addiction
This century's other, larger, public health crisis
Jae C. Hong/AP
In dominating the early 2020s, the Covid-19 pandemic distracted from what could arguably be a more significant public health emergency: Even at the height of the pandemic, more young Americans were dying of drug overdoses than the infectious disease.
More than 1.25 million people in the U.S. died from a non-alcohol drug overdose between 1999 — about when the crisis began — and 2024. That puts overdose deaths a tick ahead of overall U.S. deaths from Covid-19, and the gap will surely grow. But the country's drastically different responses to these two crises shows how relatively little attention people pay to the addiction crisis, STAT's Lev Facher writes.
"When you look at the adoption and spread of vaccination versus the adoption and spread of medications for opioid use disorder, they're light years apart," physician Brian Hurley told Lev. Read more from Lev about the contrast between the responses to these two deadly crises.
data
Water, the environment, and health
Two recently published studies looked at the connection between health and water — one on PFAS in drinking water, and another on flooding. Authors of both studies used administrative health care data to find links between the environment we live in and our health:
- In 2014, PFAS ("forever chemicals") were found in five drinking water wells in one Delaware county. A study, published last week in Environmental Epidemiology, found that people living in the ZIP codes served by these wells were at higher risk for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hypertensive diseases, coronary artery disease, and hyperthyroidism based on new health insurance claims, compared to people living in other places.
- In a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open, researchers looked at Medicare beneficiary data from 2008 to 2017 for more than 11 million people over 65. Those who lived in ZIP codes that were exposed to large-scale floods in that time were more likely to visit the emergency department and be hospitalized, especially for infectious diseases, metabolic and kidney disorders, and injuries.
And in even more water news, it looks like Utah will become the first state to ban fluoride in public water. To learn about the science behind fluoride, read Anil's story from last fall.
first opinion
Yes, and
We've all experienced the awkward, painful moment when a loved one with dementia calls us by the wrong name. And then there's the deliberation — to correct them, or let it be? In a new First Opinion essay, geriatric physician Ted Johnson offers a strategy with a surprising origin: Improv comedy.
Improvisers talk about the idea of "yes, and"-ing your scene partner. It's a core tenet of improv, to accept the thing (a joke, a premise, an accent) that's been offered and build on it. It's not just a way to meaningfully engage with someone who has dementia, but it has also been shown to ease the deep emotional toll the disease takes on family and caregivers. Read more on how to incorporate improv into dementia care.
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