Latest news with #BrighamAndWomen'sHospital
New York Times
03-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Drugmakers Notch a $5 Billion Win in Republicans' Policy Bill
The sweeping Republican policy bill that awaits President Trump's signature on Friday includes a little-noticed victory for the drug industry. The legislation allows more medications to be exempt from Medicare's price negotiation program, which was created to lower the government's drug spending. Now, manufacturers will be able to keep those prices higher. The change will cut into the government's savings from the negotiation program by nearly $5 billion over a decade, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. 'This is essentially giving $5 billion back to the pharmaceutical industry,' said Dr. Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. 'It's done in a way that is designed, on its face, to solve the problem of some misaligned incentives, but I don't think it solves those problems.' Under existing law, costly drugs are exempt from price negotiations if they are approved to treat a single rare disease — one that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans. Drugmakers have complained that this policy discourages them from running studies and seeking approval to treat a second rare disease, and that it ultimately deprives patients of new treatments. In response, the new bill spares drugs that are approved to treat multiple rare diseases. They can still be subject to price negotiations later if they are approved for larger groups of patients, though the change delays those lower prices. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBS News
30-06-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Working the night shift? When you eat could be crucial for heart health, study finds
Boston researchers say the timing of when night shift workers eat could have impact on health Boston researchers say the timing of when night shift workers eat could have impact on health Boston researchers say the timing of when night shift workers eat could have impact on health Many employees work all kinds of unusual shifts, often sleeping during the day and eating at night, putting them at risk for heart disease. But researchers in Boston have found that the timing of those meals could make a big difference. Rhonda Furlong has worked as a nurse for more than 25 years. "I worked all shifts. Day shift, night shift, evening shift and back and forth," Furlong said. She would eat and sleep whenever she could, but that took a toll. "I had a lot of indigestion. I was nauseous," Furlong said. "My mood was affected just because I was so exhausted." Research shows disruptions to the body's internal clock can put people with overnight and rotating shifts at higher risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Shift worker study But what if shift workers only ate during daytime hours? A new study at Brigham and Women's Hospital recruited 20 healthy adults and had them each stay in a room for two weeks with no outside visitors under very controlled conditions. "We controlled what they ate, when they ate, how much they ate, when they slept, when they were physically active or not, what lighting information they were receiving through their eyes," Dr. Frank Scheer, a neuroscientist at the hospital said. They also had no idea what time it was. "No clocks, no windows, no radio, no live TV," Scheer said. Researchers found that when subjects slept during the day and were active at night, it had a negative impact on markers for heart disease, including blood pressure. But Scheer said switching their eating cycle to match "the central body clock in the brain" could help prevent the negative effects on the heart. "The recommendation for most people would be to decrease the amount of calories they consume during the night, during a night shift," he said. At the very least, researchers said workers should limit sugars and carbohydrates. That's not always easy, Furlong said. "I love carbs. Who doesn't love carbs?" she said. The researchers say the next step is to figure out how to make practical dietary recommendations so shift workers can fit in both sleeping and eating into their daily schedule.
Daily Mail
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Woman who had facial transplant after chimp attack reveals what she looks like 16 years on
A woman whose face was ripped off by a chimpanzee has revealed what she looks like 16 years after undergoing a life-changing face transplant. In February 2009, Charla Nash, now 71, was attacked by her friend Sandra Herold's chimpanzee, Travis, at her home in Connecticut , who bit off her nose, lips, eyelids and hands. Now, after undergoing a full face transplant in 2011 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2011, Charla told 60 Minutes Australia, the surgery 'brought my life back' as she expressed gratitude to the doctors. She said: 'It's a wonderful thing and words can't express the gratitude but I had this opportunity to live a better life.' She added: 'The nose and the upper lip I can't feel yet, but little by little it's coming back, I can feel my cheek and forehead, so it's getting there. 