the disease overall. Additional coverage: Science

New York Times, Why Didn’t She Get Alzheimer’s? The Answer Could Hold a Key to Fighting the Disease by Pam Belluck — “When you have delayed onset of Alzheimer’s by three decades, you say wow,” said Dr. Bu, chairman of the neuroscience department at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., who was not involved in the study. He said the research suggests that instead of drugs attacking amyloid or tau, which have failed in many clinical trials, a medication or gene therapy targeting APOE could be promising.

NBC News, Fecal transplants work better than antibiotics to treat deadly bacterial infection by Linda Carroll — Bloodstream infections, which can lead to sepsis and death, can occur in people with C. diff when the colon gets severely inflamed, and bacteria leak out into the blood, Uslan said in an email. Still, the study alone is not enough to suggest that doctors use FMT to lower the risk of bloodstream infections, said Dr. Purna Kashyap, an associate professor of medicine, physiology and biomedical engineering and co-director of the Microbiome Program at the Mayo Clinic. “As the authors already acknowledge, this is an observational study, which is good to generate the hypothesis, but it will need to be tested in a more controlled manner, such as with a randomized-controlled study,” Kashyap said in an email.

NBC News, Darker days have arrived. Here's how to make your home a wellness refuge all winter long. by Sarah DiGiulio — Winter months come with fewer hours of natural light and fewer sunny days overall. Less light affects our mood because our bodies need sunlight to produce vitamin D, which appears to help with functioning of parts of the brain that regulate mood and wellbeing. (Read: Yes, those summer streams of sunlight that wake you up and gently backlight your kitchen during dinner prep do make you feel better.) Try mimicking natural patterns with overhead lighting and lamps, suggests Kyja Stygar, MD, a family medicine physician at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Use bright lights in the middle of the day (look for light bulb intensities between 4,500 and 6,500k) and use softer dimmer lights (between 2,000 and 3,000k) when you’re first waking up and in the evening.

USA Today, Her cancer surgery was a success. Then a genetic condition let a chemo drug ravage her body by Lindy Washburn — DPD deficiency — the condition that interferes with the body’s ability to process 5-FU — is “relatively rare,” said Dr. Robert Diasio, director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Minnesota and an authority on the deficiency. Fewer than 5% of the Caucasian population have a partial deficiency and fewer than 1% have a total deficiency, he said. (The rate in non-Caucasians is higher but has not been thoroughly studied.)  People with a complete deficiency have almost always died when they received 5-FU. Those with a partial deficiency can develop such severe reactions they spend days or weeks in intensive care.  

Wall Street Journal, Getting Fit Meant Sink or Swim for an Ex-NFL Star by Jen Murphy — Diet and exercise are key factors in losing weight. But is one more effective? “Both are important, but their impact changes based on the different phases of your weight across your lifetime,” said Donald Hensrud, director of the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program in Rochester, Minn. Studies show that to prevent weight gain, exercise is more important, he said. When you need to shed pounds, diet becomes more important, Dr. Hensrud said.

Forbes, Five Things That Travelers With Anxiety Should Bring On Every Trip by Robin Raven — Workout Clothes: Bring along your swimsuit and workout clothes. The Mayo Clinic reports that some symptoms of anxiety are eased with exercise. Although some people consider travel an excuse to break a workout routine, your body and mind may benefit from getting up a little early to go to the hotel gym or swimming pool for half an hour. The key is to set sensible goals that aren’t overwhelming and choose to exercise in an enjoyable way.

ABC News, Extra 15-minute daily walk could grow world economy by $100 billion by Erin Schumaker — Regular physical activity is associated with a host of health benefits, including a decreased risk for chronic conditions like high blood pressure and heart disease, as well as mental health gains, such as a decreased risk of anxiety and depression, according to the Mayo Clinic.  Overall, those health gains translate into reduced mortality, and the longer people live, the longer they can stay in the workforce, which would grow the overall labor force in addition to economic output.

