(NEW YORK) — The “winter blues” season is upon us.
As our exposure to daylight decreases over the winter months, millions of Americans suffer each year from the effects of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a form of depression that for some can surface like clockwork each year.
SAD is defined as a type of depression that comes and goes with the seasons, typically arriving in the late fall and early winter and going away during the spring and summer. SAD can also occur with the change of season to summer, but that type is much less common than the winter episodes, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Since diagnosis of SAD emerged in the 1980s, the mainstay of treatment has focused on the one thing most of us aren’t getting enough of in the winter: sunlight. One at-home treatment option, light therapy, works by using electric lamps to artificially simulate the natural light received from the sun.
For people with SAD, light therapy can help regulate and restore disrupted circadian rhythms caused by the lack of natural light, providing a non-invasive way to help mitigate the symptoms of SAD, which can include feelings of sadness, decreased energy and changes in sleep patterns and mood.
Despite the potential benefits, however, many people inadvertently misuse SAD lamps, reducing their full effectiveness.
“It sounds like, ‘Oh, you have to sit by a light, and it’ll be better,’ but it’s not as straightforward as that,” Dr. Judith Joseph, a board-certified psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU Langone, told ABC News. “The risk is that you can misuse it.”
ABC News spoke with Joseph and other experts about how people can maximize the effectiveness of lamps to treat SAD. Here are their tips:
1. Ensure the lamp provides 10,000 lux.
Intensity matters when it comes to SAD lamps. Experts recommend opting for a lamp that emits at least 10,000 lux of light — roughly the equivalent of full daylight — when positioned 11 inches away from your face.
Many online retailers may promise that their devices reach 10,000 lux without specifying the effective distance. Users can verify lux on lamps at home by using a mobile phone app that employs the phone’s camera to measure the light’s intensity.
2. Maintain proper distance from the lamp.
While generally safe, prolonged direct exposure to the light source may cause eye discomfort. To avoid this risk, experts say to position the lamp 11 inches away from the face, allowing the light to indirectly reach the eyes.
Incorrect lamp positioning, such as placing it too far away or too close, can prevent users from receiving an effective therapeutic level of light exposure.
3. Use the lamp on a regular schedule.
Establishing a regular pattern of using SAD lamps helps to regulate the body’s internal clock.
Researchers at the Yale Winter Depression Research Clinic suggest using the lamp at the same time each day, before 8 a.m. and for approximately 30 minutes, seven days a week, at 10,000 lux intensity. Using the lamp later in the day can run the risk of impairing the ability to sleep at night, making it more difficult to feel energized and well-rested, according to the clinic.
It is also important to understand that SAD lamps, while a simple treatment option for seasonal affective disorder, shouldn’t serve as a replacement treatment for other mental health disorders.
“If somebody’s really suffering from a major depressive disorder, typically it’s going to take more than a light box to treat,” Dr. Mimi Winsberg, chief medical officer and founder of Brightside Health, a mental health care provider, told ABC News. “I think consulting with a physician or psychiatrist preferably is of value in that situation.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call or text the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. Even if you feel like it, you are not alone.
(NEW YORK) — Meagan and her husband Jon considered their wedding day, in April 2022, to be the best day of their lives.
A year later, the Wisconsin couple believed they had topped that day when they found out Meagan was pregnant.
Their pregnancy journey had been a challenge. Meagan, who has polycystic ovary syndrome, which can make it difficult to get pregnant, told ABC News she had been taking medication to help with ovulation.
They were so excited at the news that they began preparing a nursery in their home.
“This was my first pregnancy, so there’s a lot of nerves, but I actually wasn’t super anxious because everything seemed to be fine,” Meagan, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy, told ABC News in December.
But at a routine 20-week ultrasound appointment last July, Megan’s physician, Dr. Jordan Crow, said he noticed something was wrong.
“Their baby was extraordinarily small and unusually small in a way that is not just indicative of you have a small baby, but something is very abnormal,” Crow told ABC News in an interview.
More testing revealed that Meagan’s fetus had skeletal dysplasia — a severe, life-limiting anomaly, in which rare genetic disorders result in an abnormal development of a baby’s bones, joints and cartilage.