'I was only drinking everything from through a straw and my goal is to be able to eat again.' Charlie, who lives in an assisted care center, undergoes daily rehabilitation and speech therapy. She said: 'Life's getting better, it is coming around slowly but yeah it's getting better, It's hard but it's better.' Charla said she is slowly getting feeling back in her face and has started to eat solid food again. The military funded the facial transplant in order to learn more about how it could help wounded veterans, and Charla has been subject to medical tests ever since. While her body rejected transplants on her hands, the facial surgery was successful. Charla, who also was fitted with glass eyes, is blind after she had her eyes removed due to a disease transmitted by the chimp, who had worked as an actor and appeared in commercials for Old Navy and Coca Cola. Charla, a former barrel racer and horse jumper, said she has become increasingly patient because she has had to ask for help instead of doing everything herself. But she chooses to look to the future and dreams of living on a farm in a small town once she is finished with her medical tests. Travis the chimpanzee was raised in Connecticut by Sandra Herold, who treated the pet as if he were her son. The 200lb animal was thought to be domesticated since he would open doors, drink wine from a glass, eat at the dinner table, and dress himself. He even used the computer. But on the day of the attack, Travis tried to escape by taking Sandra's car keys and trying to use them on several cars. Sandra, who died in 2010, tried to lure Travis back into the house and gave him an iced tea laced with Xanax. When Nash, who was a friend and employee of Sandra's arrived at the house to help, the animal brutally attacked her. Investigators suggested Travis may have mistook Nash, who was familiar with the chimp, as an intruder after she appeared with a new hairstyle. They also believe the Xanax, which is used for anxiety in humans, may have also fueled Travis's aggression. In return for footing her medical bills, she goes in for medical tests every few weeks. She is subjected to MRIs and CT scans to determine how well her brain is sending signals to her new face. In addition, doctors examine how well the arteries are delivering blood to the transplant. The military is also interested in monitoring the scarring around the mouth and how well her eyelids work. In 2014, Charla revealed that she has no independence since the attack and that people were afraid to come near her. Charla, who raised her daughter Briana on her own: 'I've never been a quitter'. She also hopes to use her story so that others don't have to face a similar ordeal, and is working with advocates on a video to encourage stronger laws restricting exotic animals. She said she never felt at ease with Travis being locked up in her friend's home before pal Sandra Herold, died of an aneurism in 2010. She said: 'I remember looking at him in his cage and feeling sorry for him. My thoughts were always, "How is she allowed this animal in her house? What if he gets loose someday and somebody gets hurt?" I know the animals are cute - but they're just not pets.' After the attack, her family sought permission to sue Connecticut for $150million for failing to seize the animal before the attack. But the state claims commissioner denied permission, saying that state law did not prohibit the private ownership of chimpanzees at the time of the attack. She was given $4million in compensation by the estate of the animal's now-dead owner.
Daily Mail
18-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Woman whose face was ripped off by a chimpanzee reveals what she looks like 16 years after pioneering face transplant
A woman whose face was ripped off by a chimpanzee has revealed what she looks like 16 years after undergoing a life-changing face transplant. In February 2009, Charla Nash, now 71, was attacked by her friend Sandra Herold's chimpanzee, Travis, at her home in Connecticut, who ripped off her nose, lips, eyelids and hands. During the attack, in an attempt to get the animal to stop, Herold hit him with a shovel and later stabbed him in the back with a large knife, however her efforts didn't deter the crazed animal. After police arrived at the scene and shot the animal, Charla, severely disfigured from the attack, was rushed to hospital, left fighting for her life. In 2011, she underwent a full face transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital - the hospital's third ever procedure of its kind - and was fitted with glass eyes. Now, 16 years on from the attack Charla said the face transplant 'brought my life back' as she expressed gratitude to the surgeons. Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, she said: 'It's a wonderful thing and words can't express the gratitude but I had this opportunity to live a better life.' Charla said she is slowly getting feeling back in her face and has started to eat solid food again. She added: 'The nose and the upper lip I can't feel yet, but little by little it's coming back, I can feel my cheek and forehead, so it's getting there. 'I was only drinking everything from through a straw and my goal is to be able to eat again.' Charlie, who lives in an assisted care centre, undergoes daily rehabilitation and speech therapy. She said: 'Life's getting better, it is coming around slowly but yeah it's getting better, It's hard but it's better.' The US military funded the facial transplant in order to learn more about how it could help wounded veterans, and Nash has been subject to medical tests ever since. While her body rejected transplants on her hands, the facial surgery was successful. Nash is blind after she had her eyes removed due to a disease transmitted by the chimp, who had worked as an actor and appeared in commercials for Old Navy and Coca Cola. Nash, a former barrel racer and horse jumper, said she has become increasingly patient because she has had to ask for help instead of doing everything herself. But she chooses to look to the future and dreams of living on a farm in a small town once she is finished with her medical tests. Travis the chimpanzee was raised in Connecticut by Sandra Herold, who treated the pet as if he were her son. The 200-pound animal was thought to be domesticated since he would open doors, drink wine from a glass, eat at the dinner table, and dress himself. He even used the computer. But in February 2009, Travis tried to escape by taking Herold's car keys and trying to use them on several cars. Herold, who died in 2010, tried to lure Travis back into the