Nearly Everyone Has Frequent Heart Palpitations, But We Still Don’t Know Much About Them

Those not-quite-right beats that people feel could be absolutely nothing or a sign of a serious problem. In other public health news: autism and ultrasounds, statins, end-of-life discussions, alcohol, standing desks and more.

The Washington Post: The Heart Skips A Beat With Palpitations But It May Not Be Serious

You might feel them as skipped heartbeats or unusually forceful beats. One friend describes her heart palpitations as a soft fluttering that starts in her chest, moves to her neck and sometimes makes her cough. Another says her heart feels as if it’s flipping over in her chest. Mine come in a “pause-thump” pattern that occasionally make me lightheaded. “Heart palpitations” is a catchall term used to describe anything unusual that people feel in the rhythms of their hearts. And pretty much everyone has them at some point, said Gregory Marcus, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of California at San Francisco. (Sohn, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Autism Connection To Ultrasound Seems Unlikely, Study Says

Ultrasounds during pregnancy can be lots of fun, offering peeks at the baby-to-be. But ultrasounds aren’t just a way to get Facebook fodder. They are medical procedures that involve sound waves, technology that could, in theory, affect a growing fetus. With that concern in mind, some researchers have wondered if the rising rates of autism diagnoses could have anything to do with the increasing number of ultrasound scans that women receive during pregnancy. (Sanders, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Statins Can Lower Cholesterol But Not Everyone May Need Them

High cholesterol, a risk factor for heart disease, affects nearly 1 in 5 American women who are at least 40 years old. Although heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in women, there is little agreement on what to do about managing cholesterol. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 17.7 percent of women ages 40 to 59 had high cholesterol, as did 17. 2 percent of those 60 and older. That’s a higher percentage than men in the middle-age cohort (16.5 percent) and dramatically higher than men in the older cohort (6.9 percent). (Adams, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Failing To Tell Patients That Nothing Will Help May Only Make Them Suffer More

Why is it so hard to tell chronically ill patients that further treatment is futile — that it might erode their quality of life without making a difference in their life expectancy? Surgeons do it indirectly when they declare a patient “inoperable,” a determination of futility that people generally accept, maybe because the harm of ineffective surgery is so obvious that it can’t be avoided. (Harrington, 2/26)

San Jose Mercury News: Is Alcohol Better For You Than Exercise?

Want to live longer? Bottoms up. Raise your glass for a recent study that suggested that people who imbibe may well live longer than those who abstain. Indeed, as Time reported, the health benefits of sipping seemed higher than those of exercising. But before you quit the gym and settle in with a nice pinot noir, let’s look at the details. (D'Souza, 2/26)

San Jose Mercury News: Standing Desks May Be Hazardous To Your Health

You might want to sit down before you hear the latest research on standing desks. We all know that sitting at a desk for too long can lead to long-term health problems, which has led to many workers switching to standing desks to lose weight, reduce back pain and generally stay more alert. Sitting is the new smoking, right? (D'Souza, 2/26)

Stat: Scientists Reconstruct The Genome Of A Moa, A Bird Extinct For 700 Years

Scientists at Harvard University have assembled the first nearly complete genome of the little bush moa, a flightless bird that went extinct soon after Polynesians settled New Zealand in the late 13th century. The achievement moves the field of extinct genomes closer to the goal of “de-extinction” — bringing vanished species back to life by slipping the genome into the egg of a living species, “Jurassic Park”-like. “De-extinction probability increases with every improvement in ancient DNA analysis,” said Stewart Brand, co-founder of the nonprofit conservation group Revive and Restore, which aims to resurrect vanished species including the passenger pigeon and the woolly mammoth, whose genomes have already been mostly pieced together. (Begley, 2/27)

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