The couple was devastated.
In addition, Meagan, who had been experiencing some bleeding, was diagnosed with placenta previa, a dangerous pregnancy complication in which the placenta covered her cervix.
“It would be unsafe to have a standard, natural delivery because the baby would go through the placenta and she [Meagan] would bleed out,” Crow said.
“Every day that Meagan stays pregnant with her placenta previa, especially when there is probably not a clear tangible benefit to her pregnancy, that is going to be a riskier day,” Crow said.
In July, when ABC News first interviewed Meagan as part of an in-depth series into life in America after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Wisconsin’s total abortion ban was in effect and the only exception was to save the life of the mother. The ban required three doctors to approve the abortion and agree that it is lifesaving care.
After determining that the pregnancy could put Meagan ‘s life at risk, Crow said he reached out to his colleagues at a hospital in the state to tell them about her case and get approval for an abortion. While he said his colleagues agreed that the situation posed a threat to her, they would not sign off on an abortion procedure.
Crow said that the law set a bar for when abortions are permitted, and physicians are staying far away from the bar so that “no one would dare claim that people even got close to it.”
“People don’t want to touch it because as soon as you had done that investigation potentially for that hospital, that could lead to whole departments, whole hospitals being shut down and that would impact the care of thousands of people. Not just one,” Crow said.
“You look around and the world keeps moving and goes on, and for me, it just feels like it’s stopped,” she said.
Meagan details grief of fetal diagnosis in a video diary
“You look around and the world keeps moving and goes on, and for me, it just feels like it’s stopped,” she said.
So Meagan was faced with the decision to either continue a pregnancy to term — with her life at risk for a fetus with a severe, life-limiting anomaly — or travel out of state to get abortion care. The couple was also mourning the loss of their child, who they had planned for and were excited to meet.
“Anyone who’s dealt with grief, I’m sure has felt that you look around and the world keeps moving and for me it’s just stopped in this in-between time where we’re just waiting. What do you do?” Meagan said in a video diary recording from July.
“I’m pregnant and I look pregnant and I feel pregnant. Just knowing that I’m not gonna be; I’m just not ready to be done. It’s scary,” Meagan said.
Crow and the couple spent days doing research and looking for a place where she could get abortion care out of state.
“Prior to Dobbs, she would have had it in Wisconsin, she would have had it near her support system, but instead she has to cross state lines to be able to do that,” Crow said.
Crow said he started reaching out to organizations that could help Meagan access care. He said he had to be put in touch with several people until he was able to find someone who could provide Megan with abortion care in-network, so that it would be covered by her insurance.
“Which ultimately is no way to provide care to patients,” Crow said. “If someone found out ‘Yeah the way that my doctor found a good doctor for me was going through seven different degrees and texting and calling people after hours just to find me routine care,’ I think that would be deeply unsettling to most people.”
Ultimately, Meagan was able to get an appointment for a termination at a hospital in Minnesota. While it was only an hour drive, Meagan said the trip felt like it was 10 hours long.
Despite Meagan, Jon and Crow working hard to find a facility where her care would be covered by insurance, her insurance declined to cover the procedure itself and her recovery in the hospital. But it did cover other costs of her care, like anesthesia.
While her health insurance provider does cover the procedure, Meagan learned that her company’s plan does not cover it.
The procedure itself cost around $1,500. In total Meagan — who said she had already met her deductible for the year before the procedure — will have to pay just over $3,000 for her care.
“Had nothing been covered and I went there out of network, it would have been like $20,000 for the two-day procedure. I’ve seen the explanation of benefits,” Meagan said.
Meagan was able to get an abortion fund – groups that financially help women pay for abortion care — to cover $1,500 in costs.
‘A huge advocate for me’
Meagan said Crow was with her every step of the way.
“My doctor, Dr. Crow, was a huge advocate for me and my heart goes out to all of you women who didn’t have a doctor like that to fight for you. But I do feel fortunate in that way that I had someone that was able to put their job on the line and risk things to get me the care that I needed,” Meagan told 17 other women who faced similar pregnancy journeys in a group interview with ABC News.
