Aaron E. Carroll's Blog, page 16

Does Breastfeeding Result in Smarter Kids?

A recent study conducted in the United Kingdom claims that breastfeeding makes for smarter kids when they reach the ripe old age of 16. If I had to guess, I’d guess that you were thinking, “So what, don’t we already know that kids are smarter if they’re breastfed?” Well, actually…

 



The post Does Breastfeeding Result in Smarter Kids? first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

The non-physical side effects of health care

Medicine has advanced so much that patients often expect the most cutting edge treatment when they’re sick. They also expect that there may be side effects, like nausea and drowsiness. But what they don’t always expect are the side effects of lost time, money, and independence.

Health care has both physical and non-physical side effects and providers and patients should start considering the latter more explicitly in treatment planning. I recently wrote about this for STAT First Opinion:

A lot is asked of a patient when she signs up for medical care. She’s not just hoping to regain physical health, she’s also agreeing to lose money, time, and independence. Acknowledging this when deciding if treatment is worth it will lead to better overall well-being.

Read the whole piece here.

Research for this article was funded by Arnold Ventures.

 

The post The non-physical side effects of health care first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

Ticks, Mosquitos, and How Climate Change Could Increase Disease

We’re back again with another episode on climate change and human health. The effects of a warming planet on our wellbeing are multifaceted, and there’s a lot to address in these complex interactions. One of those things is an increase in disease.

 



The post Ticks, Mosquitos, and How Climate Change Could Increase Disease first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

Texas should rethink its approach to phasing out its pandemic-era Medicaid coverage protections; millions of Texans (especially kids) are at risk

Yesterday, I published an op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman on Texas’ recent numbers from the “unwinding” of the Medicaid continuous coverage provision, which showed that over 500,000 individuals (about 10 percent of the overall program) lost coverage since April.

As I write,

[The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC)] has made significant investments in preparing for the resumption of redeterminations […] Despite these efforts, HHSC’s recent numbers suggest a need for the state to rethink its strategy. Texas is doing two things that might exacerbate the number of people who slip through the cracks. They are front-loading redeterminations (doing more now than later) and they are focusing on people who they think are ineligible, who they can’t automatically renew, first. As a result, state eligibility workers, hospital case workers, and other people whose job is to help people navigate this process are likely overburdened.

This piece sheds light on who has likely already been impacted by this policy change—and who is at risk.

Read the full piece here.

Research for this piece was supported by Arnold Ventures.

The post Texas should rethink its approach to phasing out its pandemic-era Medicaid coverage protections; millions of Texans (especially kids) are at risk first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

Sex Education and Social Media

The United States is long overdue for comprehensive sexual health education, but many young people still do not receive any sexual education. With no U.S. federal mandate to teach a medically accurate curriculum, it is up to state and local leaders to decide on what is offered. Despite the negative sentiments of sex information on the internet (like pornography and mischaracterizing relationships), a growing body of research already shows that social media is effective. Our piece, recently published by the Public Health Post, explores how social media offers a promising stand-in (or supplement) to answer questions that many school-based curriculums fail to answer. Read the full article here.

Research for this piece was supported by Arnold Ventures.

The post Sex Education and Social Media first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

Updated Guidance Addresses LGBTQ+ Elder Health

Getting older has its challenges. For those in the LGBTQ+ community, it’s even more complicated, especially when it comes to accessing affirming health care and aging services. My piece, recently published in Public Health Post, explores the latest update of the Older Americans Act and how it might help this rapidly growing population.

Read the full article here.

Photo via Getty Images. Research for this piece was supported by Arnold Ventures.

The post Updated Guidance Addresses LGBTQ+ Elder Health first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

RSV Vaccines

Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, strikes fear into the hearts of parents, especially those with very young babies. It’s not very kind to other compromised populations, either. We’ve been working toward a vaccine for a long time, and it looks like we’re close to those efforts paying off.

 



The post RSV Vaccines first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

Does Cold Immersion Therapy Work? Let’s Dive In.

Cold plunging is…almost exactly what it sounds like: Immersing your body one way or another in super cold water. Some people do this by hopping in a tub full of ice water, some people take very cold showers, or some people dive into freezing cold lakes. While a lot of people try to talk about this in very serious ways, calling it “cryotherapy” and extolling its health benefits in every outlet they can find, we were feeling skeptical about it. So we did what we always do – to the research!

 



The post Does Cold Immersion Therapy Work? Let’s Dive In. first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

The Latest on Artificial Sweeteners and Health

Are there harms of artificial sweeteners that outweigh the benefits? We’ve asked this question before at Healthcare Triage, and the answer was no! There are lots of data that suggest artificial sweeteners are bad, but none of those data are good. There are good data suggesting that artificial sweeteners are just fine, but somehow those get ignored. Now we’ve got a study on another artificial sweetener, erythritol, and many of you have asked what our take is.

 



The post The Latest on Artificial Sweeteners and Health first appeared on The Incidental Economist.

Top-down Harm Reduction for Social Media

The impact of social media on mental health, especially that of young people, is front page news right now. The research is getting stronger that social media usually isn’t very good for us. But the conversation often ends there without discussing what to do about it.

I recently wrote a piece for Public Health Post with Boston University School of Public Health on ways we can make social media safer as a product. We can’t simply tell people to get off social media, because they won’t. So let’s use what we know works: harm reduction.

For many reasons, there is no simple fix to “the social media problem.”  [But t]he good news is that there are ways to make social media less harmful before it even reaches the user.

Read the whole piece here! Research was supported by Arnold Ventures.

The post Top-down Harm Reduction for Social Media first appeared on The Incidental Economist.