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What your patients are reading: Week of May 13, 2024

May 17, 2024

Seniors stranded in ED waiting for care suffer avoidable harm

Emergency medicine experts call attention to the phenomena of long hospital ED waits, referred to as "ER boarding," which has become a public health crisis, especially for elderly patients who account for nearly 20% of ED visits. Older men and women lie on gurneys in ED corridors moaning or suffering silently for hours as harried medical staff attend to crises. These seniors, who are often frail and with multiple medical issues, risk losing strength, forgoing essential medications, and experiencing complications such as delirium. New research finds that the risk of dying in the hospital is significantly higher for older adults when they stay in ERs overnight, as is the risk of adverse events such as falls, infections, bleeding, heart attacks, strokes, and bedsores. Hospital staff shortages and the aging of the U.S. population have all contributed to the crisis. (Graham, 2024)

Lonely teens seek companionship in AI chatbots

An alarming 80% of young people report feeling lonely regularly, according to the Mental Health Foundation. Teenagers are turning to online forums and social media platforms to interact with AI chatbots, virtual companions that offer perpetual availability and non-judgmental understanding. Indeed, some teenagers seem to be more comfortable opening up and confiding in a chatbot than a real human being. But mental health experts worry that relying solely on AI chatbots for emotional support may perpetuate social isolation and hinder the development of essential interpersonal skills that are made from genuine human connection. (Chan, 2024)

Jet lag: can we just ‘shake it off?’

Taylor Swift sarcastically joked that “jet lag is a choice” after flying from Tokyo to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl this year, but in this NPR story, sleep experts respectfully disagree. Jade Wu, a behavioral sleep medicine psychologist and researcher at Duke University, explained that jet lag is a form of circadian misalignment that occurs when a body is out of sync with its current time zone. All the systems in our body run on an internal clock overseen by the brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). “Think of all the clocks in your body as a billion-person orchestra. The SCN is the maestro. And if the maestro can’t keep time, then the entire orchestra falls apart,” explained Wu. For some people, the consequences of jet lag can be very real. “Our thinking is slower, our mood is worse, our metabolism is not as good. We can’t sleep when we want to sleep but we can’t feel awake when we want to be awake,” said Wu. Jet lag symptoms can be mitigated, though. Wu recommends resting before long journeys, gradually adjusting your schedule toward your target time zone before traveling, booking a flight that works with your nighttime sleep schedule, and avoiding alcohol and caffeine. (Barber, 2024)

Locks of Beethoven’s hair shed new light on his deafness, GI issues

Scientists have discovered significant amounts of lead and other toxic substances in the composer’s hair that may have come from wine, ointments, or other sources. Beethoven was plagued with increasing deafness, abdominal cramps, flatulence and diarrhea until his death at age 56 in 1827. Researchers scoured museums and auctions and ended up with five locks that were confirmed by DNA analysis to have come from his head. They found one of the composer’s locks had 258 micrograms of lead per gram of hair and the other had 380 micrograms—a normal amount is <4 micrograms of lead per gram. His hair also had arsenic levels 13 times the normal amount and mercury levels that were 4 times higher. But it was the staggering amounts of lead, specifically, that could have caused many of his ailments, one expert said. (Kolata, 2024)

What will the new COVID variant mean for spring and summer?

As a new variant called KP.2 spreads, experts anticipate a small uptick in COVID cases this summer. KP.2 represents 28% of COVID infections in the U.S., up from 6% in mid-April, according to data released Friday by the CDC. This new variant became dominant at the end of April, outpacing JN.1, which took over in the winter. Some scientists collectively refer to KP.2 and KP.1.1 as “FLiRT”—a reference to their amino acid changes. On Tuesday, the FDA postponed an advisory committee meeting intended to determine which strains to include in the updated vaccine formula for the fall. (Bendix, 2024)

Sources:

Graham, J. (2024, May 6). KFF Health News. Stranded in the ER, Seniors Await Hospital Care and Suffer Avoidable Harm. https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/emergency-room-boarding-older-adults-harm/

Chan, H. (2024, May 15). TrillMag. My Friend AI: The Lonely Teens Seeking Companionship In Chatbots. https://www.trillmag.com/opinion/my-friend-ai-the-lonely-teens-seeking-companionship-in-chatbots/

Barber, R. (May 16, 2024). NPR. Taylor Swift joked that 'jet lag is a choice.' A sleep expert has thoughts about that. https://www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1251278409/taylor-swift-joked-that-jet-lag-is-a-choice-a-sleep-expert-has-thoughts-about-th

Kolata, G. (2024, May 6). The New York Times. Locks of Beethoven’s Hair Offer New Clues to the Mystery of His Deafness. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/06/health/beethoven-deaf-lead-hair.html

Bendix, A. (2024, May 10). NBC News. A new Covid variant has taken over, and experts predict a small summer wave. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-variant-kp2-summer-uptick-cdc-rcna150883