Post-Bulletin, Rochester biotech firm strikes 'significant' deal with drug maker by Jeff Kiger — A rapidly growing Rochester biotech firm is rolling out a "transformative" deal with a giant drug company to ramp up the development of its cancer-fighting vaccines with an infusion of money and people. Vyriad, founded in 2016 by Mayo Clinic researchers Dr. Kah-Whye Peng and Dr. Stephen Russell, announced "a strategic research collaboration" with Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals this morning. "It is transformative for the company," Russell said of the Regeneron deal. "It puts us on track to do everything we want to do for the next couple years ... It's really huge. Additional coverage: Med City Beat

Post-Bulletin, Former Mayo employee now works in Botswana to build reading culture by Matthew Stolle — When Andrea Malenya moved to Botswana, leaving behind her Mayo Clinic job and her Rochester home for a stint as a Peace Corps volunteer, it was strictly viewed as a short-term thing.  She never imagined that the South African country would become her home. Nor that her work would revolve around her love of books and helping to instill a culture of reading in the country.  But what started as a two-year commitment to the Peace Corps has now become a 12-year sojourn, the last five with the Botswana Book Project, a nonprofit founded to increase literacy and address what has been called a "book famine" in the country.

Post-Bulletin, A journey: Living with Parkinson's by Pat Ruff — Steve Grinnell has no idea how three years ago he wound up with Parkinson’s Disease.  Doctors don’t know, either, as he says is often the case with this disease. But at 48, Grinnell does know a couple of things as relates to his Parkinson’s. One is that it has greatly diminished his quality of life, leaving him with tremors, physical exhaustion, impaired balance, troubled grasping things with his right hand, slow right-arm movement and problems sleeping. That’s to name just a few of his symptoms from this progressive nervous-system disorder…. Married, the father of boys ages 16 and 14, an education specialist in the bio-chemical genetics laboratory at Mayo Clinic, and a life-long sports enthusiast, Grinnell still has a life to live.

Post-Bulletin, Redesigned Children's Center Atrium, Mayo Clinic. Additional coverage: KIMT

Post-Bulletin, 10 (or so) questions with ... Habiba Haji by Steve Lange — Nursing House Supervisor at Mayo Clinic and author of Conquering the Odds: Turning Your Valley Into A Mountain Top.

KAAL, Lung health: one woman's journey over mountains and miles by Alice Keefe — Vaping seems to make headlines every week, but tobacco and smoking still affect millions every year. With November being lung health awareness month, Mayo Clinic is bringing the focus back to tobacco. “I was a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines my husband was a pilot. In my 33rd year I thought I had SARS because of the outbreak in Asia, and the following year I thought maybe I had TB because of the outbreak in Somalia,” said Linda Wortman, a 12-year survivor of lung cancer. When she went to Mayo Clinic for a checkup, what she heard left her speechless. “My doctor looked at me and said we think you have lung cancer. I said I think you have the wrong patient because I’ve never smoked,” Wortman said.

KAAL, Mayo Clinic Employees Gave Pediatric Patients a Spooktacular Halloween Experience — While many families and kids were out and about trick-or-treating employees of Mayo Clinic made sure that children in the pediatric unit could have the same experience.  Photojournalist Brian Wise brings us the story. Additional coverage: KIMT, Post-Bulletin, KTTC

KTTC, Mayo Clinic to host lung health education events — From vaping to lung cancer, you can learn a lot about how to protect your lung health at two free events in Rochester. Mayo Clinic is hosting “The Air We Breathe: Inhale Your Future” next week. The first event is Tuesday, November 5 at 125 LIVE from 3-6 p.m. Another education event will be held Wednesday, November 6 at the Mayo Clinic Slaggie Family Education Center, Gonda Lobby from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

KTTC, Clearing the Air on the Vaping Epidemic by Ubah Ali — We asked Dr. Fonseca Fuentes, as a Pulmonologist if he is worried about the consequences of vaping. “I’m very worried because this can create detrimental effects in the lungs we don’t know yet what’s going to happen to them. We don’t know if people are going to survive from these,” he said. Mayo Clinic Addiction Specialist  Dr. Jon Ebbert strongly opposes young children vaping. “As an addiction specialist, I would say that I feel very strongly that anyone under the age of 25 should not be using any type of potentially addictive chemical period,” Ebbert said.

