#amithakalaichandran

[dlsphjournalism]

THE WASHINGTON POST -- How we can help prevent children from dying in hot cars 

BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN (FGJ ‘17) --  One of the biggest lessons I learned a decade ago in public-health graduate school was that education was rarely enough, on its own, to fundamentally change behavior. Educating the public about health was “necessary but not sufficient,” as one of my epidemiology professors had put it. Weight loss, smoking cessation, safe sexual practices — education campaigns weren’t enough. READ MORE.

[dlsphjournalism]

THE GLOBE AND MAIL -- Sandeep Jauhar’s Heart: A History is a journey into the inner world of our most beloved organ

BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN (FGJ ‘17) - Cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar opens his book, Heart: A History with a sojourn into his experience as a patient: He wheezes at night and becomes short of breath as he climbs the stairs. Being a doctor, he knew his symptoms needed to be further examined. But a CT scan meant to look at his lungs instead, surprisingly, showed Jauhar a familiar sight in his line of work: hardened coronary arteries. Specifically, the main coronary artery had narrowed by half compared to normal. READ MORE.  

[dlsphjournalism]

THE NEW YORK TIMES--The Doctor Is Cooking

BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN (FGJ ‘17) - Surgeons have the best knife skills. That might sound obvious in the operating room, but here we were, 80 eager physicians from across North America in a large teaching kitchen in Northern California in February. READ MORE

[dlsphjournalism]

THE BOSTON GLOBE--Should we use mail-order test kits to diagnose ourselves?

BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN (FGJ ‘17) - “Would it help to send off her spit?” the father of one of my patients asked me earlier this year, referring to the DNA tests that are becoming widely used for ancestry and other purposes. His daughter suffers seizures, and he wondered if the cause might be genetic. I told him no — she didn’t have the symptoms of genetically based seizure disorders, and if she did, our hospital has tests it would run. READ MORE

[dlsphjournalism]

THE BOSTON GLOBE--In America, becoming a doctor can prove fatal

BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN (FGJ ‘17) - Some 30,000 medical students across the United States on Friday learned where they would be heading next year. Each student opened an email or an envelope; inside was the name of the residency program where they’d been accepted. READ MORE

[dlsphjournalism]

ABC NEWS--Child obesity could be influenced by mom's lifestyle habits

BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN (FGJ ‘17) - Why are more children becoming obese by medical standards and what effect could their moms have? That's what researchers in a new study wanted to find out. Nearly 1 in 5 children in the U.S. younger than 19 has a body mass index defined as obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. READ MORE

[dlsphjournalism]

THE BOSTON GLOBE--A trip to dreamland

BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN (FGJ ‘17) AND MICHAEL NATTER - PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS ARE an intriguing potential therapy because they put the brain in a reflective dream-like state.In recent years, three psychedelics — LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), psilocybin (a natural compound found in some mushrooms), and ayahuasca (a brew made from vine and other ingredients in South America) — have captured researchers’ imagination for their therapeutic properties as they relate to depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. They are not widely used, but there’s a movement to better understand how these and other psychedelic drugs can be used for medicinal purposes. READ MORE

[dlsphjournalism]

THE NEW YORK TIMES--Talking to Your Child’s Doctor About Alternative Medicine

BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN (FGJ ‘17), SUNITA VOHRA, AND ROGER ZEMEK - A few months ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report about a young boy from Connecticut who developed lead poisoning as a direct result of his parents giving him a magnetic healing bracelet for teething. It seems every few months a story will cover a tragic case of a parent choosing an unconventional medical treatment that causes harm. READ MORE