“He called hospitals all over the state of Wisconsin to try and find us care and no one would take my case because there was a total ban,” Meagan said.
She also said that Crow used his contacts in the state to find Meagan care in Minnesota.
Weeks after Meagan traveled to get care, a Wisconsin judge ruled that an 1849 law did not apply to abortion, but only applied to the termination of a pregnancy without the mother’s consent. Two Planned Parenthood Facilities have resumed offering abortions. The lawsuit challenging the ban is expected to head to the state’s Supreme Court for a final ruling.
Meagan said being able to get care at home would have made a huge difference for her.
“It’s such a private thing to go through making a decision like that and opening yourself up for judgment and the more you can get care from your own doctor in your own area and be, you know, in bed in your own house the night before and the night after,” she said.
“It was a very uncomfortable and painful procedure not to be at my own house and my own bed; was horrible. It was the worst night — probably of my life — the night before,” Meagan said.
Meagan said she isn’t sure if she will ever want to try to get pregnant again.
“I just feel completely traumatized by a situation that I just don’t know some days, if I would ever want to try again. Every day is different,” Meagan said.
“I haven’t felt the need to get pregnant right away again after all this. It just seems so fast and too soon. The whole situation was scary and devastating. I don’t know. It just kind of seems like I’ll never be able to have like a blissful, happy pregnancy again now that I’ve gone through this. So, it’s just scary to think about trying again,” Meagan said.
Meagan said she decided to share her story in hopes that the next woman who is in the same position that she was in doesn’t have to travel away from home to get care. She said this has been the “saddest, most terrifying thing I have ever been through.”
“[Abortion] affects a lot more people across a lot more women and families across the country than anybody realizes. I’ve joined a lot of support groups for termination for medical reasons,” she added. “And there’s just so many of us, it seems like people should know more about it and they don’t.”
Matthew Perry attends the GQ Men of the Year Party 2022 at The West Hollywood EDITION on November 17, 2022 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for GQ)
(NEW YORK) — An autopsy report from the Los Angeles County coroner on Friday named acute effects of ketamine as the cause of death for Friends star Matthew Perry.
According to the report, Perry reportedly was on ketamine infusion therapy and had a ketamine infusion one and a half weeks before his death. However, the medical examiner concluded that the ketamine in his system could not have been from that infusion, as ketamine has a half-life of three to four hours or less.
The report also listed drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects as contributing factors not related to the immediate cause of death. Perry’s death was ruled an accident.
Buprenorphine is a medication used to treat Opioid Use Disorder, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Here is a look at what ketamine is and how it is used in medical treatment:
What is ketamine?
Ketamine is part of a class of medications called dissociative anesthetics.
“It can interrupt a person’s perception of the reality and what that looks like is when someone might be awake but not fully conscious,” ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton explained on Good Morning America Monday.
Ketamine may be used medically to induce anesthesia. In more recent years, it’s also been used for treatment-resistant depression, according to StatPearls, an online library published in the National Library of Medicine.
“Ketamine, at low doses, can be prescribed. It’s most often used in a clinical setting under close cardiac monitoring,” Sutton explained.
“In terms of using it with someone who might have a history of substance use disorder, it also has been studied for the use of substance use disorders and found benefits. For example, ketamine has been shown to be beneficial in helping patients decrease their cravings and helping them with abstinence away from drugs,” Sutton continued.
Ketamine has a “potential for recreational misuse,” according to American Addiction Centers.
“It can negatively affect your heart rate, your blood pressure, it can cause deep levels of sedation and even stop breathing and for these reasons are reasons why it needs to be always be used under the close monitoring management of a medical professional,” Sutton said.
“The use of ketamine recreationally or anything outside of a prescription can cause danger,” Sutton added. “Ketamine can cause you to be in a vulnerable state where you might be at harm, at risk from your environment. And it also, again, causes deep levels of sedation and you just don’t know exactly how much is in whatever dose you have so you always have to pay attention and again, consult a medical professional.”
What is ketamine therapy?