KTTC, Rochester airport pushes for much needed repairs — “[We] saw today the importance of the life safety issues that this airport handles whether it be the passengers who come in great need for those special services at Mayo Clinic or whether it be the samples that fly in on a daily basis,” said Sen. Carla Nelson from Rochester who has authored the bill in the state senate. The runway safety project will cost $79 million with more than 60 million of that coming from federal dollars.

KIMT, Mayo Clinic receives $15M gift that will give ‘real opportunistic look at the future’ by Calyn Thompson — Nearly a year after Mayo Clinic received the largest gift in the organization's history - $200 million - a philanthropist is giving even more money. Jay Alix is the donor. He says the funds will support the current CEO and future ones to bring about new initiative, program, and developments to transform health care. "By providing these funds, it will allow Mayo Clinic's leaders to get a real opportunistic look at the future," Alix said, "and how they can best take those opportunities and apply them to Mayo Clinic for the good of all their patients and all their staff and everyone connected to the Mayo Clinic." Additional coverage: Chronicle of Philanthropy

WCCO, ‘Super Physical’: Mayo Clinic Program Helps Patients Get Proactive About Health by Liz Collin — It’s an eye-opening statistic: On average, we spend just five minutes a year talking to our doctors. But a unique program at Mayo Clinic sets aside hours of time to help patients live healthier lives — consider it a super physical. WCCO shows us how the exams are becoming more popular with busy patients from all walks of life.

KARE 11, Adjusting for the end of daylight saving time by Dana Thiede — It sounds like a great deal... getting a free hour of sleep back as daylight saving time comes to an end. But in truth, the disruption an hour can bring to our sleep cycles isn't worth the gain, in most cases.  "We know that it does disrupt sleep and one hour does not seem like a big deal, but when you look at research data, it is a big deal," explains Dr. Lois Krahn, a sleep disorders specialist at Mayo Clinic.

MPR News, What are you afraid of? by Angela Davis and Karen Zamora — About 1 in 10 Americans has a phobia – an intense and persistent fear of something. Common phobias include a fear of heights, small spaces, or spiders. A Mayo Clinic psychologist and someone who has a fear of contamination joined the MPR News with Angela Davis to discuss how phobias can impact the way you live and share ways to cope.

Star Tribune, Mayo studying why some patients suffer complications after bariatric surgery by Jeremy Olson — Mayo Clinic researchers are studying patients who undergo bariatric weight-loss surgery in an effort to understand why some suffer complications or gain their weight back, while others have no difficulties. The reasons for these struggles are poorly understood, but as many as 36% of patients regain weight within five years of their procedure, and as many as 70% suffer complications such as food intolerance and vomiting, even when they follow strict diets. “There’s an aftermath to the surgery that doesn’t get as much attention,” said Dr. Iris Wang, who is leading the study.

KTOE-Radio, City of Mankato receives ambulance donation from Mayo Clinic by Ashley Hanley — A retired ambulance donated by Mayo Clinic to the city of Mankato has been designated an emergency support vehicle. The vehicle will be retrofitted to store equipment commonly needed on scenes such as firefighter breathing, investigation and responder rehab equipment.

Mankato Free Press, A doctor's warning about the dangers of vaping by Graham King, M.D. — Unfortunately, today’s teens, and even tweens, know more about vaping than their parents. E-cigarettes and vaping are part of a trend going back at least eight years in the U.S. First publicized as a safer alternative to smoking tobacco, vaping caught on because it didn’t contain the carcinogens or tars found in most smoking tobacco products. Also, vaping was supposed to eliminate the dangers of secondhand smoke to those nearby. It all sounded pretty harmless in theory. However, they were wrong. Graham King, M.D., is a family medicine physician with Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato.

