Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Louise Butcher hopes that when she becomes the first woman to run the London Marathon topless on Sunday, having had a double mastectomy in 2022, the thousands of supporters lining the course see a powerful image of strength. "I thought, how can we normalise it, how can we reduce that stigma surrounding mastectomies and not having breasts?" Butcher said in an interview with Reuters. "And there's no better way really than to do it during a marathon." (Ewing, 4/18)
After a decade working as an obstetrician-gynecologist, Marci Bowers thought she understood menopause. ... 鈥淥ur answer was always estrogen,鈥 she told me. Then, in the mid-2000s, Bowers took over a gender-affirmation surgical practice in Colorado. In her new role, she began consultations by asking each patient what they wanted from their body鈥攁 question she鈥檇 never been trained to ask menopausal women. (Gross, 4/17)
For decades, patients seeking medication for pain have had two choices: over-the-counter drugs like aspirin or powerful prescription opioids like oxycodone. Vertex Pharmaceuticals recently reported positive results for a non-opioid painkiller, one of several medications the Boston-based drugmaker has been developing for various forms of pain. The Associated Press spoke with Vertex鈥檚 chief scientist Dr. David Altshuler about the company鈥檚 research and development plans. (Perrone, 4/15)
Experts describe ways to turn down the volume, from earbuds to smartphone apps that detect harmful noise levels. (Silberner, 4/16)
As a death doula, Alua Arthur helps people to plan for the end of life and, when the time comes, to let go. She says that while we're conditioned to fear death, thinking and talking about it is instrumental to creating meaningful lives. (Mosley, 4/17)
In recent years, relationship experts and couples themselves have been gradually dismantling commonly held views and working to destigmatize the unconventional approaches that some take to stay together. (Montei, 4/17)
Bennett Braun, a psychiatrist who inflamed the 1980s 鈥渟atanic panic鈥 with his controversial treatment of multiple personality disorder, including in patients who alleged that he misused drugs and hypnosis while spawning false memories of devil worship, human sacrifice and child sex abuse, died March 20. (Smith, 4/18)