According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, ketamine was approved in the 1970s as a rapid-acting anesthetic by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In recent years, off-label ketamine has been used to treat psychological disorders like depression and PTSD.
“The average antidepressant takes about two months to produce a reduction in symptoms,” Dr. John Crystal, co-director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, told ABC News’ Eva Pilgrimin November. “Ketamine produces those same kinds of improvements within 24 hours in many people.”
Ketamine therapy made headlines in 2021 when former NBA player Lamar Odom opened up to Good Morning America about his use of the drug therapy to help him battle addiction. “I went to rehab and did some other things, but ketamine came into my life at the right time,” Odom told ABC News’ Steve Osunsami.
“I think of ketamine as an intervention that is part of an overall treatment,” said Crystal. “Ketamine can be something that can facilitate and enhance the impact of psychotherapy.”
An IV drip treatment on an IV pole.
Potential risks of ketamine therapy
“Death by ketamine overdose rarely occurs if ketamine is the only drug someone takes,” according to American Addiction Centers.
The lethal dose of ketamine is estimated to be about 5.6 milligrams per pound for a 154-pound human, according to the StatPearls journal in the National Library of Medicine.
Beyond the risk of death, Dr. John Crystal, co-director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, told Eva Pilgrim in November that ketamine therapy should not be used by people with schizophrenia or people who are developing a psychiatric illness.
(NEW YORK) — For the first time, researchers say they’ve found a possible cause of one of the most common, and life-interrupting, symptoms of pregnancy: morning sickness.
This possible cause, according to a study published Wednesday in the medical journal Nature, is a hormone called GDF15.
The amount of GDF15 that a woman has in her blood before and during pregnancy may affect the severity of morning sickness, the symptoms of which include nausea and vomiting.
Morning sickness affects around 70% of pregnant women and is most common in the first three months of pregnancy, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hyperemesis gravidarum is the medical term for a less common but more extreme form of morning sickness that includes “persistent vomiting and nausea during pregnancy,” according to the CDC.
Hyperemesis gravidarum can result in dehydration, electrolyte abnormalities and weight loss and can often require more significant medical intervention, including hospitalization.
In the United States, hyperemesis gravidarum is the leading cause of hospitalization in early pregnancy and the second most common cause of pregnancy hospitalization overall, according to data published by the National Institutes of Health.
The discovery of this possible cause of morning sickness may eventually lead to better treatment options for pregnant women, though more research is needed.
One potential avenue for treating women with hyperemesis gravidarum, for example, would be to block the effects of GDF15.
(NEW YORK) — The latest trend to take hold on TikTok boasts flaxseed gel as a slimy addition to beauty routines, but medical experts are advising against it, saying it lacks scientific basis.
Hundreds of TikTok users have claimed on the video sharing platform that homemade flaxseed gel is “basically nature’s Botox.”
Courtney Snell was among those who posted a video using the homemade flaxseed gel, applying it as a mask to her face.
“I made some flaxseed gel and we’re gonna try it out,” Snell says in the video, which she tagged #NaturesBotox, adding that she used to get Botox injections and recently hopped on this trend after watching others try the at-home concoction.
She adds, “I saw this one girl [who tried this], and it literally looked like [she had] Botox.”
Snell documented the results of her flaxseed gel mask in a follow-up video, saying her forehead lines seemed to have been reduced.
“This is such a difference,” she says in the video, adding that she is “struggling” to move her forehead expressively.
Doctor debunks social media flaxseed gel trend
Experts are less enthusiastic about the trend.
“I will tell you definitively that flaxseeds applied topically to one’s skin is not, I repeat, not Botox,” said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent, who also has a master’s in nutrition. “It doesn’t work the same way as Botox, it doesn’t have the same properties as Botox.”
Cosmetic Botox is a neuromodulator that causes temporary muscular paralysis in order to smooth out wrinkles or reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, according to the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery.
Botox is made from botulinum toxin, and can also be used to treat a number of health conditions, including chronic migraine, spastic disorders, cervical dystonia and detrusor hyperactivity, according to StatPearls, an online library published in the National Library of Medicine.