Mankato Free Press, Conference puts focus on end-of-life care by Brian Arola —The 2016 documentary on Netflix, “Extremis,” depicts doctors, patients and families at a California hospital’s intensive care unit navigating through life and death decisions. Dr. Jessica Zitter, a doctor in the film and national speaker on normalizing conversations about death and dying, will speak Thursday at the 2019 Palliative Care Conference in Mankato…Dr. Greg Kutcher, Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato’s hospice and palliative care medical director, said Zitter calls on doctors to be braver about bringing up mortality when discussing care options for chronically ill patients.

Kenyon Leader, 'Fighting the flu' begins at KW Schools by Michelle Vlasak — “The purpose of injecting a dead virus is to show your body the flu so it can build antibodies against it,” Dr. Travis Roethler, P.A.-C, who runs the Mayo Clinic Health System in Kenyon confirms. “This familiarizes the virus to your body so it knows what to defend if you come in contact with the virus.”

Duluth News Tribune, College women's hockey: 'Montana' grateful to be back on the ice as St. Scholastica assistant by Matt Wellens — Vasichek has added a whole new element to the 10th season of Saints’ hockey…That story begins during Vasichek’s one and only prior season as an assistant coach in 2007-08 under former UMD assistant Stacy Wilson at Div. III Bowdoin College in Maine. Vasichek only stayed there a year because she was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) — a rare disease that attacks the bile ducts inside and outside the liver. That prompted her to move back to Minnesota so she could seek treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

La Crosse Tribune, Blair woman shares story of double mastectomy, breast reconstruction after second battle with cancer by Emily Pyrek — More than 2½ years later, Holtan is doing better than OK, in remission and relishing each day with her doting husband, Tim, three daughters — all registered nurses — and two adorable grandchildren, one born in the midst of Holtan’s spring 2017 chemotherapy treatments. As breast cancer awareness month comes to a close and Mayo Clinic Health System celebrates its new Stephen and Barbara Slaggie Family Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Holtan is sharing her two-time battle with the disease and her decision to undergo reconstruction of her breasts.

Spectrum News 1, Research in La Crosse could help health of athletes around country by Jeff Dahdah — Dr. Andrew Jagim with the Mayo Clinic is running the study. “So we can kind of be one of the first to kind of quantify some of that information,” Jagim said. They're also tracking the player's sleep and nutrition, all to put together a better picture of the health of a player throughout the season. “Future coaches and athletic trainers can then look to some of our data as kind of a reference,” Jagim said.

WEAU Eau Claire, Study: Recess before lunch could benefit k-12 students by Katarina Vergara — Registered dietitian at Mayo Clinic Health System, Anne Bauch, said putting children on the playground before lunch allows them to build up a hunger and intake the right amounts of food to get them through the rest of the day. “When children are eating after the recess, it could actually help them have a better sense of just feeling satisfied which I think would give them a sense of calm and have a better rest of the day,” said Bauch. Eighty-two percent of the principals in the study stated they would recommend scheduling recess before lunch to other schools.

HealthDay, 'Hey, What Is This?': Social Media, Not Docs, Increasingly Diagnosing STDs by Dennis Thompson — …Dr. Stacey Rizza is an infectious disease expert at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who reviewed the findings. She said she's alarmed that people are turning to social media rather than doctors to deal with their STDs. "In my opinion, I don't think that's the appropriate way to diagnose anything," Rizza said. "But in infectious diseases, it's not just that one person. Other people will be impacted, too."

HealthDay, Close to 1,900 Cases of Vaping-Linked Lung Illness, CDC Says by Dennis Thompson — While THC remains a main suspect in the CDC's investigation, a recent study suggested other chemicals might play a role. For example, researchers at the Mayo Clinic Arizona conducted an examination of 17 cases involving vaping-linked lung injury -- including lung biopsies. All of the patients examined had severe forms of the illness, and two had died. "Based on what we have seen in our study, we suspect that most cases involve chemical contaminants, toxic byproducts or other noxious agents within vape liquids," said lead researcher Dr. Brandon Larsen. He's a surgical pathologist at the Mayo Clinic Arizona in Scottsdale. Those findings were published earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. Additional coverage: Daily Beast

