Read article – Quotes Michael Sateia, active emeritus professor of psychiatry, about how thinking of yourself as an insomniac may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. “The condition becomes a focus of attention and the sufferer may begin to arrange his/her life around this issue,” says Sateia. “These negative expectations produce greater anxiety and arousal and, voilà, they don’t sleep well.”

Read article – An opinion piece by H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and professor of economics, in which he discusses the new guidelines for systolic blood pressure, which have been tightened to less than 130 for anyone with at least a 10 percent risk of heart attack or stroke in the next decade. “So focusing on the number 130 not only will involve millions of people but also will involve millions of new prescriptions and millions of dollars,” says Welch. “And it will further distract doctors and their patients from activities that aren’t easily measured by numbers, yet are more important to health — real food, regular movement and finding meaning in life. These matter whatever your blood pressure is.”

Read article – Quotes Valerie Lewis, assistant professor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, about a study she led that found accountable care efforts are beginning to pay off, but that there are several reasons why these new models may initially generate sluggish savings. “The balance of pushing hard enough with incentives while also allowing time for ACOs to grow and develop is tricky, but getting this right could ultimately lead to more successful programs—and greater savings,” says Lewis.

Read article – An opinion piece by Ruth Craig, emeritus professor of pharmacology and toxicology, about the 100-year anniversary of the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed roughly 40 million people and was unusual in that it killed many healthy 20- to 40-year-olds, including millions of World War I soldiers. Craig examines what happened to a young man who immigrated to the U.S. and was lost during World War I, and in uncovering his story hypothesizes about why the immune systems of young adults in 1918 did not protect them from the flu.

Read article – An opinion piece by Cassie Kosarek, Geisel ’20, in which she recommends courses in English, philosophy, foreign languages, and art history to bolster the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed as a medical student and physician.

Read article – Quotes Alan Budney, professor of psychiatry, in an article about new research that suggests that people buying cannabidiol (CBD) products online may not  be getting what they pay for. “The effects of CBD are most certainly being exaggerated in the marketplace and on the internet,” says Budney. “It may indeed have some therapeutic effects, but to date we have good data for only one condition. Moreover, we have no clue what the dosing amount or frequency should be for any of those conditions, so even if the labels were accurate the public is still being hoodwinked.”