Upon watching people slathering the thick clear goo on their faces in various TikTok videos, Ashton said she observed in one video a “very beautiful, very young woman who, as far as I know, does not have any credentials in nutrition or medicine or dermatology, talking a lot of science.”
“Very little of what she said about the utility of flaxseeds applied topically to one’s face is scientifically accurate,” Ashton said. “Sorry to burst that bubble.”
She continued, “Trust me when I tell you that if flaxseeds applied to one’s face could act like Botox, I would be jumping in on that along with everyone else.”
The gel commonly seen on TikTok appears to be made from dry flaxseeds soaked in boiling hot water, and stored in the fridge for up to 24 hours to allow it to congeal.
“If you’re applying [this gel] to your face, there is the possibility that you can have some contact irritation, dermatitis, even potentially an allergic reaction,” Ashton said. “The biggest risk here — and this is true with almost every TikTok medical trend — is someone following this as credentialed, credible medical advice and information. It is not.”
“Your skin is the largest organ in the body,” she continued. “That means that anything you put on your skin can and will be absorbed into your bloodstream. So choose wisely.”
Ashton instead recommends using natural oils like olive oil, coconut oil or avocado oil “as a head to toe moisturizer,” which she said would be preferable to products with chemicals on the label.
“The risk of doing this home kitchen mask, if you will, is you’re not going to get that result,” she added, referring to those who claim the gel has given them the same effect as cosmetic Botox.
Better uses for flaxseeds
As for the science behind flaxseed oil and flaxseeds, Ashton said that “when ingested orally, they’re great.”
“Colloquially, I think that flaxseeds qualify as a superfood,” she said. “They are loaded with omegas, they are loaded with fiber, they are loaded with minerals.”
While adding a scoop to a breakfast routine like smoothies or oatmeal may seem like the perfect nutritious boost, Ashton said that “one tablespoon is not all the fiber that the average young woman needs in a day.”
“[Women under the age of 50] need about 25 grams of fiber a day,” she said.
Finally, Ashton noted, “As always, my medical advice is to get your medical information from credible, credentialed sources — generally not TikTok, and not social media, and proceed with caution if you do.”
Courtesy of Keaira Davis/Summer Morrison/Vakoya Miller
(NEW YORK) — Summer Morrison, a mom of three from North Carolina, was several weeks into her eight-week stay in a high-risk maternity unit for a rare condition known as monoamniotic twins when she learned another mom with the same condition had just been admitted.
“I remember sending my nurse a note like, ‘Can you pass this note to her?'” Morrison told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “I gave her my number to text me and tried to give her some encouragement and tips and things that I had been doing, because I’d already been there for a while.”
She added, “It was nice just to know that another mom doing the exact same thing I’m doing had just showed up.”
On the receiving end of Morrison’s note was Keaira Davis, who said she had never heard of a monoamniotic pregnancy when she was diagnosed with it in her first trimester. A monoamniotic pregnancy occurs when identical twins from a single fertilized egg share one placenta and one amniotic sac.
Davis said she didn’t even know where to start when it came to questions for Morrison.
“Once I read her note, and I started thinking, I’m like, I don’t even know where to start. I don’t even know what to ask her,” Davis told GMA. “I didn’t want her to feel overwhelmed with all my questions, because I [was] overwhelmed as well.”
Monoamniotic twins occur in less than 0.1% of all pregnancies, according to the Columbia University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The condition requires near-constant monitoring because complications can occur, including the umbilical cords becoming entangled, which could be fatal for the twins. Because of the need for close monitoring, moms carrying monoamniotic twins are typically admitted to the hospital near the end of their second trimester.
Davis said she found a huge sense of comfort in meeting Morrison in the high-risk maternity unit and knowing that she was going through the same thing.
A few weeks into her stay, Davis said she received a knock on the door from another mom, Vakoya Miller, who had just been admitted to the unit with the same condition.
Miller said she learned from a nurse that Davis was also expecting monoamniotic twins, also known as MoMo twins, and reached out to her with “a million questions.”