Modern Healthcare, The speed of transformation: Preparing for the payment models of tomorrow — “It’s clear that you’re going to see more and more risk models,” said Alan Krumholz, MD, an independent consultant and former medical director at Mayo Clinic Health System’s health plan. “And if you see more and more risk models, then you have to align or incentivize physicians around risk models. We’ve reached the tipping point, and we’re starting to go downhill now.”  This white paper will examine how they can prepare to more readily assume the risks — and enjoy the benefits — of this evolving payment paradigm.

Modern Healthcare, Hospitals slow to act against patient biases toward clinicians by Steven Ross Johnson — Dr. Rahma Warsame, assistant professor of medicine and diversity chair in the hematology division of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said the clinic has had a conduct policy since 2017 that strictly prohibits intolerance or mistreatment of any member of the healthcare team. The policy also states that a patient's care could be terminated over an egregious act if they aren't critically ill and unstable. Mayo prohibits patients from selecting their clinicians based on their "personal characteristics," with exceptions in cases that could lead to patient harm. Part of creating a safe healthcare work environment includes establishing clear rules and consequences for patients who exhibit bias behavior, Warsame said.

Chicago Tribune, Common early sign of cardiovascular disease also may indicate cancer risk, study finds — A Mayo Clinic-led study involving 488 cardiac patients whose cases were followed for up to 12 years finds that microvascular endothelial dysfunction, a common early sign of cardiovascular disease, is associated with a greater than twofold risk of cancer. The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, finds that microvascular endothelial dysfunction may be a useful marker for predicting risk of solid-tumor cancer, in addition to its known ability to predict more advanced cardiovascular disease, says Amir Lerman, M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and the study’s senior author. Additional coverage: Hindustan Times

WRVO-Radio, Infertility: What you need to know — Dr. Zaraq Khan is a gynecologist at the Mayo Clinic. He joined us on “Take Care” to discuss the basics of infertility and what that means for couples going through it.

Bustle, How Will Vaping Affect Women? by Leila Barghouty — While as of now, there’s no clear data on how vaping affects non-binary and gender non-conforming individuals specifically, Dr. Yasmeen Butt, a pathologist for the Mayo Clinic, says that when it comes to lung-related illnesses, all genders face equal risk. "The lung is a an organ that's essentially the same in both genders," Butt tells Bustle. “In terms of what we actually saw under the microscope, there were no differences between male and female patients.” Butt co-authored a recent study looking at what vaping injury actually looks like in patients’ lungs. Though the study only looked at 17 patients, Butt says the most important takeaway is how quickly vaping can lead to permanent injury ⁠— and how little doctors know about exactly which chemicals are to blame.

Becker’s Hospital Review, How to restore the physician-patient relationship in medicine, limit technology misuse by Jackie Drees — During Becker's Hospital Review's 5th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle event in Chicago on Oct. 10, panelists discussed health IT's impact on medicine and how technology is contributing to clinician burnout. Cynthia Hines, owner and principal of ExecHelp & Consulting, moderated the panel, which featured the following participants:..Vitality Herasevich, MD, PhD, anesthesiology and medicine professor at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Becker’s Hospital Review, 8 quotes about hospital innovation at Intermountain, Geisinger, Mayo Clinic & more by Andrea Park — Douglas Wood, MD, medical director, Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.): "The most important thing is to think about the smallest number of big ideas that you want to work on and then make sure you are marshaling your resources carefully to get the result that you need. And you have to be action-oriented, because there is no innovation without action; there's no innovation without incorporating something, doing something or implementing something that will actually solve the problem."

Health Central, 9 Tips to Prevent Eye Problems When You Have Diabetes by Colleen Traves — Whether you have diabetic eye disease or not, getting your eyes screened once won’t help–you need to go every year at least and more if you have a preexisting eye condition. "Annual dilated eye exams have been shown to reduce blindness by 95% because changes can be caught early before they progress to more sight-threatening DR," says Leonid Skorin, Jr., D.O., an osteopathic ophthalmologist at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin, MN.

