@jsilberner

Freelance multimedia journalist. Medical research, global health, health policy, Covid-19. DM open. Story ideas welcome. @jsilberner@mastodon.social

 Seattle, WA
Joined April 2009
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12Media
Doing an AMA on Reddit now about hypochondria bit.ly/3AZyvlI
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Richard Cash, who died this week, played a major role in developing oral rehydration therapy, which has saved tens of millions of lives npr.org/sections/goats-and-s…

Remembering Dr. Richard Cash: How a 'simple' intervention helped save millions of lives

In the late 1960s, he went to Dhaka to work on cholera. There he became involved in the development of oral rehydration therapy — hailed as one of the most significant medical advances of the century.

npr.org
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Thirty years ago I did a series of stories on Toby Quitslund's fight against breast cancer for NPR. Here's an update, put together by the brilliant @Kevin_Kniestedt for @KUOW kuow.org/stories/on-bainbrid…
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NPR has reposted the story I did for Undark on the need to regulate noise. All good! Though with last week's Supreme Court decision limiting rulemaking by federal agencies, I think it will take a new act of Congress, literally, to get the EPA going. npr.org/sections/shots-healt…

Why scientists who study noise pollution are calling for more regulation

Noise from roads, airports and equipment like leaf blowers has been linked with serious health impacts. Decades ago, the U.S. government passed a law limiting it, but it has no teeth.

npr.org
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The Reagan administration defunded an EPA noise control division, leaving us with little federal help in fighting harmful, everyday noise. undark.org/2024/06/20/opinio…

Ignoring Noise Pollution Harms Public Health

Opinion | For more than half a century, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has failed to adequately regulate noise.

undark.org
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Do you think that taste is limited to the tongue? Do you think that only certain parts of the tongue can recognize specific tastes? Nah! nytimes.com/2024/05/29/scien…

The Textbooks Were Wrong About How Your Tongue Works (Published 2024)

The perception of taste is remarkably complex, not only on the tongue but in organs throughout the body.

nytimes.com
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I moved to an island for the quiet. Turns out to be a good thing for my health. scientificamerican.com/artic…

Turning Down the Noise Around You Improves Health in Many Ways

Experts describe ways to turn down the volume, from earbuds to smartphone apps that detect harmful noise levels

scientificamerican.com
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Mild cogntive impairment or full-blown dementia - what happens to writing ability? undark.org/2024/04/12/essay-…

When Dementia Strikes a Beloved Writer

Gabriael Garcia Marquez’s posthumously published “Until August” provides a glimpse into the decline of a creative mind.

undark.org
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A hug is worth a thousand pictures. nytimes.com/2024/04/08/healt…

Large Scientific Review Confirms the Benefits of Physical Touch (Published 2024)

Premature babies especially benefited from skin-to-skin contact, and women tended to respond more strongly than men did.

nytimes.com
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How do you bring attention to a disease that is "neglected-neglected"?statnews.com/2023/10/25/noma…

WHO considers adding ‘noma,’ a rare childhood disease, to its list of neglected conditions

It’s a disease of children living in extreme poverty. Its cause is uncertain. But soon, the devastating condition known as noma may be a bit less neglected.

statnews.com
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It's hard to think about now -- everything is hard to think about now -- but once the traumatizing events are over it will be good to think about recovery. I talked to Robert Jay Lifton before the current war started. He has some ideas. npr.org/sections/goatsandsod…

What survivors of trauma have taught this eminent psychiatrist about hope

In his new book, 97-year-old Robert Jay Lifton shares the "survivor wisdom" he's learned from those who've lived through terrible events — the Holocaust, Hiroshima, POW camps.

npr.org
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Brilliant narrative on the meaning and role of dust. Who knew? A fun (and worrisome -- my beloved EV is a culprit) read. @hautepop theguardian.com/news/2023/au…

Empire of dust: what the tiniest specks reveal about the world

The long read: Nobody normally gives a second thought to dust, but it is inescapable. And if we pay close attention, we can see the biggest things – time, death and life itself – within these tiny...

theguardian.com
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Joanne Silberner retweeted
The BMJ
@bmj_latest30 Aug 2023
Private equity’s intrusion into US healthcare Bad things can happen when capitalism meets medical care, writes @jsilberner bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p182…

Private equity’s intrusion into US healthcare

Bad things can happen when capitalism meets medical care, writes Joanne Silberner In his 2022 state of the union address, US president Joe Biden claimed that more and more private financing had been...

bmj.com
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The model for short-term medical missions to foreign countries used to be: fly in, give care, leave. Things were starting to change when COVID ended missions entirely. They're getting going again. How're they doing? npr.org/sections/goatsandsod…

Whatever happened to fly-in medical missions that got kayoed by the pandemic?

The COVID emergency brought widespread cancellations for short-term fly-ins to run clinics. Are the missions — praised for the help they provide and criticized for a colonialist mindset — coming back?

npr.org
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Scientists are working on the connection between the gut microbiome and mental health. npr.org/sections/health-shot…

Studying the link between the gut and mental health is personal for this scientist

Calliope Holingue researches how the microbiome and mind affect each other. She's part of a growing field, exploring how that connection could ultimately improve treatments for mental conditions.

npr.org
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A patient's son's suggestion 35 years ago to use toilet plungers to do CPR ultimately led to this. @luriemed #EaglesGather23 nytimes.com/2023/06/15/healt…

How a Toilet Plunger Improved CPR (Published 2023)

The conventional method for chest compressions doesn’t have a great success rate. Doctors are pumping it up with a high-tech plunger.

nytimes.com
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Who would give up pioneering cardiac surgery to: improve access to care in Bangladesh, India, Mozambique, etc.; show the health effects of racial disparities in Harlem; ban smoking and trans fats in NYC, and more? Colin McCord, who died recently.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p116…

Colin McCord: cardiac surgeon who found his calling in global public health

Credit: Bristi Chowdhury Colin McCord, who has died at the age of 94, led many lives. He was a cardiac surgeon at a leading research hospital in New York City when bypass surgeries and valve replac...

bmj.com
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It turns out that 95 percent of people really do want quick and full access to their medical records. Sorry about the paywall. bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p789

Access to records: Do open notes work for patients?

Since 2021, Americans have been guaranteed full and immediate access to their own health records. Joanne Silberner asks if this has helped or hindered treatment Some 15 years ago, a 67 year old New...

bmj.com
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npr.org/sections/goatsandsod…

What's the origin of the long-ago Swahili civilization? Genes offer a revealing answer

Genetic analyses back up what Swahili oral tradition has long held about ancestry of people from eastern Africa — that their ancestors are from Africa and abroad.

npr.org
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will be sitting down with drug companies to negotiate drug prices. History shows it is not going to be easy. statnews.com/2023/03/10/medi…

Medicare will take R&D costs, effectiveness into account when it negotiates drug prices. But...

Medicare will take R&D costs, effectiveness into account when it negotiates drug prices. But studies show those factors don't affect prices.

statnews.com
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