“I kept asking the nurses, like, ‘Do you think she’ll mind if I go over there and talk to her?” Miller said. “I was literally so nervous, but then I went in there and we just started talking. I was like, ‘I have a million questions for you.'”
Miller was a first-time mom who was going through a high-risk pregnancy. Both Davis and Morrison had older daughters they balanced caring for while spending over one month hospitalized.
Monoamniotic twins are so rare that they happen in around 1 in every 8,000 pregnancies, according to Dr. Michael Jones, an OB-GYN at Atrium Health Women’s Care, who treated all three women.
Jones told GMA that in his 37-year career as a board-certified OB-GYN and as a resident, he had never treated a monoamniotic pregnancy. Then, within a matter of months, he was treating three patients with the condition: Morrison, Davis and Miller.
Jones was also present for all three of the cesarean section deliveries, which resulted in three sets of healthy twin girls.
“They were all delivered within about six weeks of each other,” Jones said, adding that the babies’ umbilical cords were all wound like “hair braids” upon delivery. “They move so much that there were like 20 or 30 twists.”
Morrison delivered her twin daughters, named Ada and Ivy, on July 20, 2022. The twins, who each weighed around 4 pounds at birth, spent over two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Davis gave birth to her twins Remi and Rayne on Aug. 19, 2022, and saw them through six weeks in the NICU.
Miller delivered her twin daughters around one month later, on Sept. 28, 2022. The twins, Raleigh and Saylor, were born weighing around 4 pounds each and spent 29 days in the NICU.
In the months since they’ve been home from the hospital, the three moms have stayed in touch, bonding over the rare pregnancy condition they endured together and helping each other raise their twins.
Earlier this fall, the six girls and their moms reunited with Jones, who described the reunion as one of the most meaningful moments of his nearly three-decade career.
“They spent a lot of time together and they spent a lot of time with us,” Jones said. “The picture of all them in my lap, I think that’s my favorite picture of all time. It makes me cry almost every time. It’s absolutely special.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday granted petitions from the Food and Drug Administration and Danco Labs to hear their appeal of a ruling that would reinstate restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone and sharply roll back access nationwide.
The court will likely hear oral arguments next spring and issue a ruling by the end of June. A date has not yet been set.
The court’s decision to hear the case ensures abortion access and reproductive rights will be front and center well into the 2024 campaign.
Earlier this year, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld some, but not all, of Texas District Court Judge Matthew Kasmaryk’s controversial decision against the legality of mifepristone’s FDA approval and regulation.
The 5th Circuit ruled that the drug should be more regulated, with limits at seven weeks of gestation and requirements that the patient obtain the medication in person rather than by mail. Under current guidelines from the FDA, the drug can be used up to 10 weeks of gestation and sent to patients following a telehealth appointment.
Those court decisions remain on hold and access to the pill will be unchanged as this case is heard.
Mifepristone is one of the most common methods of abortion in the country, and became the target of multiple lawsuits after the Supreme Court overruled its decision in Roe v. Wade.
The White House, reacting to the Supreme Court’s announcement, said the Biden administration “will continue to stand by the FDA’s independent approval and regulation of mifepristone as safe and effective.”
“As the Department of Justice continues defending the FDA’s actions before the Supreme Court, President Biden and Vice President Harris remain firmly committed to defending women’s ability to access reproductive care,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “We continue to urge Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade — the only way to ensure the right to choose for women in every state.”
Abortion rights groups are closely monitoring this case. Had the Supreme Court decided not to take up the case, the lower court ruling would stand and new restrictions would be put on the drug.
(WASHINGTON) — Americans’ prescription drug records are being shared with law enforcement agencies in some cases without the customer’s knowledge and without a judge first signing off on a warrant, according to three U.S. lawmakers.
The finding has Democrats worried that the policies by major retail pharmacy chains — which are allowed under federal rules — could help prosecutors in states that have banned or restricted abortion go after residents who help women travel to get abortions.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the lawmakers said they want the federal government to tighten the rules so pharmacies only release medical records to investigators with a judge’s approval.