Health Leaders Media, CMS contest gets real about artificial intelligence by Mandy Roth — Six hospitals and health systems are among the 25 participants selected to participate in a $1.65 million challenge to use AI to predict unplanned admissions and adverse events. The six hospitals and health systems selected to participate, along with the names of their submissions, include...Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota: Claims-Based Learning Framework. Additional coverage: Fierce Healthcare

Healthcare IT News, Telehealth helps Mayo Clinic neonatologists better treat newborns in emergencies by Bill Siwicki — “Because we were unable to visually assess the newborn, this limited our ability to closely collaborate with the local team and guide care over the phone,” said Dr. Jennifer Fang, medical director, tele-neonatology, at Mayo Clinic. “This was especially relevant when our neonatal transport team was not present for a high-risk delivery due to weather or geography, and the local team had to resuscitate and stabilize the critically ill newborn independently.” These challenges prompted Mayo Clinic to develop a tele-neonatology program that allows neonatologists to establish a real-time audio/video telemedicine connection with care teams in community hospitals during these high-risk, low-frequency neonatal emergencies.

Mercury News, How soon could Curry return? Surgery might make little difference by Elliott Almond — If Stephen Curry had surgery to fix a fracture on his left hand, he would not return to the court any faster, medical specialists said Thursday. The Golden Warriors all-star point guard had a CT scan on Thursday to help physicians get a clear picture of the severity of the injury…Dr. Sanjeev Kakar, a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon who has treated professional basketball players with hand injuries, said it also is important to keep the rest of the body in top shape when recovering. “When it comes to going back to sport, more than being physically and mentally ready, you have to ensure you are game ready,” he said.

Star-Herald, Experiencing migraines? Here’s a possible option for treatment by Brian Kuhn — According to the Mayo Clinic, debilitating migraines affect 38 million Americans. Migraine headaches can last for hours or days, and affect sufferers in myriad ways, from visual aura symptoms to nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Medication is often prescribed to help relieve the pain or to help reduce occurrences.

Valiant News, U.S. okays marijuana-based drug for seizures by Robert Smith — Physicians say it‘s important to have a consistent, government-regulated version. "I‘m really happy we have a product that will be much cleaner and one that I know what it is," said Dr. Ellaine Wirrell, director of the Mayo Clinic‘s program for childhood epilepsy. "In the artisanal products there‘s often a huge variation in doses from bottle to bottle depending on where you get it."

Global Sisters Report, As fewer sisters serve in health care, ensuring their charisms will endure by Dan Stockman — The Sisters of St. Francis of Rochester, Minnesota, haven't run St. Marys Hospital, which they founded in 1889, for nearly six years, but they say the Franciscan charism at its heart is still going strong. Sisters across the United States have dealt with this issue for decades as their numbers have declined and health care has changed: As fewer sisters are involved, how do you ensure the enterprise stays true to its original mission?... "The leadership of our institution, in partnership with the leadership of the Franciscan sisters, wanted the total protection and perpetuation of our Mayo and Franciscan values, not just at St. Marys but all throughout Mayo Clinic," said Dr. Robert Brown, a Mayo neurologist and director of the clinic's Values Council, which reports to the board of governors and ensures those values never fade.

Daytona Beach News-Journal, OUR VIEW: Florida must confront vaping questions, hazards — These diseases are serious. Symptoms include cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea. Most troubling, Mayo Clinic researchers say patients showed signs of chemical burns similar to victims of mustard gas. Some 86% of all cases involve vapes containing THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana; 34% of patients vaped THC exclusively; and many of the products were obtained on the street. But 64% of patients used tobacco products, with 11% using tobacco exclusively, according to information the CDC gathered on almost 870 patients.

