closer look
Diagnosed with scoliosis, a dancer in high school advocated for her care
Photo illustration: Casey Shenery for STAT
Being diagnosed with scoliosis at age 14 was a surprise to Maddy Welz, who learned she had a curve in her spine at a school screening. An orthopedic surgeon recommended she wear a back brace until she grew more, but in her first year of high school, the brace made her feel isolation, pain, and distance from her love of dance. She talked recently with STAT's Anika Nayak about what came next.
How did you push for spinal fusion surgery?
I started advocating for myself and amplifying that I was experiencing pain so my medical team could find a solution. My only two requirements [were] that it wouldn't interfere with my dance recital and plans to see Taylor Swift over the summer.
What does it feel like now?
I am currently five months post-op and still in some pain. Some days are better than others, where I am able to go to dance practice and perform, while others are painful and I have to lay in bed. I think I have come to terms with the fact that there will be things I can never do, especially in regards to dance techniques, but I am learning to cope as each day goes by.
Read the full interview.
cancer
Exercise should be part of the conversation during cancer screening, researchers suggest
Exercise can do a lot of good things, but its impact on cancer is complicated. A research letter in Cancer Cell looked at the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian screening trial to see what exercise — from occasional to vigorous — meant for more than 60,000 people without a history of cancer. After following them for up to 20 years, they found that overall, exercisers had a lower risk than non-exercisers of some but not all cancers.
Exercisers had a lower risk of head and neck cancer (26%), lung cancer (20%), and breast cancer (11%), but a higher risk of melanoma (20%) and prostate cancer (12%) compared to non-exercisers. Looking at mortality from any cause, exercisers not diagnosed with cancer had a 19% lower risk of death than non-exercisers. Exercisers who had cancer had a 17% lower risk of death from any cause. "From a clinical perspective, our findings raise the notion for exercise recommendations to be integrated into cancer screening visits," the authors conclude.
health
Using hearing aids linked to longer life and lower risk of dementia
Two studies in two days make a compelling case for people to wear hearing aids if they have hearing loss. The first, published Wednesday in the Lancet, found that people with impaired hearing who regularly wore their hearing aids had a 25% lower risk of dying over the study's 13 years. That association held up after accounting for age, income, race or ethnicity, education, and health, including how much hearing they had lost. The observational study couldn't show cause and effect, but it did make a case for getting tested and not assuming that hearing loss is an inevitable feature of aging.
The second observational study, published yesterday in JAMA Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, suggests that hearing aids could lower the risk of dementia. People with hearing loss had a 7% higher chance of developing dementia over the study's 15 years, but that rose to 14% in those who didn't use hearing aids once diagnosed with hearing loss.
No comments