“Through briefings with the major pharmacies, we learned that each year law enforcement agencies secretly obtain the prescription records of thousands of Americans without a warrant,” they wrote. “In many cases, pharmacies are handing over sensitive medical records without review by a legal professional. Although pharmacies are legally permitted to tell their customers about government demands for their data, most don’t.”
The letter, first reported by The Washington Post, followed a lengthy congressional investigation by Democrats into medical privacy following the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overrule Roe vs. Wade. It was signed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Sara Jacobs of California.
The pharmacies mentioned in the letter say they are following privacy laws and federal health rules, which don’t require a judge-signed warrant. In many cases, law enforcement present subpoenas signed by a government agency but not reviewed by a judge.
CVS Health, which is among the pharmacies named in the letter, said it has suggested a warrant or judge-issued subpoena requirement be considered by regulators. And, the company notes, it relies on a legal team to ensure all requests are compliant with the law.
“Most investigative requests from regulatory agencies and law enforcement require us by law to keep the request confidential,” CVS wrote in a statement provided to ABC News. “If a request does not have a confidentiality directive, we consider on a case-by-case basis whether it’s appropriate to notify the individual who is the subject of the request.”
According to the letter to Becerra, pharmacies are dealing with tens of thousands of requests a year, mostly tied to civil litigation, not criminal cases.
The issue is likely to take on increased urgency for Democrats as states remain divided on abortion access and some counties pursue laws against what they call “abortion trafficking,” or helping a woman travel out of state for an abortion.
Under new federal rules, mifepristone can be prescribed virtually to patients up to 10 weeks of gestation and picked up at a local pharmacy so long as the pharmacy follows certain rules. While the patient must be located in a state where abortion is legal to obtain the drug, pharmacy access has enabled overwhelmed abortion providers in states like California, Colorado and Illinois to serve more patients via virtual clinics.
Meanwhile, anti-abortion rights groups have sued to try to remove mifepristone from the market. The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to take up the case, likely ruling on by next summer.
Among the concerns by lawmakers and privacy experts is that big pharmacy chains have access to a person’s medical records across multiple states and could be pulled by prosecutors seeking to clamp down on people who help women travel.
Wyden and the other lawmakers say the Biden administration should require under health privacy law — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA — that a warrant be presented before sensitive information is shared by a pharmacy. They also want pharmacies to alert customers when that happens, unless a judge agrees that would hinder an investigation.
(NEW YORK) — A pediatric doctor is sharing the holiday gifts parents should avoid giving kids – and it’s not because she wants to be a Grinch.
Dr. Meghan Martin, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida who shared her expert advice in an Instagram video, told “Good Morning America” the products that tend to cause the most injuries seen in pediatric emergency departments, both during and after the holiday season.
Here are Martin’s top five kids’ gifts to skip:
Any toy with button batteries
Button batteries are typically about 20 millimeters in diameter, or between the size of a penny and a nickel, according to the National Capital Poison Center. They’re used in a wide variety of household items and products, including hearing aids, key fobs – and children’s toys.
“The majority of the injuries from button batteries are going to be from swallowing them,” Martin explained, adding that the screws typically used to secure the batteries inside products can easily loosen.
“A lot of times, it doesn’t go all the way to the stomach [after swallowing],” Martin said of button batteries. “It gets stuck in the esophagus or occasionally the airway and then in that position, it starts to create burns in those tissues and a lot of tissue damage in that area.”
That tissue damage in the esophagus and chest, Martin said, puts children particularly at risk of developing “blood vessel injuries [and] airway issues.”
“These can be very dangerous and this can absolutely be fatal,” Martin added.
If parents are concerned a child has swallowed a button battery, Martin recommends calling 911 and, if the child is older than twelve months, giving the child honey while waiting for emergency medical care.
“You can administer small sips of honey every couple of minutes on the way to the emergency department,” Martin explained. “It can decrease the risk of burns and tissue damage, and it can actually be lifesaving.”
In addition to battery consumption, Martin said young kids can also “occasionally stick smaller button batteries, like watch batteries or hearing aid batteries, into their ears or to their nose.”
“You can also have injuries in those locations – again, that kind of tissue damage, tissue breakdown from the battery itself,” she said.