Daily Gazette, HIGH NOTES: Ambulance for Haiti, BBQ for nursery, planting bulbs — In Schenectady, the Schenectady Rotary, Mohawk Ambulance and the Mayo Clinic Ambulance Service teamed up to donate a fully supplied ambulance to serve the Haitian community of Carrefour, a bedroom community of 511,000 residents located just west of Port-Au-Prince. The community is beset by water and health problems, as well as civil turmoil that plagues the rest of the country. Led by longtime Rotary member Brian Merriam, the effort to provide the community with an ambulance began three years go with a request from the community’s mayor. After making numerous attempts to find an ambulance, Merriam got a call from the Mayo Clinic, which offered to donate one of its old vehicles.

Cover magazine, Meet Emma: The employee of the future  by Jennifer Wallis — ‘Emma' is a life-sized model constructed to show the adverse, and potentially irreversible, physical damage our everyday workspaces are inflicting upon our bodies…In order to maintain a healthy muscular and cardiovascular system, research has shown that we need to move between 33-36 times a day. In an interview in The Guardian earlier this year, Dr James Levine of the Mayo Clinic, echoed Bowden, saying that: "The real solution is to move. All day. The stillness is what's killing us."

Healio, Thyroid function tests frequently yield no evidence of thyroid disease — “Thyroid function tests are very frequently ordered in the hospitalized patients,” Ruaa Al-Ward, MD, a hospital medicine senior associate consultant at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told Endocrine Today. “When abnormal, they are likely related to established diagnosis of thyroid disorders. However, in patients with no prior history of thyroid disorder, thyroid abnormalities resolved in two-thirds of the cases upon follow-up, therefore observation should be considered for the majority of these patients.”

Philly Voice, What's the difference between a headache and a migraine? by Tracey Romero — Identifying the root cause of your head pain is not always easy. The Mayo Clinic recommends frequent headache sufferers to keep a diary of their headaches' frequency, severity, duration, location of pain, and other accompanying symptoms. You should also record all possible triggers. All this will help your doctor determine the diagnosis and best treatment for your pain. Seek emergency treatment if your headache is very severe, comes on suddenly or you experience other worrying symptoms with it like a fever, rash, stiff neck or numbness.

Neurology Live, Migraine Care Reaps the Benefits of Novel Treatments, With More on the Way by Matt Hoffman — In Part 1 of this interview, Amaal Starling, MD, assistant professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, shared her experiences with a number of new migraine drugs and devices and the impact that more options will have on clinical practice.

Neurology Today, ‘The Job in Global Health Is Always to Work Yourself Out of a Job,’ Says the Recipient of the AAN Global Health/Humanitarian Award by Dan Hurley — Among the 110 medical papers coauthored by James H. Bower, MD, FAAN, the vast majority are studies of Parkinson's disease. A dozen of them, however, have an unusual focus for the chairman of the division of movement disorders in the department of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN: They are about the state of neurologic care in sub-Saharan Africa in general, and in Ethiopia in particular.

Alzforum, ApoE4 and Tau in Alzheimer’s: Worse Than We Thought? Especially in Women — Does ApoE4 affect aspects of Alzheimer’s disease other than amyloidosis? Animal studies have hinted as much, and now several brain imaging studies seem to agree. In a preprint posted to medRχiv on October 8, researchers led by Mark Bondi at the University of California, San Diego, report that at a given level of tau pathology, Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative participants with an ApoE4 allele perform worse on memory tests than noncarriers. The findings imply that ApoE4 amplifies the toxicity of tangles. Meanwhile, researchers led by Vijay Ramanan at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, examined whether ApoE genotype exerts direct effects on tangles, independent of amyloidosis.

MDLinx, Cardiometabolic health and longitudinal progression of white matter hyperintensity: The Mayo Clinic Study of Aging — In a population cohort, researchers examined the primary midlife and current cardiometabolic risk factors correlated with changes in white matter hyperintensity (WMH) over time. The sample consisted of individuals registered in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging—a longitudinal population-based study—with ≥ 2 consecutive WMH assessments on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery-magnetic resonance images (n = 554, ≥ 60 years with midlife assessments) and relevant baseline laboratory measures of interest. The strongest predictor of progression in WMH was age.

