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Why do unhealthy menstrual cramps occur to good folks? A research answering that query would get the Gaffney Prize (from me). Till that occurs, we’ve obtained the Nobels. STAT’s Drew Joseph has extra under on the primary announcement of the week, in physiology or medication.
Drugs Nobel goes to microRNA discovery
A pair of scientists who found a kind of RNA molecule that helps management the exercise of genes — permitting our cells to carry out all their myriad of features in numerous tissues all through the physique — received the 2024 Nobel Prize in medication or physiology on Monday.
The award went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for his or her analysis into microRNA, which the Nobel committee described as a “groundbreaking discovery [that] revealed a totally new precept of gene regulation that turned out to be important for multicellular organisms, together with people.”
Ambros performed his prize-winning analysis at Harvard College and is now at UMass Chan Medical College. Ruvkun did his work at Massachusetts Basic Hospital and Harvard Medical College, the place he stays a professor of genetics.
The pair will cut up the award of 11 million Swedish kronor, or simply over $1 million. They be part of the ranks of medication or physiology Nobel laureates that previous to this yr had 227 folks, together with 13 ladies.
Extra right here from Drew.
201.5
That’s the average number of prescriptions for the twin treatment abortion capsule regiment that one on-line pharmacy fulfilled every day in March 2023, nearly one yr after Roe vs. Wade was struck down, in accordance with a research printed Friday in JAMA Community Open. In March 2022, earlier than the choice was leaked, the identical pharmacy crammed 88.5 prescriptions per day on common.
Comply with STAT’s abortion and well being tech protection.
Progeria advocate Sammy Basso has died
At 28, Sammy Basso was the oldest recognized survivor of progeria, an ultra-rare illness. His life was completely in contrast to different folks’s, however he lived it with the conviction that he may join with anyone, STAT’s Eric Boodman wrote in an obituary. Basso died on Saturday from suspected cardiovascular problems of progeria.
He knew the illness made him look uncommon — bald, eyebrowless, prematurely aged, a bit like E.T. — and he cherished to joke about it. He did it outdoors a pal’s home on Halloween, delighting in youngsters’ reactions as he handed out sweet. He did it outdoors Space 51, the Nevada army base synonymous with UFOs and extraterrestrial life. “He placed on some loopy sun shades that regarded like alien eyewear and sat on a park bench, inflicting quite a few vacationers to truly imagine they’d found the actual factor,” recalled Francis Collins, former director of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. Learn extra about Basso’s outstanding life.
New knowledge on substance use and younger folks in hospitals
Proof is mostly mixed on how substance use amongst youth could have modified through the pandemic. However a research of 10- to 18-year-olds in 47 pediatric emergency departments, printed Friday in JAMA Community Open, discovered that drug- and alcohol-related visits increased through the pandemic, and younger folks with power well being circumstances have been notably weak. Youths with power circumstances had 9 occasions extra ED visits for substance use than these with out through the pandemic. These with advanced power circumstances had 4 occasions as many visits.
One other research additionally printed Friday in JAMA Community Open assessed disparities in alcohol and drug screenings of injured teenagers in 121 pediatric trauma facilities. Charges of each have been disproportionately larger amongst Black, Hispanic, American-Indian teenagers, women, and people with Medicaid or who’re uninsured. It’s probably an issue of clinician bias, the authors write. However screening sure populations much less isn’t the reply — substance use is a number one reason for loss of life for adolescents.
Authors from each research highlighted the necessity for extra standardized, common screening protocols.
What a revolution in funding psychological well being care may appear like
In 5 years, the psychological well being therapy panorama will look radically completely different. So says Miranda Wolpert, director of psychological well being on the charitable belief Wellcome. It may be robust to seek out funding for improvements in psychological well being care. However modern financing mechanisms, like philanthropic-public-private partnerships might be the reply, Wolpert argues in a First Opinion essay.
In South Africa, one partnership helps to safe psychological well being checks for brand new moms. In California, a fee carried out a 1% revenue tax on rich residents to pay for psychological well being companies. Learn extra from Wolpert about what change may appear like.
What we’re studying
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Right here’s why weight problems grew so rapidly worldwide, and the place that’s beginning to change, STAT
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A younger physician’s closing phrases supply a psychological well being warning for others, Washington Post
- Trump backs off proposal to slash prescription drug costs by linking them to overseas nations, STAT
- Catholic hospital provided a bucket and towels to lady it denied abortion, California AG says, The 19th
- Rwanda to obtain experimental vaccines, therapeutics to fight Marburg outbreak, STAT
- The activists working to abolish IVF, NPR
