Random Acts of Medicine in the news
Check out some of our new articles at other outlets and some news coverage of our latest research
Since our last post before the holidays, we’ve authored some articles appearing elsewhere and have also published some new research. We thought we’d share it here because it’s all in the spirit of Random Acts of Medicine, and we think you’ll find it interesting!
In an article and video we put together with TIME for their “Ideas” series, we take the water fluoridation debate as an opportunity to discuss some of the larger issues surrounding how we incorporate science into public health policy.
Out today in TIME Ideas is another article and video about a recent study of ours (with colleagues Vishal Patel and Michael Liu) which was inspired by a 2000 study of London taxi drivers which found that their hippocampus (the part of the brain focused on memory and navigation that is involved in Alzheimer’s dementia) were larger than the general population. In our study, we take a look at what happens to taxi drivers later in life—are they impacted differently by Alzheimer’s disease?
NPR PlanetMoney reporter Greg Rosalsky reached out to us after saw a working paper of ours published with the National Bureau of Economic Research titled “Halloween, ADHD, and Subjectivity in Medical Diagnosis.” In this study, we find that children were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD if they were seen on Halloween compared to other days. We explored how medical care might be different on holidays in general for the PlanetMoney newsletter.
Bapu, along with a group of researchers at Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital, published a study that showed the benefits of “just-in-time coaching” of doctors in training right before they attempted to place breathing tubes in infants undergoing surgery. Such coaching strategies have proven effective in areas other than medical care, too, as Bapu and co-authors wrote in the New York Times.
We hope you all have a happy new year, and we look forward to more Random Acts of Medicine in 2025!
Re: Alzheimer's
I have a theory that challenging the brain regularly can help stave off this malady. at age 73, in addition to constant stimulation of my brain by reading books and wide variety of articles across the internet, I also exercise regularly.
I am wondering if anyone has considered the value of trail jogging as brain stimulation? This of course, occurred to me as I was trail jogging an dondering the amount of mental processing necessary to avoid rocks and roots on the trails and avoid falling? I do miss an object now and then and take a sprawl but have not suffered any serious damage from doing so.
Alternatively (and more safely), I wonder if playing action video games, where one has to react to things quickly might be a good prescription for brain training in seniors?
"Halloween is exciting for kids and their displays of that excitement in the doctor's office on the holiday could increase the likelihood that doctors diagnose them with ADHD."
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Or they could have been eating sugar-laden candy prior to the MD visit from the bas that are likely laying around by the door in anticipation of being given to other kids.
Given the huge rise in ADHD diagnosis in recent years, you have to come up with something better than a justification tied to a single day out 365!