February 18, 2010
Newsmakers
PROSTATE CANCER AND SUICIDE: Men are nearly twice as likely to commit suicide and more likely to suffer heart-related ailments in the months after getting a prostate cancer diagnosis, according to a recent study. A CNN Health article quoted Dr. Stephanie Misono, UW a resident in otolaryngology who conducted a similar study on suicide among cancer patients in 2008. “Suicide is a relatively rare occurrence among cancer patients, but these findings suggest the presence of significant distress,” Misono said. “There is no standardized approach to suicide prevention in cancer patients, but a willingness to listen and be open about the impact of a cancer diagnosis is likely to be an important element in identifying patients who are in distress and may be at increased risk.”
BAIL BILL: The Wall Street Journal quoted Hugh Spitzer, who teaches constitutional law at the UW, in a recent article about legislative changes afoot in Washington state following the murder of six police officers in recent months. Several bills passed by the state House of Representatives (and expected to pass in the senate and become law) seek to raise penalties for assaulting an officer, increase benefits for public safety workers killed in the line of duty and bar those arrested from being released on bail without the consent of a judge. Spitzer said the bills represent the most serious attempts to reform the state criminal justice system since the three-strikes law was passed in 1993. He said Washington’s legal changes might spark changes in Oregon and Indiana, which have similar constitutions. “Washington’s changes may force other states to re-evaluate some of their public safety provisions,” Spitzer said. “The bail law was very old and needed broadening and there are many states that have similar provisions.”
EXO-VOLCANOES: A planet outside our solar system called CoRoT-7b confirmed in October to be orbiting a star about 480 light years away has a rocky surface — and probably many volcanoes, too. Rory Barnes, a UW post-doctoral researcher in astronomy, was quoted in several articles about the planet, including one for MSNBC. “If conditions are what we speculate, then CoRoT-7b could have multiple volcanoes going off continuously and magma flowing all over the surface,” Barnes said. Any deviation from a circular orbit also would cause the planet’s surface to react, triggering volcanism.
Barnes said, “CoRoT-7b most certainly has no oceans. A planet on a non-circular orbit experiences different amounts of gravitational force at different points along the orbit, feeling the strongest gravitational pull when it is closest to the star and the weakest when it is most distant. As the planet moves between these two points, it stretches and relaxes. This flexing produces friction that heats the interior of the planet, resulting in volcanism on the surface.”
THE FACTS ON FRAX: Our bones weaken as we age — all of us. But which people should receive bone-enhancing drugs? Drug companies might say everyone, but that’s impractical for an expensive treatment with side effects that’s only effective about half the time. A recent article in the New York Times discussed a “controversial tool called a FRAX, an online risk calculator,” to help doctors and patients study the likelihood of bone fractures and determine whether bone-enhancing drugs are appropriate. The FRAX score can be used without knowing a patient’s bone density score. Along the way the article quoted Dr. Susan M. Ott, bone specialist and UW associate professor of medicine. “If, using FRAX, someone’s fracture risk is really low, a bone mineral density test probably wouldn’t change the risk very much,” Ott said. “And if the risk using FRAX is really high, you don’t need the test, you need treatment. But if your FRAX risk is in between, getting a bone mineral density test can help you decide whether you need treatment.”
FOOD STAMP DEBATE. Adam Drewnowski, professor of epidemiology and medicine and director of the Nutritional Science Program, was among the experts whose opinion was solicited by the Room for Debate column of The New York Times in a discussion of the rising use of food stamps in the U.S. and the fading social stigma of such assistance. Those who use the stamps to buy fresh vegetables and other relatively costly but nutritious foods are thought to be “living high on the hog at the taxpayers’ expense. But if they buy cheap foods like hot dogs they are criticized for poor health habits,” the article stated.
“The issue of the affordability of healthy diets will only become more pressing as more people slide into poverty,” Drewnowski wrote. “I agree that we tend to censure food choice behaviors of low-income groups, no matter what they do. It’s as though being poor were equivalent to a moral failure, and uplifting homemade lentil soup were the only cure. The new WIC package in Washington State is full of contradictions — no white potatoes, no yogurt, no canned soups or vegetable juices — but plenty of fresh kale. We do not want those low-income mothers to have too much fun at the taxpayers’ expense.” He added his view that the fiscal policies of the last two decades “have created a permanent underclass that has become obese and diabetic. The only way out of this is to promote jobs, education and yes, health reform. Larger portions of broccoli are not going to do it on their own.” Read the story here: http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/food-stamps-the-economics-of-eating-well/.
GRAPHIC COMPLAINT: The lead on the Los Angeles Times story about writer/illustrator Joe Sacco’s graphic novel Footnotes in Gaza sets up the conflict: “Fans say graphic novelist Joe Sacco has set new standards for the use of the comic book as a documentary medium. Detractors say his portrayals of the Palestinian conflict are filled with distortion, bias and hyperbole.” Jose Alaniz, associate professor of Slavic languages and literature, is among Sacco’s detractors, saying he manipulates readers in “all sorts of subtle ways … Very often he will pick angles in his artwork that favor the perspective of the victim: He’ll draw Israeli soldiers or settlers from a low perspective to make them more menacing and towering.” Alaniz said Sacco draws children “in such a way to make them seem more victimized.” For his part, Sacco said, “I don’t believe in objectivity as it’s practiced in American journalism. I’m not anti-Israeli … it’s just I very much believe in getting across the Palestinian point of view.”
Newmakers is a periodic column reporting on the coverage of the University of Washington by the national press and broadcasting services.
