Viewpoints: Time To Really Research Nutrition, The Top Cause Of Poor Health; HHS Has To Ensure African Americans Finally Get Help With Alzheimer’s

Opinion writers weigh in on these health care issues and others.

The New York Times: We Need Better Answers On Nutrition 
Poor nutrition is a leading cause of poor health and spiraling health care spending. Research from the Tufts Friedman School suggests that poor eating causes nearly 1,000 deaths each day in the United States from heart disease, stroke or diabetes. In 2016, the direct and indirect costs of chronic diseases as a result of obesity were $1.72 trillion — almost 10 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. (Joon Yun, David A. Kessler and Dan Glickman, 2/28)

Stat: Alzheimer's Disease BOLD Act Funds Must Help African-Americans
Former model and restaurateur B. Smith is a likely representation of life with Alzheimer’s disease. Beyond the gasps over Smith’s home life — she lives with her husband and his live-in girlfriend — her situation points to real-world challenges faced by black families caring for loved ones who have this life-altering condition. Alzheimer’s is a public health crisis for which Congress has thankfully put aside its differences long enough to pass the Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s (BOLD) Act. Now the question is whether the money and resources directed toward African-Americans, a group disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s, is bold enough. (Karen D. Lincoln, 2/28)

Bloomberg: Private Gun Sale Loophole Must Finally Close
The U.S. has long had two distinct applications of federal gun law. One applies to people who shop at federally licensed gun dealers: They must pass a background check before purchasing a firearm. The other is for those who arrange a private sale from an unlicensed seller, via the internet or at a gun show: They are under no obligation to prove they are legally qualified to make their purchase. A 2015 survey found that more than one-fifth of Americans who obtained a gun in the two years prior to the study did so without a background check. The disparity is absurd, especially when you consider how often people who are legally barred from buying guns try to buy them. (2/27)

USA Today: Switch To E-Cigarettes, It's Healthier Than Smoking And Helps People Quit
Public health officials’ goal should always be to build awareness of the risks associated with smoking and educate the public on the products that can help smokers quit. Yet the public health community has failed to build awareness of how switching to e-cigarettes can reduce the harm associated with smoking by as much as 95 percent, according to the Public Health England and multiple independent reviews. (Julie Gunlock, 2/28)

Bloomberg: Watch For Side Effects As Ketamine Is Used To Ease Depression
Clinical trials are not enough to prove any drug is safe and effective – especially one that could be as widely used as Johnson & Johnson’s depression drug esketamine, a slightly altered form of the street drug ketamine. The FDA approval process is a balancing act, weighing safety and efficacy testing against the need to get potentially life-saving drugs out as soon as possible. An advisory panel to the FDA decided this month that the benefits outweigh the risks, and approval is expected soon. But scientists who study depression say there’s a lot more to learn about esketamine’s long-term effects. (Faye Flam, 2/27)

New England Journal of Medicine: Opioid Use Disorder And Incarceration — Hope For Ensuring The Continuity Of Treatment
A complex web of legal, policy, and structural barriers has led to persistent gaps in access to treatment for opioid use disorder in jail facilities in the United States and prevented the delivery of coordinated care. (Ingrid A. Binswanger, 2/27)

The Washington Post: The U.S. Is Funding Dangerous Experiments It Doesn’t Want You To Know About
In 2014, U.S. officials imposed a moratorium on experiments to enhance some of the world’s most lethal viruses by making them transmissible by air, responding to widespread concerns that a lab accident could spark a global pandemic. Most infectious-disease studies pose modest safety risks, but given that these proposed experiments intended to create a highly contagious flu virus that could spread among humans, the government concluded the work should not go on until it could be approved through a specially created, rigorous review process that considered the dangers. (Marc Lipsitch and Tom Inglesby, 2/27)

Stat: We Need More Than Blood Drives To Solve Shortages Of Platelets
When the polar vortex froze out residents in much the United States in January, it also sent chills through the U.S. blood system, especially for people who needed platelets.“ If you are safely able to leave your house, please consider giving blood for hospital patients,” tweeted the Red Cross of Massachusetts. “Polar vortex blamed for critically low blood supply,” reported Minnesota’s Northwest Community Television. (Jonathan Thon, 2/28)

New England Journal of Medicine: Loud, Gray, And Arbitrary — The Compounding Trauma Of Detention For Asylum Seekers
A New Jersey detention center houses asylum seekers who have fled persecution in their home countries. Even the U.S. physician who comes to examine them must tread carefully to be allowed to do her job in this loud, gray place where guards’ decisions seem arbitrary. (Katherine C. McKenzie, 2/27)

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