Any toy with water beads
Water beads, according to Martin, are often marketed as “sensory toys,” but the risks they pose can be extremely significant.
“They’re polymers that if ingested, they can swell,” Martin explained. “They can cause things like bowel obstructions, even perforations. They can get stuck in airways because they’re about the size of a small child’s airway, so it’s also a choking hazard.”
Electric scooters
The main reason Martin doesn’t recommend electric scooters and other similar toys, like electric bicycles, is their speed potential.
“They really can get going pretty quickly and if you hit a crack in the sidewalk or a bump in the road, you can easily become dislodged from that scooter,” Martin said. “And if you’re going fast, your face is also going to be going fast as you come towards the road or the sidewalk.”
Martin said they often see head injuries, facial injuries and forearm fractures with electric scooter accidents.
Overall, Martin said she doesn’t recommend giving any electric scooter to a kid. “These can be really dangerous,” she said. “And we’re seeing a lot of injuries with kids crashing on these.”
As an alternative, she recommends giving “kid-powered” scooters, without electricity or motors.
Aside from getting kids active, Martin said kid-powered scooters may also be “good for development of those kinds of fine motor skills, gross motor skills, strength [and] endurance.”
It is always recommended that all children wear helmets when riding scooters.
Hoverboards
Self-balancing scooters, more commonly known as hoverboards, can also land a child in the emergency room.
“The most common injuries I see from hoverboards are forearm fractures and elbow fractures,” Martin said. “We have seen some head injuries from it. We have seen some lower extremity, like ankle and knee injuries, too.”
Plus, Martin pointed out, hoverboards and their batteries have been reported to cause fires and electrical issues.
Trampolines
Of all the hazardous toys she has seen cause injuries in children, Martin said trampolines are the worst offender. Martin said in the pediatric ER, they see trampoline injuries “probably a couple times a week.”
“We see kids getting hurt in all different ways on trampolines,” Martin said. “Mostly it’s going to be leg injuries. But we do see things like arm injuries, elbow injuries – even head injuries and back injuries, sometimes, when doing backflips, neck injuries. So there are a variety of injuries that kids can get on trampolines. And we do see them relatively commonly.”
Martin said she doesn’t recommend trampolines for home use at all because of the risks they pose.
In general, Martin advises parents and caregivers to inspect any toy thoroughly before buying or giving it to a child.
“It’s important to just make sure that the toy is made with quality and the parts are secure and that all the pieces are there that need to be there,” Martin said.
(NEW YORK) — Global Veg Corp has issued a recall of all lots and codes of its 5-pound packages of Aviator brand Sundried Tomato Halves (Lot #060923/1) due to the possibility of “undeclared sulfites,” according to an announcement from the New York-based company dated Dec. 4 and posted Friday on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration website.
The company said in a statement to ABC News that it was aware of affected products being sold in New York and New Jersey, and not nationwide, as the statement on the FDA website indicated.
Products were distributed in “4x5lbs cartons,” according to the company.
The label on each product includes language stating the product’s origin — Turkey — as well as the phrase “Imported and distributed by GLOBAL VEG CORP NEW YORK.”
According to the company announcement posted to the FDA website, the recall was initiated following routine sampling of the product by New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Food inspectors, followed by analysis by “Food Laboratory personnel” that the company said “revealed that the sulfite containing product was distributed in packages that did not reveal the presence of sulfites.”
The announcement highlighted the potential health risk of sulfites to the consumer, noting that those “who have a severe sensitivity to sulfites run the risk of serious or life-threatening reactions if they consume this product.”
The company said no incidents of illness or adverse reactions have been reported to date.
Global Veg Corp told ABC News in an email Tuesday that “a few dozen sun-dried tomato cartons were mislabeled in New York” and have since been relabeled, in addition to any boxes the company had left in stock. The company said the products were otherwise “safe” and that the issue was solely connected to labeling.
The company asked consumers who purchased the recalled sun-dried tomato products to return them to the place of purchase to be refunded in full.
Consumers can contact the company at 201-367-0517 with questions.