Medscape, New Treatment Option Emerging for Esophagitis — …"We've been doing this off-label for a while," said ACG President Sunanda Kane, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "When you go to talks about eosinophilic esophagitis, the first-line therapy is usually acid suppression. But patients either don't have an adequate response or they're afraid of acid suppression because of the bad press that proton pump inhibitors [PPIs] have received," she explained.

Medscape, Ask About Sexual Function in Breast Cancer Patients on Endocrine Tx — In a discussion of the study, Charles Loprinzi, MD, a medical oncologist at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, emphasized that there are important clinical applications to be drawn from this study. First is to "believe patients when they say that they do have symptoms," and "secondly, even if they don't bring it up, ask patients." Loprinzi also emphasized that it is important to "provide advice and refer to appropriate experts if you don't feel like you have as much advice to give."

Medscape, Virtual Reality in Medicine: Beyond Bulky Goggles — Gayatri Acharya, MD: Greetings. I'm Dr Gayatri Acharya, cardiology fellow at Mayo Clinic. Today we will be discussing the role of virtual reality in medicine. I'm joined by my colleague, Dr Suraj Kapa, who specializes in this area. Welcome, Dr Kapa.

Medscape, Discord Over Contrast-Induced Nephropathy — Contrast-induced nephropathy "has been medical dogma for decades," but some physicians, like Jennifer McDonald, PhD, associate professor of radiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, are not convinced that it exists. After researching the subject for the past 8 or 9 years, McDonald said she remains unconvinced that intravenous (IV) low-osmolality iodinated contrast material causes acute kidney injury. McDonald, who is a scientific advisor for GE Healthcare, the manufacturer of a variety of contrast media products, will present evidence at the upcoming Kidney Week 2019.

If you would like to be added to the weekly distribution list, send a note to Emily Blahnik with this subject line: SUBSCRIBE to Mayo Clinic in the News.

To unsubscribe: To remove your name from the global distribution list, send an email to Emily Blahnik with the subject: UNSUBSCRIBE from Mayo Clinic in the News. 

Editors: Emily BlahnikKarl Oestreich

Tags: Andrea Malenya, Anne Bauch, anxiety, artificial Intelligence, bariatric surgery, biotech, Breast Cancer, Bu, Cancer, cardiovascular disease, Chemotherapy, Children's Center, diabetes, diet Dr. Donald Hensrud, Dr. Alan Krumholz, Dr. Amaal Starling, Dr. Amir Lerman, Dr. Andrew Jagim, Dr. Brandon Larsen, Dr. Charles Loprinzi, Dr. Douglas Wood, Dr. Graham King, Dr. Greg Kutcher, Dr. Guojun, Dr. Iris Wang, Dr. James Levine, Dr. Jennifer Fang, Dr. Jon Ebbert, Dr. Kah-Whye Peng, Dr. Kyja Stygar, Dr. Leonid Skorin, Dr. Lois Krahn, Dr. Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, Dr. Purna Kashyap, Dr. Rahma Warsame, Dr. Robert Diasio, Dr. Ruaa Al-Waard, Dr. Sanjeev Kakar, Dr. Stacey Rizza, Dr. Stephen Russell, Dr. Sunanda Kane, Dr. Travis Roethler, Dr. Vijay Ramanan, Dr. Vitality Herasevich, Dr. Xavier Fonseca Fuentes, Dr. Yasmeen Butt, Dr. Zaraq Khan, end-of-life care, esophagitis, fecal transplant, flu, Habiba Haji, Haiti, Halloween, headache, holidays, infertility, innovation, Jay Alix, Linda Wortman, Lung Cancer, lung disease, mastectomy, migraines, nephropathy, parkinson's disease, payment models, phobias, physical, Regeneron, Rochester airport, Sisters of St. Francis, sleep medicine, Social Media, STD, Stephen Curry, Steve Grinnell, telehealth, thyroid function, travel medicine, traveling, Uncategorized, Vaping, virtual reality

Contact Us · Privacy Policy