house and gave him an iced tea laced with Xanax. When Nash, who was a friend and employee of Herold's arrived at the house to help, the animal brutally attacked her. Investigators suggested Travis may have mistook Nash, who was familiar with the chimp, as an intruder after she appeared with a new hairstyle. During the attack, in an attempt to get the animal to stop, Herold hit him with a shovel and later stabbed him in the back with a large knife, however her efforts didn't deter the crazed animal The Xanax, which is used for anxiety in humans, may have also fueled Travis' aggression. Two years after the attack, the US military funded Nash's face transplant. In return for footing her medical bills, she goes in for medical tests every few weeks. She is subjected to MRIs and CT scans to determine how well her brain is sending signals to her new face. In addition, doctors examine how well the arteries are delivering blood to the transplant. The military is also interested in monitoring the scarring around the mouth and how well her eyelids work. In 2014 Charla revealed that she has no independence since the attack and that people were afraid to come near her. 'Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot I can do,' she told the Boston Herald. 'I've lost so much independence... I could change my own truck tire, and now I can't even feed myself.' She hopes that one day she will be able to live at home instead of a facility. In the nursing home. 'I've never been a quitter,' said Nash, who bought up her daughter, Briana, on her own. She also hopes to use her story so that others don't have to face a similar ordeal, and is working with advocates on a video to encourage stronger laws restricting exotic animals. She said she never felt at ease with Travis being locked up in her friend's home. The friend, Sandra Herold, died of an aneurism in 2010. 'I remember looking at him in his cage and feeling sorry for him,' she said. 'My thoughts were always, "How is she allowed this animal in her house? What if he gets loose someday and somebody gets hurt?" I know the animals are cute - but they're just not pets.' After the attack, her family sought permission to sue Connecticut for $150 million for failing to seize the animal before the attack. But the state claims commissioner died permission, saying that state law did not prohibit the private ownership of chimpanzees at the time of the attack. She was given $4million in compensation by the estate of the animal's now-dead owner. The settlement agreement filed in Stamford Probate Court called for Herold's estate to provide Nash with $3.4million in real estate, $331,000 in cash, $140,000 in machinery and equipment and $44,000 in vehicles.
Medscape
16-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Sudden Cardiac Arrest Is Highly Preventable: Here's How
This transcript has been edited for clarity. This is Dr JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. I'd like to talk with you about a recent report in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology that addressed the modifiable risk factors for sudden cardiac arrest, the extent to which this outcome is preventable, and the percentage of cases that could be averted by changes in modifiable risk factors. There's been surprisingly little research on this subject. Most of the research on sudden cardiac arrest has looked at genetic factors and clinical risk factors that are managed with pharmacologic agents, such as hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes, and proximate risk factors like what the patient was doing shortly before the sudden cardiac arrest. However, there's been very little research on the role of behavioral and lifestyle factors in long-term studies. It's important to have this research because we know that sudden cardiac arrest is highly fatal in about 90% of cases. In the US alone, there are more than 200,000 cases per year, and more than double that if we include total cardiac arrest inside and outside of the hospital. In the present study, researchers leveraged the large-scale UK Biobank, which included more than 500,000 participants whose mean age was 56 years and about 50% of whom were women. Over a follow-up of 14 years, there were about 3100 cases of incident sudden cardiac arrest. The researchers looked at about 125 risk factors and linked 56 of those factors to the risk for sudden cardiac arrest. These included lifestyle, behavioral, adiposity, psychosocial, and environmental factors. What they found was that the American Heart Association Life's Essential 8 factors were generally strongly related to risk for sudden cardiac arrest. For example, sedentary lifestyle, higher adiposity, higher waist circumference, short sleep duration (less than 7 hours per night), and tobacco use were associated with an increased risk. Other factors that were also linked to sudden cardiac arrest risk included psychosocial factors (eg, depressive symptoms, low mood, social isolation), dietary factors (eg, low fruit and vegetable intake), and air pollution. The researchers used Mendelian randomization to evaluate the likelihood of a causal relationship. In these analyses, about nine factors were determined to be causally related. These factors included adiposity factors, low fruit intake, low educational level, and some of the mood-related factors. Overall, they estimated that between 40% and 63% of sudden cardiac arrest cases could be preventable by reducing or even fully eliminating these risk factors. These findings underscore the importance of primary prevention, not only to nonfatal or total coronary heart disease and cardiovascular events, but also to sudden cardiac arrest. These results suggest that more could be done in terms of informing our patients about these risk factors in order to lower their risk — both informing them in the clinic and through community-based and public health campaigns.
