吃瓜不打烊

Skip to main content

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.

Subscribe Follow Us
  • Trump 2.0

    Trump 2.0

    • Agency Watch
    • State Watch
    • Rural Health Payout
  • Public Health

    Public Health

    • Vaccines
    • CDC & Disease
    • Environmental Health
    All Public Health
  • Audio Reports

    Audio Reports

    • What the Health?
    • Healthcare Helpline
    • 吃瓜不打烊 Minute
    • An Arm and a Leg
    • Health Hub
    • HealthQ
    • Silence in Sikeston
    • Epidemic
    All Audio
  • Special Reports

    Special Reports

    • Bill Of The Month
    • Common Ground
    • Diagnosis: Debt
    • The Body Shops
    • Priced Out
    • Guns, Race, and Profit
    • Broken Rehab
    • Dead Zone
    • Denied
    • Opioid Settlement Tracking
    • Eleven Minutes
    All Special Reports
  • More Topics

    More Topics

    • Elections
    • Healthcare Costs
    • Insurance
    • Prescription Drugs
    • Health Industry
    • Immigration
    • Reproductive Health
    • Technology
    • Rural Health
    • Race and Health
    • Aging
    • Mental Health
    • Affordable Care Act
    • Medicare
    • Medicaid
    • Children’s Health
    All Topics

  • Medicare Advantage Billing Probe
  • School Vaccine Mandates
  • Weight Loss Drugs Coverage
  • Opioid Settlement Money
  • Abortion Pill Access

Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

  • Email

Thursday, Jun 8 2017

Full Issue

Renowned Scientist With Narcolepsy: Having A Neurological Condition Can Actually Be A Boon

Biologist George Church may have narcolepsy, but he's come to realize just how much he's benefited from it. He thinks neurodiversity -- like having autism or obsessive-compulsive disorder -- can actually give people an edge in certain circumstances. In other public health news: breast cancer, lymph node removal, parenting, late-night snacks and a deadly drug in Georgia.

It鈥檚 no secret that he has narcolepsy, the condition defined by sudden bouts of sleep. He lists it as part of his聽personal history, intriguing his fans enough that 鈥淗ow does George Church manage his narcolepsy?鈥 is a question聽on Quora, a question-and-answer website.聽But because he has never discussed it in depth, the question has gone unanswered. STAT is happy to step into the breach:聽He doesn鈥檛 eat from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and stands whenever possible.聽鈥淚 have to constantly shift my weight and balance,鈥 stimulating the nervous system in a way that prevents nodding off, the 6-foot-5 Church said. (Begley, 6/8)

Scientists say they may have solved a big medical mystery: why mammograms don't save more lives. A study involving thousands of breast cancer cases, released Wednesday, concludes that a significant proportion of tumors detected through mammography are not small because they are found early. Instead, the tumors are small because they are biologically prone to slow growth. (Stein, 6/7)

In cases of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, doctors will determine its spread by examining a lymph node. If malignant cells are found, the standard treatment is to surgically remove all the lymph nodes in the same area. But a clinical trial has now called this procedure into question. (Bakalar, 6/7)

The idea that fathers have聽a sweet spot for their daughters and are stricter with their sons is something of a cliche. Researcher Jennifer Mascaro wanted to find out to what extent this was true. So she persuaded 52聽new dads to give her an intensely intimate glimpse at 48 hours of their lives through聽recording devices that聽documented interactions with their children, who were ages 1 to 2. Mascaro and her colleagues at Emory University and the University of Arizona took apart each exchange and coded them to see whether there were any聽patterns based on the children's genders. The differences were startling. (Cha, 6/7)

Most of us have heard the advice not to eat right before bedtime, lest those late-night calories get stored as fat. But so far, this conventional wisdom has few long-term studies to back it up. New research from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that cutting off food early may indeed be good practice. Nine adults spent eight聽weeks eating a regular diet on an early schedule: three meals and two snacks between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. The participants then took a two-week break, followed by eight weeks on a later eating schedule: the same amount of food, consumed from noon until 11 p.m. (Avril, 6/7)

The small yellow pills look like prescription drugs from a pharmacy, but Georgia authorities say they're anything but.In recent days, the drugs 鈥 which are purchased on the street 鈥 have led to dozens of overdoses and as many as four deaths in south and central Georgia, state health officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As the number of overdoses increases, authorities say they're scrambling to keep pace. The state聽is already battling a growing opioid crisis, authorities say. On Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported six additional聽overdose cases potentially related to the drug. (Holley, 6/7)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
Newsletter icon

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Stay informed by signing up for the Morning Briefing and other emails:

Recent Morning Briefings

  • Monday, August 3
  • Friday, July 31
  • Thursday, July 30
  • Wednesday, July 29
  • Tuesday, July 28
  • Monday, July 27
More Morning Briefings
RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
  • Special Reports
  • Morning Briefing
  • 吃瓜不打烊
  • Republish Our Content
  • Contact Us

Follow Us

  • RSS

Sign up for emails

Join our email list for regular updates based on your personal preferences.

Sign up
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy

漏 2026 KFF